Rich Kao

Kevin Bacon As Kevin Bacon's Biggest Fan.

For Logitech Revue, Kevin Bacon played Ivan Cobenk, the world's biggest Kevin Bacon fan. Suddenly, we were all reminded of how funny Bacon can be, especially when he's making fun of himself:



Pastors, here's a quick review you can use to encourage your people as the year winds up.  Fellow Christians, here's a tune-up if your worship doesn't include your finances.

1. I want a tax benefit. (practical)

2. Following what my parents did. (tradition)

3. I want to include God in my finances. (maturity)

4. I want to break greed in my life. (treasure)

5. I want to break fear in my life. (faith)

6. I love my church & want to support it.  (family)

7. Scriptures says to do it. (obedience)

8. I want to advance the kingdom. (vision)

9. Stewardship – it’s not my money. (Lordship)

10. I love God - it’s part of my worship. (affection)

As we all know, technology can be a blessing or a curse, a diversion instead of an aid, a time drain instead of a time saver.  I try to keep this in mind whenever I'm thinking about employing tech tools because I don't want to fall prey to a fad.  But in this latest iteration, I can roundly give a thumbs up to the iPad, although it's utility is not necessarily apparent before you use it.  So here are 12 reasons I like the iPad.

1. It's light and a great "take & go" tool. You might say, "But isn't a laptop suppose to be light and easy to carry?"  Yes, it is. But the iPad hits a sweetspot I didn't know I had regarding the weight of a portable.

2. It's feel substantive.  Despite the light weight of the iPad (1.5 lbs), it feels strong and substantive.  The metal housing is great to hold, touch and have in my hand; so much so I deliberately did not buy a "skin" for it so I could enjoy the tactile feel of holding and working with it.  It has the feel of those engineering HP calculators of years gone-by which made you feel you were holding something important vs. the cheap plastic versions.

3. It's snappy and fast.  The processor speed makes tooling around in the iPad really quick and fun.  There is a sense of instant gratification.  You never get that feeling of impatience in the actual iOS environment, unless you're on the internet, which is not a function of the iPad itself.

4. The screen resolution is amazing.  You do feel like you're holding a piece of glass.  You do feel like you have the internet in your hands.  The images and clarity are really vivid and sharp; feels like HD.  It's a joy to look at.

5. The size is right.  I have an iPhone, and it's great, but I don't think of it as a laptop.  I think of the iPad as a laptop b/c of it's screen size (9.7 in).  It really does feel like a laptop experience, not a phone experience.  I don't want the iPad to fit in my pocket.  I've got my iPhone for that. I want it to fit in my briefcase where I have to pull it out deliberately to do my work.

6. I'm reading a lot more.  By golly, the fusion of form and wireless convenience has moved me to a lot more reading.  I pull out my iPad to read regularly, and I'm reading more than I have done in years! I thought for sure I would not like an ebook format.   I guess because I can have multiple books on my tablet, and not have to lug around multiple physical books, something clicked by having a mini-library on the iPad.

7. Except for heavy content creation (sermons, powerpoints) which I do at my desk, the iPad does everything I want from a consumption standpoint - viewing emails, checking facebook, twitter, news, gaming (Scrabble, Boggle, Angry Birds).  It's instant-on feature is great.  No powering up.  Turn on the home screen and you're good to go.

8. The Apps are fantastic.  I now know why some people are alarmed that apps could drive people away from the internet.  A well written app beats the internet.  It's a "specialist" little piece of software that takes over the web function in the area of your choice and executes it much more efficiently.  E.g. Newspaper apps work much better than surfing their sites online.   Games as mentioned above are totally fun to play in digital forms. 

9. Pinch and expand works really well.  There is no lag time in resizing pages, text; it's instant, not like a new or re-rendering of the screen.  This is amazing.  Actually, the whole iOS environment works great.

10. Sharing sites, images, youtube videos, is easier and more intimate.  Sharing stuff on a laptop works for sure, but it doesn't seem quite as personal.  The iPad makes it more "communal," personal, and packs a "wow" when you look at stuff together with someone else.  It feels more like sharing a physical photo album.

11. Battery life is looonng lasting.  On my recent 12 hours trip overseas, I never ran out of charge, while reading two books, journaling, playing games and surfing the net.  Another great convenience factor.

12. It's an educational, productivity, social and spiritual resource tool.  This is the effect of what the iPad does for me taken in aggregate.  To have all these functions in one device is really nice.

