Today I just worked to get a small high-def camera for an upcoming shoot. It’s amazing… low light capability, tape or flash drive recording, a real lens. Pop that baby on a carbon fiber tripod and slap a micro led light panel on the hot shoe; attach a mini wireless receiver and you’re set to make great broadcast TV and everything can fit in a carry on bag!  I love it!

My shoulder can still support the big cameras, but for all of my international and disaster stuff - give me the small camera, please.

Since then I’ve lived in mostly warm and temperate areas, and have gotten used to it. But in God’s divine humor, I’m living in Michigan and this weekend it snowed every day.  Real winter is only a week old, and I’m tired of it already.

How does this relate to media, marketing, management or ministry?  I’m open to gigs in Florida, Texas, Southern California, Hawaii, Fiji — you get the idea!  Email or call me - I’ll give you a special winter getaway rate!

I did that today, listening to Kent Dobson filling in for Rob Bell, then jumping over to Andy Stanley on the will of God.  If you have anything to do with podcasts here’s some advice I’ll pass on from today’s listening:

Mars Hill puts out a great product that reflects their worship experience… no frills. I really enjoy listening to their podcasts, except when they edit out their music with all the subtlety of a chainsaw (I understand the need to avoid licensing issues, but come on, you could bring in a short interlude of public domain stuff.)

Andy Stanley has a different kind of church, and it shows.  You have the well spoken female announcer introduce the message and then its followed up by a slick promo to save 10% on your next online order.  But, big problem, one whole chunk of his message was repeated. Obviously a cut and paste edit problem.

Here’s the two points of advice:  be real - don’t over commercialize your podcast.  Final point: listen to it before you publish it.

I was watching Mrs. McCain’s speech Thursday night at the Republican National Convention, during which she mentioned Operation Smile. This fine group of plastic surgeons, ENTs, dentists (and many other medical specialists) did the work on Bridget McCain’s cleft lip and palette, John and Cindy’s daughter whom they were entrusted with by Mother Theresa.

This is truly a tremendous group. Kat and I both have been on several missions with them in the Philippines… Kat reporting for television coverage on The 700 Club and producing an award-winning special on their work, while I was doing pre and post op photography, shooting video and then scrubbing in and assisting in the OR.

I salute the founders of Operation Smile, Bill and Kathy McGee, they have built something that has impacted the world and is well on its way to having a volunteer living in the White House — a non-profit’s dream. My view of Cindy McCain changed drastically from the woman with seven houses to a giving and caring relief volunteer.  Amazing the power of TV.

So scroll down the page a bit and glance over to your right and you’ll see a new feature… a Twitter box where you can read my latest Twitter post, which I think is really called a Tweet.  In fact, click at the bottom of the box and you can follow me and see what strikes me as interesting throughout the day.

My Twitter highlight so far is having Guy Kawasaki, one of my marketing / evangelism heros, reply to my comment about the high frequency of his excellent tweets. (I’m just learning this stuff, I didn’t know the tweet would go to him just because I listed his contact name in my message! Sorry Guy!)  Who knows, maybe next he’ll comment on one of my blog posts!

Last night at the Republican National Convention, the prompter demon reared its ugly head during the magnificent speech by Gov. Sarah Palin.

RedState.com and The New Republic reports that

“Halfway through Sarah Palin’s speech tonight at the RNC, people following the speech noticed she was deviating from the prepared text.

According to sources close to the McCain campaign, the teleprompter continued scrolling during applause breaks. As a result, half way through the speech, the speech had scrolled significantly from where Governor Palin was in the speech. Unfazed, Governor Palin continued, from memory, to deliver her speech without the teleprompter cued to the appropriate point in her speech”

My favorite story of prompter failure was during Campus Crusade for Christ’s Expo 85.  I was assistant directing from the Limehouse Studios in London when the prompter died and we gave host Paul Eschelman a “stretch” cue.  He blinked once and then pulled out a folded paper from his inside jacket pocket and began reading fake viewer feedback — including one from his mom.

When using prompter, prepare yourself for it to die on you, or at least not keep in sync with you.  Public speaking or hosting live tv is enough of a tightrope act by itself, be prepared for tech problems and you’ll have great stories to tell later.

So it begs the question: if Crossroads isn’t focused on growth, why is it growing? (Especially when so many churches are extremely focused on growth, but are actually shrinking.)

It’s because the vast majority of the people at every gathering are serious — they’re desperate, focused followers of Christ. That kind of intensity can’t help but reveal itself and newcomers are either drawn to it or repelled by it.  Obviously, the majority who walk into Crossroads are finding fellow travelers who have the same longing and thirst… and now we’re up to three services.

I know how to market products and services, and I’m good at it.  I have done my fair share of marketing churches and building brands for local congregations, but there’s a paradox in marketing which spills over into the area of church growth. The strongest brand loyalty is built on the strength of early adopters who discover the product before any hype begins.  Those are the true believers and their experience becomes the most potent form of marketing communications.  In our case, it’s the cry of a desperate follower of Christ telling another where to find truth and freedom.

It’s the way they did it in the book of Acts.  Peter and Paul - marketing gurus.

