Over the past year I’ve been busily snapping away on my stimulus-package-supported Canon EOS 450 Enthusiast Kit.

I’ve compiled a collection of my favourite photos for you to enjoy.

Since Steve White inspired me to shoot RAW in October, I’ve been having a ball in the post-processing of the images.

Hopefully 2010 will bring more opportunities to release my shutter!

To view the album, click on the ‘Photos’ tab, or go to http://jodiemcneill.com/photos/?shashin_album_key=1 , or if you’re a FaceBook friend you can view it on my Photos page.

It’s been nearly three years since I updated my installation of WordPress from 2.0.5 to the latest 2.9 release, and it’s only months away from the ten-year anniversary of jodiemcneill.com.

However, with this major update to the core ‘engine’ of my website, it was necessary for me to change the appearance of the website, given the fact that the template I previously used was not compatible with some of the features of the latest version of WordPress.

So, one thing led to another, and the result is that many new features have been added, plus some nice improvements in appearance and functionality.

For those who get excited about these kinds of things, here are some of the changes:

• Added an RSS feed of my weekly ‘Modern Ministry’ blog at sydneyanglicans.net in the sidebar
• Added a funky Flash word cloud of my popular categories
• Installed a new Twitter widget that displays my latest Tweets
• Re-organised my categories into ten top-level categories
• Removed the event calendar
• Added a large option of icons to enable the easy sharing of my posts with social networking sites
• Updated my list of links, including an ‘Affiliations’ list
• Created a Picasa account, and have provided access to my albums from the ‘Photos’ page (and a fancy ‘Latest Photos’ sidebar widget)
• Enabled automatic tweeting of new posts

If you’re reading this on a FaceBook note or by an RSS feed, then drop by jodiemcneill.com and check it out.

What do you think of the changes? Any other suggestions for improvements? Let me know in the comments.

One particular area in which we see his creativity is in music. Music has the power to move people in a way that words fail to achieve. It can lift us to new heights, and take us on a journey to places unexpected.

At the 2004 TWIST Music Conference, Mike Raiter spoke of the power of the song. In referring to the wonderful Colin Buchanan concert the night before, he said that because of his gift of music, Colin could have taken our crowd anywhere. “But”, he observed, “aren’t we thankful that he took us to God!”

We know the power of music. We use it every week to proclaim God’s praises. Yet, we want to make sure we use this powerful tool to achieve the best possible outcomes.

That’s why it’s important our musicians are well trained. That’s why the TWIST Music Conference is such an important event for our musicians.

Registrations close Monday night, and the conference begins the Saturday after. Don’t miss out on stimulating teaching from Mike Raiter, terrific congregational music from some of Australia’s most gifted musos, and invaluable hands-on training in many great workshops.

Full details at www.twist.org.au. Don’t miss out!

Here’s an excerpt:

Now I recognise that speaking this way does little to give me youth ministry street-cred (or whatever it’s called these days). I am at great risk of being labelled out-of-touch, over-the-hill, geriatric, or whatever term of endearment the younger folk might care to give me. But I wonder whether or not there are certain tempos and vocal styles that are incompatible with congregational singing, even for a group of people who are regular listeners of heavy metal?

It is true that this will be popular for consumers. I, for one, hate being locked into one format for my downloadable songs. I worry that by buying a U2 song from iTunes that I’ll never be able to play my full collection of music on Windows Media Player, should I decide to churn players. I also worry that the resolution is too low on the downloadable songs, and would instead prefer a CD. This new move from EMI solves both problems, as the new downloads will be at double the current quality.

However, is the move to remove protection based on an optimistic view of society? Does it assume that people are generally good? Does it presume that people will not illegally copy music and give it to others? The problem for the record companies is that CDs already are unprotected, and this practice already goes on everywhere in brazen disobedience to the law. So, my guess is that this move recognises that people will continue to copy music no matter what ‘protection’ they provide. So, rather than try and restrict people from breaking the law, they will need to try a different approach.

Some copying of music is legitimate, for example, for personal backups of the media. Removing this restriction will mean the honest people will gain freedoms. Yet, it will also mean that the already rife practice of illegally distributing material will continue, since the bad guys will always work out a way to copy things.

I think it’s a very clever move from Steve Jobs from Apple, and also from EMI. It rewards honest customers, provides an incentive to buy from iTunes (the higher resolution) and gives up trying to restrict the lawbreakers. It is a mixture of a retrieval ethic (seeking the most loving outcome within the environment of an evil world) and clever marketing.

On the evening of the 4th March, Sydney copped a pounding from a sustained lightning attack.

