Hit the Back Button to Move Fwd by Gavin Richardson

methodist amendment mashup : its what you get for going on youtube maxie

a lot has been said over the latest rage in methodism, taking your political viewpoints to youtube. one thing maxie dunham, who seems to have started this should have done his homework on is the concept of mashup's. cause buddy, you've now been mashedup. i think the fact that someone did this is brilliant, rather slanted, but brilliance as i am sure the egos that decided this vehicle was the way to go didn't see something like this happening.

getting over our control issues : linked data for everyone

i'm a huge fan of ted. if i had the money i would so geek out at their conference. so it is with no real surprise that there is something shared that might in fact aid one of my passions, the church & specifically the umc.

in a lunch conversation i had with larry hollon on tuesday (thanks larry for the time) he had asked my thoughts on some of the things i might address in rethink church & the agencies approach to using social media. one of the things that i suggested was the release of control of materials. creative commons is the new framework we move in, not exclusive copyright. so i found interesting some similar themes & possibly an answer in tim berners-lee ted talk on how he developed the internet (no, it wasn't al gore) and his newest 'play project' of linked data.

things that jumped out at me quickly were when he mentioned "you've payed for this" in regards to the data that the government has. because we have payed for them with tax payer money. within the united methodist church, we have apportionment's that pay for the agencies to do a large amount of their work. in essence, we are owners of that information. we should have access to it.

but there is a control mentality that if you give it away you loose 1. your ability to make money (which isn't the role of umcom or the other agencies) 2. that people will re-purpose your stuff (ala. a mashup or sound clip it for their own thing)... both of which, are navigatable (i don't think i just made up that word). many of our biggest companies give their braintrust away for free and they've parlayed it into a living and the most loyal of customers. why assume that someone re-purposing your stuff is innately bad? i go with the assumption there are more creative people out there than i. as a youth pastor i keep trying to groom them that way as well. they do things i would never have imagined re-purposing my ideas for the betterment of the ministry.

so what do i suggest with this?

• get over your control issues. that might start with just naming them. (as a personal shot, why are we asking people to take down meaningful & helpful videos on youtube)
• put people in charge of sharing your braintrust. put together the linked data setup with your information and let others come in and put in their part.
• allow them full access so that they can know their people better & serve more fully
• open up resources for them to re-purpose graphics, videos, logos, etc to reach a demographic that you are trying to reach, but painfully not.

don't confuse who you are actually reaching : why i say your church tech stuff is lame

in my recent presentation at podcamp nashville on spirituality and social media i was talking specifically about podcasting when i made statement along the lines of 'sermon podcasts are lame.' i believe that statement.. really i do. i have posted sermons online, in video and audio format. i have downloaded sermon podcast in video and audio format from many churches and the thing i've found.. i generally don't care about them. i'll end up deleting the subscription after a few months of only watching one or two.

why is this? is it the preaching? generally no.. most of the time the preaching is quite good. its the relationship. i have no clue who this person is really. i don't know their family, i don't know if they like football. we've never shook hands.. i just have a hard time investing in the words of someone i have no connection to. i can listen to you. take your wisdom, but in the long run, the lack of connection wins out and i fade away.

but i have heard stories where people say "but this person checked out our podcast and came to church" sure.. there are those folks. they are not me & i'm pretty average so i default that most folks are like me.



but i hear that churches like mars hill bible church is at the top of itunes subscription list. how is that possible? well, for one, it doesn't stay up there. but two, why does anyone care about a church up in grand rapids michigan and what they have to say on sunday morning? truth is, they don't. what they do care is what rob bell has to say. people who have heard him speak at a conference, watched a series of nooma videos or read one of his books are invested in this guy. he's opened up to them in various ways. they know him & they want to know what more he has to say. the podcast, is just the conduit to continue to keep that relationship going. even if it is one sided.

so with this train of thought in mind. let's be honest about what our tech is used for. 1. your church facebook page/church twitter account/etc is not going to be populated by people who are unchurched and looking for a church. yes, a few may lurk as they church shop, if they are that point (which would technically not be unchurched). the grand population of all that technology is speaking to your own people. that's not a bad thing, just be honest about it and direct your energies with them as your focus.

i will give blogs (not housed on your church website) and youtube accounts a pass on this because they are more readily showing up in keyword searches (if you have indexed & keyworded them well) on google or youtube platform.

truth is, if you are wanting to reach out, what you are generally only doing is 'speaking out' and with todays cultural and generation values, that just doesn't cut it anymore. no one cares to get involved in a one sided conversation.

so when you are talking up or talking about how to use technology to reach out of your church. remember these thoughts. just taking what ever is created within your church walls and then broadcasted out for people to hear is just lame. figure out a way, commit to doing, some things that truely engage people in a converation.

some quick thoughts.

• start a podcast that uses call in or email questions, much like father roderick or mitch joel.
• have other people in your church be given a recording device to take home or on a trip to record some real life conversations and put that out there.
• go interview some people just walking the street (use video or audio) and ask them what questions they'd like someone to give an answer for or expand upon. then sneak them a business card with the feed url.
• take the effort to transcript a video or audio podcast so that is searchable if someone was looking for Christ the King sunday thoughts (no affense to CtheK sunday, you're one of my favs).
• set up personal accounts for facebook and twitter and make friends with people who are not in your congregation (this might mean putting an email note in the facebook friend request so you don't weird someone out). don't immediately invite them the the umw meeting (no affense to the united methodist women here either, i love you gals).
• visit some secular events, take photos (good ones) then put them in facebook and then ask to be someones friend so that you may be able to tag them. then you can have an opportunity to share in one more vehicle.
• if you put up a sermon, why not do a 'directors cut' with some commentary that makes it accessible, or trim down to just the most key points (trust me, not all of a 20 minute sermon is a critical key point).