My family and friends think I’ve lost it. (again)  I’m sitting here watching The Weather Channel (that’s their first clue) and cheering on the storms — Gustav heading to the Gulf, Hannah (wouldn’t it have been sweet for its name to be Hillary?) headed to the islands and then maybe Florida, and two more potential big storms in the Atlantic.

Before I get flamed, I don’t wish suffering on anyone. I have spent decades in more than 65 nations working with people who have lost everything. I covered Hurricane Katrina, the Mexico City earthquake, volcanos, typhoons, military coups, wars, I’ve worked in the largest refugee camp in the world in Peshawar Pakistan, produced live TV from a community of squatters living on the garbage dump in Manila Philippines. I’ve been shot at for being in the wrong place at the wrong time just to show the world the truth.  I’ve paid for the funeral for a family in Zambia who had nothing and whose wife and mother had just died of AIDS. I’ve been at the borrowed hut of a 16 year old former slave and her two children of rape who had escaped from her Arab slavemaster to return to her homeland in South Sudan - who owned literally nothing. Even her one rag of a dress was borrowed. I still see the face of the mother in Ethiopia staring blankly into my camera lens, no tears left to cry, as she covered the lifeless body of her child with a cloth, another death of famine.  I’ve been witness to unspeakable loss and suffering, and experienced great pain myself, and I wish it on no one.

But if you’ve covered hard news, been at the scene of history being made, and put true, responsible (and award-winning helps!) reporting on the air, you get itchy when big news happens and you’re not there. So, if Gustav turns nasty… my bags and HD camera are packed!

I love speeches. No, actually, I hate most speeches, I love great speeches. That is why I watched much of the Democratic National Convention this week. I was on the lookout for great use of language.

There are so few people who write for the spoken word, and so few speakers who can deliver those well-crafted words so they impact the listener, change lives and live on in history.

Part of what I do professionally is help pastors and other leaders fine-tune their message, crafting the words, adding media to strengthen the impact and add pacing and drama — all parts of  effective speaking (and preaching).  Not just to have a great discourse, but to effect change; to take people with you on a journey and then watch them at the end of the speech take the action that you passionately proposed.

At the DNC we saw two great speeches delivered by two great speakers: Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Skillful phrasing, great word play, and an ability to deliver well crafted words with passion. I am not discussing politics here, and I am not suggesting they told the truth or didn’t made promises they cannot keep. My point is simply to point out the intense power of potent words in the mouth of a great speaker.  Barack gave this speech on the anniversary of another great message (I have a dream) delivered by a masterful preacher (Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.).  Barack’s message was not as earthshaking as Martin’s, but it was very good.

This week two politicians (Bill Clinton and Barack Obama) gave a master class in oration, and most evangelicals probably can’t get past the political party they represent long enough to learn anything from them.

As Phil Cooke says in Branding Faith (why some churches and non-profits impact the culture and others don’t), “the world tells bad stories really well, while the church tells the greatest story really poorly.” [sorry Phil if I screwed that up a bit - I know I'm close!]

My take-away from all this: be excellent. Tonight Obama put on an excellent show, but it would have been futile if he didn’t deliver on the message — and he really nailed it.  Compare the speech tonight with the rest of the convention (with the exception of Bill Clinton’s speech)… I can’t tell you anything about Hillary’s speech or Biden’s speech, and my God, don’t even bring up Al Gore… all well trained, highly paid professionals, who should be inspiring, but they were just so boring.  They tried hard (many even worked up a sweat and in some churches that would be a sure sign they were under the anointing!), but they were ineffective. What a waste.

How often does that happen on Sunday morning?

I don’t for one moment believe that the delivery of the message by word is more effective than the preaching of the message by deed, but if you are going to open your mouth in support of our Lord, do it well.

If you need help, let me know.

We did have a great vacation. Early on we looked at the calendar and found only two weeks in the entire Summer that all four of us could be free to be together.  It was tightly sandwiched between Alex’s return from her language study exchange program in Germany and Tori’s month-long externship at the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife (CROW) in Sanabel Island.

So did a huge road trip from Michigan to Florida, fitting in a beach vacation on the water in New Smyrna Beach (where the girls learned to surf), a college visit at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, then a few days of diving with our friends at Abyss Dive Center on Marathon Key, a few days of zipping around on scooters in Key West, and finally hanging out on the beach at Sanabel Island before we delivered Tori to start work at CROW.

It was a great vacation. Why was it so good? Here are my new rules for vacations:

• It must be at least two weeks.  Long weekends are nice and a week is good, but I have found that my mind doesn’t really begin to unwind until the beginning of the second week. That’s when you get refreshed. [If you only get one week vacation, then this is either your first job out of school or you have screwed up. You can always negotiate additional vacation time.]
• Turn off the phone and Blackberry. I had it on for the first day, just to make sure things were ok, then I turned it off and only used it for important things — like booking dives and surfing lessons.
• Don’t schedule the mornings. Sleep in, or at least relax. If you have to start the day rushing about, you’re not really on vacation.
• Give yourself variety. Read fiction as well as that business book you never got around to. Eat at dives as well as nice places. Let everyone pick what to do. Buy souveniers. Be tourists and then try to fit in.
• Don’t dread the end of vacation. Enjoy it to the fullest, and then when it’s over, jump into work with the same enthusiasm as jumping off the boat at the start of another dive.