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.

social media love song : it aint no joke.. well, maybe it is

how can i resist a country music song extrapolating the ills of a man trying to meet a woman via social media. many thanks to john for unearthing this one

where faith is going wrong in social media : life without pants & a little bit of south park

the last of my four installments guest posting at matt cheuvront's "life without pants" blog on spirituality & social media is out for the world to see titled "where faith gets it wrong." i bring back some thoughts you've seen on this blog before, from my thoughts on why your podcast isn't reaching who you think it is to some of my ideas i shared at podcamp nashville. go check it out and comment on any of the postings. tell me i'm full of crap (i just might be) or whatever else your get to thinking about.

some things are still just fun : revisiting one of the things

as i am catching up on the blogosphere & other feeds i was reading up on josh browns continued dismay with social media. i get his sentiment.. it had me thinking then of some of the stuff that made the early onset of social media really great. wandered around the net a bit and stumbled back upon this viral video gem. it is still great to me & for many others i am sure.

it has me thinking, what gives some web sensation staying power?

blogging towards enlightenment : discovering your virtual self

i've been doing some guest postings over at matt cheuvront's 'life without pants' blog talking up spirituality and social media. last week we talked about enlightenment & blogging today we are talking about discovering your virtual self.

got check them out, let me know what you think. lay claim to some of the stories & expand on them. did i mention that my latest posting i actually use capitalization? yeah, it was wreaking havoc on matt post editing

rear view mirror on violence & identity : because you need more marshall mcluhan

almost 30 minutes of great thinking & conversation debate

marshall mcluhan on getting it wrong : shades of a new politic

i don't know care about your politic with this posting. but one needs to take notice of how the obama campaign took a long shot candidate and made him into a anomyly. david bulluck goes through how the campaign used social media in barack 2.0.

went back to these thoughts as i listened to mcluhan bash how presidential campaigns used television. are politician handlers figuring it out finally?

holy week worship video : worship tricks

next week we are doing our midday holy week services in our youth space (cause its' the coolest) and most artistically driven area and the pastors want to do some more experiential worship stuff. we'll do some prayer stations stuff for sure & some various smells. but what about our visuals?

i've pretty much sold myself on parsing this video stopping it through good friday & then showing the full thing on easter. i love simple & creative stuff. this is right up my alley

spirituality & social media : perfect together

when i grew up in new jersey i remember these ad's saying something like 'new jersey & you, perfect together'.. well, matt cheuvront at 'life without pants' has posted the first in my guest series on spirituality and social media. today i throw out the case that this who social media / web 2.0 explosion can be good for the faith.. is twitter the new town square, introduction to spirituality and social media.

marshall mcluhan on church safety : life without pants guest post

for the next few weeks i will be guest posting over at matt cheuvrot's blog 'life without pants' covering thoughts on spirituality & social media. some thoughts (listen for the return to tribal culture mention) i ponder in my first posting are reflected in this snippet of marshall mcluhan. as with most things i hear, i relate them to church life. can you guess what i was thinking?

hendersonville geek breakfast : come hang with all my geek friends

erin & i have been a part of the tech community for a few years now. our latest thing has been to attend the monthly geek breakfasts. tho we've missed a few cause our doctors appointments seemed to have fallen on the same thursdays. anyways, if you are around the hendersonville i invite you to join in with our first hendersonville geek breakfast. fellow geek bill seaver has taken upon himself to be our organizer.

details: thursday april 9th, from 7:30am to 9am at mimi's cafe.

