Change of account

To all visitors... I have begun to use Wordpress for my blog. To see all my new info/blogs/video sermons/articles go to christianstjohn.wordpress.com.

Thanks and blessings... see you there!

Message: "Jesus Is God"

A look at John 1:1-5 and how this portion of Scripture proves that Jesus is God!

Recorded 6th January, 2008, at Cedar Brook Church, Abbotsford, BC, Canada

Message: "Wise Men Still Seek Him"

A look at the story of the Wise Men and how it applies to our lives today.

Gear I Use

I had a couple of emails from people asking what kind of gear I used to record my sermons and put them online. Below is a list of the gear I use.

To record video/audio sermons:

• Canon Elura 100 video camera. A nice compact camera that delivers really good image quality. Not a professional camera by any means but at $350 not bad at all... after all I only use it as an image receiver.
  
• A small tripod
  
• Archos 504 media player/recorder with media docking station. I record the actual image and sound on this. For the video image I plug the video camera into the docking station RCA video in port. To record the sound I take a direct feed from the church's mixing desk into the docking stations RCA stereo sound ports. With the Archos you could in theory use any digital camera/video camera to capture the image as this does all the recording. I do it this way as the Archos records in AVI format making mixing the recording as simple as downloading the AVI file to a computer, mixing, and then uploading. No Firewire cables needed, no tapes or DVDR's, no converting from one file format to another... simply download the video file from the Archos.
• Computer - Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop with Intel Core 2 CPU running at 2GHz, 2GB ram, ATI Radeon X1400 with 256MB dedicated for graphics. It helps to have a good computer to mix and upload from.
  
• Windows Movie Maker. You can use pretty much any video editing program such as Pinnacle Studio, Sony Vegas or Adobe Premiere, but this works well for my needs right now.
  

Message: "The Ultimate Christmas Gift"

This message was recorded at Cedar Brook Church on 16th December, 2007. The focus of this message is our need to stop and reflect on the Ultimate Christmas Gift that God gave... namely that of His own Son. Enjoy and be challenged!

My First MP3 Player

I have been toying with the idea of purchasing an MP3 player for about a year. Anyone who knows me knows that I rarely by something on impulse... I like to read reviews, check out stats and so on. I ahve looked at literally hundreds of different players, both large and small, but if the truth be known I was always a little dubious about taking the plunge and buying one. Then two weeks ago I gave in and bought myself my first MP3 player. It's an Archos 504 and I have to say it's awesome. I love it! I can kick myself for all the time I wasted when all along I should have gotten this all along.

This little beauty has a 4.3" LCD screen, 40gb storage, plays music and movies, displays photos, and can be used as a hard drive. The 504 I bought came with a package that included the optional docking station which allows me to record music, video, and cable via RCA, component and S-Video cable all of which came with the package. I also got a remote, USB cable, and separate power lead. All in all, I feel I got a good deal as I only paid $230 for this unit in the States from Target. In other stores the unit by itself was retailing for around the price I paid for my whole bundle... the docking station usually retails for around $75-100.

The sound quality does depend on the original source material but most of my downloads from Napster sound great, just don't expect the unit to make low budget music sound great. I am listening to the Kutless album "Hearts of the Innocent" as I write this and it sound pretty amazing through my separate Pioneer amp. I have recorded a couple of movies on it too using the docking station and they look awesome. I also use it as a photo viewer for all of my digital photos taken over the last five or so years.

My only complaint would be that the screen is a little dark but at least it's not going to burn out too quick.

As a pastor I like to record my sermons so that I can upload them to my church website. In the past I have had to record my sermons on cassette tape or mini disc and then re-record them in real time to my laptop and then upload them to the website. The process could take up to two hours depending on the quality of the source material. Now I simply plug this baby into the sound desk, press record, and voilà I end up with a crystal clear sermon that can theoretically be uploaded as soon as the sermon has been delivered. This little baby makes my job that bit easier in this department. I am also toying with the idea of using this unit for video recording my sermons... I'll look more into this in the New Year.

The machine has a pretty steep learning curve but trial and error is probably the best way to get to know how this unit works. As it is essentially a hard drive if you get it wrong you simply delete it and start again.

This is an awesome MP3 player/recorder that is so versatile it's a joy to own and use. What are you waiting for? Go and get one!

Still not pursuaded then check out this review by CNET.

Welcome to my world!

I am a pastor working for a church in Abbotsford, BC, Canada. However, by admission I'm not your typical pastor... I have earrings, a goatee, wear jeans and T-shits all the time, love good movies and TV shows, listen mainly to rock, metal and thrash music, and spend way too much time on the internet.
As well as pastoring full time I am a full time husband and father and am currently trying to work out the plot for my first novel, a parabolic chiller called "Waking Up In the World of the Dead."
So when I get the time I will add thoughts and ideas to this blog.
In His service,
Chris