What exactly is a limit to perfection? Mike Sessler answers that pretty well with a post he wrote last week. Only God performs absolutely perfect all the time. And any time we think we’ve performed perfectly can be overshadowed by something better eventually.

English: A picture of Fanny Crosby. Rationale: The subject died in 1915, prior to 1923, making this image public domain in the USA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Robert Morgan tells about one such complaint in his book Near to the Heart of God.

When Ira Sankey and Fanny Crosby came along, they introduced a new kind of church music by relaxing the melodies, adding choruses, lightening the messages, and calling them gospel songs. This didn’t go over well with everyone. Robert Anderson, for example, thought Crosby’s song “Safe in the Arms of Jesus” was ‘reeking with mere sentiment.’

How familiar that all sounds. I’ve heard some of these same complaints about the contemporary music being sung in church today. Most people don’t like change, but outside the church it is a mere nuisance. Inside the church, change is heresy.

Fanny Crosby is one of America’s most beloved hymn writers penning songs like “Tell me the Story of Jesus,” “Blessed Assurance,” “Rescue the Perishing,” and “He Hideth my Soul.” Crosby wrote thousands of hymns many of which are the favorites of today’s traditional church.

It would be nice if one day we could learn from history and realize that just because something we love about church changes doesn’t make it heresy.

I could continue the list, but I figure you get the point. Churches tend to either spend way more than necessary on way more features than they will ever need, or they scrimp to save money and end up spending twice as much to correct the mistake.

Steve Caton has a good article over on Church Tech Today to give you some food for thought before your next purchase. If you need further help, contact me.

There are a few basic things to do for your page. First select a username to make directing others to your page simpler. Using a username for your page shortens and clarifies the url to the page. To set your username, go to http://www.facebook.com/username/, choose the page you want to set a username for, then check its availability. Choose your username wisely because you won’t be able to change it.

The next thing is to load a cover photo and avatar that tells visitors who you are; your logo for instance. If you don’t have a cover photo or avatar, I can design one for you that will be sized appropriately so you all you have to do is upload it. Contact me for prices.

Social media is a great way for churches to communicate to their membership and others. We tried a couple of alternatives, but our members were already pretty connected on Facebook, so that was the easiest method for us to integrate. Leonard Sweet’s new book Viral has some great advice on using social media for sharing the gospel.

Here’s an article full of statistics from the church point of view, and here is another from Forbes on making the most of your Facebook Page and Timeline.

What Role Does IT Play in Your Ministry?

The Parable of the PC

How Facebook Knows What You Really Like

Wearable Tech: Welcome to the Future of Fashion

Coffee drinking linked to longer life

Latte Art

Infographic: The different types of headphones illustrated

Reluctantly though, I had to accept the slowing of metabolism that comes with middle age. The fact that with every decade there was going to be about five additional pounds that were going to be VERY difficult to get rid of. So I’ve begrudgingly learned to live with them.

Now comes a new realization – The Pudge. I’ve had one for a while, but it’s just become noticeable over the recent months. Understand I had major, exploratory surgery years ago straight down the middle of my abdomen, ripping all those ab muscles apart. That makes it even harder to prevent The Pudge. (At least that’s my excuse.)

Worse is that I like to wear my pants slightly low riding which now cuts right under The Pudge, accentuating it even more. And I’m kind of in the same boat as with that first battle right after getting married.

Oh dear, I really feel like an old woman. Not sure what I’m going to change this time, but I refuse to resort to Mom Jeans.

I can still hold it in when I’m thinking about it. It’s those relaxed moments when I look down or in the mirror that I hang my head in disappointment. Then a six-letter word (yes, six) comes to mind, ringing out over and over – VANITY, VANITY, ALL IS VANITY. “Yes, God, you’re right it is…but…but Solomon had plenty of money to buy new clothes…”

The first was by Kristin Tennant for Relevant Magazine. Here are a few quotes.

Do Americans ignore one of the most important things we should be doing with our time: nothing? More space in your life can help you uncover and better understand who you are. Listening to God, following His detours, and being available to His people—they all require more open-ended time and space.

The second article was by Cal Newport based on a German study of budding violinists and their practice habits. The study looked at two groups, elite players and average players, and what made one better than the other. Here are some of the findings and conclusions.

The time diaries revealed that both groups spent, on average, the same number of hours on music per week. The average players spread their work throughout the day. The elite players, by contrast, consolidated their work into two well-defined periods.

The elite players slept an hour more per night than the average players [and] were significantly more relaxed than the average players.

Hard work is deliberate practice. Hard to do work, by contrast, is draining.

Whether you’re a student or well along in your career, if your goal is to build a remarkable life, then busyness and exhaustion should be your enemy. If you’re chronically stressed and up late working, you’re doing something wrong. You’ve built a life around hard to do work, not hard work.

The solution suggested by this research is as simple as it is startling: Do less. But do what you do with complete and hard focus. Then when you’re done be done, and go enjoy the rest of the day.

Both of these articles suggest creativity thrives on doing nothing. Remember when you were a kid with absolutely nothing to do, bored out of your mind? Your imagination really went to work then dreaming up something to do. Granted, there is a danger in that. It certainly got me in trouble more than once.

But this isn’t just about creativity. Our relationships with God and others relies on it. Our health and well-being relies on it. Now to find the right balance…

Church Communications People: Let’s Make Peace With the Women’s Ministry

Religious Sites Are Greater Security Risk Than Porn Destinations [STUDY]

Five Leadership Tips From Bruce Springsteen

What Moms Really Want for Mother’s Day (Infographic)

10 Ways ‘The Avengers’ Are an Example for the Church

Technology is one of those things that constantly changes. It pretty much has to to keep up with everyone else. I have long given up having the latest and greatest gadgets, software, and such. You have to be pretty dog gone rich to keep up. I read a couple of interesting articles this week that address this very thing from two different angles.

Maybe tech needs less ch-ch-ch-change? and Here’s Why Google and Facebook Might Completely Disappear in the Next 5 Years.  What do you think? Are you trying to keep up?

Cloud drawing (Photo credit: wlef70)

I ran across an iPad app a couple of weeks ago that looks like it may truly make simple even simpler. CloudOn was released several weeks ago and offers iPad users the ability to use Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint on the iPad.

But more than that, CloudOn brings together many of the top cloud storage applications into one place. It currently links to Dropbox, Google Drive, and Box. I’m hoping it will integrate Windows SkyDrive and Amazon Cloud at some point. If you aren’t familiar with these cloud storage applications, here’s a really good article that explains and compares them.

So far I’ve been impressed with CloudOn. I have files, mostly church related, stored in all of the above mentioned cloud apps, so the idea of bringing them all together in one place is a really nice idea. I’m beginning to wonder if I even need to keep the Box and Dropbox apps on my iPad. As far as Google Drive goes, they haven’t released and iOS app yet, so CloudOn is the only way to access those files other than through the iPad’s browser.

Related articles

• Microsoft Office document editor CloudOn returns to iPad (news.cnet.com)
• CloudOn for iPad Adds Email, New File Format Support, Box Storage (technocraz.com)
• CloudOn 2.0 brings the power of Microsoft Office to the iPad (venturebeat.com)