twouble with twitter : hilarious look at twitter

i get asked about twitter & why enough times that i am fine with saying, if your skeptical don't do it. i like len sweet's framing of twitter as passing on the town green. i've established some relationships, made a bunch of jokes, shared a ton of information, & wasted some time that was probably better off done somewhere else. adam cleaveland shared this hilarious video about twitter, on twitter, by the folks at current tv. as with most good satire, you need to know a bit of twitter to get the full fun, but even without that knowledge you'll be able to laugh at it. for a more serious look at twitter you can check out the 'twitter in plain english'

update: the folks at neatorama are having a bit of a slam on twitter after sharing this video

social media comprehensive : barbara rozgonyi

i met barbara rozgonyi a few years back at a worship leading & keynote session up in chicago. had some fab conversation and we've been blogger & twitter buddies since. she's much more advanced than i in the world of public relations & marketing in the social media spectrum, so in the past years i've learned a whole lot more from her than i taught in one chilly morning. she posted one of her presentations on slideshare on social media presence. this doesn't have her teaching it, which leaves out some of the fun, but within it you can find some very good numbers and warnings. for me too, it was a heads up that i probably need to pay attention to linkedin better (which as of now i just haven't done much with).

Speaking Of Social Media Marketing and PR

View more presentations from Barbara Rozgonyi.

business cards & youth ministry : the green business card

i've been in youth ministry for going on 15+ years now. in those years i've possessed maybe two business cards, all bought for me by someone else. never in those 15+ years has a teenager asked me for a business card. so why have them? i never saw the need.

now, in this new day of my youth ministry career i find myself doing more networking within the larger church & most recently the nashville (soon to be hendersonville) tech community. i am feeling the need to get some business cards. here are my two options i'm going with.

1. i've put together the sms contxt card. all you need to do is txt 'gavoweb' to 50500 and you will receive some of my basic business card info. this is paperless, which is an excellent 'green' usage. wasn't technology & the computer supposed to get rid of the need for paper?.. right.. well, here is atleast a spot to try something new out that is paperless. not to mention, if you are a youth leader like me, your primary audience is one of people who txt like mad seems logical to use.

2. i am ordering "mini-cards" which are small, baseline essential versions of business cards. now, i don't know if they prove to be something more effective than a stack of traditional business cards, but i like the concept and the coolness factor of being smaller. i might not call this 'green' i don't know the ins and outs of paper product to say that just because this is smaller means it uses less paper. it probably does.. but really i think its cool, not to mention the cool mini card holder.

religious spiritual christ-follower emerging emergent missional : other defining typos

i just love religious satire. its so telling & holds up a mirror showing us how we really are. i pulled this gem out for a twitter conversation, but it reminds me of some of the whole definition/tags that people are willing & not willing to give themselves. it also reminded me of one of the snippets of prophetic twitterspeak i shared at my spirituality & social media session at podcamp nashville.

someone who gets social media : interview with charlene li @ sxsw

as i've mentioned. our church gets social media & networks wrong all over the place. here's a gem of an interview with charlene li of groundswell. its not over the top point making, but she is so on target for where church/corporate entities need to examine themselves within the social media spectrum.

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.

more explaination of technology & virtual community : shane hipps day

zach lind did this little video interview for his podcast expanding a little more on what shane was getting at with technology & the virtual community.


Shane Hipps and Zach Lind Discuss Virtual Community. from Zach Lind on Vimeo.

virtual community is not possible : shane hipps day

this is the video by shane hipps in a little snippet interview by the out or ur folks at the national pastors convention. scot mcknight took some of this to task as well & kept going with it as shane chipped back in. tony jones also threw in his thoughts on virtual community into the conversation.

know how your technology is shaping you : shane hipps day

this is a good little video interview between rob bell & shane hipps (tip terrace) where shane flips on you what might be your preconceived notions on how technology is shaping you & culture.

Rob Bell Interviews Shane Hipps About Technology.

twitter mosaic : just cause its cool

Get your twitter mosaic here.

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).

spirituality & social media : my podcamp nashville video

john w ellis, who has become one of our buddies in the nashville tech circle video taped my talk from podcamp nashville on saturday.

