Send To Shortcut

(click on picture to view video tutorial from EasyWorship.com blog)

XP

1. click the Start button, select Run, type in “SendTo” and hit OK
2. open My Computer\Shared Documents\Softouch\EasyWorship\
    Default\Resources
3. rightt-click on Images, select Send To then Desktop (Create Shortcut)
4. repeat step 3 for Videos and Presentations
5. bring up the SendTo window and copy your shortcuts over

From this point on, if you are looking to copy any media from outside sources, like disks and thumbdrives, simply right-click on the file and then select the Send To option.   The Resource folders for your EasyWorship will appear in the list.

Vista

Click on the Start icon in the lower left corner of the screen and then type the following command in the Start search text box:

%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo

Any changes you make to the items inside the SendTo folder will be reflected in the right-click SendTo menu.

To use this new feature rich application of EasyWorship 2009 you will need to have a 3rd video output as well as monitors on stage or the ability to project towards the back of the auditorium. 

The setup is the same for regular use, one video output to the main monitor (the one running the program), one output to the projectors and the third going to the monitors onstage. 

If your facility doesn’t have a third video output, another solution would be to install another video card.

Another quick and easy solution may be to use a   Matrox DualHead2Go.  This box is an external multi-monitor upgrade that adds up to two monitors to your notebook or desktop computer enabling you to run different applications on each monitor or view one application across two monitors. DualHead2Go is available in DisplayPort, Digital, or Analog Editions.  It also is compatible with both PC and Mac.

Now that the foldback is setup and ready for use, how and where do you find the area to select the options that will be visible on the monitor?  In the top line of your EasyWorship software you will see Live.  This will give you a drop down list that has at the bottom the  Display Foldback Options.  In this area you will be able to alter the Monitor position (margins and custom positions), Song Text Alignment with labels, Scripture Text, PowerPoint, Alerts and Time.

Display Foldback (Stage Display)

This custom support tool for your worship teams on stage will enable them to see the flow of the whole worship time.  The Worship Teams will be able to see the words to the song they are currently singing and a preview of the next scheduled item.  Other features include a clock and private alerts.

The Media person will be able customize each aspect of the service, including PowerPoint presentation with many variable thumbnails.

VJ Mode (Video Jockey)

  The Video Jockey comes enabled with One click Video Switching. 

The Media team will be able to change backgrounds during live songs and Scripture screens.

The Live Area has been streamlined to make it easier to fade backgrounds seamlessly while song lyrics and verses are still visible.

Web Integration

EasyWorship 2009 has integrated several online web formats.  With URL scheduling and full screen You Tube video playback, the program will he connect your audience to the web.  The online feature enables you to show your congregation websites as well as the lates You Tube Videos.

The Software Version also provides acces to online media stores and CCLI Song Insertion.

Audio Integration

Scheduled Playback

Import and Organize audio files for playback during special presntations or assign a single audio file to multiple lyric or scripture slides.  EasyWorship has integrated a new media player that displays total and elapsed time with easy controls for volume, mute, play/pause, repeat and seek.

Updated User Interface

Theme Awareness

 New updated buttons and icons that are easily used and integrated for XP, Vista and Windows 7.   With a new modernised look and feel the general layout improvements give btter controls for video, DVD and feeds.

I just got back from my church’s annual camping trip. It’s a great time of living out community while smelling perpetually of campfire smoke.

On Sunday, we will hold our worship service (nothing reminds you that the church is us, not a building, like closing down the building for a Sunday). 

Not only that, there is something sublime about worshiping God out in nature, his “cathedral.” Accordingly, I will talk briefly about God’s self-revelation in nature. 

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.

Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course.It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat. 

Psalm 19:1-6 (NIV) 

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. 

Romans 1:20-23 (NIV) 

Here is an interesting thought: 

Creation itself is a testament to God. Almost in the same way that we have the Old Testament and the New Testament, we have God’s general revelation both in the universe around us and his specific revelation through the Bible. Both are vital. 

I know that, for myself, it his revelation in nature that is the starting point of my faith – I cannot make myself believe that all of this just happened. While we may debate the methods by which God created the universe, it is evident that he created it. 

However, (an important “however”) in the same way need New Testament in order to fully understand the Old, we need the Bible to understand the God of creation. Creation shows us “his eternal power and divine nature,” but not his character. 

So while I believe God exists because of creation, I have fallen in love with him because of his revelation, both in the Word and (infinitely more) the Incarnation – God becoming flesh and dwelling among us. 