archie carver jr. : may you rest in peace

this morning i received word that one of my dads, archie carver jr., passed away after his long battle with liver cancer. he didn't talk about his cancer battle much, but i believe this was his third onset that he had to take on treatment for. he passed away this morning, march 9th, 2009, around 8:30am with friends and family with him.

i will alway remember archie jr. for his quiet michievous-ness about him. in the big crowds of friends we'd find ourselves in at church he'd be the quiet one with this sneaky smile on him. telling jokes in his head, laughing at the rest of us trying one up each other,.. i'm not really sure, but that smile was always there. i know he wasn't always the quiet one, but i'll always see that face, that michievous smile and i'll smile myself.

archie was beloved by his friends. he was an active part of the cancer society in hendersonville, and many joined the cause on his behalf. last years relay for life was held in his honor as a survivor even. he was getting treatment in tulsa for the last 6 or so months. as is liver deteriorated and prognosis became grim a number of their friends left for tulsa to be at his & terri (archie's wife) side. yesterday his sunday school, at first united methodist, class spent the whole hour plus in prayer for their friend. they joked it would have been archie's favorite class to spend it in prayer without any real lesson.

you will be sorely missed in our church family archie. take rest & hope that you have been a part of something special in your friends & family. your children are wonderful extensions of yourself and terri, tiffani, archie III, and william.

may the Lord Bless you and Keep You. may he Heal you and Hold you. may he allow you to help cook some great eats for that communion of saints. until we meet again. shalom

update:

visitation is set on thursday, march 12th from 1-2pm, with celebration service beginning at 2pm and food afterwards, at hendersonville first united methodist church.

gracepoint church : thoughts on leaving the umc

no doubt, the few of you who are church nerds & internet types (and not in the kansas east conference) have heard about gracepoint umc separating itself from the umc leaving behind the old church to create a new church.

to give some backstory, andrew conard (thoughts of resurrection) has a pretty darn good synopsis & timeline on what has been happening since things were announced on sunday. i have even been quoted, sorta.

one thing i ask from anyone talking about the happenings here. please bring grace to the conversation. there is more depth to any story such as this. many people are involved at many levels. people are broken & people are overjoyed. there is a depth to this action that covers more than yours & mine first impulsive reactions and questions.

i emailed pastor bryson yesterday and received an email response from him. i'm not republishing it because i didn't ask. but he shared in essence that they (the folks who are moving to start gracepoint community church) are giving all things back to the umc and wish to just move on into the vision God has given them. as much as it hurts to have someone from the family leave, i subscribe to a rule of life of grace and will adhear to that as much as it hurts.

where is our hope : dealing with the downturn

this comes from a pastor friend ryan bennett, who posted this on his facebook. thought it was worthwhile sharing today.

Well, the news is out today. The economy is bad - real bad. Recession is giving way to talk of Depression. The stock market is at its lowest point in over a decade, taking with it the retirement accounts of many of our elderly. Things are bad.

So, with things this bad, where are people turning? In Tennessee, the answer was obvious this morning with the news that February was the biggest month EVER for the Tennessee lottery. $208 MILLION dollars were spent on lottery tickets in the month of February alone.

This is a damning statement about the hopelessness and irrationality that is so pervasive in our culture now. It is also a damning statement about where people are not turning - the church. Why would people seeking hope not turn to the church? I guess the answer is that hope is not what we are offering.

The daily news is offering gloom and doom. Shouldn't the church be more bold in its offering of Good News? Not good news on the economy but true Good News from the Hope of the World, Jesus Christ!

I think that the world has largely written off the church. "They don't care about my needs. They are too concerned with fighting and bickering amongst themselves about polity and doctrine."

If we can't offer Good News then who can? I believe this is an opportunity for the church, but we must first relearn the unique message God has given us then we must engage the world in which we live in a real way. It will get messy, no doubt. But I don't think there is anything else we can do and be faithful.

Lord, let the church offer more hope to a hurting people than the lottery.

Ryan

i don't know what more commentary i can put on this, but say "yup." we should be doing better. where do we start?

enough review : the advice you probably already knew but forgot

a few weeks back i was sent a few copies of 'enough, discovering joy through simplicity and generosity' which is the latest book by adam hamilton. as with many of my reviews, its more about my emotions reading through the book than the content. sorry, i try to balance it out, but sometimes to no avail. if you want something a bit more lengthy & thorough then catch up with my friend shane raynor's review.

it is a little bit more than 100 pages and a small size paperback retailing for 8 dollars. which is pretty attractive to me in that the topic is not one i'd normally invest in, but i would consider this one. it was a pretty easy read. i started it, put it down after the intro and then finished the rest in one sitting. if you have ever heard adam preach you can really hear him preaching withing the pages (at least i was).

it is obviously a writing that reflects on our current economic crisis. much of the advice rendered through the pages, that is actual financial navigation void of spiritual framework, is stuff you would hear from a credit-less advocate (ala, dave ramsey who is actually mentioned once or twice). adam brings up some old school ideals of 'layaway' which i remember all to well. he breaks out the classic thought of "wants" vs "needs. in the beginning adam brings up our reshaping of "the american dream" from living well and improved from your parents conditions to this idea of having more stuff. my default to talking about consumption is 'the story of stuff' which has similar parallels. still, i was rather intrigued with naming how that ideal has changed.

hamilton moves from the need to manage money and then into giving with the tithe as an example. its in the ending chapters that adam really hits his stride, or it just took me two or three chapters to get into his rhythem. i was thinking at the end of the reading if this was the next consecration/pledge campaign for a church.. i sure hope not, but it is possibly. this doesn't feel good as a curriculum/training book. its a good conviction book, but it is still much of the same advice i've heard for years. people know these practices, complain about the various problems, get this kind of advice from various outlets, we just continue to forget about it. sage advice, but we will probably still learn the hard way.. or maybe we are already learning it.

