I saw this commercial from the Embrace Life campaign, and thought that I would share it with all my readers! Everything from the acting, the music, and the slow-motion video is fantastic. I bet it will even pull some emotions out of you!
HT: BON
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Kidsplace Promotional Video
This is the most recent Kidsplace service video announcement at Trinity Church, in Lubbock, TX. It’s edition #1 of a project to get the word out to our congregation that we have age-specific programming for kids every weekend! Gina spoke about this here, but sometimes people fail to even know we have programming for kids every weekend. Or if they know, they tend to think of what they may have experienced when they were kids. More than once I’ve heard someone that visits our areas say, “I had no idea you guys had so much fun here with the kids!”, or I’ve heard “I wish we did things like then when I was a kid!”
We will be running these videos throughout the next few months. They are only 30 seconds in length, and are designed to fit along with whatever video announcements the church is running in weekend services. They are not designed to be stand-alone. They will also be used over and over throughout the year. Make sense?
We outsourced the work to a local place here in Lubbock. All videos were filmed, created, and designed by Kevin Rhodes over at Dream Taxi.
I Have a Dream for my iPhone
I have a dream for my iPhone. I dream of an app on my iPhone that listens in on my daily conversations and then automatically sets my alarm clock in the morning for what it determines is the best time for me to wake up. I dream of an app on my iPhone that would buzz in my pocket when it hears me committing to things I don’t have the time for. I dream of an app on my iPhone that would turn my $1 bills into $100 bills. I dream of an app on my iPhone that would be all the greatness of my church in iPhone mobile glory. I know that the church cannot be contained in an iPhone app, but wouldn’t it be great to find a church app that wasn’t just a duplication of their website? Wouldn’t it be awesome if there were a church app that took all that awesome content my pastor puts out every week and made it readily available? What if life group leaders could share discussion questions, parents could followup with what their kids learned, and attenders could signup for events all using the app on their iPhone? But the iPhone isn’t enough…I need this app for all my Blackberry, Android and Palm friends. I dream, I dream. Oh wait… that last one is possible!
Check out R04R. Haven’t heard of them yet? Probably not, their official company launch will happen at the Orange Conference. Trust me, after you see what R04R can do for you, you’ll want them to develop both your app and an app for your church. They’ll knock your socks off.
So, how will R04R help you build a quality app that’s worth keeping? I’m glad you asked.
First of all, R04R is not a web development company that’s dabbling in this new “app development market.” R04R is a company dedicated completely to mobile apps. Their mission is to get as much Christian content onto mobile platforms as possible. R04R will not develop a duplication of your website as an app, R04R will develop a quality application built on a solid platform. Actually, R04R’s platform is the same one that both Ashton Kutcher and and Taylor Swift’s apps are built on. It’s a reliable and quality platform that your users will like and feel comfortable with.
Second of all, R04R will build into your platform a clearinghouse of of your media content. Built into the app is a place to import your tweets as well as other people’s tweets or mentions of you, a place to import your videos, a place to play music, messages or other content directly from the app or a link to import music, videos or messages as podcasts through iTunes.
Thirdly, R04R takes advantage of the many features of your phone. The platform connects into location based services so you can find events, small groups or other local gatherings in relation to your current location. You also have the ability to enable push technology where you can message all your app users about updates or with key information they don’t want to miss. With push technology, you’ll get information to them even if they forget to open your app in a few days.
Fourth, R04R is versatile. Right now you R04R app will work on any iPhone and Android phone. That’s right, you upload your content once and you can have both apps updated at the same time. A few months later your app will also be available on Blackberry and the Palm. Why shoot yourself in the foot with trying to get an iPhone app when you can have your app on every major platform. Inclusivity is what you want, right?
Retail for an app this powerful can’t even be touched for less than $1,500. With R04R, you can get your first app up and running in a matter of weeks for a decent set up fee of less than $1000 and $35/month. Sure, you can get an app for less. But does it work on more than just the iPhone? Does it include push and location based technology? Does it offer support? Does Ashton Kutcher know it exists? I don’t think so . If you’re really serious about having your own app, this is the best deal you’ll find anywhere for the features you’ll get.. Click here to order your new app.
If interested, type “Jonathan Cliff” in the referral code blank and you’ll get the best price they offer!
Wanna see a R04R for yourself? Click here to download the app for Northstar church which is a great example of what you could have. Know that you can get an app that looks a lot like this, similar to this or R04R can custom build an app to suit your needs.
Disclaimer: Although R04R can build you a very impressive app based on their successful platform, that alone isn’t enough to make it a great app. The second part to that equation is content. It’s up to you to supply great content week after week, that part’s up to you.
