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Back and Energized
By Martin Spriggs:Bio on August 5, 2008
It’s been a while since I’ve offered a blog post here…in a way a summer vacation, but I’m back and energized. While it’s been pretty silent from the Technology Office this summer, that doesn’t mean things aren’t happening. In fact, the opposite is true. Over the past couple months I had the privilege of attending a number of conferences and conventions. Two of note were the Michigan district convention in Saginaw, and the other was the WELS National Worship conference. Both were energizing experiences. In Saginaw, MI we were live web streaming the events of the conference. This was done as a kind of “preview” for next summer’s Synod convention which will be held at the same venue. It was wonderful to see our MI brothers consider synod related initiatives and offer their feedback. Another example of what a blessing it is to be part of WELS. People from all across the country taking an interest in what we do together as a synod.
Just this past week I was able to attend my first Worship Conference in St. Peter, MN. Awesome! The music, the worship. We were able to tape most of the worship services and a number of the workshops. I hope we can make some of those available on Streams for more people to enjoy. If you have not attended a Worship Conference before, it’s worth the week spent, even if you aren’t a worship leader, musician or choir director.
Now that I’m back blogging again, here are some of the things you can expect to be reading about in the coming weeks: 1) Our work on a newly redesigned WELS.net website, 2) The rollout of Connect, our new Synod-wide internal intranet site for called workers and other WELS members involved in leadership or ministry, 3) Improvements we are making to improve the security of our/your synod data, and 4) Video Conferencing solutions in our World Mission fields. Stay tuned.
Topics: SYNOD LEADERS, Technology
August 8th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Thanks for all your work at the worship conference! I often saw the Technology team at services and workshops, and based on the amount of gear that you needed to set up at each location, I know that was a lot of work! But well worth it. I look forward to seeing some of the excellent workshops that I wasn’t able to get to, and to sharing the edifying and inspiring services with people of our congregations. Thanks again!
August 11th, 2008 at 7:49 am
Jon, it was a lot of work, but a lot of fun at the same time. We have some very talented people within our Synod.
At this point I’m not sure of what will be done with the video we took. Bryan Gerlach, our Adminstrator for Worship will need to determine how they are used. I know there would be some copyright issues with the worship services themselves, but the workshops might be something that could be shared.
Martin