I laid down some guitar tracks of Amazing Grace… a blues rendition of the song.
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I just put down some tracks of a song I wrote for my daughter Abby when she was born. She recently turned ten. This is for you Abby…and it’s long over due. Happy Birthday. Read more...
Thanks to the inspiration of a dear friend, I have started to get back into music again. More about him in a future post. This is a little play on the great worship song by Rick Founds entitled Lord I Lift Your Name On High. All credits goes the Mr. Founds for this great song. Another dear friend, Tony Williams and I worked up this arrangement for worship at the Bronzeville Bible Study in Chicago, IL. It is one of my favorite songs to play. Thank you Tony…I hope this brings back some great memories for you….
I thought that, by now, the concept of using volunteers in the Information Technology (I.T.) areas of the church would be irrelevant. I am encouraged to hear an increasing amount of stories where churches trust some of their most critical I.T. operations to volunteers. However, many church leaders still struggle with this concept so I thought that I would address a couple issues that I have experienced over the years and “volunteer” some principles that have helped me gain a measure of success helping volunteers use their technical gifts and skills in the church. Read more...
April 23, 2011 – 10:36 am
I had a conversation with a dear friend the other day. It was one of those “iron sharpens iron” conversations about God. Every time my friend and I have one of these conversations I leave challenged. I consider my friend to be a man of great integrity and faith…so when he shares his convictions about God, God’s Church and God’s Word, I listen. I would also add that my friend is a man who does not care for the spotlight. That said, out of respect for him, I will not be mentioning his name in this post. Read more...
Pat Gilbert preceded me as Director of Information Systems at Willow Creek Community Church. I am extremely thankful for the opportunities that she gave me to grow as a leader. I do not believe that I would have had the opportunity to lead and manage the Information Technology ministry at Willow Creek if it were not for her willingness to take risks on my growth. I know that my energy and propensity toward action can be a handful to manage. However, Pat’s experience, wisdom and patience with me over the years that she lead and mentored me has had a profound and positive impact on my character as a leader, as a professional and as a follower of Christ. Furthermore, I don’t think that I have appropriately expressed my gratitude to her for her investment in me…that is…until today. This Post is dedicated to you, Pat Gilbert. Thanks for taking chances on me. Read more...
February 26, 2011 – 10:03 am
For the past couple months now the topic of Grace has been on the forefront of my mind. This is definitely a subject that demands much thought and consideration. I am sure that my little exploration into the topic will yield feeble results. I am not being overly hard on myself. Like many over the centuries, I have cheapened and taken this word for granted. Around two thousand years ago now a guy name Paul wrote about grace in a letter to the church in Rome. In his letter he wrote…. Read more...
February 1, 2011 – 9:10 am
From the day he lead me to Christ during a weekend church service to the day I accepted a new calling to step out in faith and leave Willow Creek staff, his influence on me as a pastor, leader, mentor and friend has played a major roll in my development as a follower of Christ and as a leader. Like many who have served under his leadership, I would have to say that Bill is not a perfect person. He has made mistakes in many aspects of his leadership over the years. He can also be an incredibly difficult person to work for, with what would seem like impossible standards to attain. Read more...
January 24, 2011 – 9:00 am
Back in 2005 I went on a Journey called the Justice Journey. I am not going to go into the details of the Journey here. I wrote a little about the Journey itself in the following link. http://www.mikegold.org/2009/05/justice-its-personal. However, it is safe to say that the Journey changed the lives of many of us who experienced it forever. For this post however, I would like to focus my attention on a dear friend I met on the Journey and how God used his influence to change my life. This friend’s name is Reverend Mike Neal. Mike and his beautiful family live in the Bronzeville Neighborhood of Chicago where Mike is currently pastor of the Glorious Light Church. Today happens to be Mike’s birthday. I thought that it would be very appropriate to share the top 5 things I learned from him as a token of my appreciation of him and in celebration of all the blessings he shares with so many… Read more...
January 17, 2011 – 10:56 pm
As Martin Luther King Jr’s. Day, 2011 comes to an end, and as I reflect on what this day means, I don’t think I have the intelligence, the insight or the experience to comment on this great hero of mine. I definitely don’t have the credibility to comment on the era of history in which he lead. Read more...