the future of church : a green life returns to what we knew

 

a few weeks back i was in a conversation where we were talking about the future of the church. i made some statement, not slamming the megachurch, but being less than kind to the megachurch as the future of church. which, i am prone to do.

one of the people just happened to be a part of the staff at one of the biggest megachurches, that i will leave unnamed (haha!). and he offered his view. he shared that he felt that the future church will look like megachurches and house churches.. hmmm..

now i pondered that. it most certainly could be the case. people seem to embrace the large corporation securities/offerings or they go against the grain in some anti-establishment stance, which could bring about that dynamic. but i don't know if corporation is the future (and lets be honest, the megachurch is a corporation) of the life of the person.

what i got to thinking about was the inclination people are having to live the 'green' lifestyle. it is just now becoming a norm and part of peoples daily practices. so as families develop with young adults that have grown up being 'green' what are some of their behaviors that might shape they way they participate in church life?

we are already seeing that people are not too worried about their church denomination loyalites. the economics are poor in large global corporate climate, which was otherwise safe & secure 5 years ago.

so these three things, 1. green living 2. falling denomination loyalty 3. an unsecure corporate economic will lead to resurgence of parish life.

people, conscious of their impact will doing old school transportation, walking to & from the markets/cafe/stores. because people cannot blindly count on corporations for their economic securities there will be a move back to small business (which i hope government taxes make easier, or less taxking, to do) bringing up local entrepreneurship, and finanicial control back to the individual, that we have not seen in 50+ years. people will move back into those houses of worship that were abandoned by a church denomination, or are a dieing congregation, in their neighborhoods and reshape them to what is core to their local needs.

when will this happen? maybe 20-30 years or so from now. there will be that generation shift where the older folks who have grown up with behaviors of driving all over God's green earth to get what they need are not the norm. they will be replaced by children of my family who have grown up living simply, using canvas bags for daily grocery pick up, walking to schools, riding a bike to the post office, knowing who all is in your neighborhood (instead of driving in and driving out).

will this replace what we currently know? not completely. just as the corporation will never leave us the megachurch will never leave either. but it will become less a significant voice in our day to day lives. there will be nothing to be enamored about as people lives will have become reoriented towards a parish life. house churches i don't see as being a norm, but being the new 'satalite' campuses of the parish church, which isn't such a new idea at all.

in the future, we will see parish life return.. will we, our denominations, be ready or will we have moved out our stakes?

chime in? agree/disagree? thoughts? am i crazy?

look back into the past : the things that were about this time years ago

in my on going toss out of lifting up some of the archives of this blog from similar time period over the years.

• i jumped in on some oovoo conversations with marketing & tech type people (pretty sure i was the only youth minister participating in the event). that was fun, but oovoo hasn't taken off. tokbox seems to be the next multi person video conference center.
• some ponderings from the desert fathers & mothers on parenting & youth ministry
• everyone can use some new 'faith filled' pick up lines
• an early morning reflection on the homeless in my city
• remember when the nfl was going to sue churches if you had a super bowl party.. seems they have learned from that pr nightmare
• i was again likened to a celebrity.. well, he wasn't so much celebrity then, he's more now
• church shopping & the devices of the entertaining church
• i took the strengths profile test that our church is big proponent of. can you guess what i came out as?
• my abbey journal kept while on retreat at gethsemani. good times, need to get back soon.
• in what is the only time you see capital letters use consistently, my pastor michael williams guest blogged on the theological conversation with miroslav volf
• this is what happens when you are friends with jonathon norman
• thoughts on how justice issues can become an idol unto themselves
• some ponderings on contemporary worship in my church context & how our greater church sold their soul to contemporary worship
• starbucks goes down!

online disciple : experiment in being a facilitator

many of you, my faithful readers know that community can happen over the bits & bytes of the internet. the folks behind the disciple study series are seeking to cultivate some disciple communities that will study and grow together. they are currently looking to fill out their facilitator list if you are interested visit the site and drop your name into the hat. tell them i sent ya & they might still let you in. haha! shalom, -gav

DISCIPLE Bible Study -- Online

Do you have persons in your congregation who are missing out on the transforming power of DISCIPLE because of their schedules? Do you have some whose travel keeps them from committing to a weekly class meeting? Do you have some who might like to take DISCIPLE with others who have a similar life experience?

The Richard and Julia Wilke Institute for Discipleship is excited to offer Disciple Bible Study -- now online at BeADisciple.com.

Here is how it works. Persons simply go to www.BeADisciple.com and enroll in the Disciple Online class they wish to join. A $30 fee is required to underwrite the costs of nine months of technical support. Next, participants will need a manual which they can purchase online from the Cokesbury site or through their local church. High speed internet connection is recommended.

Disciple Online may be offered to groups of 12 within a congregation. A few members of a congregation in one state may join together to study Disciple with a few from another state or even another country. Or individuals may enroll in Disciple Online with other individuals from anywhere.

Disciple Online will be presented in a standardized format. Each group will need a facilitator to watch over the sessions and to encourage participation. The facilitator will remain “a learner among learners." In addition to Disciple facilitator training, online facilitators will need to complete the online workshop “How to Become a Disciple Online Facilitator ” prior to leading a group. This workshop will be offered periodically at BeADisciple.com for $50.

Participants will do their daily reading and reflection with their manual on their own. Participants may enter their daily scripture notes in the online workshop environment if they choose, and assignments will be available with instructions for weekly group work. This will include discussion questions to be completed in a group-interactive discussion board by the participant at his/her own convenience. Prayer requests and written prayer petitions will be included. This online work covers what is normally accomplished in the first half of a normal face-to-face DISCIPLE class.

