2009 February » JohnCheatham.com

Humility

Feb 262009

I recently was talking with Smooth about humility and I got to thinking. You see, recently, there was some crazy political stuff within the SBC (Southern Baptist Convention). Now, you might read this and think “Isn’t that all the SBC does, period?” And you have a point. But this particular thing was as great interest to me personally. See, recently at Southeastern (one of the six SBC seminaries), we had Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle speak in chapel and at our 20/20 Conference. Less than a week later, Baptist Press (another SBC entity) wrote a harsh and unbalanced article on Driscoll. The guys at Baptist21 have a great critique of it.

But that’s not what I’m blogging about. Regarding all this, I read this article by a former prof at Southeastern is was amazing. Dr. Alvin Reid (whom everybody calls Doc) wrote that he has a problem, and I’m going to repost all of it here. Enjoy. Continue reading »

Switchers

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Feb 232009

So I’ve narrowed down the video switchers I like to two. Just so everyone knows, this is just for research purposes right now, but I’m trying to figure out which switcher would suit Journey best in the future, as well as what would work at Southeastern. I like these two.

Panasonic B AV-HS400

Panasonic AV-HS400 A

Panasonic AV-HS400 A - Rear Panel

This is my favorite choice. If we go HD-SDI, it’s a must. Making it work on all analog component would be more pricey, though, since we’d need more expansion cards. We’d already have to get one for computer input (or get an card for our computer to output in the right format). It does some awesome stuff, though. Our cameras to HD-SDI output at 1080i, so that would work.

Edirol V-440HD

Edirol V-440HD - Rear Panel

This is our other option. It has a SD side on the left, which is then mixed down and up-converted to HD on the right. It takes component, composite, and VGA and can output component. Another workable option. Our cameras can also output component.

Spiritual Assessment

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Feb 142009

This weekend at Journey we wrapped up our series entitled “Leaving Neverland.” This is referring to us needing to stop being children in our relationship with God and grow up into who God created us to be. Check out the series here. This emphasis on spiritual growth doesn’t end as some sermons, though. We launched a new website, journeygroupsite.com, to help people get plugged into small groups. We also just launched our brand-spankin’ new Spiritual Assessment Tool. With these tools in hand, we’re pushing people at Journey to plug into a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ through relationships with others who follow Him via our small groups as well as assessing peoples’ current spiritual growth via our tool. Check them out, get plugged in, and go deeper!

Religion

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Feb 032009

I heard something interesting tonight in my philosophy class. Like you probably have, I’ve heard that Christianity is not a religion, its a relationship. Those who say that are right to distinguish Christianity from other belief systems. I always thought of religion as something you do “religiously,” ie. pray five times a day or the like. I never looked up the word, though. Here’s what the dictionary says:

Religion (re – li – gion) noun

the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, esp. a personal God or gods

ORIGIN Middle English (originally in the sense [life under monastic vows]): from Old French, or from Latin religio(n-) ‘obligation, bond, reverence,’ perhaps based on Latin religare ‘to bind.’

To build on what my philosophy professor said tonight (Dr. Evans), if you’re a Christian and not bound, you better get bound! Further, I don’t think you can be a Christian if you are not bound to Christ. That’s kind of the definition.

Now, I do agree with distinguishing the dichotomy between religious ritual and, as Pastor Jimmy says, “a relationship with the God of the universe.” That is the difference between Christianity and all other belief systems in the world.

Excitement

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Feb 032009

A shot from the booth during Worship Night

Wow. We have had some awesome times recently at Journey. From the worship night, to 1ThingINeedToChange.com, to our new series, Leaving Neverland, we’ve been stinkin’ busy. There’s new web stuff, including yet-to-be-released things (shhh), a new service (12:30 pm) at Northeast starting March 1st, and more stuff just around the corner. There’s so much that its hard to have time to blog. You can keep up with what’s going on better through my Twitter account. As a matter of fact, quite a few of the staff are tweeting. Check it out!