Dan Dick reviews George Hunter’s book,The Recovery of a Contagious Methodist Movement (Amazon affiliate link), giving it very high marks. I haven’t had the chance (or the money) to check out the “recommended” books for this year’s General Conference, but it sounds like this is one to get.
Lifehacker: Get Your Bike in Shape for Spring. I splurged for a real tune-up at a local bike shop just because it has been 15 years since any professional has touched it, but this guide will be a helpful place to start for basic maintenance.
Jeremy Smith: No Southern Church Left Behind interesting analysis of the potential geographic bias that surrounds the support of Call to Action in the United Methodist Church.
Fred Clark: Friday the 13th – A Ghost Story. Oh, how I wish this were true, the idea of the ghost of Frederick Douglas haunting racists, preaching, and kicking butt is an awesome movie begging to be made.
When I worked overnights as a radio DJ, I could pretty easily get lost in just studying the weather radar feed, especially when I storm was coming in. This real time wind map feeds that same weather nerdiness.
The New Red Scare: Why Muslims Aren’t Republican Anymore. Fascinating article that talks about how in the 2000 Presidential Election 78% of Muslims supported Republicans because of their emphasis on moral values, fiscal conservatism, and “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” mentality, but since then support has dropped to 11%. In order to satisfy one political base they’ve alienated another who were sympathetic to their basic values.
The Atlantic: How Copyright Makes Books Disappear. Here’s where intellectual property law is “broken”- it creates an undeniable gap in access to creative work. Want to find a new book originally published before 1910 – no problem. Want to find a new book originally published between 1920 and 1980 – good luck.
Donald Miller is working on a series of podcasts with Chase Reeves that look interesting. Information about the the podcasts can be found here.
Andrew Conrad asks an important question about clergy friendships with congregants. The comments are good there, as well. It’s a complex issue, because it gets into areas of professionalism and boundaries, but also into the very nature of what it means to be in pastoral ministry. It is easy to make bad analogies – I don’t expect to be friends with my lawyer, doctor, or mechanic, or therapist but (hopefully) pastoral ministry is something more than that; it is more intimate, more personal, and clergy should be able to be more fully themselves. At the same time, developing friendships has the potential to disrupt the nature of the work when a professional role needs to be asserted, can create at least the appearance of playing “favorites” with congregants (leading the jealousy, etc.), and impact the itinerant nature of pastoral ministry in the United Methodist Church. I think it can be done, it just has to be carefully navigated; but this complexity is also a cause for supporting greater clergy-to-clergy interactions, relationships and friendships – so that needed network of support can happen in other systems; this is why I love things like Clergy Family Camp.
Speaking of friends from Clergy Family Camp – powerful poem from my friend, Jeff Nelson: Thanksgiving Ride.
Another friend, Bri Desotel, posted a great sermon on the Trinity. One of my favorite bits: “See, whenever you think you’ve got the Trinity figured out,
you need to stop and be very careful…
because, chances are, you just became a heretic.
Whenever God makes sense, then we’ve made God far too small.”
One more friend, from my days in the Wesley Foundation, Amy Valdez Baker provides a helpful analysis around the “vital congregation” discussion surrounding the UMC.
Really interesting post from Taylor Burton-Edwards on Ordination, Orders and Rule of Life – I think it was a couple years ago I was wondering to myself how monastic orders and rules might translate into the United Methodist Order of Elders as a way of developing identity, support and accountability. Burton-Edwards really develops this idea well beyond my initial questioning.
David Fitch – STOP FUNDING CHURCH PLANTS, Start Funding Missionaries. This would require a major shift in thinking for United Methodists, but I think there are some really good points in there. I’ve wondered about how bi-vocational pastoral ministry might work before, and I think Fitch’s post is part of the answer.
Prince won’t record new music until internet piracy is under control. So in other words, Prince is done making music. While I understand the desire for greater copyright protection and how Prince might wish it was 1984 again, the reality is the world has changed. The system that helped make Prince famous – massive record labels, top-40 radio, and the youth culture hegemon of MTV – are no longer in place to help guarantee success, but the trade-off of financial guarantees is the very thing Prince said he wanted throughout the 1990s – creative control.
Prince now has the power to make any kind of music he wants, and he can distribute it, globally, without any kind of middle man to get in the way of how he might want to market it. Plus he is still in a far better position to do it than most artists still trying to make a living today – he still has name recognition AND the resources to create something people might be interested in. Yes, it means more work, with potentially greater risk, and lower returns, but if he is really interested in “the art” of music I’m sure he would still have enough of an audience wiling to pay that he could keep doing his thing.
The real problem, I suspect, isn’t that people aren’t stealing his music, but that no one really cares about his music anymore. He hasn’t made anything that connects with a wide audience and gets people excited. I’m sure that’s frustrating for him, but instead of being frustrated he has a choice – keep making music for that small group of fans that will always support him, or do something so good that it connects with a wide audience again. Until last Sunday I’d found myself feeling pretty burnt out around the music of U2 – I hadn’t bought the last couple of albums, and wasn’t really even listening to the old stuff anymore. Then I had a chance to see them live and they got me excited again. They knew how to play to the crowd, they kept their focus on their older music, slipping in only a couple of their more recent songs, but in was enough to get me interested in checking out those newer albums. I think there are still a significant number of people who would be interested in something new from Prince, he just has to connect with them and give them a reason to care. (Really I was thinking about Prince and changes in the music industry, but there is probably a lesson for the church somewhere in there as well).