 Each week, a short review of the week's scriptures by Bishop Wilke, the author of DISCIPLE, will be presented online for participants to watch. These will lead into key questions for weekly discussion.

 The class schedule will be determined by the group facilitator. Every seven days the facilitator will conduct a live session online (approximately one hour) which walks the group through more discussion, exercises, and time for prayer together. This section will be conducted similarly to the second half of a face-to-face class and will transition the group into the next week. Each session will be recorded so that participants who have to miss a live session may view the live session later.

 Disciple Online will use the DISCIPLE (Becoming Disciples Through Bible Study) participant manual and facilitators guide but not the UM Publishing House DVDS/videos which normally accompany the study. Participants are encouraged to gain access to these materials through their local church or through Cokesbury.

If you have any questions, or would like to provide some input into the development of Disciple Online, please email Lisa at beadisciple@sckans.edu.

 Bishop Wilke -- A message regarding Disciple Online

 Information for potential Disciple Online facilitators

thoughts on a experiement : social media & the methodist

updated: blake huggins has some thoughts to add & i, as seems customary, have comment

kevin watson, proposed a little experiment to the metho-blogosphere after i made posting on how our general agencies just don't get how to use social media. he has posted his observed results and some opinions about the experiment.

I was surprised that more than 25 bloggers linked to the video in some way on their blog. And I do think it is significant that simply passing on a video was able to revive a video that was basically dead on YouTube. A change from 44 views in 6 months to 715 views in 2 weeks is a significant change. I think that this experiment does show that there exists a significant group of Methodists who are willing to work together in some capacity to raise awareness and get the word out. The big question is: Get the word out about what?

i had some thoughts on the results, not to mention my idea of how general agencies need to target their mild marketing efforts.

like i mentioned to you earlier kevin. the next step would be to spread it around through people’s email lists. email is going to tap more of the mainstream folks versus the early adopts of the blog world.

some numbers can be low because we share information amongst ourselves. i had already seen the video so i wasn’t going to watch 25 times because 25 of my friends posted it. i also am not sure if the embed watching shows up in the views on youtube or that is just a ‘hit’ to that page. that would also keep numbers rather low as most folks embedded the video. i know i did that.

certainly the video didn’t go viral, but i don’t know if it has elements to that seem to be ingrained in a viral video. something that is familiar, humorous or heart tugging. the old gene cotton claymation clay ride history of methodism got a lot of traffic, until umcom told me to take it down, as people had some kindred tie to it. it was a good video, but for many it was more nostalgic to the soul. who knows how well that video would be doing now. i have some news story on the patriot guard, and westboro baptist, that seems to get a comment or two and a hundred or so views a day.

though the experiment didn’t go viral that isn’t the measure. the measure is that it is talked about and people are more aware of ‘reclaiming wesleyan tradition’ now. which, they might not have been before.

some thoughts

as for kevin's observation that views dropped after the 2nd week.. well, it wasn't the kind of video that so many people kept going back too to show off or laugh at again. months later i still go back and laugh at the nashville gas crisis (though it isn't as funny as it was that week).

what are your thoughts?

a band by any other name : wind farming

the good bishop schnay-z whom i got to hang with the other night had some really nice thoughts on connection from our evening conversations. much more well spoken than my bullet list. one thing that i found interesting, and i quite like it, is he called jay & myself 'wind farmers' for some of our work with the methoblog. jay thinks itd be a great band name.. i'm just glad the bishop isn't from tennessee as we don't have much wind farming in tennessee.. itd be more like coal ash mush shovelers.

congress on evangelism : mike slaughter on worship

i was not there for all the mike slaughter speak at last week's congress on evangelism. but i made his session on 'passionate worship' and took a few notes.

creating a passionate worship environment comes from asking

• what is the theme
• what is the felt need
• desired outcome

5 dimensions of worship in creative process

1. the message: preaching, teaching, & healing
2. the medium: environments are an important 'theology of space'
3. the mystery: how do we experience the presence of God
4. the music: (nuff said, i didn't take any added note)
5. the mission: clarify what matters for God

i don't usually comment on my notes. usually there are completely exhaustive. these are not for some reason. i liked mike's presentation, but i found little transferable to my own context that i don't already have my own framework for implementing. that's not a bash of ginghamsburg or mike, i really like what they do, but nothing resonated.. except maybe that they use a lot of video to connect their community to ministry narratives.

congress on evangelism : tyrone gordon on Acts 4

one of those new voices to my life came in quickly at the congress on evangelism last week. rev. tyrone gordon of saint luke's community united methodist church gave the opening worship sermon. some little quot-ables that i jotted down. he was preaching a sermon called "who said you could do that?" based on acts 4.

• most of our christianity is nothing but talk
• as long as we preach a comfy Jesus we will get along just fine
• it got them IN trouble, before it got them out of trouble
• (holding up the bible) this tells me i don't need permission, i already have the authority

vision for the umc : virtual church plant experiences

i have pondered this, but i actually said it yesterday to blake huggins while we were watching clif guy talk about the church of the resurrection new internet campus. i have not participated in the cor's internet campus but essentially it is a live streaming of the church's services. this isn't new, but it is a significant cost to enable the bandwidth, not to mention all the hardware (if you didn't already have that). for cor, they already had the cameras and projection stuff, they just needed to project out to the net.

