Hit the Back Button to Move Fwd by Gavin Richardson

telling stories on missions : sharing experiences with congregations

how to use social media to share your ministry story with home congregation & ministry partners from Gavin Richardson

one of the things that social media has allowed myself & you the lay web designer to do is easily share missions, event, and other ministry experiences with our congregations and ministry partners. i know folks are starting to do this more & more, so here's some of the set up & tips that i've used in the past.

• site: have a website that you can do quick updates to. this might be a special wordpress site or typepad/blogger are all formats that give you ease in telling little stories or updates without having to know code or ftp information. you can even use twitter if you need. i also like to use flickr for posting pics & videos. so much easier to upload a batch than to put into a blog posting.
• connections: ask ahead if you can get wifi in the area or cell service, and which kinds of services. if you can get wifi (which is surprisingly much more common than not) its wonderful. next best is cell service & you can probably spring for one of the broadband connecting cards depending on your provider. next, if you can only find cell service you might tether a connection, or just plan to use a smart phone application. my iphone has applications for all kinds of blogging updates, or i can just surf the web browser.
• ahead of time: depending on my anticipated needs i'll set up a posting ahead of time. example: our experience up into appalachia last summer i knew there was no wifi options, so i set up a blog post with a twitter widget that i could send updates to. i gave a shortened url link to the one of the ministry secretaries that she could put into the prayer chain emails.
• hardware: if you have a wifi connection bring your laptop. if you do this right you can stay up a few minutes after lights out, do what you need to do and then close shop and move into the next day. one of my key hardware pieces is a universal card reader. the best 30 bucks i ever spent in ministry. if you don't take the pictures, no worries, borrow someones camera card download theirs and use them to upload. same thing with video. if you have one or more video cameras (we used a sony webbie flip camera and a harddrive camcorder for our bahamas trip this year) bring what cables you need for charging & downloading. if they use flash/sd cards then you just need your universal reader..
• mobile upload: most social media sites have mobile upload options. you need to have them in your back pocket. twitter has an email to post option, as well as twitpic (which will post to your twitter). so if you can send pics or video through your cell service you are good to go. flickr also has an email that will post to your account. have your mobile apps tested out and ready to go before hand.
• choose your portal: life on a missions or other ministry experience is generally filled with little downtime. if you are like me you don't want to spend your every minute telling others and not living into the moment you are in. so, choose what your portal is for sharing. do you want to write out stories? or, like we have done, take the photos and put them out there to tell our story. this year we went more immediate video doing some little one or two minute update videos. since we are photo/video heavy this year, we just used flickr. set up a trip set and gave out the shortend url then populated it as the week went on. boy have we ever populated that... most likely too much. if you want to just have the youth or adult participants write stuff for blogs, give them a heads up. sometimes though its hard for people to sit down and write, so you either need to tell them what to talk about or give them the whole week to work on writing to get into a flow. some folks though, write very easily, well & quickly, look for those folks, but not at the detriment of the experience.
• clean it up: once you get home, clean up some of the url updates, spelling errors, add captions, edit finished versions, add more content, etc. people don't need everything, they love to get a taste or idea of what it looks like & what is happening.

disclaimer/distribution: i've been asked before if i've gotten permission for posting photos and such. yes & no. i've put in our release forms that this is part of our group & i tell parents that this is what we do, so if they have issue we can remedy the situation. most of the times our parents are exstatic to see what's going on. how often do they get frustrated with their kid going to camp, only to return & asked "what happened?" responding "nothin.." with this, they know something did happen. now, we do take some precautions of not putting in names, certainly not full names. we generically name photos most of the time. i don't do uber tagging so it falls into the greater searches, but is usable for my own search. with flickr you can protect download of pics to just your contacts/friends/family which is helpful if you can get people to get a free account and 'friend' you.

