Lifestraw

On Christmas Eve, as has been our tradition here at Westwinds, we gave a special offering dedicated to impacting our world in a significant way by adopting a specific cause. This year, we chose to raise money to purchase LifeStraws®.

Clean water initiatives have been a passion at the Winds for the last four years ever since we went through a series on the elements. Roughly 6,000 people—mainly children, die every single freaking day because they don’t have access to safe drinking water. Crazy. That’s like 16 747’s going down every day. Or, the equivalent of two 9/11 attacks a day. Sick and wrong.

I am so happy we will be able to purchase over 1,600 straws with the offering.

LifeStraw® was listed as “one of the ten things that will change the way we live” by Forbes Magazine. These straws are simply stuck into yucky water and people can drink through them and get the same quality water as per EPA guidelines for microbiological water purifiers! One straw lasts quite some time allowing 18,000 liters of water to be purified.

One of my favorite musicians, Peter Gabriel is a big proponent of the cause and I am excited an influential and creative musician is giving this a platform.

Westwinds has not seen the end of LifeStraw® offerings. Many at the Winds are talking about their businesses partnering with the church to match contributions.

The most touching story I heard this week—and in a long time—is the story of one young boy in our church who made LifeStraw® his birthday wish. This 9-year-old boy called me on the phone a few days ago to tell me he saved all his birthday money in December and wanted to by LifeStraws®. I teared up on the phone as this young man told me he was giving $200.00 towards the cause. He delivered the money to me this weekend. I love it when our kids teach us how to be Jesus and teach us about sacrifice. His contribution adds nearly 70 straws to the initial offering.

Check the site out. Consider what you might do.

Relationship/Causemology/Twitter oh, my!

Recently, we talked with Erin Kreger, who has quickly become one of my favorite people in the world along with her husband, Jay. We asked Erin to share what God has been doing in her life, what Westwinds means to her, how she has changed as a result of Westwinds and Westwinds'relationships, etc.

This interview was also very interesting to me because of what Erin says about Twitter and the impact it has had on her. For those of you who have wondered about the "rubber meets the road" stuff with our Twitter experiments and use of Twitter around Westwinds, watch this video!



Erin and Jay have been at Westwinds less than a year. They immediately jumped in to Causemology--which is Westwinds' life navigation portal and catalyst for missional engagement. They are serving in the areas of TechMedia and Facilities. They jumped in with both feet at Westwinds with a desire to know God better and be in community.

Honestly, we could not have paid an actor to do a better job at this faith story. We love you, Erin. Glad you are part of Westwinds.

P.S. We are showing this video in Fusion this weekend. If you are a pastor/worship leader/programming person/ etc. and you are not collecting and sharing these kinds of stories with your church you are missing out on some very cool stuff. This interview took little time to record, little time to edit, little time to upload, and the payoff is huge. People love to watch a fire burn. Erin's story is encouraging to me.

This post can also be found over at Watercooler Wednesday where really neat people share a bunch of cool stuff. Check it out!

Collide Magazine--a Breath of Fresh Air

Last night, the Elders of Westwinds asked me what magazines I read that are specifically geared toward the church. They know I read countless magazines including Rolling Stone, WIRED, Communication Arts, Paste, and Entertainment Weekly to name a few but . . .

Church mags? Hmmm. There aren’t many that turn my crank.

I pay for two subscriptions. I have received a few subscriptions as gifts. I read a few online.

Online, I read The Wittenburg Door. I used to subscribe to The Door when they still mailed it to you. I really miss the hard copy but when I need my dose of satire nothing surpasses The Door—in any form.

My two paid subscriptions are to Relevant and Collide.

Collide—Where Media and Church Converge is the latest magazine I subscribed to. So far, I’m pleased. From spots reviewing indie films to conversation about web apps and “Technology and the Virtual Church,” Collide—a relatively new publication—is scratching an itch that no other magazine geared towards the church is.

The May/June issue has a special little treat.

There is a two page spotlight article on Westwinds and an interview with yours truly.

They did a great job. If you have ever been misquoted in a publication, you know the fear you first have when you first look at an article. Collide did a wonderful job.

Collide gave me permission to reprint some of the article here on Vertizontal. I will give you their introduction and encourage you to subscribe.

Church Spotlight
Westwinds Community Church
Jackson, MI

Jackson, Michigan is home to more than 30,000 residents, something called the Hot Air Jubilee, and Westwinds Community Church. Though Westwinds is far from being a mega-church, the church’s use of media and technology is prolific. A visit to westwinds.org reveals a site that is more than aesthetically pleasing; the site provides access to a robust media library, the personal blogs of the church’s leadership, the church’s web-facilitated spiritual development program (Causemology), and more. We talked with John Voelz about Westwinds’ passion for connecting its community with Christ through creativity.

Collide interviewed me about the personality of the church, my role on staff, how we incorporate media and technology in our services, why we do what we do with technology, and Causemology.

Check Collide out on the web!