Want good media…? Please pay for it!

One of the broader aspects of my role as an Assistant Pastor is to serve our church and the wider church by planning and leading a few larger-scale Christian conferences, youth events and training days. At one such Christian event recently, I was approached by a number of youth workers who were asking me about a video that we had used in one of the main sessions. In particular, this person wanted to know where I had got the video from, so that they could use it in their youth group. When I explained that we had bought the video from worshiphousemedia.com for $19 (£12), their faces often fell. “So it’s not on YouTube, then?” was the normal the reply. Some even asked me to email it to them anyway. While I sympathise with the mindset of resourcing free or cheap media for use in churches and their ministries, it is a mindset that is at best unhelpful and at worst illegal.

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Grand Theft Auto V

Grand Theft Auto V

According to one newspaper I read recently, businesses in the capital were due to take a hit of multiples of millions of pounds on the morning of 17 September 2013. Why? All because of the release of a new video game: Grand Theft Auto V.

Aside from the financial cost of ‘GTA Flu‘ (as an expected 19% of working men take a day’s sick leave to play the game), there is something else about GTA5 which bothers me. As you search through news reports, blog posts and the assorted media hype over the game, people seem to be asking every question about GTA5 apart from one…

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