Blessed are the un-cool. Important reminder that churches should choose to be faithful instead of fashionable.
How Luther Went Viral. Interesting article suggesting the use of pamphlets and the printing press helped fuel the Protestant Reformation in much the same way the modern social media (ie Twitter) fueled the Arab Spring, both tapped into widespread social discontent through relatively new, decentralized that the status quo couldn’t effectively leverage.
“No one is ever free from their social or physical environment. And whether or not we are always aware of it, a home is a home because it blurs the line between the self and the surroundings, and challenges the line we try to draw between who we are and where we are.”
Do we take “place” seriously enough? Are there implications for itinerant ministry somewhere in here?
10 Brand Building Steps for Beginners. I just did an interview this week from someone researching how “the church” uses social media; this is a pretty good guide to some first steps.
Why Best Buy is Going Out of Business… Gradually. There was a time when I looked forward to going into a Best Buy, now I almost dread it. While the article is specific to the business and culture of Best Buy, there are probably some good lessons for the church in there as well. How often have we delivered bad customer service and what are we doing about it?
I’m not a big fan of classical music and so I’ve never really followed Yo-Yo Ma, but I did catch the end of the 2011 Kennedy Center Honors, where his work was recognized, and then stumbled upon this performance of the Silk Road Ensemble on the NPR All Songs Considered Blog. I like it, hopefully you will too…
I seem to have lost that weekly rhythm of blog posts… maybe in the new year I’ll get on a better schedule. Anyway, here’s what has caught my attention over the past few weeks:
Seth Godin: Tools vs. Insight. Often we don’t need new tools, we just need to find creative ways to use what we’ve already got. Also check out Insulate Yourself…
Marcus Zumwalt: We are the 99%. Marcus is a friend I had the great privilege of getting to know when our lives briefly crossed in Ann Arbor. This post is a powerful reminder that even with the issues around the gap between the rich and the poor here in the US, highlighted by the “Occupy” movement, the issue is even more profound on a global scale. Are we really the 99%, or are we, in fact, the 1%?
The Economist: How Luther Went Viral. Fascinating article about social media and church history and how about “new” advances in communication and collective action aren’t really new at all.
Nerd Porn – 47 Year Old Television Signals Are Bouncing Back to Earth. Fascinating article about how “something” approximately 25 light years away is reflecting TV signals back to earth, which means that some “lost” programs, like episodes of Doctor Who, can be recovered and recorded.
This came to me last year in the early morning hours of Christmas Eve and I used it for worship then (and think I shared it here as well). Thought I’d put it up again for anyone who might find a use for it in worship this Christmas; feel free to use or adapt as you see fit (there in info at the bottom of the blog about Creative Commons – if you do use, I prefer attribution and that any derivative works retain the “share alike” philosophy).
We come excited, We come exhausted, Welcome to this place.
We come hopeful, We come humble, Welcome to this place.
We come with deepest longing, We come distracted, Welcome to this place.
We come compassionate, We come confused, Welcome to this place.
We come joyful, We come just-happy-to-have-made-it-through-another-day, Welcome to this place.
We come faithful, We come fearful, Welcome to this place.
Welcome, to one and all, to this place, where we can be who we are, confident that God meets us, as we are.
Welcome to this night: Welcome to the Marys pregnant with possibilities, Welcome to the Josephs returning to their hometowns, Welcome to the travelers, weary after a long journey, Welcome to the inn-keepers, making room for one more, wherever they can. Welcome to this place Where angels sing and shepherds seek welcoming a King born in Bethlehem, long ago called Emmanuel: God-Is-With-Us and Still Is With Us Welcoming us, receiving us, redeeming us, even on this Holy Night. Welcome Christmas people.