another internet campus that i know if is lifechurch.tv internet campus. again, i've just visited, but not during worship times. so i can't say what all happens there, but it too is essentially a live stream as well. they do compliment it with a internet campus blog. one internet experience i have participated with lifechurch folks is their second life campus. i got to make one of their services which again, was a piped in live stream. the difference with that environment was that i could chit chat with people and see others worshipping. (that is kinda funny to think of but, suspend your disbelief, and go with me)

the thing with these two campuses is that they emminate from the same place. not a bad thing at all, its who they are.. but it had me thinking

what if the united methodist church, in order to build more actual connections across the global church, by setting up some internet campuses around the world? there would be something beautiful for me to tune into a church in kenya, russia, latin america, etc..

easter services could all be celebrated with a church in australia or korea as they are the first to welcome the sun of easter day.. and you & i could be there. how cool is that!

we would see & participate in some of the familiars that come with a traditional liturgical background and a common hymnal. but to familiarize and come to know the differences of our family church would just be incredible.. this could be even be enhance by offering in virtual environments where i can meet up with others, much like we did for general conference this past year.

consider this a charge united methodist church entities, help coordinate a global campus to bring together a fully connectional church.

congress on evangelism : blogger bishop meet up

tuesday was my second day at the congress on evangelism. i took in two workshop sessions, one with mike slaughter of ginghamsburg notoriety, and bishop robert schnase of 5 fruitful practices notoriety. the cool part, and the anticipated moment for the day was a sit down conversation with bishop robert schnase about church & technology with some of our "methotweet" & "methoblogger" community.

folks in attendance, were my wifey erin richardson, theresa coleman aka reverend mommy, jay voorhees, amy shanholtzer & stephen drachler, wayne cook aka tnrambler, kathi ambler, bishop schnase, midlife rookie, & amy forbus of dog & God.

some of the things we discussed as i can best frame

• the essence of blogging community & how they are bona-fide relationships for us
• the sharing of information & creative media, creative commons ethos
• communication across the lines of the church, cultivating a relationship connection
• finding the bright voices to lead the church, who are they?
• some of the role of technology in church
• we solved global warming, but jay doesn't think it'll work
• the bishop as a blogger and engaging in social media
• how we have huge divides in the church over a theology of bbq
• plus more

we had some really great conversation for about 3 to 4 hours. a bunch of laughs, stories, and a few deep thoughts. strange though, we didn't talk about twilight or potter puppet pals. i would loved to have discussed that.

i've posted some of the photos from my days hanging out at the congress.

congress on evangelism : making friends

congress on evangelism '09
Originally uploaded by gavoweb.

last night kicked off the 2009 congress on evangelism. it is here in nashville after being here about four years ago. i like the congress, not for the content, though some of it is very good, but the networking here is a lot of fun. i get out and meet a lot of people who are not in my regular circles.

last night i spent the evening in conversation with some of the boy from church of resurrection & the foundation talking techie geek stuff, but it was fun to finally, finally meet my long time blogger buddy wayne cook of tnrambler fame. i would visit his blog as i bet he will be doing some good recaps of the event. got to say hey to amy forbus who is all over the place cause she is so popular.

jay has some spurred thoughts on connectionalism from our evening together.

today i will be cleaning our house a bit then heading over to the conference again. come say hi to me

the purple church : reaching the early adopters

i was pondering my earlier post about how my church misses the mark in some of these marketing attempts things and getting their message (which i believe to be good) to the mass. i felt sorta bad because i made a critique without any real suggestion, something i am prone to do (and be done too). so what is a piece of advice or starting point in suggesting to my tribe church & its general agencies which are charged with supporting it?

i came back to thinking of seth godin & his purple cow. as he mentions the purple cow in this ted talk, stop trying to focus your energies on these broad based middle audiences. look for the early adopters to get your message to & inspire them to tell others. i liked the videos created, so i share it, and the viewership spreads from there.

not that i am the earliest adopter, but i do consider myself an early adopter. i am interested and listening to what my church has to say and putting out. i have google news feeds on my church (as i am sure others do as well) to tell me happenings in the world. i pay attention to technology & art and how it is being used in our church. i've used resources in my ministry work that has taken root in the mainstream of my church and conference. five years ago when jonathon and i started doing prayer station worship it was new, fresh, 'remarkable' for our context. today our youth & youth leaders are well versed it and have contributed to published books and articles.

one thing with the early adopters, it is a small demographic and those folks don't take as much money to communicate with as a mass audience. as the open hearts open minds igniting ministry campaign put out with how many millions of dollars? yet our church has continued to decline. imagine instead of getting people who watch 24 hour news (the only time i saw the commercials was on cnn) you reached out to a core enthusiastic audience who cares about the church and what new can happen. as godin mention's the steve jobs keynote, a general board can do an open meeting free to anyone who has a internet connection and microphone (and video camera too to see folks) via www.tokbox.com. content could be the newest ideas, what is happening in the local areas & around the world, who knows. it costs you nothing but your time to do it. millions can then be invested in to user generated ministries & missions that people can talk up with passion instead of a tired tv campaign.

those are some first thoughts. i hope this helps you be remarkable.

blogger meet up : the bishop robert schnase

if you are in the nashville area, a blogger, and got some free evening time on wednesday evening. come over to the congress on evangelism for a blogger meet up with bishop robert schnase. amy posted info at the methoblog.

Several of us attending the upcoming Congress on Evangelism in Nashville are pulling together a blogger meetup at the supper break time on Wednesday, January 7. We haven't yet set the location; one factor in that decision is how many people we expect to have. So, please email me at aforbus(at)umr.org by Friday, Jan. 2 if you plan to attend the meetup. Bishop Robert Schnase will be part of the gathering.

