NeXt GeN LdRs @ CBS

Approximately 30 interested youth leaders gather from across Houston at the campus of the College of Biblical Studies. Brian & Kelly Gowan and Marcos Leon are spearheading a burgeoning initiative of Next Generation Leadership to encourage individuals seeking Community Transformation. Various principles such as Prayer, Service and Evangelism are at the core of suggested productive activities.

Three Billion Songs Strong

By Rob Griffiths (rgriffiths@macworld.com)

So the iTunes Store just sold its three billionth song. Wow. That's a lot of anything, regardless of what you're counting. (OK, if you're counting grains of sand on the coastline of the United States, perhaps it's not a lot.) But more interesting to me is the pace at which Apple reached its latest billion-song threshold. It took the company a little less than three years to sell the first billion iTunes downloads. Then it took less than a year to sell the second billion. Now, just over six months later, the store has passed the three-billion song mark.

Looking at it as precisely as possible, if we assume that the two and three billion song targets were hit the same day as the press releases went out (January 9, 2007, and July 31, 2007, respectively), that means it took 203 days to sell one billion songs. That means the Store had to average about 4,926,108 song purchases per day, or 205,255 per hour. Breaking it down even further, that's 3,421 songs sold per minute, or an astounding 57 songs sold every second for those 203 days!

If each song is an average of 5MB, then the Store's bandwidth usage -- just for songs, not counting movies, TV shows, games, podcasts, or any other non-song-related Store item -- is a staggering 1,002GB per hour. That's nearly a terabyte of data transfer per hour, every hour, for those 203 days. Think about paying that bill from your ISP! "Yes, I'd like to know the cost of your 720TB per month data transfer plan, please."

Clearly the rate of sales can't continue to double every time the next billion song mark is reached, but Tuesday's announcement makes it clear that the iTunes Store hasn't yet reached a point where the growth rate is slowing. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for the next billion; the acceleration curve on the first three would point to something like three months from now, but that seems almost too fast to me. What do you think? Where is the iTunes Store on the unit sales curve? Will things continue to accelerate, or is six months as quickly as we'll see a billion songs sold?

Get all the latest iTunes and iPod news at The iPod Blog.

Broken Walls: Purify Us

Get this music from Broken Walls.

Jonathan Maracle's dad has a rich heritage in the Assemblies of God. His presentations of worship in the context of First Nations people is inspiring and healing to me.

Broken Walls' music is available on several sites.

Come Together. John 17:20-23

So, what has been the impact or reaction to See You At The Pole over the last 17 years where you are? My children are out of public school now, and I have a conference that day (September 26, 2007 7:00am), but I wondered how many community people are supporting this VERY PUBLIC demonstration of PRAYER. (57 days to go)

[ Stylized veteran youth-worker cartoon courtesy of http://simpsonizeme.com ]

Cute Babies!

Looking at Guy Kawasaki's blog, I saw this demo link for SlideShare. What I like most is the WAY COOL song!



Q: Which is your favorite part of the slideshow? (I like slide 3 - pum-i-umi-umpkin)

What Do European Christians Give Up of Their Culture(s)?

“What can Europeans not bring with them into their new life in Christ?” I naively asked a group of Euro-North American Christians. The accompanying silence spoke volumes—there would seem to be little that North American Christians of European origin scrutinize carefully in their culture today (vices excepted).

click here to download the whole document.
The author is Mi'kmaq/Acadian and based outside Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

The Gospel According to Starbucks

Interview

The Gospel According to Starbucks

By Chris Carpenter
CBN.com Program Director

CBN.com - For coffee drinkers, there is nothing quite like wrapping your hands around a steamy, aromatic cup of your favorite blend first thing in the morning. You cherish the quiet surge of happiness you feel as the richly dark hues in your mug fade to a robust tan upon adding cream.
(...)
Noted theologian Leonard Sweet believes the Church can learn a great deal from Starbucks. In his latest book, “The Gospel According to Starbucks” (WaterBrook Press), Sweet argues that many Christians completely miss the warmth and richness of the experience of living with God due to a Church’s failure to attract and engage people in meaningful ways.
(READ MORE HERE...)

Me and My Gun!

Me and My Gun.
Current mood: contemplative
Category: Life

If you visit Chris Brooks' blog, he has another question that I reflected on. Visit his page to get the full list of responses: Me and My Gun.

Let me wax a little Patriotic.
Isn't it wonderful that we still have the 'right' to bear arms? My only concern is that most people have the wrong perspective on a correct use of a firearm. Growing up in the 'Country' (say it with a twang), we may have... (READ MORE)

Introspection: Tammy Faye

My wife and I listened to Larry King interview 'Tammy Faye' of PTL/Heritage USA fame the other night. Generally speaking, major media outlets or spokespersons are not kind or gentle to proponents of Christianity. I was struck by the type of "leading questions" that Larry King was asking. It was almost as if he wanted to give Tammy an opportunity to give her testimony - and she did!! Even with a sense of humor. When asked what she wanted to be remembered by, she said "My eyelashes!", then after gently laughing at herself she corrected her statement and said something like, "My Faith in God!" Every phrase that she uttered was a struggle, but she did so courageously. The inoperable cancer had spread into her lungs. Her statement was that she was in pain at every moment of the day.

Did you hear the news? Tammy Faye is now at rest from all physical pain. She passed into eternity today.

I have no argument about whether or not God is Faithful to His promise. I am only examining my resolve to be faithful to Him. Are my struggles enough to convince me to abandon my trust in his provision? Well, if you don't know me yet - in a word, NOPE!

I may not ever have to endure what others have gone through before me in their commitment to Christ. My constant tinges of muscle, joint and ear pain are simply reminders of mortality. I too look forward to being 'released from these mortal coils.'

Q: What side of the proverbial argument are you on? Is it better to be "absent from the body and be present with the Lord?" or are you driven to "Work while it is yet day for the night is coming when no one can work?"

Grandpa Menchaca turns 99

Grandpa Menchaca turns 99
Originally uploaded by rmaxtorres.

the Menchaca Family rallied around Granpa for his 99th cumpleaños. My suegra also celebrates her birthday, but its more like 15 years. Lisa's twins also have the same birthday (July 16, 2007).

Thanks God for giving us Grandpa! (Pictures here)