warmth in winter : story in photographs

i had many folks from my team of youth taking photos of warmth in winter. here is a bit of the story in photography

warmth in winter : glimpse into a retreat

this is partially a mobile test post

This is a pic of a core part of our design team for warmth in winter jumping around dancing at the end if another great retreat. they worked harder than ever before to make this one happen and it turned out great. view more photos at our conference flickr & my own flickr set.

caption contest & freebie : winners & close to winners

i got a little distracted, sorry, i know you all were waiting on the edge of your seats for this announcement. but i am naming my inauguration day caption contest freebie give away winners.

i loved all the captions for various reasons. so i'm giving away some choice stuff to my top three.

reverend mommy: "And how long will those indulgences last?" now i'd say that prez bush shouldn't believe in indulgences since he is methodist, but let's be honest, he isn't much for listening to his church, so this works for me

kevin alton: "...so he says (heh heh), 'Does the Pope wear a funny hat?' (heh) Get it? (heh heh) Get it? A funny hat!"  (heh) Pause. "What?" Pause. "Lemme start over..." i had john stewart's bush imitation in my head with this one, so i laughed pretty good with that. a bit long for a caption, but hey, this is my completely subjective contest.

aaron alexander: Now that I'm done with this President thing, you down for some Xbox this weekend? Call of Duty is right my alley! just the idea of the president playing video games, and its complete possibility was a great image to me.. and its within plausibility that he'd say something like this too.

to you three fine captioners. look in your mail for some treats courtesy of me.

caption contest & freebie : in recognition of inauguration day

inauguration day is always an great day. i know people have their reasons for this year being more special than others, but to know that we have a complete change of government leadership without violence or war is something to behold. so, in recognition of inauguration i've got this caption contest. cool thing, my completely subjectively chosen winner (and you can vote for who you think is best) will be sent a copy of my worship feast prayer stations cdrom project & maybe some more stuff, but i promise that one.

let the captioning begin!

unicef : photo of the year

i think many of us know of unicef for the little boxes they make for kids to go around and collect change. i am thinking about that change as i see this photo gallery submitted for their photo of the year. the winning one is called 'walking barefoot through misery' taken by a 21 year old girl.

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

the richardson clan : my girls

Originally uploaded by gavoweb.

two of my girls on saturday hiking the narrows of harpeth. not much of a hike, length wise, but the top of the bluff is quite a vertical climb. erin you recognize. the old gal is coe (co-ee). she's been with me for over 11 years now. ain't they good lookin?

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!

david crowder band : national youth workers convention

David Crowder Band : NYWC '08
Originally uploaded by gavoweb.

its been a busy day, we had a run on walk-ins at the labyrinth so i missed out on mark yaconelli and the morning session. its okay, he forgave me.

been uploading some of the photos from last nights session, this is one from david crowder band that i liked. you can check out more from the national youth workers convention here.

family reunion : photography of

i've posted a number of my photos from this weekends richardson family reunion. i also gave my d70 to my 10 yr old and 6 yr old nephews to take photos. can you tell which photos are taken by them over me?

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.

playing around : president 2028

we were doing some lighting things for an eventual (hopeful) video. johnathan & i thought this looked like a campaign poster.. so we made it one.

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

spread the word : stop the disease

via the ted folks, visit xdrtb.org for more info.

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.

photo essay : the american teenager

i find this photo essay rather interesting of the diversity of 'the american teenager'

its football time : the backyard rivalry

Originally uploaded by hfumcyouth

last friday kicked off the football season for me as youth pastor. two of my teams, that are hendersonville based smashed it up. station camp high school is a new & smaller school to hendersonville and played the established & larger hendersonville high school last year to an exciting last minute win with their first meeting. this year, hendersonville protected their home turf with a 35-3 win.

i loaned my camera to one of our youth who was taking pictures from the field. he did really well. taking action photos outside of natural light is a challenge.