UPDATE: We've decided to meet later, to get around the time crunch of the supper break. We are going to meet up after worship and go somewhere that'll let us sit around and talk past 9:00.

bishop schnase is the toast of methodism with his fruitful congregations book & resource. i first ran into him at the umerging event back in 2006 when he sat in as a q&a with bishop scott jones. that was a heated little conversation, but in the following years i believe we all understand each other more. i liked bishop schnazz then & i expect to like him more after hanging out.

reclaiming wesley : a little creativity from the methochurch

saw this today over on kevin watson's deeply committed blog. its a promo for reclaiming the wesleyan tradtion from out of discipleship resources (a division of the general board of discipleship). i recognize one of the voices as my friend bill lizor who is part of the division on ministries with young people.

i like the over feel of the video and i like how it plugs reclaiming wesleyan tradition. it mixes the success of the guiness commercial ads without the moving mouths and a succinct history & message. well done. my big issue (as i always seem to have an issue) is that the video has been on youtube since the summer and only has 67 views (at the time that i viewed it). we need some help getting our agencies ingrained in the social media spectrum.


in other oddities, i noticed, what seems to be the 'pee standing up pastor' (viewed over 200k times) talking about john wesley (viewed 1500x more than the reclaiming wesley video has).

stirring the pot : back to sex week challenge

my article for the united methodist reporter got picked up by the dallas morning news religion blog. as i'd expect there are folks who disagree with me. that's perfectly okay. not a problem with that. i disagreed with pastor ed, so its only fair conversation.

desiring the undesirable : homeless and hungry in our world

i ran into rudy rasmus this summer at soulfeast at lake junaluska. i wasn't a participant of soulfeast, but i got to meet him cause my people knew his people and i am just so important.. not really. he was standing in the doorway going to some workshop when people i did know intro'd me. from what i gathered he was quite the spiritual leader for the group at soul feast. buddy jay voorhees really liked him and contemplated growing the braided beard look.

the folks at the circuit rider have in circulation an article he's written on ministry with the homeless and hungry in our society titled desiring the undesirable that is a definite read.

new board news : dallas as a third home

you may have missed my announcement on twitter a few days back.

last week i was asked, and said yes, to being a member of the board for the united methodist reporter communication. from what i gathered they want some of my perspective on church & social media, my propensity to speak my mind, as well as my strikingly good looks. haha!

this isn't the first time i've been asked to be on a board, but it is the first i've said yes too a board. the timing feels right and it fits in with one of my many passions. the umr offices are in dallas, so if you are in that part of the world give me a shout. i'll be down in the middle of january and periodically after that.

there are some friends i've made over the years of participating & cultivating the methoblogosphere that i look forward to working with & getting to know more in real life.

anyways, just thought i'd share.

tennessee conference position updates : what a long strange trip its been

our conference office sent this announcement out just last evening via our listserv.

The new Directors of Children and Family Ministries and Director of Youth and Young Adults will be announced in January. Before that announcement the CCOCM Personnel Committee wanted to update the conference on the procedure.

The 2008 Annual Conference voted to have the job descriptions approved by the CCOCM before the interview and hiring process could begin. Prior to the development of the job descriptions, listening sessions were conducted with the existing Children's Council, Youth Council, youth, workers with youth, young adults, and interested persons. These listening sessions refined the direction of the CCOCM and lead to the development of the job descriptions approved on September 25th.

A national search was conducted for both positions. Ten resumes were submitted for the Children and Family position and the Personnel Committee picked four applicants for interviews. The President and Vice- President of the Youth Council were added to the Personnel Committee and were valuable participants in the selection and interview process. Thirty-eight resumes were submitted for the Youth and Young Adult position and five persons were selected for interviews.

Opal Ransom, Chair of the CCOCM Personnel Committee, said, "We have sought to be fair in the hiring process and I am very pleased with the candidates we have selected."

i am pretty close to these situations, so i was at first confused.. why give an announcement that you are going to announce seven days (at least) from now? especially when holding off information got in the way of the original process that has led us all the way to here.

for those that do not remember, i became the face and an undermining voice (in some opinions) with my position at conference youth coordinator and this blog here, not to mention all the various social networks that i am a part of or created, when our conference office terminated both our youth & children's positions at the conference level for a joint position. part of that firestorm came because communication was not in a timely manner, ie. now. people were not getting information from the office so they talked to whomever they could, and sometimes just created stuff. i have taken some responsibility for some of the information that went out, partly because i wasn't being called or communicated with either. i did, as i do, tried to convey as much information without telling people what to think. i never told someone what to write or call and say,.. anyways, thats old news i care not to relive. i have pissed off some people, made some new fans, become fan of many people, and all in the name of holding together our conference youth ministries. since we went from a joint ministry person to a full-time person (which is actually an improvement from where we were) i consider our groundswell of people to have some element of success. but as with anything like this, no one wins happily.

back to my initial confusion.

what is in this news alert is true. i can speak for the youth portion of this process. myself, opal, loyd, brad (the new incoming youth coordinator back during all this) and an assortment of youth, young adults, and youth leaders got together a number of times to talk about ministries in the conference area. we dreamed up some big stuff and challenged each other. we then produced a document based on that which contained some plans, a description of sorts, and some goals to hit for an incoming person. no one asked me to be on the personnel group to go over candidates, knowing my track record with some of the people, i didn't expect to be invited either. i know who we hired and i am very content with that decision. i have also known who we hired for the children's position, which i am indifferent about that. from the children people i've communicated with, they know too.

what our conference leadership needs to learn from this (and i know you read this), is that appropriate communication is needed. now 'appropriate' is a perception term, so let me share that the perception is 'now' or like yesterday. no, its not fair all the time, but with people finding out that there was a plane crash or terrorist attack via hyper news outlets as twitter acts frequently, people are only going to be more expectant of information they care about quickly. going days weeks, months, without saying anything is giving your audience license to create and say whatever they need to fill their information gaps. you allow people like me to speak & give words to others opinions, which may or may not be a good thing. bad communication undermines peoples confidence in you and your mission.

