TonyMcCollum.com

One Prayer

If you could pray just one prayer for all the churches in the United States, what would you pray?

When Jesus prayed the Church, he prayed that we might be one.  His prayer was that we might be unified so that we could love one another and show His love to the world.  That’s why I’m so very excited to announce that we will be participating in a special project called One Prayer this June!  What is One Prayer?  Well, it’s an opportunity for churches all over the United States to come together and stand unified as one. 

Here’s how it works.  The first Sunday in June, I’ll be teaching what my one prayer for the church would be.  Then, in following weeks, we’ll be hearing from other pastors from around the country what their one prayer would be.

The cool thing about it is that we’ll literally be experiencing what God is saying through some of the most gifted and talented communicators on the planet today.  It’s going to absolutely AWESOME!

Currently, over 700 (and counting) churches from the US and around the globe are going to be participating.  I can’t wait for it to begin.  Remember, it all starts June 1.  Don’t miss it.

Mac Bible Software

One thing I really need is some good Bible software for my mac.  I know that there are some awesome Bible web sites (like youversion.com) but I need something more than that because of the way I work on my sermons.  Any mac folks have any advice for me?

Another Mac Attack

I long time ago I bought a MacBook Pro and I tried to make the switch to Mac.  I tried very, very hard but I eventually gave up.  I took a lot of heat from my PC friends for trying the Mac and from my Mac friends for giving up. 

Although I've been a PC guy for all of my adult life, I'm always up for a change IF it will boost my productivity.  I was a huge palm pilot fan back in the day but I eventually made the switch to a pocket PC (and then a Blackberry pager) when I felt I had reached the limits of what it could do for me.

I've said all that to say that I "bought" a new MacBook Pro a couple of days ago at Fry's to give it a shot yet again.  I've been frustrated with Vista and although I've been a big fan of tablet PC's there has been no new compelling software developed for that platform in years.

SO, here I am writing this blog post on a Mac and I'm trying to see if it will boost my productivity like they say.  Thankfully, Fry's doesn't charge a restocking fee so I've got about 10 days left before I have to decide whether or not to keep this unit.

To make the switch, I've got to find some good Mac equivalents of my favorite apps.  I know, I know, I can run parallels and then run all my windows apps but I've never quite understood the reasoning there.  I don't want to run two OS's and take the performance hit.

Anyway, I thought I'd blog about my journey here.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Battlestar Mojo

Battlestar Galatica finally regained some of it’s mojo last Friday.  Let’s see if they can keep it up.

Online Task Management

I’m trying to find a good online task management system to replace my PlanPlus dependency.  I’ve been looking at the following…

Remember the Milk:  Well developed but the number of tasks I have would make this impossible to work with.

HiTask:  What beautiful design.  I love the look and feel.  It’s a little too basic though.

Nozbe:  I very, very powerful GTD base task system.  I like the mobile version and the iGoogle add-in.  It’s sort of ugly and hard to read though.

Backpack/Basecamp:  Tried them both.  They are just too much for what I want.  I’m not looking to set up a team on the system, just me.

PlanPlus Online:  Trying it now.  It’s close to the desktop version that I like but it’s so slow and it seems like yesterday’s coding.  (They need some AJAX or ruby on rails mojo or something.)

5PM:  I’m very impressed with this system but again the task subsystem is a little lacking.

Central Desktop:  Slow.  Clunky.  Not digging the tasks section.

I’m so close I can taste it on some of these but we’re still not there.  Does anybody know of any other good ones to try?

#1 Killer

The number one killer of marriages, ministries, church plants, ministry teams, and anything great of God is fear.  Fear is the opposite of God.  The Bible says that God is love.  I believe that the enemy is fear. 

Refuse to let fear control your life.  Live a life of wild faith and trust in God!

Mother's Day

I’m really pumped about tomorrow.  God has really been speaking to me about this weekend and I know that He’s going to do some amazing things!  I’m talking about depression on Mother’s Day which can seem a little odd at first but a lot of moms deal with depression so it actually makes a lot of sense.  Regardless, I know that God is going to change a lot of lives tomorrow.

Beyond all that, we’re giving away free family portraits again this year!  I know that a bunch of folks have already signed up but it’s not too late.  Just show up a little early and be ready to smile!

