Running towards Creativity

I don’t know about you, but one of my favorite things to do is find media that gets my creative juices flowing. Of course, most of what I find today I could never dream of replicating, but it always inspires me to do better in what I do.

This is one of those videos that just makes you sit in wonder and amazement. My jaw hung open for the majority of it. In fact, a lot of the videos from the RE:PLAY or F5 Film Festivals will do that to you.

RE:PLAY FILM FESTIVAL: Shilo “Still Run” from F5 on Vimeo.

Interpret this as you may, but let me ask you: 
Are you running toward creativity like this?  Or have you given up on moving forward with dynamic strides? 
What does this video emote in you? 
When was the last time you were truly inspired?

StuffICanUse.com – Free Sermon/Teaching Resources

Formerly known as VineResources.com, www.StuffICanUse.com is a wonderful site provided by the extremely innovative media team of Southeast Christian Church (www.postworship.com and www.betheblock.com).  They have provided media from their creative sermon series’ to the public at the best price…FREE!

www.StuffICanUse.com

Check out this website and you’ll be blown away by some of the great stuff you’ll find there.  Now if only everyone could take on this mindset of sharing the love…

Here’s what they have to say for themselves:

StuffICanUse.com is a collection of resources, links, and other materials produced mainly for the student and college/young adult ministries at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY. The idea came from us making sweet stuff for our programs and then it was sitting on someone‘s computer doing nothing, so we decided to setup vineresources.com in order to make our stuff available for you to use in your ministry. We adopted an open source philosophy and decided to give away free swag to you. We hope you can use these resources to help your ministry communicate the love of Jesus.

Free Online Photo Editing

I am a photoshop fiend and always love doing things on a computer that I could never possibly do with a pencil and paper.  Adobe Photoshop is likely the most powerful photography software available today and well known by many, but also extremely expensive.  Thanks to Adobe’s work at both developing quality editing suites and asking for exorbitant amounts of money, many others have developed free photo editing software.  The even greater thing is that many of these tools are online resources that don’t need to be downloaded to be used and are available on nearly any computer with an internet connection.

First of all, after picking on Adobe, I’ve got to give them props for offering the world their beautiful  (albeit reduced)software free to anyone online in the form of Adobe Photoshop Express at www.Photoshop.com.  In other words, photoshop can now be used anywhere on any computer with an internet connection and your work can be stored online.

 

 

1. GIMP

GIMP stands for “GNU image manipulation program”, and it is one of the oldest and most well known alternatives to Photoshop in existence. Although it doesn’t quite have all of them, you’ll find most of the features included in Photoshop somewhere in GIMP. GIMP is cross platform and supported by a large community.

If just having the feature set isn’t enough for you, there is an alternative based on GIMP known as GIMPShop. It’s the same as GIMP, except the layout has been structured as close to Photoshop as possible, so anyone making the transition should still feel right at home.

2. Krita

Krita has been lauded for ease of use and won the Akademy Award for Best Application in 2006. Part of the Koffice suite for Linux, Krita is slightly less powerful than both Photoshop and GIMP, but does contain some unique features.

3. Paint.NET

Paint.NET has grown out of a simple replacement for the well known MSPaint into a fully featured open source image editor with a wide support base. You’ll need Windows to run Paint.NET.

4. ChocoFlop

ChocoFlop is a design application designed exclusively for Mac, optimized for Mac architecture. It’s quick and fairly well featured. This program won’t always be free, but until a stable version is released (it’s currently in beta) they are allowing free use. The program works pretty well as is, and if you’re the type who doesn’t mind an occasional bug it’s certainly worth a look.

5. Cinepaint

Cinepaint is designed primarily for video often used to make animated feature films by major studios, but it is also a great image editor capable of high fidelity 32 bit color. Currently there is no stable version for Windows.

6. Pixia

Pixia was originally designed in Japanese but English versions now exist for this rich editor. Although the original focus was on anime/manga, it is a very capable editor in general. Some of the features are a little counter intuitive, but there are plenty of English tutorials available now if you want to give it a shot. The website seems to have changed recently, so be sure to use our link if you don’t want a Japanese error message. Pixia works for Windows.

7. Pixen

Pixen is designed as a pixel artist’s dream, but has expanded into a smooth and well featured overall editor. It’s definitely best at animation though, if that’s your style. Pixen is Mac (10.4x or later) only.

8. Picnik

Picnik is a web based photo editor that has recently taken off due to a partnership with Flickr. It has all the basic features plus a few advanced ones like layers and special effects. It is cross platform since you only need a browser.

Podcasts Every Leader Should Consume

Leaders are Learners.

We’ve all heard it before and I’m sure it won’t be the last time I say it.  In a day where much of our time is spent in translation–down the road, in a plane, on our way–the hours must redeemed.  An unfruitful mind is a terrible waste.  Fortunately, there are all kinds of resources for those of us who wish to grow in the in-between times.  Not to mention, many of us who speak  for a living and thrive on conversation process experiences and lessons verbally.  One of the greatest tools for today’s leader is also absolutely free and comes streaming through the web in an easily digested format–audio.   

If you find yourself with mindless “in-between” time–in the car, at the gym, doing yard work, on a jog, etc.–pull up your iTunes and subscribe to some of the podcasts listed below.

These are Podcasts Every Leader Should Consume:

·         Leadership

o   Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast

o   Catalyst Podcast – The leadership filter for what’s NEXT in the church

o   Lead Like Jesus

o   Practically Speaking – 7 Practices of Effective Ministry

o   Rick Warren’s Ministry Podcast

o   The Leadership Moment Podcast

o   The Dave Ramsey Show

·         Youth Ministry

o   Simply Youth Ministry

o   Who Are These Guys?

o   Dare 2 Share Uncensored

o   NWMN Youth Ministries

·         Church Sermons

o   Elevation Church – Steven Furtick

o   Generation Church – Judah Smith

o   Hillsong Church – Joel Houston

o   Imago Dei – Rick McKinley

o   Life rules – Andy Stanley

o   LifeChurch.tv – Craig Groeschel

o   Mars Hill Bible Church – Rob Bell

o   Mars Hill Church – Mark Driscoll

o   Mosaic – Erwin Mcmanus

o   North Point Community Church – Andy Stanley

o   North Point Ministries: Andy Stanley

o   ROCKHARBOR podcast

o   TheaterChurch.com Podcast – Mark Batterson

o   Willow Creek Podcast

·         Media/Technology

o   Church Media Design TV

o   Creative Synergy

o   ChurchTechTalk

(Those that are linked will take you to their related sites)

(Search the given titles in the iTunes Music Store to find and subscribe to these podcasts)