PodCamp Nashville: Spirituality & Social Media by Gavin Richardson from John Ellis on Vimeo

some links to referenced sites

• real live preacher
• emerging church wikipedia page : emergent village
• father roderick
• south park episode on the loss of the internet
• asbo jesus
• blasphemy challenge : youtube video
• tweet jeebus
• filioque
• second life
• old jews telling jokes

podcamp nashville : in the news

newschannel 5 did a quick segment on our 'so called' unconference. i didn't get show, which i thought i might as the camera seemed to sneak up behind me. but it did show buddy john ellis giving his presentation on all things new with google..

spirituality & social media : the internet is our parish : podcamp nashville

here are the slides of my presentation earlier this morning at podcamp nashville. there were a couple of video recordings of the session, so i will link and post to those when they become available.

spirituality & social media : the internet is our parish

View more presentations from gavoweb. (tags: socialmedia spirituality)

spirituality & social media : the internet is our parish
by gavin richardson
website : www.gavoweb.com
email : gavoweb@gmail.com
twitter : gavoweb

slide 1-2 : intro of self. this presentation is a quick exploration of how people have been living out and shaping their spiritual lives through the various social media tools. this is important to explore so that we can see how we are being shaped by these culture tools & come to understand how to use them to reflect who we are, not to be consumed by them. the flow of the presentation is, looking at how this is an excellent partnership, sharing some stories of faith in the social media spectrum, where faith goes wrong, suggestions that are just my humble opinion, and a little joke

slide 3 : the printing press as far as faith goes, has & continues to have the most profound impact on people living out their faith. up until that point scripture readings and community theological conversation happened at the temple, the well, the home. you had to go where people were gathered only in the creation of the printing press did scripture become accessible to the common person. you also see a further excentuating of a linear teaching but in the core, ministry is relational & creation of social media relationship is sought out by participants.. the church needs to break away from its hang ups on what ‘its always done’ because it hasn’t always done this. its actually a quite modern experience’

slide 4 : real live preacher was one of the first bloggers to take on a large following. 1. early adopter to the medium 2. there is something brilliant & counter to what people have experienced with pastors and he is expressing.. authenticity, availability, and pastor before you might have only had the stoic pastor who’s secrets, failures, struggles as a practicer of faith were kept out of sight and not talked about because that would ruin the integrity of the pastor. pastors were perfect, on a pedestal to be marveled at, but here, is another way

slide 5 : the emerging church movement was a grassroots shift in the evangelical church that brought a postive (as i see it) conversation to the church. blogging was their primary platform for the exchange of ideas and cultivating conversations and relationships. because we are faddish emergent can be taboo, emerging means something different, and ‘missional’ seems to be the new adjunct buzz word from the whole 6-7 year era. the wikipedia page was great, at one time it had in its links some 200 blog listings as ‘authoritative emergent blogs’

slide 6-9 : as with any faith the prophets are those people who are so extremely close to God that they can't help but to share what messages they are receiving. unlike our own time of logical reasoning prophets usually speak in poetry, lyric, dreams, etc. with the new mediums we might have to expand how some of or prophetic messages, which are generally hard messages to take, come to us..

slide 10-12 : i am a sucker for religious satire. the brilliance of satire is that, just like people people who watch the fake news, you actually have to know what the news is about. tweetjeebus, who went silent right before christmas day was one of my favorites. if anyone knows the some quick history of the great schism one of the big lines in the sand was an 'and' in the nicene creed one of my favorite twitter days was after charlton heston died. there was just some great images of the nra advocate who had been so revered in playing moses joining in with the communion of saints

slide 13-14 : my favorite of podcasters is father roderick. he started his podcasting career out when pope john paul 2 became ill as a news show for catholics wanting to know.. what came out of that was the catholic insider a podcast that was part news, q & a, and tour of the world. he's since parred his podcasting down to the daily breakfast which is a less technical podcast, but still incredibly interactive and covers a gammit o of subjects. just last week he had a long discussion on battle star galactica what is unique to this religious podcast is that people interact with him. this isn't his sermon series. he's accessible and average in his speak.

