Please take a minute or two and watch this incredible video...



This is a very humbling performance...by a nine year old girl. For those readers who are not attenders of First Orlando or do not know the story, Gracyn started becoming ill on Christmas eve, 2008. Her and her family found out that her heart was not going to last much longer. After spending a long three months in the hospital, she is doing very well and sings the song "Healer" at First Orlando. It was a very encouraging experience.

This may be a song that has been performed well by many singers and/or church worship teams, but when it is sung by someone who has been "healed" it is much more prominent. I know how God has worked in my life and "healed" specific things, but that is only a fraction of what He has done for others.

If you struggle with anything in this life, God will bring healing. That is a guarantee. It may not be in a for that we desire, but God will work out His plan accordingly on each and every situation. Trust Him...and He will bring healing.

Last night, First Orlando had Kari Jobe in to lead worship for a unique worship experience. She led many of her songs, but in addition to those, she invited the parents of Gracyn up and they shared their story about their family's battle over the last year with their daughter's heart. After they shared, Kari invited Gracyn up to sing "Healer" once again. It was a wonderful few moments of worship. A beautiful sight.

What has God healed you from? Would love to hear how God has used a situation in your life to show His greatness. To GOD be the glory!

-Ken

Labels: Change in my Life, First Baptist Church Orlando, FIrst Orlando, God, gracyn, healing, life lessons, miracle

Today, we are often faced with many challenges that inhibit us from attending a church on Sundays. Many churches that I am in communication with are now having a worship service on Sunday evening, that have two main goals. One of those being to allow members/attenders to worship because they are not able to make it on Sunday mornings. Two...to give room for more people to attend on Sundays.

Another option I have noticed here more recently is the advent of streaming the services online. This seems to be a more cost efficient method with the popularity of the Flash video encoding. This allows the video/audio image to be crisp and clean, yet not too bandwidth consuming. Even so, the turnout seems to be good for the services.

Many people have family situations or have to work in this day and age on Sunday. They can still connect with the church via a video stream while also allowing them to worship and be fed spiritually at the same time. This is hopefully another reason that churches allow streaming of their services.

Back in the 80's and 90's, many churches had to pay a lot of money to have their services broadcast on television stations. This was a lot of work and expense. Trust me, I worked at a church doing this. I think with the advent of the internet, it is more feasible for churches to send a live video and audio feed to the online community. This would require about the same amount of money up front to purchase and maintain the systems, but at the same time, internet broadcasting is a much cheaper medium of sharing God's message. Plus, you are not limited to a specific time block. You can stream the entire service because the ministry controls what goes out there.

I "attended" a church stream about a month ago. I was fascinated with how it worked, mainly because this church had a chat room contained within. Viewers could chat with pastors and seek prayer for specific needs that the person had. I thought this was a great asset to add to the streaming service. That way, it makes the viewer feel more connected with the church's broadcast ministry.

I want to hear from you guys. What do you think about online worship services? Do you have any experiences that you would like to share?

Thanks for taking the time to read.
-Ken

Labels: 316 networks, Buckhead Church, Chapel Hill, church, digital, FIrst Orlando, Flash, God, gospel, informative, internet, internet growth, Media, North Point, Orlando, Scott Link, simulcast

So, I was at the outlet mall here in Orlando tonight and I stumbled upon the Converse Factory Store. If you know me, you will know that I do now own a pair of Converse shoes. I do not have anything against them, just do not own a pair.

If you look closely at the history of the company, you can see some similarities of some major issues today. Foreshadowing?

Perhaps. The Converse shoes (or "Chucks") were widely popular in the 1950's and 60's. After that, the company hit some bumps along the way, because of the uprising of popularity of their competitors of Nike, Adidas and others. Finally, they were not known as the number one shoe used for basketball players. Reebok took that title.

I know you may be wondering "What is this guy getting at??" Ha. Hang tight. Almost there, a little bit more history. The company filed for bankruptcy on January 22, 2001. Their main factory which was in the United States closed, but they continued their production from the China, Indonesia and Italy factories. The company was bought by what was a competitor, Nike in 2003. The unique "converse" design looked the same, but some wearers of the shoes have complained about a change in the material the shoes were made with.