a great case in point in the obama campaign using various tools to keep people, in the know. their only slip up seemed to be when the txt updates for vp candidate were lost in a huge database of people that the news got to burst the story before millions got their message. he's keeping to that communication commitment by doing weekly 'fireside' chats via youtube talking about what/why of some of his decisions. wonder if he will share why he's chosen rick warren?

this process has gone on for over 9 months now, its time to say something. name people and lets move on.

things on tab : stories sex religion church teens and technology

as part of my new integration of lifestream stuff into my blogs newer look. i've been plugging a lot of stuff into my gavin del.icio.us account. so you can track back to these and other links of interest long after this posting (and others) have cycled out of view. i'm working on figuring out how i like stumbleupon or digg.

• simply my favorite story of a teenager & faith that i've read in a long time. here is his official website & a powerful youtube video testimony
• in similar news, jolly blogger announces he has cancer
• a big deal with the episcopalian church break up is, what to do with the property? the umc has the same set up, so this is interesting news for me.
• the wifey wanted me to read this.. its true, i have bad sleeping habits. sage advice?
• i'd say this is pretty darn cool for perkins school of theology
• poor pastor, at least he's got his congregation
• muslim teenagers growing up in america. not so easy to keep to traditional rules
• 10 questions that separate girls from women.. how do you answer?
• some united methodist churches talk merger
• inside of the bernard madoff's 'scam of the century' (though, this century is kinda young)
• phyllis tickle and peter rollins talk emergence shop
• a lot of folks upset or happy about rick warren doing the invocation. this one caught my eye though. ben witherington always has a thorough thought on the subject
• if you missed my sex week challenge article
• reverend mommy's prayer musings and her last supper lunch box
• locking down your own data
• turbulent cleric on reimagining the world a sermon of sorts
• asbo jesus at it again
• sky lowe mccracken highlights the troubles of a methodist university
• chris brogan on the distinctions of a blog post versus twitter post & how to see that in the whole social media spectrum
• is a green shift in home ownership going to save economic times?
• jason's many hats
• newspapers are still figuring out the whole conversation thing, by techcrunch
• top 10 photography tips and tricks plus why you should shoot in raw format
• josh's guide to God blessed college football bowl games

last minute toy store : getting filmed by the news

Originally uploaded by gavoweb.

i am actually amazed this photo turned out so well. took with my cell phone which is not the best of cameras, while standing on the front steps doing crowd control.

this is one of my senior hs and college guys getting filmed by fox news helping to take items to peoples cars who were helped by the last minute toy store. i'll be heading back there again today. i'm just running a little late.

i don't know if it made it onto the news or not. this was the article they have online about the last minute toy store.

sex week challenge revist : commentary for umportal

a few weeks back i made a simple commentary about ed young's sex week challenge to his congregation. amy forbus asked if i would expand on my feelings for a commentary for the umportal. i'm never short on something to say so i gave it a go. it will go into print for the reporter next month, but is online now as 'sex challenge misses the mark.'

....

Having followed Mr. Young closely and watched his sermons online, I know he has some good reasons why sex is an important part of a marriage relationship. But his pandering with the news media outlets and their need for one-line quotations only simplified an otherwise complicated issue.

Let me suggest we should not be talking about sex as a “foundation” for our marriages. Before we should be having sex, we should figure out how we are friends with our spouses and others. If we are to “reclaim sex” as God’s great gift from the seduction of culture we have to start at the deep core, not the symptom. The deep core we need to address is how we are friends in love, not lovers in bed.

---

go read more of why sex challenge misses the mark

passing in memory : the Reverend Ben Alford

today our conference lost one of its beloved pastors. the Rev. Ben Alford. being new to the tennessee conference i do not have the history as many of my friends do with ben. i met him some 6 years ago when he was like a pastor in residence for the very first youth ministry institute, which i was a part of. i couldn't explain it all, but i just liked the guy, a whole lot. he was energetic, fun to talk with, knowledgeable in that wise way, and he just seemed to care a whole lot about us youth workers.

in the years following we've enjoyed the colleague relationship, exchanging conversations and telling some stories at the annual conference or whatever the big event was at that time. the last time i saw him was at hank thompson's funeral of which he presided over as pastor. he told some stories of his own fight with lung cancer (which is what took hank's life, and was something they continued their already set bond with) which had me in tears. i'll miss ben, he was one of my favorite pastors in this conference & i know he was for many others, he was one of those beloved pastors.

this is a letter written from the family.

Hello all -

Dad passed away this morning after his long struggle with lung cancer. He passed peacefully, surrounded by his family.

We cannot adequately express how grateful we are to all of you who sent cards, emails, and letters during Dad's illness. The outpouring of love lifted him up, and lifted us all. There will be a memorial service to celebrate his life at Madison Street United Methodist Church in Clarksville on Sunday, December 14, 2008, at 2:30 p.m., with reception and visitation following the service.

As Dad requested, in lieu of flowers memorial gifts can be made to the Ben Alford Church Leadership Scholarship at Martin Methodist College, 433 West Madison Street, Pulaski, TN 38478, or to Port Royal United Methodist Church, 2997 Highway 76, Adams, TN 37010. Thanks again for your love and generosity.

The Alford Family

things on tab : oh what i'm pondering

its about time to offload some the many things of interest i've got on tab

• leaving lustvegas, oh that sermon series i am such a fan of
  
• the social media cloud
• you need year round thanksgiving
• engaging youth in worship
• 8 social media monitoring tools
• why are young adults leaving the church?
• mistakes of social media marketing
• why some methodist's don't 'claim the name'
• wired's composition of snack culture (oldie, but goodie)
• high school ethics
• new barriers to college entry
• advent experiential worship courtesy of jonny baker
• photoshop ho-hum color into a wow!

tuesday randomness : the link love

i've got a bunch of things on tab to look through.

