church

CES: Christian gaming site offers morality scores

As the doors to CES swung open, I rushed in looking for a technology that would save me, hopefully, from myself.

I thought I had found it within seconds.

For there was a large image of Jesus Christ who looked like he was gaming. I pushed past the peddlers and the half-naked dancing girls and headed straight to GameChurch.com's booth.

GameChurch's Doug Christensen was quick to anoint me with his pitch. He explained that GameChurch was a place for Christian gamers to get together and be themselves. Then he told me that the site reviews games and … Read more

iPad band gives new birth to Xmas carols

Why should you have to tolerate people with strange eyebrows, woolly hats, and shaving problems turning up at your door and singing badly this Christmas?

Especially when you can enjoy the full power of festive composition brought to you by nice men with iPads, a couple of iPhones, and fingers as dexterous as those of the national knitting champion?

Please welcome the Northpoint Community Church iBand. In a year or two, all rocks bands will look like this. But, for now, with your festive proclivities leaning you towards your relaxed side, please bathe in the band's unique exposition of … Read more

The 404 574: Where we're wasting away in Margaritaville (podcast)

Our third host, Jeff Bakalar, doesn't get sick very often, but when it pains, it roars. The last two days have been rough (no offense to Wilson), but we can all breathe easier now that his 10 arms are back running the engineering board just in time for Cinco de Mayo! Unfortunately, we ran out of margarita mix awhile ago, but will you settle for a Jimmy Buffet reference with an extra-funny episode of The 404 Podcast on the side? It's all we got!

My iPhone mysteriously broke last weekend and I thought I was doomed to suffer this ultra-budget Samsung flip phone for the next few months until Wilson referred me to New York's own iPhone repair specialist, Dr. Brendan (not a certified doctor).

Yesterday I took my phone to the clinic (Brendan's apartment) and left fifteen minutes later with a brand new display! Best 75 bones I've ever spent, if you don't count that place where I put that thing that time. Dr. Brendan fixes all sorts of Apple products and we plan to have him and his partner on the show in the near future, but in the meantime check out his Facebook page and tell him The 404 sent you!

Nerds across the world love to celebrate International Free Comic Day, but a greedy thief in Australia dipped his fingers in the wrong honeypot last Saturday. Forty-five-year old store owner Michael Baulderstone spotted a man trying to steal a collector's X-Men comic from his store that was worth $160; luckily, he was wearing a Spiderman costume to celebrate the event and cornered the criminal while signaling to two Jedi Knights (also shopping for comics) to guard the door with their lightsabers until the police arrived.

Silly Padawans: colored plastic flashlights are for kids...and air traffic controllers. Anyway, if the perp had any common sense he would've just shouted a George Lucas sighting at the Popeye's Chicken next door and made his escape.

There are a few more stories to cover on the show today including a Catholic Church turning to Facebook to recruit new priests and a collection of Calls From the Public from last week--who doesn't love leftovers?

EPISODE 574 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video

Priest introduces fingerprint check for kids at Mass

There are those who believe that enterprise has no place in religion. They are, however, very few in number.

Churches must use every commercial means available to attract devotees, be it advertising, be it incentivizing, or be it the latest in electronic surveillance.

So may I indulge you in the story of Father Gregorz Sowa, a priest in the southwestern Polish town of Gryfow Slaski.

This is not a big place (just over 7,000 inhabitants) and no one terribly famous has ever come out of there to impact the world. However, it is a place, like so many in … Read more

Buzz Out Loud Podcast 1150: Up the creek without a Bible

The FCC is coming for the schools and churches just like that crazy guy on the corner told you! On June 12, it'll require anybody using a wireless microphone that operators in the 700 MHZ spectrum to stop using that mic. That's right. The purge is coming! For microphones!. Actually, it'll affect Broadway shows, too. Will the FCC be able to round up the ne'er-do-wells? Will Google ruin U.S.-China relations? Well, that's another story. Literally.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 1150 … Read more

Technology and the megachurch

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.--If you're in charge of what is thought to be one of the most powerful, influential and important megachurches in the United States, if not the world, how do you make sure that your message is reaching the largest possible audience?

To Brady Boyd, the lead pastor at the New Life Church here, the famous, 10,000-plus member nondenominational church that's directly across Interstate 25 from the Air Force Academy, the answer is technology.

It's not that the New Life Church is light years ahead of anyone else--in fact, it may well even be … Read more

Church service organizer

Worship Assistant provides users with a great tool for organizing church services. From song selection to the people helping, this program makes organizing the various pieces of a worship service simple.

The program's interface may be a little overwhelming to novice computer users; however, those with a little experience will find managing the various screens and fillable fields simple. For those with questions, a great Help file will guide you through the process of organizing a worship service. The program consists of four managers, which are individual screens to help organize worship. Worship Songs manager compiles a printable list … Read more

Wikipedia excommunicates Church of Scientology

I believe the world doesn't give us enough to believe in.

So we should look to any possible source of guidance to help us through the messy morass of life.

If Wikipedia does it for you, lovely. If the Church of Scientology is your preference, lovely too.

But it seems these two sources are in something of a credibility saber fight, one in which Wikipedia has dealt the church a wounding swipe.

In a decision that will concern some in Los Angeles, the online encyclopedia has decided to ban all changes to the site made by IP addresses owned … Read more

New York church brings Good Friday to Twitter

In observance of Good Friday, a New York church has been Twittering the story of the Passion--the biblical tale of the hours leading up to Jesus' crucifixion. This means that subscribers will receive 140-character updates coming from a set of Twitter accounts run by people playing characters in the story.

Trinity Wall Street is an Episcopal church in Manhattan's Financial District that live-streams its services on the Web, encourages members of the congregation to send video e-postcards to friends and family, and produces its own podcasts. The church's thinking behind offering a Twitter feed of the Passion … Read more

Archbishop: Give up texting, Facebook, iPhones and computer games

When your town is home to Ferrari and Maserati (oh, and Lamborghini has a factory there too), perhaps you might not be in the most comfortable position to suggest people swear off their technological toys.

Unless you're Monsignor Benito Cocchi, the Archbishop of Modena, Italy. Monsignor Cocchi has got together with other Italian archbishops to suggest that believers give up texting, Facebook, iPhones and computer games.

Oh, this isn't just on Fridays during Lent. No, he wants his flock to give up these heinous gizmos for as many days as possibly until the Second Coming. (No, not the … Read more