Roger Olson: Should Christian organizations adopt the business model? Certainly there are practices and techniques that we can learn from an adapt, but when do we cross the line from being a body that changes the world through our values and practices to being one that simply assimilates the inherent brokenness of the purely secular world. I think I see this most clearly around employment practices – should the church pay, provide benefits, and treat employees like every other business does (which generally means strive for the lowest common denominator), or should we aim to do better, striving to really embody a belief that every person is of sacred worth and deserves the best the organization is able to offer? Obviously this same line of thinking can be applied to the whole discussion around church metrics and congregational vitality as well.
Mark Engler – a guy I used to play ultimate frisbee with back in high school, now writes some great stuff at Democracy Uprising, has a excellent post on Occupy the Pulpit. I’ve been paying attention (and intrigued) by the whole “Reverend Billy” thing for a while, and how his act essentially mocks stereotypes of preachers, while at the same time putting forth some very valid points about community building and not being lost in an overly materialistic culture. As Mark makes note maybe it is time for real preachers to make a prophetic stand so that Reverend Billy is no longer necessary.
Megan Phelps-Roper of Westboro Baptist Church: An Heir to Hate. When I read this, I realized it was most likely was Megan that I shared a plane with a few years ago (I was going to guess that her cousin mentioned in the article, Libby, was the other young woman on the flight, but according to the article, Libby had already left the church by then). Much light that flight, the article on Megan simply reminds me how tragic her situation is. I know I’m a victim to my own biases and prejudices, but it doesn’t isolate me. It also made me really reflect on the compromises we all make – I’m really curious how Megan can reconcile protesting Steve Job’s funeral while also using an iPhone… and I know if I looked hard enough I could find similar hypocrisy in my own life, but at least I’m willing to acknowledge the grey areas of life and my own imperfections. When you make everything so very black-and-white you can’t help but expose the flaws in your own philosophy.
Zombie Outreach for Churches. From Halloween, but still good. PS – How amazing was this season of The Walking Dead? Loved the ending, and I can’t wait for the series to resume.
Jay Voorhees: Using the Common English Bible in Worship. I do have a couple copies of the CEB (both physical, but also on my phone), and have been using it a little in worship and in Bible studies. I’m not sure I’m totally comfortable with making a big commitment to it, but I do like the way some of it reads.
Perry Noble: My Wife Had a Bad Experience at Chick-Fil-A. Does one unusual experience, or one bad encounter get in the way of all the good ones? (That question has nothing to do with Chick-Fil-A).
Derek Webb has an excellent piece of the future of the music business in terms of distribution, generating revenue, and building community: Giving It Away – How Free Music Makes More Sense. Although I’m not involved in the industry, I’ve been thinking along the same lines for a while now (see my discussion about Prince from a few months ago – near the bottom of the page). Back to the idea of what churches can learn from business, I think there might be something here – give it away, and build those personal, long-term relationships.
The Easter Island “Heads” Have Bodies! By the way, I’ve noticed Mental Floss magazine in the stores for a couple years now, but I never really stopped to look at it – turns out I LOVE it, it totally speaks to my inner geek – if anyone wants to give me a subscription, or a shirt feel free (I especially like the “I’m no rocket surgeon” and “I avoid cliches like the plague” ones).
I know I’m overdue for another round-up… I might have some time to crank one out tomorrow, in the meantime check out the clip from Stephen Colbert from a few nights ago…
“Let’s take a typical day’s drive for this self-destructive couple. Adding 38 miles of round-trip driving at the IRS’s estimate of total driving cost of $0.51 per mile, there’s $19 per day of direct driving and car ownership costs. It is possible to drive for less, but these people happen to have fairly new cars, bought on credit, so they are wasting the full amount. Next is the actual human time wasted. At 80 minutes per day, the self-imposed driving would be adding the equivalent of almost an entire work day to each work week – so they would now effectively be working 6 workdays per week.”
Friend and colleague, Rick Dake, pointed me to this audio from Bishop Gerald Kennedy from 1960 speaking on The Marks of a Methodist – interesting how little has changed in 50 years.
“It is easily forgotten that the fellowship of Christian brethren is a gift of grace, a gift of the Kingdom of God that any day may be taken from us… Therefore, let him who until now has had the privilege of living a common Christian life with other Christians praise God’s grace from the bottom of his heart. Let him thank God on his knees and declare: It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren.”