Actually, Prince, should just check out this video with Seth Godin and Michael Hyatt, which pretty much explains what I was trying to say – the quote Seth Godin refers to “The enemy is not piracy, it’s obscurity” really says it all:
From BikeHacks – How to Upholster your Bike Saddle – I actually need to do this on my old bike the old covering has become un-stapeled/un-glued… or I could probably save myself a lot of hassle and just buy a new one.
Interesting infographic from Guy Kawasaki – How to Increase Your Likability:
Might as well put up some U2 for today’s music selection – this is from the 2000 album All That You Can’t Leave Behind; I still want to learn bass guitar so I can seem as cool as Adam, and on Sunday, found myself wondering if I could ever pull off the “black stocking cap and goatee” look, like the Edge.
Again a couple weeks overdue… I keep promising myself I’ll get back onto a regular weekly update schedule for these things soon. Here’s what has caught my attention over the last couple of weeks:
Donald Miller has a suggestion for Creating a Personal Life Plan I haven’t downloaded the e-book he recommends yet, but it looks like it could be interesting.
Seth Godin: The Worst Voice of the Brand Is the Brand – a reminder that our worst experiences usually shape our larger perceptions. Certainly applicable to the church.
Laurie Haller, a District Superintendent in the West Michigan Conference offers a few thoughts on Love Wins.
Dan Dick has a couple powerful and convicting posts about the United Methodist Church: Three Little Words, Dead, or in Exile and a MUST READ Souled Out. He hits hard with these words:
“We perpetually use an anti-gospel of death, decay and decline to manipulate people instead of casting a positive vision to motivate. We proclaim to the world that we are shrinking, diminishing, poorly funded, rife with conflict — all excellent messages to attract new members. We do try to counter such witness with some TV spots and webcast videos and some marketing spin, but that’s just slapping a coat of make-up. Many young people see The United Methodist Church as an old maiden aunt who dresses and paints herself up like a teenager — embarrassing at best, pathetic at worst.”
Yet there is hope that we can clarify our vision, mature in our discipleship and relationships with each other and be the church Christ calls us to be.
Last week there was a Call to Action web-conference for the UMC. I somehow missed the advance notice announcement about it, and was on vacation anyway, but some of the feedback that emerged has been interesting to examine. Jeremy Smith looks at the Twitter wordcloud related to the online discussion. Jay Voorhees shares some of his thoughts as well as addressing metrics that matter. Rob Rynders suggests that Cats and Cereal might be the solution (not really). The conference has been archived and can be viewed here; I haven’t seen it yet, but it certainly got people talking.
Music this week from tUnE-yArDs – I’ve heard this track a few times on the radio and found the use of the looping vocals to be really interesting, the video (as well as the song) is a little strange, but in my opinion enjoyable.
Making Membership Mean Something. (via CTG) I’ve struggled with this idea – do you go with the “high expectation” membership standards of Ginghamsburg and others with multi-week membership classes, or with the Resurrection model (2-3 hour introduction in one afternoon). (Note: Resurrection’s membership is also “high expectation” they make very clear the expectation that membership is about responsibility, not privilege and members are expected to attend every week, give proportionally, engage in service and learning opportunities, they just present it in a different package – “belong before believe”).
20 Questions for Reviewing 2010. I haven’t sat down and answered these, but it is a great set of questions to really get you to think about the year and help clarify your values, accomplishments, and expectations.
Also from Levite Chronicles: I Hate Communication. Great reminder that the oft used phrase, “we need more communication” is fundamentally mis-communication for “we need more explanation”, “we need more affirmation”, “we need more persuasion”, “we need more confession”, etc.
Jeremy Smith with more on the UMC Call to Action Report. I get his concerns, but so far I’m not too worried about them; I’d like to believe there is a way to maintain Methodist accountability while easing up on some of the administrative rules. I was speaking with a friend last week, who brought up a greater point of how does the Call to Action report speak to the UMC as a global church – the material is clearly focused on North American congregations; how might we learn from our sisters and brothers in regions where the church is dramatically growing (ie Africa), and might we use that to become a truly global connection, letting go of the traditional US hegemony*?
*Yeah, I was a debate nerd in high school, so from time-to-time I like to bust out words like hegemony.
Another one from my favorite hasidic reggae singer celebrating the miracle of the Maccabee revolt.
Admittedly I enjoy this way more than I probably should, but it’s got to be done:
And for something a little more serious – Sufjan Stevens “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” (because it IS still advent).
on “
; I still want to learn bass guitar so I can seem as cool as Adam, and on Sunday, found myself wondering if I could ever pull off the “black stocking cap and goatee” look, like the Edge.