This is a little interesting scenario to show that things go through cycles. For instance, GM. What was an auto-giant was bailed out of bankruptcy by the Government. Does this mean that the company is going to be run by the Government? Changes in their line-up and design of automobiles? Well...according to the Governmental Administration, they "say" no, but I have said it many-MANY times, they have no intention of letting go. When they see how much funding and control they can get out of it, they will just pass excuses as to why they can't get out now. I also predict there will be a major change in their automobile design. I can kiss my little dream of owning a GMC Sierra out the window. The quality will more than likely be not up to the standards the old GM had.

If you look at the Presidents of the past, you will see that it goes through cycles. Conservative...then Liberal. Big Government back to Small Government. I would say it typically helps the general consensus to have that cycle in Governmental leadership, but I think there are limits. This current monsoon is out of control. By far. We have reached a 1-Trillion dollar deficit. That is something that is going to take years to get under control.

Look at the weather cycles. Some would say that "Gobal Warming is real! Go GREEN!" Calm down. If you look at the history of the weather, it goes through cycles, it takes about 100 years for a cycle to complete, in that you will see that it gets warmer...then cooler. It is all part of how God created the universe to function. Just as our bodies have the ability to take care of themselves when we get an injury, He has created the world with the same type of system. For goodness sake. It is mother nature! She is capable of making the most beautiful plants. She is a big girl. She can take care of herself.

Thanks for reading.

-Ken

Labels: bankrupcy, converse, cycles, foreshadowing, global warming, gmail, God, government, history, leaders, mall, Obama, presidents, rant, shopping, trends, universe

There are many types of people that rub my fur (if I was a cat) the wrong way. A person that has the know-it-all attitude. Believe me, I believe people can have much knowledge about topics . . . but when you mix arrogance with that knowledge, you are doing something wrong. I know many people that are experts at their craft and I highly respect those individuals. Being arrogant and a bully is no way to gain respect by anyone. You may think people have respect for you, but at the end of the day, things are much different that what you think.

Then, to add on top of that, when that person puts themselves in jokes that they are not a part of, that is just a formula for failure.

Through my experiences and heeding the advice of my father and many other influential people in my life, bullies are fed upon your emotion. The more attention you give them, the more fuel they will have for condemning you. The proper way to deal with bullies is to not. Let them be . . . walk away and be the bigger person. Obviously, they aren't going to because they are the bully! They have chosen the low road, so you as the better person should chose the high road.

What do we do from here?

Step 1 - You do not feed the fire by being abrasive toward the individual.

Step 2 - You do not allow the person to know that he effects you (where applicable)

Step 3 - Be professional and move on. Arrogant people will receive their judgment and will eventually find out the hard way what they have been doing and living is not an appropriate style.

In the heat of the moment, you can not let these people effect you. We should and Christ sets the example that we should be the bigger person. When this person effects you, just move on and continue doing what you know is right. They will learn on their own time. It is not your responsibility to justify anything.

-Ken

Labels: annoying, Bible, christ, different, disciplined, education, example, experiences, God, haters, rant, scripture, stubborn

I chuckled the other day. I went to Golden Corral and while waiting in line for my food, I began looking at all of the different people and also all of the different food items, many of which I have never even had! But aside from that people cling to the types of food they enjoy, while probably hate the stuff that I enjoy!

The same goes for little things. Clothing, styles, colors, computer, colognes (ever wonder why guys love guys cologne and can't stand girls and vice-verse-a?? How ironic. But that is another blog topic) and etc. Is it the simple fact that we as a person "prefer" this over that? Or is it more of the idea that we as people do not want the same likes as other people?

The same also goes for our talents and careers. Why aren't we all leaders? Why aren't we all doctors, pilots or teachers? Well, please understand this, we all have to be different in order for this world to work. We have all been given different passions for a reason. The same goes for God. He has programmed us all differently . . . to be wired for a specific task for His kingdom. If we all work together, imagine how much better the church could be?

That is a humbling thought.

-Ken

Labels: buffet, careers, clothing, colognes, colors, computers, different, food, God, observations, preferences, programmed, same, styles, talent, unified