check out our collection of photographs

note to self : no pictures of people kissing

we had our final summer event sunday evening. it was a traditional pool party. we moved the traditional site though one of our youth leaders million dollar residential properties they renovated and have on the market. we'd been out there before for food break when we had a day on the lake. so i had pictures. i took those pictures to make a poster for this event. i thought it was a pretty good poster... till this evening.. the youth informed me that one of their own is making out right smack dab in the middle of the poster in the picture i put up there. sure enough.. he is, and i did. (i added the new caption)

i've got no problem with some light pda. been around it a long time. this however is a first for me. gosh i hope it will be the last.

why i love olympics : why i love the president

adam likes this pic.. me, i'm a fav of this one.

i know i wouldn't fair too well if photographers and videographers followed me around, but they don't so i get to pick on those that do. as adam pointed out, the prez has left himself open for some.. interesting.. images at the olympics. surely you will see one or two on the daily show.

emergent revival : the church basement road show

so monday night i convinced wifey to join me at the church basement roadshow as it pulled through town. i had agreed to help with set up and whatever else being a part of the cohort. got to catch up with some fun peeps i don't hang with enough, lilly & sally come to mind. jay gave a quick run down. reba was there, though i didn't get to say hi to her in the chaotic fun. there were other friends that actually don't have a blog to link to, so just know they were there. since it was saint b's dixon was obviously there, but too busy to have good times chat. apparently holly, whom i've never met before and only read her blog occasionally, is now in town which was a new surprise.

this was by far the most creative book tour i've been an attendee of. the mix of old school 1908 revival, the fun play with personality and cultural norms, the impassioned storytelling, singing the revival song (especially after lilly, wifey, and myself had a conversation on singing not being the only worship way), the overlaying theological questions to faith and practice explored, and fellowship. i even got to toot on the trombone.. too bad i played sax in junior high, the woodwinds are significantly different than the brass instrument in playing, so it sounded more like fart sounds to me.. which, i guess is amusing in itself.

we bought the balm of gilead, hook line and sinker. way to go tony, mark, & doug. brilliant!

more fun photos from the church basement roadshow

home from mission : the pictures

 

i am home from appalachia service project (asp), our senior high summer mission experience. all was great i cannot complain about any of it. the youth were great, the youth minister were great, the staff was fab, the other youth community was great fun.

i should be napping.. not sure why i'm not.. so instead of that i re-enter the blog world with pictures from our week's experience. more later i am sure.

camp edge : vbs week at hendersonville

this week are are in vbs week. it is kinda standard the last few years for me to work with the 5th & 6th graders. we try to be more 'big kid' like so that this group isn't feeling so old for vbs. like last year, we are a test church for next years cokesbury/abingdon curriculum. the theme/title is called camp edge. being a camping kinda guy i like the theme, it's a piece of cake to work with decorations wise. our room is in a state of construction so we are sorta minimal in decor, but the rest of the place is off the hook.

the curriculum is still in development, so i won't say it's great or not great. i have liked the daily teaching stuff pretty well, we adapt most of it to fit our schedule and age group as we see it. we have been doing a lot of initiative game stuff that requires rope and other outdoor elements to help keep it moving. i really like the music, it has a good energy and some cool dance stuff (that i cannot do, but the youth can). plus there is a good component of sign language, which i like as well.

i'm starting to post pictures at our youth flickr site from this week. check it out i will keep posting them as i can. i know many folks will be wanting ideas for their vbs next year.

more on the links : and it's not golf

time just seems to be going everywhere but into blog posting. no biggie, just means i'm working with the youth who i am sorta paid to minister with. so for the time you can see some of the fruits of work & readings. this is my latest collection of stuff.