slide 15-16 : going off the normal social media map i want to mention a little bit on virtual communities in virtual worlds. this is me.. i live out my monastic tendencies in second life. i a homeless guy floating around from church area to area, but i have a base church that is united church of christ i have worshiped in. and with that i've made a lot of connections with the lgbt community. what is remarkable, as in this ash wednesday service at the lgbt church in second life, these are real people who are hurt enough by the stigmas that these virtual environments are a 'safe' place to live out their faith.

slide 17 : not everything is always a positive in the world of faith. the blasphemy challenge was a big thing a few years back where a 'rational response squad' asked people to do the unforgivable sin by blaspheming the holy spirit and god.. reading off a general script. this took up some decent number of responses as well as send a bunch of religious folks into a tizzy

slide 18-19 : so where does faith go wrong with some of this stuff? i'd say that one of the things that the religious institutions have trouble with is control. control of content, what is being said, the unfiltered-ness of discussion and that everyone has the ability for the same footing as every pastor, bishop, cardinal, cleric, rabbi, etc. i feel that churches too quickly jump onto the social media train. we need a facebook account, we need to twitter, we need this.. but they never ask why and they never listen to what is already being said by people out there. it is also to note that when the people of faith and the institutions get too involved with these or any tools it can get to an extreme where it turns on you i love south park, they do some of the best social commentary i my opinion. this episode where they lost the internet and the whole culture went bizerk. this is a moment where stan's sister meets her online boyfriend face to face & they don't know how to talk. but when the internet comes back they can get back together again. the church doesn't need to get so enamored with tech that forgets how to actually talk to people and relate.

slide 20 : so in my humble opinion. the "people" of faiths should seek out to listen first.. if that includes joining, so be it, but listen first to what people are saying and doing. make friends, however that looks, and cultivate relationships without agenda. maybe the sole agenda is to love another, and by love we seek the best for that person. i think the institutions should get away from social media as an institution.. i care not to hear about your pot luck dinner so-and-so church. but i might like to hear some of the personal struggles or triumphs of your leaders. give me somebody, not some entity.

slide 21-22 : one of my fav new sites that a fellow youth leader tipped me off too is a site created by the children of the jewish faith asking their jewish parents and friends to tell their best joke. this is great, the judaic faith is known for its storytelling so all their folks are great storytellers in their own ways. so i close with, an old jew who tells jokes.

slide 23: thanks!

podcamp nashville : the internet is our parish

hey nashville friends, podcamp is just around the corner (ie. saturday). i'm doing my first ever speaking gig at this podcamp. erin & i have been faithful attenders and participants of the barcamps & geekbreakfasts here in nashville. love the tech community here.

my session is on spirituality in the social media spectrum. what will bascially be bringing up is some significant pieces of how faith is acted out with some reflections as to why i feel they are remarkable.

i'll be putting in some church suggestions in there as well, but that stuff isn't as much fun as telling stories.

i showed erin my presentation and walked her through my unwritten script. she really liked it. since she's my barometer i'm feeling pretty good.

not in nashville & want to get plugged in? if i can get some reasonable way to put together a ustream, you can find me at my ustream channel (which i rarely use). you can follow along all the podcamp nashville fun on twitter by following #pcn09.

podcamp nashville : spirituality and social media

i am doing my first 'out of church' crowd speaking event since i left my work at tennessee state univ. i've put myself into the mix for speaking at podcamp nashville. i'll be speaking about spirituality in social media. here's my little write up

hey, the name is gavin & i am career youth pastor with a twist of technological participant anthropologist. i imagine our time together to be an exploration of how people have been (and are able) to find & express faith through the social media spectrum. from blogging, to storytelling, podcasting, daily prayers, second life, & of course twitter.

if we get there (that 25 min limit you never know) we will look at how the established faith systems have been largely slow to respond. from static content websites to twitter the faith systems are trying it out, but is it the right way? what is ministry in a technological age?

follow up will probably happen at my blog.
http://www.gavoweb.com

i'll be reframing some of my usual talks in that i will be assuming my audience is more tech savy and does not need all the translation that i normally put into a tech presentation (which can become the whole presentation depending on the crowd).