But even still, God’s specific revelation should complement his general revelation, not replace it. Caught up as we are in the hustle and bustle of urban life, it becomes harder to stop and experience God, as revealed in creation and the Word. 

I will close with one of my favorite poems, “The Grandeur of God.” 

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.

It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;

It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil

Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?

Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;

And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;

And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil

Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;

There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;

And though the last lights off the black West went

Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent

World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

G.M. Hopkins

As most people can relate to in their own lives, my past consists of many adventures both good and bad, feats great and small, and tales murky and clear. All these elements add up to one main pursuit in life – my search for identity.
I recall vividly the year when my life assumed purpose in Christ and oddly enough it was well after conversion and many years into adulthood. The initial struggle I fought with narrowed down to this question, “How much of my past must dictate my present identity and overshadow my future?” Obviously one cannot discount the importance of the past in being a schoolteacher to us. After all, the past is the ONLY element of time that carries in it perfect clarity (ie: hindsight is 20/20). And so the purpose of the past must be to teach, so that with the knowledge accumulated from the past we may consummate that knowledge with the wisdom of the present and give birth to understanding in the future.

Taking into account the significance of the past, I was unsure of what to do with the negative elements. Obviously i can learn from them, but must they identify who I am? The answer is, apart from God, yes the past becomes who I am. But a miraculous transformation takes place when one adds God to the equation of life. As the divine nature is born within us and begins to mature and grow in us, God gives to us a most precious gift – His identity and His past. While my physical past continues to teach me, my identity is no longer defined by it but is defined by the Heavenly Father Himself, as He cultivates Christ within me.

And now we enter into the struggle all mankind faces in realizing identity – the age old battle between the Affirmer and the Accuser. This battle recently played itself out in a very real way for me, much to both my joy and dismay.

During a recent trip to visit my family, my father assumed a blessed and divine role bestowed on all fathers – the affirmer. When this role is exercised in the image of God it affirms those around it. Apart from the image of God it takes on a corrupt nature and turns into the role of the accuser – both roles struggle to identify us.

My father offered me words of affirmation; words that praised my role as a wife and how he had seen me change into a woman who honors and respects her husband even in difficult times and circumstances. He praised my role as a mother and my diligence in simultaneously caring for my children and my own health. He praised my maturity as a daughter of God and exhorted me in continuing to offer to others out of that growth. As he spoke these words I heard the words of the Heavenly Father echoing out of them, “This is my daughter, whom I love. In her I am well pleased.” (Matt 3:17). At the time, an element of that relationship escaped me. I forgot the nature of the accuser and his habitual appearance following moments of affirmation, to attempt to incapacitate us through whatever means he can grasp onto to attack our divine identity. (Matt 4:1-11).

But come, he did. The accuser (not my father just for clarification) appeared and began his assault in every aspect recently affirmed. He attacked my role as wife, wielding my past at me, pummeling me again and again with it. He attacked my role as a mother and in the final blows attempted to strip even my identity in Christ from me. And then he was gone. As I lay broken, striped, and ashamed on the proverbial floor, I cried out to God, not understanding what I was to do in light of this clear assault on every fiber of my being. Did the accuser have the right to hurl my past at me in an attempt to undo what good work God was doing in me?

A most miraculous encounter ensued at this point. The Ancient of Days reached down through the ages, weaving His way through my past and came to stand over me. His voice echoed from His Word unfolding an all too familiar conversation to me.

“Daughter, where are your accusers?”

I know this conversation…

“They have gone.”

“Then neither do I condemn you.”

He called me daughter… relief washed over me as I realized my identity in Him was still intact; that the Great Affirmer’s words continued to define who I was. My own father’s words again rang clearly in my ears, “You are a good wife, a good mother, and a good daughter.” The words of the accuser fell dead to the ground, impotent and puny next to the Giver of all that is good.

I do not resent or hate the vessel of the accuser’s choosing. My heart feels compassion and sorrow for the hatred harbored that allows the accuser to manipulate him to his purposes. But discernment allows me to separate the two – to hate the accuser but to love the man. If I cannot forgive the man, then do I not perpetuate a cycle of hatred and sin? And so I forgive.

My words are formed to speak to fathers; to bring awareness to the divine nature within you that reflects the image of God – the role you carry as fathers to offer identity and affirmation. But my words also carry warning to those who would corrupt this precious gift of God in an attempt to identify through accusation. Choose wisely. Whose nature will you reflect? The Affirmer or the Accuser?