• television and our children's children
• imvu another up and coming virtual reality world
• theology of mission
• lyfe : connecting God to us
• phyllis tickle on the new emergence
• android (which i was reading about in wired) hits snag
• reduce camera shake
• pete rollins interview on church beyond belief
• teen pregnancy pact info.. penelope's celeb parent porn
• celebs reason for teen pregnancy pact
• the pregnancy pact is called into question
• fewer peeps going towards tech degrees
• teens feeling the recession pinch?
• parents leading teenagers back to the newspaper
• pagans and patriarchs
• wordle.. just try it
• incarnation in virtual world
• interval training is the way to go.. if only i exercised
• what communication lessons i learned in marriage counseling
• a church dominated by the young and unexperienced
• build your own photo wire wall
• words for non-believers
• church practice gutenberg mindset in google world
• map-it your brainstorm session
• waking up to pluralism
• the creative worship tour
• are you young umc clergy? this is for you then
• the new classics.. and what kat thinks of some of them
• i am thinking of a bamm experience for myself
• what books have changed your life?
• pastors need to theologian in weekly columns.. they still do this?
• diary of an outreach flop
• i don't get radiohead, but this is a cool stage set!
• thomas's welcome message
• mitch on facebook past, myspace present, linked-in future.. hmm
• scot on the whole dobson obama junk
• white people like to compare folks to hitler.. and acting poor
• does the church have a responsibility to encourage carpooling?
• for teens email just doesn't cut it.. duh! i've know that for years
• ypulse on some hypothetical questions of youth, social media culture
• teens crashing pools using google earth.. hmm.. smart.. maybe use street view too
• bullying becoming a younger thing
• my faith isn't the only way.. neither is yours
• cutting understanding the self-mutilating teenager

junior high mission : hump day

DSC_5040.JPG
Originally uploaded by hfumcyouth

so it is wednesday and it is our 2nd day of out and about work. i am the set driver for the saint andrews mission/urban ministry center. it's pretty darn cool. it is a dead methodist church in urban chattanooga that has been brought to life partnering with all kinds of immigrant congregations, community college, after-school programs, and more.. it is wonderful.

mike the pastor who heads it all up is a mutual friend from working with youth03 & youth07.

one thing i like about the place. wi-fi.. i have been able to upload pictures and send out email updates. check out our growing camp lookout service week flickr set.

nashvillest : photo of the day

pretty cool. one of my pics has been pulled for nashvillest's photo of the day. thanks folks

eikon photography : action workshop

for those of you in and around hendersonville area & take a lot of photos. i wanted to invite you over to an evening with don mcpeak. don is a professional photographer of a different sort. he is passionate about action imagery. he works with belmont, tsu, sumner schools, and others. from what he told me he had a thumb print on a march madness issue of sports illustrated. since i don't get sports illustrated i cannot confirm this, but i trust him. &:~D

come by our 3rd floor lounge area at 6:30pm sunday june 1st and 8th. don will be going over the aspects of good and poor action shots. some technical aspects and some play time. so bring your camera for some good fun and learning so you can catch all those fine moments during a fabulous summer.

download eikondonmcpeak.pdf

fatherless : photoblog

Defend the weak and the fatherless;
       uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. -psalm 82

tuesday randomness : link love

for your review

• zombie protestors in nashville
• church teamwork
• how to shoot band promo photos
• shane claiborne's scandelous sermon at nywc '07
• what every good marketer should know
• parenting & jr. high dance
• small time ministry with big dreams
• not too fat for me
• turn point & shoot camera into super-camera
• found who i am voting for in '08 wooo!
• interview with phyllis tickle
• small churches should embrace cheap technology
• scot mcknight at shift conference
• wayne on the complications in myanmar
• infinite world of the web

where do we get this time to work on the internet?

happy mom's day : picture share

i've been really poor with my uploading pics to my project 365 this past month. but for all the mothers out there from our front porch family to yours, Happy Mother's Day

tuesday randomness : linkage of a different kind

so some things to look at when you have free time like so many of us. i need to send out tips for some of these.. i just don't know who. so apologies for not giving appropriate props today. i still love and appreciate you for being so wonderful