A few caveats:  1) The on-screen keyboard is adequate, but not a killer feature.  For those needing to do lots of writing, this may be a downside although you can purchase a keyboard.   2) Safari, the surfing browser, doesn't allow for multiple tabs on the same screen, but forces you to have individual screens for every page.  This is a bit of a pain if you want to multi-task a lot, and toggle through screens; but it's livable. 3) There's no USB port for transfering data.  Again, the iOS is not an actual desktop environment, so you're a bit limited.  There are "cloud" workarounds, which work well, but not necessarily ideal.

So there you have it; 12 reasons I like/love the iPad, (and 3 reason i don't).  Oh, and and one more thing...."Thanks Mom for introducing me to the iPad!"  She was so excited about the usability of the iPad, she evangelized me to it and bought me one!  Long live Moms! 

It could be argued that a church lives or dies by the pulpit.  So crucial is preaching to the life and health of the church that the originals apostles deliberately chose NOT to engage in compassion ministry in order to focus on prayer & the ministry of the word (Acts 6:1-4).  This ministry of feeding and doctrine is indeed one of the highest calls a person could receive (Rom. 9:13-15).  Truly discerned, the call to be a voice for God, a carrier of his burdens in word and speech is a fearful thing.  Were it not for the grace of God, who could be up for such a task?

Of all the ministry responsibilities involved in leading a church, there is no other single activity I've been involved in that can induce such exhiliration or depression as preaching.  As we all know, public speaking is one of the greatest fears known to mankind.  Even more than death according to many surveys.

Prior to my ministry call, I was involved in lots of public speaking; presenting results, pitching for grants, and speaking to top brass for project approvals.  That kind of speaking was easy, in part because it's the transmission of information, versus speaking for life change.

Part of the tribulation in preaching is the acceptance / rejection dynamic one goes through as people listen to your messages.  Not unlike those who try out a new restaurant, there is a constant and instant evaluation of "the food served."  Was it good?  Was it good enough to come back?  Become a repeat customer?  Course if people return, that's exhilirating.  If they don't that's depressing.

But take away the human dynamic, human emotion part, and there is nothing like powerful, regular life-giving preaching.  It's so crucial for church plants.  Yea, heaven-sent preaching can plants churches overnight and cause it to grow exponentially in a very short time.  It encourages, lifts up, challenges, enlightens, informs, and moves people toward God.   Consistency in the preaching is part science, part art, part skill, and a big dose of dependance.

There are clear rules of communication that can be followed (and should be followed) to consistenly engage an audience.  There's no reason to reiterate them here with so many great resources out there, but to mention my top four communication convictions in passing:

1) Clarity - Take the complex and make it simple.  Make it clear.  This is easier said than done.  It takes a lot of work, study, meditation, to distill things down to their essential core.  But when the clarity comes, it allows you to preach with power and beauty.  Jesus was the master at this. 

2) Content - Feeding comes from a sense of gaining new insight, understanding, revelation.  Yes, there must be emotion in a message, but it must be commensurate to the content.  Again this requires, study, meditation and being taught of the Holy Spirit.  As it was said of Jesus when he was but 12 yrs of age, "Where did he get such understanding and answers - Lk 2:27). 

3) Flow - choppy preaching doesn't work.  The message needs to flow like a worship set.  There must be a sense of carry, ebb & flow, highs and lows that lifts and drops the hearers.  This makes for dynamic, compelling preaching.

4) Passion - In one sense, this is where clarity, content and flow converge.  But most importantly, passion must have the "x" factor in it, which for me is the most crucial part of preaching; the "X" factor being the anointing, the sense of burden & mission the preacher brings to the pulpit each time.  Does he feel the conviction of the message from God?  Does he feel the burden, the articulation, and even the gesticulation?  All the words can be smooth, but if there is no enduement from above, then there will be no transformation. 

Clearly, God chose the verbal-auditory mode as the prime means of communicating truth.  (Course, this does not mean we are to exclude other means of conveyance - e.g. video, object lessons, etc).   It is the means by which a person becomes saved.  It's the means by which a Christian is built up and the congregation is fed.  It's the means by which a church is mobilized toward a vision. 

The apostles placed prime significance on preaching because Jesus did.  A church's health, growth and vitality depends on it.  The hope of a city depends on the light coming from its pulpits.  Pray for us church planters.  Pray for us in the ministry of preaching.   It's the third key in establishing new churches.

(Previously: Perseverance: The first "P" of church planting.  Personnel: The second "P" of church planting.)