Challenges

God is challenging me like crazy these days.  He’s challenging me in just about every area of my life.  He’s calling me to a higher standard across the board.  He’s directing me to change things like how I spend my time, where I focus my energies, and how I lead.  The list goes on and on.  It’s like He’s trying to create a new me.  I’m reminded of this quote…

“I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish that He didn’t trust me so much.”  – Mother Teresa

Seriously though, I’m glad He’s stretching me.  It’s not always pleasant at the time but the only thing worse than being stretched is staying the same and that’s one thing I know that I don’t want to do.

Worst Giver Ever

I’m pretty sure that I’m the worst gift giver ever.  Now, by that I don’t mean that I give bad gifts.  I think I’m okay about that.  The problem is that once I buy a gift I have to give it immediately.  I can’t wait.  For instance, I gave Amy her Mother’s Day gift yesterday!  I just couldn’t wait.  Anybody else like this?

Badly Needed Service

This is a very cool idea and a badly needed service.  Remember, if you do end up getting an email from these folks, it wasn’t me.

Disappointed

I’m very disappointed about the quality of my favorite TV shows lately.  I only have a few shows that I really like and all of them have been pretty bad recently.

1.  The Office:  This is my favorite comedy on TV but the last few shows have been sub par.  There have been a few laughs but it feels like the gifted actors are struggling to prop up bad writing.  The shows just seem thin.

2.  Battlestar Galactica:  I’ve been waiting a year for this to come back on the air and it’s not very good.  This is the last season and the potential is there but so far they just ain’t delivering.  Frankly, the show just got weird and boring.  I keep watching and hoping it will turn around but it’s not enjoyable.

3.  Doctor Who:  My kids and I love watching the new doctor who episodes.  Like BSG, we’ve been waiting a year for a new episode and they've been very week.  The last two-parter was fairly strong and shows some promise for the series as a whole but it used to be a lot better than this.  I think some of it is because of Donna Noble not being to great of a companion.

Addiction

I’m addicted to the firecracker tilapia at Chili’s.  This is remarkable for several reasons.  First, I hate everything at Chili’s and generally refuse to eat there.  Second, I don’t like things made with fish or in the proximity of fish.  Third, I don’t like spicy things that much.  Fourth, the dish is supposed to be fairly good for you and I don’t generally like the taste of anything that’s good for me.  SO, it seems that this dish is some sort of miracle dish and/or I’m going through some sort of metamorphosis.  Regardless, you should check it out when you get a chance.  Trust me.  You’ll love it.

Interesting Claim

I just saw that “KFC products are the most popularly requested items for death row inmates' last meals.”  I’m not quite sure what to make of that.  I think that’s a good thing, right?

NLT>>NCV>>ESV

I’ve been reading a New Living Translation (NLT) bible for a few years now and I got a little bored with it so I recently started reading a New Century Version (NCV) bible.  I’ve been digging it but I’m really waiting on this bad boy which is due in October.  (BTW, I know that I’m a geek.)

Strength Finders 2.0

I took the strength finders assessment a few years ago but I wanted to do it again since they’ve come out with the 2.0 version.  Well, I finally found time to do it last week and here are my results.

• Ideation
• Strategic
• Relator
• Learner
• Individualization

Now, I never really know how much stock to take in these sorts of things.  I feel that I don’t “test” well when it comes to assessments.  I know some people swear by strength finders in general.

Another interesting thing is that my top five has changed from the last time I took the test.  Evidently, it’s either more accurate this time around or I’ve changed over the last few years.

My original top five is…

• Strategic
• Ideation
• Maximizer
• Positivity
• Context

So, clearly, I’m strategic and ideation.  I wonder what the connections are between the rest of them.  I also wonder what this means from a big picture standpoint.

Truthfully, this makes me want to take the test again a third time to confirm these results.

Sunday Recap

• I think today’s service was the best service we’ve ever had at Fusion. 
• I loved meeting and praying with all the fusioneers before the service.  What an awesome team of folks we’ve got.
• Ben and Joe absolutely killed the opening blues song.
• The worship team knocked it out of the park with the worship set.
• Angela’s prayer was very anointed and set the stage perfectly for what was to come.
• Speaking of sets, Jason out did himself with our New Orleans street corner set.
• Seth and the band absolutely nailed “The Thrill is Gone.”
• I really sensed God moving and changing lives throughout the service.
• I had a ton of new folks come find me after service and tell me how much they enjoyed it.
• The t-shirts for the series are very cool.  I can’t wait to get mine.
• I’ve been told that lots of people signed up to get my playlist.  I’m going to have to work on that tomorrow.
• I can’t wait for next Sunday!!
• I’m not feeling too hot so I’m heading to bed early.  (I hope I can actually get some sleep this time.)