Jesus the Good Shepherd was a master story-teller and a man of mystery.  From His original invitation to His disciples, where in only a hand full of words He convinced men to leave everything and follow Him, to His teachings and answers to the questions of the Pharisees, Jesus would leave individuals and audiences spellbound, scratching their heads, angry, or wanting more of His unfinished thoughts and compelling sayings.  Included in His teaching ministry, the gospels record 40 unique parables or stories, often describing parallels of the Kingdom that spawned more questions than providing answers.  Even the disciples of Jesus are often seen asking Him privately after His talks – “what did that mean?”

            Apparently, the talks of Christ were not intended to show off His speaking gift or give them information, but rather to stir hunger and a heart response.  The results of His words were that people began following Him, seeking to hear more and experience more of His power.  Since Jesus is the most effective, loving, articulate and inspiring person to ever walk the planet, as a Pastor, I’m rethinking my speaking philosophy.  I’m not nearly as effective as Jesus, yet I present full-course messages replete with scripture and examples that lead people on a 45 minute journey to provide answers to questions along with a safely landed conclusion that reinforces my main point.  Jesus does none of that.  Reading Jesus makes me wonder if our styles have removed the element of mystery that stirs the kind of hunger which compels listeners to seek for more and find God for themselves, rather than force-feeding already satiated diners.   

            God is the originator of mystery, revealing His mysteries to those who seek Him. Without the crucial element of mystery in any relationship (both with God and one another), our lives and Christianity become predictable and boring.  Knowing and experiencing the God of the Universe should be anything but boring.  Our message to a lost world should also be packed with mystery and hope, not full of Christian cliché’s. 

            What if we as teachers and speakers, used our creativity as sons and daughters of the Creator Himself to inspire those we share with (believers and non-believers) with contagious and relevant stories that purposely don’t provide all of the answers, but leave our audience stewing in their juices, wanting more?  What if instead of providing full course meals in our talks, we told unique stories that gave glimpses into the supernatural kingdom, initiating a spiritual journey for the listener?  

I’m becoming a bit of a techno-geek, and am using my computer for devotions, yellow pages, and communication. But as with all technology the battery gets low. So when you see the laptops plugged in, even though they can run for hours on the battery, they are being assured of power.Much like technology, we are to stay plugged in. Obviously, we need to stay plugged into God for our “charge”, but we also need to plug in to where God has placed us.

My devotion this morning was about the Israelites going into exile, and God wanting them to plug in. They were to build lives there. God wanted them to be a part of the community; to plant gardens, eat it’s fruit, and increase in number.

When God places us somewhere, He doesn’t want us to just show up and take. If we are doing what we are supposed to, we are taking in from Him, and need to use what we have: His love, our gifts and talents, and even our produce to touch the world. Even in the “great commission” we are called to go and (do something). We aren’t supposed to just go, receive, and enjoy.

If we are His, we will be known by our fruit. Fruit doesn’t just happen, it grows. We have to be alive, planted, and tapped into God. We will produce fruit, which is to be available to nourish others.
Where are you supposed to be planted, and how can your fruit help nourish others.

“Before the zao water came, we were using the dirty water which had germs inside it, flies and snails.  It was not nice to our bodies, it was making us sick.  We had stomachaches.  Others were becoming sick and becoming thin.” 

~Stephen (a school boy from Kenya)

Stephen’s story is a very common story for people living in Kenya and other parts of the developing world.  In fact, one in six people are living without access to safe drinking water.   The water they are able to access is often times contaminated and collected only after walking many miles every day to get it. 
zao was started in an effort to help people like Stephen.  zao, which means, “to live,” is a humanitarian organization founded by Matt Peterson in 2004.  zao’s mission is to transform communities by providing safe drinking water, hygiene education and hope.  

Through digging wells, developing springs, delivering hygiene education and ministering to the local people, zao now gives clean drinking water to around 45,0 00 people every day through the 60 water sources we have provided.  zao has also provided hygiene training to thousands of people and helped start one church in East Africa.  

A team of 12 African employees does most of the day-to-day work, with groups from the U.S. traveling over several times a year to work along side the African team.

In 2008 zao opened an office in West Africa and is currently working on a well in Burkina Faso.  This is the first of what zao hopes to be many water projects on the West African front.

In addition to working in Africa, zao started a bottled water business with the goal of using the profits from the business to fund our water projects in Africa.   The bottled water business gives people in the U.S. an opportunity to be a part of providing clean water to people in the developing world.   Just by doing something they do every day, drinking bottled water, they can be involved in helping people a world away.�
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To learn more about zao and where you can purchase zao bottled water, please go to www.hydratinghumanity.org