Another catch-up week with lots of links (I actually cut out a few that would have been included in a “normal” week):
Smashing Magazine: How to Make an eBook Don’t know what I’d ever write a book about, but I like the whole idea that whole new platforms are opening up to those seeking to self-publish and destribute their ideas.
Semi-related: John Piper on Exercise. I’m not one to often agree with Piper, but I think he does make a couple good points in this one – I especially appreciate the note he makes that obesity isn’t the same as gluttony.
Stephen Colbert on God and Hell (taken from a Fresh Air interview):
Dan Dick on Christi-inanity. I think Dan’s making a good point, but also I don’t think it’s quite as “black and white” as he makes it. Do we need to raise the bar on theological understanding and conversation within the church? Absolutely. But when you are dealing with congregations with a wide diversity of age, educational and theological backgrounds it’s hard to get good systems in place that can meet the different populations at different points of need. Even using words like “antinomianism” or “theodicy” has to be done differntly when I’m preaching to the university church where a majority are college graduates and many have post-grad degrees versus the rural congregations where less than 10% of the population has a college degree. One isn’t better than the other – they just have a different set of demands, and a different style of communication, even if the content is the same. Likewise, I feel like even with my seminary education, I lack a certain amount of critical theological discourse. I know I’m lacking in this area, myself, and yet I know I’m probably better than most in terms of on-going reading and education on these topics. In the midst of all the demands of ministry, reading to stay on top of topics like systematic theology, unfortunately, doesn’t fall on many people’s priority list. It needs to be fixed, but I’m not even sure where you might really begin.
Greg Boyd on Kingdom of God vs. Religion. Greg’s work is something I’ve not very familiar with (another admission of my limited theological depth, perhaps), but I’ve seen Roger Olson make reference to him on occasion in terms of his take on open theism, and he says some interesting things here, so maybe it’s worth checking out:
Sherman Haywood Cox II: Naming Your Sermon. I always dread having to come up with titles/names for my sermons, but there are some good ideas is this post.
Budgeting with Cash Envelopes. Great tip that made a big difference for my household (unfortunately we’ve fallen off the wagon); make sure you check it out, though, because they include a template so that you can print your own envelopes. We had always used the Dave Ramsey envelopes that come with the Financial Peace University kit, and the trouble we’d have is that they would wear out fairly quickly with use – so a nice template to make your own as needed is a good thing.
Related: My friend from college, Scott Heiferman, went on to make it big in the digital world (he’s founder and CEO of MeetUp.com). Here’s video of him asking Steve Jobs a question on how technology can change the world. Steve’s answer is okay, but I think Scott was hoping for more. Scott’s really gotten into the idea of using tech to bring people together in real face-to-face interactions (the whole idea behind MeetUp), and I think he’s on to something. Tech isn’t a tool in itself, only in it’s ability to connect and help facilitate real change to take happen:
Jay Voorhees: Rebuilding Trust – The DS and Bishop Dilemna. I feel badly that this is falling near the bottom of an already long post, because it is important and needs to be read (but I’m also too lazy to move it closer to the beginning). I think Jay is hitting some important points, but I’m also trying to fight my own cynicism around this area. Yes, there is a breakdown of trust especially among clergy, congregations and the Cabinet in the UMC, and it is an “occupational hazard” of the system, but the post seems to suggest that the necessary change needs to primarily come from the Cabinet. Maybe we need to start assuming that they are doing the best they can and everything they can, and instead focus on what we do have the capacity to change about ourselves. Instead of waiting for a DS to set up a regular process for fellowship and conversation with clergy, maybe the clergy need to initiate it and invite the DS into the process. We need to stop blaming and stop complaining and start finding ways to improve the system under our own initiative. (Of course, that is much easier said than done).
Semi-related: Bill Dobbs (assistant to the Bishop in the Michigan Episcopal Area) on The Appointment Process.