• develop some creative messaging for your outreach
• how did obama tap into social networks power?
• my virtual barbie is better than yours!
• hip-hop poetry books for children
• txt messaging may be able to curb obesity.. i told them to check out tweet what you eat
• homeless youth television
• ypulse mashup millennials myths panel
• consider alternative gifts, donate to save darfur
• video discussion by phyllis tickle on 'the great emergence'
• highs and lows of teenage faith development
• are youth starting to use twitter? not that i've seen..
• still staring at multiply to decide if i want to sign up..
• my friend jacob's church plant made our methodist news
• adding basecamp to gmail.. cool!
• using exposure bias to improve photo detail
• the election has spurred all kinds of racism.. sad, predictable, but sad
• obama & the facebook generation

camp edge : church vbs

so i noticed i have been getting some traffic from cokesbury's vacation bible school curriculum for 2009, camp edge. i mentioned before that we were a pilot church the last two years. they bring in some film crew folks and put together a promotion video. apparently this years video is out roaming the internet now and it is kinda fun to see some of our youth and other church peeps getting their vbs on.

lets all talk to the prez : over running obama

i don't know about you. i've been getting a slew of emails asking me to email president elect obama about some of the things he has promised in his campaign or things to consider. i suppose after the campaign he ran, an open source campaign, he is more accessible than any candidate before. or at least it seems that way. so it is no surprise that our methodist bishops council has sent president elect obama an official letter.

"The Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church is pleased to join with the chorus of United States citizens and international partners in congratulating you on your election as the 44th President of the United States of America," the letter opened.

"We applaud your willingness to articulate a vision of change for the United States that is based on hope for all the people, especially those who are disinherited and disenfranchised. We are also encouraged by your desire to construct a landscape for the United States that is inclusive of all people. We affirm your desire for a more peaceful and just world."

i hope this letter fares better than the last bishop's letter to the president.

tip blake huggins

internet is our parish : nuts and bolts

in a few hours i will be in session for my first workshop here at christian educators fellowship conference in albuquerque. my first workshop is a nuts and bolts session we will be going over a better website and see where that one takes us. next session (tomorrow at 2pm mountain time) i will be going over building communities and social media. lots of fun stuff.

this is not the first time, but i am using liveworship as my presentation software. i felt the organic nature that this topic can take was disserviced by a linear training method like keynote (i actually started using keynote but abandoned it at last minute). liveworship is not as slick at keynote in bells and whistles and tweaking the spacings, but it will service just fine i am sure.

these are my all encompassing notes for my workshop... i might revise as i get closer to time.. i've revised them every time i've opened up the file. already did one edit to the first saved copy.

The Internet is Our Parish, by Gavin Richardson

I am also making suggested reading this free e-book from chris forbes

Facebook for Pastors, by Chris Forbes

taking photos : pilgrimage in albuquerque

Originally uploaded by gavoweb.

the wifey and i have been milling around albuquerque and santa fe the last two and half days in preparation for the christian educators fellowship conference. i am teaching some workshops (more on that later) but more interesting, we've been roaming around pilgrim style. these are some of our photos from albuquerque to santa fe, tram to winery. oh, the conference too.

i must say, some of mine need cleaning up. i apparently got some fuzz or something under my sensor. not sure how, but that dang spot showed up and i was without my tools to clean the camera. sounds like i will be doing some photoshop in the near future.

out early playing often : teaching tech to church folks

tomorrow, waaay too early for me, i'm heading out to albuquerque. i'm meeting up with wifey, who is flying in from washington dc, and we are catching a free day before i get to work teaching technology stuff to folks at cef conference.

i'm sure to be hanging out with david camphouse & hopefully laura, who actually lives there but not going to the conference. anyone else going to be there?

photo courtesy of 'open thread'

pumpkin head : life in the pumpkin patch

  goofy face 
  Originally uploaded by gavoweb.

so i'm spending a lot of time on the front lawn of the church. our group is selling pumpkins. it's a  cool thing, a lot of work, but cool. i enjoy talking to folks and taking photos of some of the children i know who stop by. it's funny how they surprise me, being all shy then popping out some personality. a part of the ministry logistic that i enjoy

methodist church : my office

  methodist church 
  Originally uploaded by gavoweb.

photoblog from this weeks work

things on tab : random linkage

its been awhile since i've done a set of links. haven't done a whole lot of blogging lately either. oh well, here is stuff to keep you occupied till i figure out the latter of the issues.

• the martin luther rap, get your reformation gangster on
• modern versus post-modern politics
• most companies struggling to figure out how to serve millennial generations
• how to recruit on campus..
• the under 30 don't care about your nutrition labels
• olive on a wesley wedding
• millennials want more feedback from their managers?.. really..
• is it the parents or the technology that has reshaped dating?
• a new kind of giver

come visit : take these away

Originally uploaded by gavoweb.

if you live in the middle tennessee area and would like a good pumpkin and other assorted vegetation to decor your home. i've got a plenty. come see us at hfumc and take home a little bit of fall with ya. you can find us here!

a photo remembrance : the stache lives

so was i flipping through some old photos. this one caught my attention. it's jonathon & jay, but rocking their excellent facial hair (which they don't rock anymore). this was a stop at jacobs well church in kansas city when we were up there for the umerging conversation back in 2006. made some excellent friends that week. had some blogging fun with other friends, and the jay stache became such a powerful entity in the emerging church we had to give it forums to speak.

anyways, a little stroll down memory lane.