immersing in the new media : what has happened to my blogging

i regularly called blogging my spiritual practice. it was a way of reflecting on some idea or challenge that came across in my day. however, if i was honest with myself, the 'spiritual' aspect of my blogging practice was waining. very few times did i really have some thought that was challenging on a daily basis. instead, and probably more healthy as a practice, i was pondering something for weeks or months at a time. but that doesn't help in keeping an active blog going. so i have been feeling like i was putting in a bunch of filler stuff.

well, some of that filler stuff (which i do think was good most of the time, admittedly not all the time) is moving around to other avenues, along with some of my other ponderings. i am more and more using twitter as a way of crossing the town green, sharing prayers, information, links and photos from my day etc. i have also taken advantage of posting within facebook.

i've started to reshape my blog to reflect this change. putting all my lifestream stuff through friendfeed and showing it off on the side bar. i also created a lifestream page that is more expanded.

tricky part to all of this is that there is not a searchable long tail in twitter content. its probably a good thing as i am not sure i want to find 140 character snippets for the first page of all my searches. so what is worthy of sharing for the long term? i'm still trying to figure that one out.

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?

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?

marketing shift : why old ways don't work

i was saying to erin last night, "i just get frustrated in how & why to i can't seem to communicate with these kids & parents." i was speaking of an information/logistic type communications. not a spiritual sense. with the all the different messages they get mine seem to get diluted. i know that our churches as a whole experience this problem & i'm pondering how i can find my way through and help communicate to my churches how they can do the same (a monumental task i believe). so with all that in mind, this little video, which i ran across in my reader (but i lost who actually posted it to 'tip' them), highlights the large shift of brand communication.



Scholz & Friends: "Dramatic shift in marketing reality from Michael Reissinger

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.

participatory media : literacy teaching

i loved this quote from michael wesch on why he is moving away from literacy teaching as primary to integration of participatory media literacy.

We use social media in the classroom not because our students use it, but because we are afraid that social media might be using them - that they are using social media blindly, without recognition of the new challenges and opportunities they might create.

to back him up, i've got a little marshall mcluhan again. that's 2x in a day. gotta be a record.

as someone who is doing some of this with my youth ministry i am grateful for some of the words & perspective to communicate this idea. i also like the rheingold quote.

If print culture shaped the environment in which the Enlightenment blossomed and set the scene for the Industrial Revolution, participatory media might similarly shape the cognitive and social environments in which twenty first century life will take place (a shift in the way our culture operates). For this reason, participatory media literacy is not another subject to be shoehorned into the curriculum as job training for knowledge workers.

madv & marshall mcluhan : the crazy early adopters

i stumbled onto this when i was talking driver49 into plugging in friendfeed lifestream into his site (something at the moment of writing this we cannot claim complete success). he unearthed an article from clive thompson at wired, about some of the youtube culture.

i mentioned in the comment that the youtube illustration was highlighted in dr. michael wesch's presentation to the library of congress (a great synopsis/history of digital video culture as acted out in youtube). if i were listening, which i am, michael wesch's stuff is where i'd be listening too. they are creative and intelligently observing the anthropology of technological culture. but i do like this snippet from clive's article.

Marshall McLuhan pointed out that whenever we get our hands on a new medium we tend to use it like older ones. Early TV broadcasts consisted of guys sitting around reading radio scripts because nobody had realized yet that TV could tell stories differently. It's the same with much of today's webcam video; most people still try to emulate TV and film. Only weirdos like MadV are really exploring its potential.

i like the little snarky comment of only the weirdos, the fringe people, or the earliest adopters are really exploring the potential of some of the mediums we find in social technologies.

Marshall McLuhan from Gavin Richardson.

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).

unfettered hope : technology and commodification of parents

...the development of the technological milieu has caused parents to lose the natural authority they held when their children needed them to learn skills to survive. The device paradigm of our culture has also eroded parent-child relationships, for young people can easily envision their parents only as the device from which they can derive commodities of toys, money, clothes, or technological gadgets.

from unfettered hope, by marva dawn