• beth gives her rundown on general conference
• post general conference poem
• 10 reasons men should not be ordained
• hauerwas, moral superiority of gays
• necessity of christian culture
• the theo-celebrity deathmatch continues
• the future of emergent gathering...
• who didn't see this coming? apparently car dealers
• 21 ways to shoot better photographs
• dan kimball visits the holyland.. in orlando
• latest worship resources from jonny baker
• if i wasn't already at camp i'd imagine going
• ultimate fooseball
• what will you buy to stimulate the economy?
• the ultimate dance off
• 10 ways to work on subject matter in linkedin (big for me, i have no idea what to do with linkedin)
• blogging getting a second wind? you decide
• which comes first the gathering or the crowd?
• make some stop motion video
• can twitter be liberated? i didn't know it was captured
• a new american
• top down vs bottom up polity in the church
• is facebook now part of a murder?
• apparently you are not God's favorite

after the party : shift conference

fancy that. the folks at willow creek have added two of my photos to the frontpage of the shift conference website. i knew they liked my photos, they asked if they could use them and i sent them a dvd of them. i didn't realize they were throwing them up on the site. cool. the two they are using are not my favorites (here & here), but they are more willow than many of the others. the others being of charlie hall or the various speakers, so maybe that has something to do with that.

if you hadn't seen the rest of them. check out the flickr conference set.

tuesday randomness : mass of linkage

just some random links of my interest.

• sam & cool people care are moving into the land of business plan
• figuring out plugrug.com, a "digg" for the christian?
• free christian graphics and photos
• when a girl has to go, the girl has to go.
• hopes and fears of general conference
• my generation hopes and fears
• rabbi shmuley debating dawkins via bw3
• long portrait video
• the loss of church as public from jason clark
• cutting, emo, hope & God
• some folks not happy about the various peeps at the conference i was at last week
• don't mix magic and evangelism tip to my friend jeremy
• traditional versus contemporary?
• erin made her first blog friend, and he happens to be a youth pastor
• methodism's approval rating.. not bad
• churchy phrases that make kat crazy!
• powerful image from chris
• ariah's always good tuesday youtube collection
• internetmonk's school of blogging faculty, i think i am the janitor

shift conference : pilgrim pictures

i wonder if i pee'v people off taking pictures the way i do. it's become part of my spiritual practice, a framework of my narrative if you will. i now have a flickr album of this pilgrim experience set up. check them out!

shift conference photo album

some rainy days

  project365:92 - run off 
  Originally uploaded by gavoweb.

had an early morning today with crimson, our youngest and largest dog, jumping into our bed because of the lightning and thunder storms. the storms continued for the day. lots of flash flooding area. i have a video project i am working on for worship on sunday that needed some filming. so david & i happened to make it over to the creek that runs into old hickory lake. needless to say. the water was a little high.

so i added this one to my project 365.

project365:87 - new family

  project365:87 - new family 
  Originally uploaded by gavoweb.

i finally got around to updating and uploading my project 365 photos. this is a picture i have been trying to capture all week. we have had this mourning dove make one of our hanging baskets home for the last few weeks. this week i saw her feeding little ones but she wouldn't allow me a picture. yesterday they were peeking out enough to get a shot of our new family members. not that attractive, but we are still excited about 'em.

i haven't named all the photos as of yet, but you can check out the lot by visiting my project365 set.

somebody's sick idea for kids : wish i thought of this

 

we had a great day at church & afterwards hanging with the family. before our lunch we had an easter egg hunt. my mom picked up a bunch of these camouflage easter eggs or grass green eggs which where hilarious that you could just stick them in a little tuft of grass and kids can't find them. it was hilarious and incredibly mean. wish i thought of creating that. it could have been my million.. or at least a few hundred thousand.

more easter weekend pics

resurrection

hang in there saturday

 

spent today with the family. my sister and her fam drove in to hang out at with my bro and new family. my mom & dad drove up as well to hang, but they are staying with us. for what has been a real trying week, personally & spiritually, this is a fun way to spend the easter weekend. got some fun pics from our weekend.