Due to a scene reminiscent of ‘These are a few of my favourite things’ from the Sound of Music, I (and my family) were unable to sleep through the noise and light.

So, I grabbed my camera and tripod, and took several shots using a long exposure and a repeated auto-timer. This shot was the brightest, and demonstrates the intensity of the attack. This was taken from our home in Sylvania Heights, looking West towards Oyster Bay and beyond.

She’s going to chat with me specifically about the TWIST Music Conference in August, and the DVD we made from last year.

If you haven’t seen the DVD, here’s a sneak peak of the song ‘Never Alone’:

Buy the full DVD at www.twistconference.com. 

Check here after the interview for an update on how it went.

[PS. Sorry if you tuned in two Mondays ago and didn't hear me... the original interview was delayed.  But fingers crossed for Monday!]

It brings memories back to me of an amazing night… an amazing experience! I’ve been a crazy U2 fan since my mate Dave Maegraith dragged me along to the movies to see ‘Rattle and Hum’ in 1988. I saw them live in the ‘Love comes to Town’ tour that followed in 1989.

Without taking anything away from the talent of Bono, The Edge, Larry and Adam, it reminds me that the euphoria many people experience in religious contexts is not necessarily of divine origin. I’m not ruling it out, but I’m not saying that a powerful sense of emotion is guaranteed to be from God. I felt amazing that night in Nov 11, but it was from U2, not God. Although, God certainly did create Bono’s amazing voice and The Edge’s incredible guitar interpretation, and the driving bass of Adam, and the solid and powerful drums of Larry.

What a night! What a single. Grab it for yourselves from iTunes. And listen out for the tribute to Cate Blanchett… and the amazing digeridoo in the background…

Jodie has had a great year at work, launching and leading the new Youthworks ‘Year 13’ program. He keeps wishing it was around when he was 18, so that he could’ve avoided making his mistakes as a very young adult. He also keeps training people in youth ministry, organising the TWIST conference, and doing youth ministry and music at our church at Sylvania Anglican.  And last, but certainly not least, he loves relaxing with family and friends, usually with coffee in hand!

Mandy has been a busy mum, running a household of  three kids plus Hugo, our newborn (13 May 06.) She leads the ‘WOW’ (Women on Wednesday’) Bible study, and co-leads the youth with Jodie. As ‘Chief of Staff’ in the McNeill household, she continues to avidly watch ‘The West Wing’ for tips on how to keep the President in line.

Liana (9 in January) has entered the ‘Tweens,’ and seems only days away from adolescence. She loves to sing, dance and talk (frequently all at once) and would love a pony if she could somehow sneak one into her bedroom.

Jemimah (8 in February) is loving school, and continues to keep up with her older sister in many ways. She shares the family love of music, but has developed an uncharacteristic love of maths (drawing upon talents previously undiscovered in our DNA.)

Oscar (4 in January) loves anything with wheels. He plays with his cars 24/7, and only pauses when he stops to watch his favourite DVD…yes, ‘Cars!’ He loves preschool and continues to be a testament to the difference testosterone makes in a growing child.

Hugo (8 months) is a ‘mini-me’ version of Jodie…permanent smile, blonde hair, and an attention span that should keep the makers of Ritalin in business for years. Despite a few respiratory illnesses, he keeps smiling, and smiling…

2006 has been a great year for the McNeills. We have settled in well to our new house in Sylvania (yes, ‘The Shire!’) and are continuing to love our church, job, and spending time with our friends and family, both new and old. We are thankful to God for our health, and for the ways in which he keeps sustaining us through the normal ups and downs of life. Overall, it has been a full-on year, with a new house, child, and job responsibilities for Jodie, which has made us feel a bit too frantic at times. But we look forward the opportunity to consolidate our roles and responsibilities in 2007 (i.e. less changes… yeah, right!)

To God be the glory!

We spent the first four days at Canberra, doing every tourist ‘thing’ we could fit in to our schedule: Parliament House, Questacon, National Museum, Telstra Tower, Australian Institute of Sport, Cockington Gardens, Planetarium, and more! It was great to get ‘distracted’ by the destination!

The remaining ten days were spent at Callala Beach, on Jervis Bay, near Nowra. Lots of time doing very little. In fact, the most ‘productive’ activity was sorting 5,000 digital photos on my hard disk, and culling it down to 2,000. From that, we selected 300 which we then printed on paper. Quite an effort–especially considering I tweaked all the photos in Photoshop first (levels, dodge and burn, and even some desaturations into B&W).

I returned to face 400 emails, but got them down to 100 quickly. Spent a day answering them, and now I’m back on track, but feeling a bit exhausted. Maybe it’s time for another holiday…!