My WordPress Adventure
Since May of 2009, I’ve been self-hosting this little web presence with Dreamhost using the WordPress platform. First of all, I stand to benefit financially from you signing up from Dreamhost, but I can’t more highly recommend them. Why? It’s cheap, and it’s novice-friendly setup for WordPress users is perfect for newbies like me. Seriously, cheap and easy. If you’re interested hit that Dreamhost badge over to your right, or just click HERE.
If you’re not currently on WordPress, then make it happen for yourself. It’s so much easier and tweakable than any other platform. And the added bonus of using WordPress is that you instantly join a community of people willing to help and offer input. Collaboration at it’s WordPress best!
The plugin feature of WordPress has been my favorite part of the experience. In that spirit, here are a few plugins that I’ve found to be highly beneficial since moving over to WordPress:
All in One SEO Pack
This little plugin easily ties SEO data into each blog post. As a newbie, I didn’t quite get it’s benefit at first; but now I see that it really makes my posts easier to find through search engines. I took the time to add SEO data to old posts, and it even drove traffic to those lost and lonely post from years pasts.
W3 Total Cache
I don’t totally understand this plugin, but I know that since I moved from WP_Super Cache to this my load times have been lightning fast. Fast is good in the web world, right?
Amazon Associate Filter
This little plugin is magic. It automatically ties in all Amazon links to my Amazon Affiliate ID. Cha-Ching!
I moved over from a Blogger platform to WordPress, and I found these three plugins to be life-savers:
Batch Categories
When I migrated over to WordPress, I spent hours changing my categories and working to make old posts easier to find. Then I found this tool and did what had taken me hours in about 10 minutes. It allows you to do what the name of it is. Change categories of posts in a batch, instead of individually.
Blogger To WordPress Redirection
This is a great plugin that automatically moves old blogger permalinks to your new wordpress permalinks. This was important for me, because I changed my naming setup when I moved to WordPress.
Maintain Blogger Permalinks
This works in conjunction with the other plugin, and maintains all those original http://littlepastor.blogspot.com (Don’t ask!) links that exists in the Internets.
There are other plugins I use, like Askimet, Feedburner, Woopra, Google Analytics, and other WordPress tool plugins. It wouldn’t be an adequate WordPress blog help post, if I didn’t mention the help that John has provided at www.human3rror.com and www.churchcrunch.com. It was even from his site that I picked up the cool toolbar over on the right side of my blog!
I’d love to know what you’re using. What am I missing out on?
Kidsplace Unscripted 2010
This is a followup to a post I did back in August of 2009 // Creative Volunteer Training
Two things about me as a Children’s Pastor:
- I hate meetings.
- I hate meetings.
A few years ago, I read Death by Meeting by Patrick Lencioni and his book has helped me work to make meetings more beneficial with my staff (at least in my humble opinion.) I have however continued to struggle with how to communicate with volunteers in an effective way.
How do I train them?
How can I communicate best practices?
How do I let them know about changes in the curriculum?
But most importantly, how do I do these things without calling meetings for every weekend or every month?
My solution has been something I call “Kidsplace Unscripted” The unscripted videos are my way of communicating values to my volunteer team in a non-confrontational, non pizza eating after church way. I film these videos every two or three weeks using my Macbook, iMovie and uploading them to Vimeo. I have had issues with Vimeo, but since they now offer mobile viewing on iPhones I’m back on board with their video greatness.
So after a year of doing these video’s what new and what have I changed?
- I had about a 30% open rate in emails and newsletters. When I started sending videos, it jumped to about 50%, and now I have an open and click rate has jumped to about 80%.
- I have too many leaders to personally meet with them all each week, and I’ve seen these videos help with my ability to keep in touch somewhat with everyone. It’s gonna sound crazy, but people feel like they know my heart and passions without even meeting me.
- I’ve now added a different video series just for my Preschool and Kindergarten leaders. They were asking for it, when word got around about the Elementary videos. I obliged, and tweaked the content to fit that demographic.
- In 2010, I’m tackling best practices in each area. I’m defining a best practice as those things that we do each and every week with no exception. They are the same whether doing large group storytelling, or leading a group of 2nd grade girls in a small group. So far so good in 2010.
Here are my most recent videos for both Preschool/Kindergarten and Elementary.
Kidsplace Unscripted #12 from Jonathan Cliff on Vimeo.
Preschool Unscripted #5 from Jonathan Cliff on Vimeo.
There is a Vimeo shortcut to my videos on the right side of this blog, just click the tiny V. You can also visit my Vimeo page directly at www.vimeo.com/jonathancliff and even subscribe to my new videos at http://vimeo.com/jonathancliff/videos/rss.
For the record: I do still have meetings from time to time, but the Unscripted videos have allowed me to be much more intentional about when we do need to have in-person meetings with volunteers and those on my ministry team.
