Archive - March, 2009

Is Online Community “Real” Community? Answer This Question Please…

March 31, 2009 in Technology-Social Media with 16 Comments

Asking whether or not online community is real community is really not even a good question, or the right question in my opinion, but it’s one that everyone seems to be asking.  Lots of people have already answered that question but many are continuing to wrestle with it.

I think online community is real community, and just by the fact that we are having that conversation, or asking that question tells me it does exist, otherwise it would be a moot point.

Now sure, we could go on from there and talk about what kind of community it is I suppose, but I believe it’s community.

This conversation recently was stirred up by Shane Hipps interview at National Pastor’s Convention where he says virtual community is virtual, but not community. Anne Jackson says it’s connection, not community. And Scot McKnight says it isn’t that simple to answer.

Tell us what you think: Is Online Community, Real Community? Why? Why Not?

Dawn Carter: What Are You Passionate About?

March 27, 2009 in Ministry-Theology, Technology-Social Media with 4 Comments

dec_headshot_dh01Who is Dawn Carter?
I met Dawn online about a year and a half ago, and we soon found out that some students that I had in in the college ministry I pastored in Los Angeles, she had had in her youth group. That was our connecting point, and from there we have had the opportunity to connect in person on a couple of occasions. She has always been a huge encouragement to me, especially the last time we chatted at the Innovation3 Gathering in Dallas this last January. Dawn, not only has encouraging words to share with others, but they always seem to be so timely and prophetic as well.

Dawn is the Director of Marketing for 360Hubs, which is a web tool thats “goal is to connect people, content and ideas around an affinity need.” She is also an active member of Sandals Church in Riverside, CA. You can find Dawn blogging at Chronicles of Dawnia as well as twittering away.

Dawn, I appreciate your ministry, both online and in-person. (Not that we are distinguishing between the two).

In Her Own Words

What are you really passionate about?

I am passionate about God’s love, truth and light breaking cycles of brokenness in His Bride, the Church. Although a church-attender all my life, I’ve lived so much of my life feeling distant from God’s love, but knowing it with my head. I’ve also wasted tons of years living with lies—holding onto distorted images of who He was, who I was to Him. Now, my life is a walking example that God can take anyone, no matter how messed up they are (e.g. externally religious, morally bankrupt) and use them as a “planting for the display of His splendor”. Because these two themes — head knowledge without heart and living with lies– were prevalent while I was very churched, I am really passionate about God’s people stepping out of darkness and experiencing freedom from religiosity, addictions, shame, lies and un-grieved places in their hearts. I absolutely love seeing God free captives, especially those trapped in church culture.

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Why I Love & Use Logos Bible Software…

March 26, 2009 in Ministry-Theology, Technology-Social Media with 4 Comments

coffee-shop-seatingAs I continue to use and get more acquainted with Logos Bible Software, I will post and bring some of these things to your attention, as I hope you too may find them useful. I’m currently using the Scholar’s Library and I’m amazed at how convenient and fast it has been to access and gather material for teaching and preaching, as well as how it has enhanced my study time.

There are many ways one puts together a sermon or teaching time, as well as how they use material in their personal study or devotion time.

Let me just share briefly how I have found this software useful for my own preparation time (i.e. teaching, writing, blogging, researching, etc). Let me walk you through some steps.

First of all, location is key to me. I like to study at coffee shops. Not everyone likes this method and prefers the quietness of an office, or a mixture of both. But I love studying in a busy environment and I feel like it keeps me from isolating myself from the realities of life, as I get to watch, listen and observe others.

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Some Midweek Technology: Controversy, Convergence, Creativity and Fun

March 25, 2009 in Ministry-Theology, Technology-Social Media with 2 Comments

A couple of things in the area of technology and some of the social media tools we use–caught my eye this week. And I wanted to share them with you because I think they are of great importance for us as we think through and wrestle with the implications of our technology and our theology.

twittervoice3dscreenshot3-thumbFirst, as I have mentioned before, one of my favorite blogs is John Dyer’s, Don’t Eat The Fruit. I love his tagline, “technology is fast, but redemption is slow.”

Well, John in his free time decided to create a Twitter application for fun, but that also reflected in his creation what words could not. And his design has a very insightful theological approach. In the post TwitterVoice3D: Creativity, Chaos, and Order in the Online World, John says this:

Twitter is an amazing showcase of human creativity. Yet, as with all human creations, it needs to be ordered. If one were to fully join the conversation of Twitter, one would have to be on it all day, all the time, every minute. But to be creative as God intended us, we must order it, rather than let it order us. In a sense, we have to go against it’s nature as chaotic and discarnate and choose to make it orderly and use it for incarnate ends.

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Identity & Relationality

March 23, 2009 in Ministry-Theology, Therapy-Psychology with 4 Comments

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“The Quaker teacher Douglas Steere was fond of saying that the ancient human question ‘Who am I?’ leads inevitably to the equally important question, ‘Whose am I?’–for there is no selfhood outside of relationship. We must ask the question of selfhood and answer it as honestly as we can, no matter where it takes us. Only as we do so can we discover the community of our lives.

As I learn more about the seed of true self that was planted when I was born, I also learn more about the ecosystem in which I was planted–the network of communal relationships in which I am called to live responsively, accountably and joyfully with beings of every sort. Only when I know both seed and system, self and community, can I embody the great commandment to love both my neighbor and myself.” (pp. 17-Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation by Parker Palmer)

I love that excerpt from the book. It really expands the whole concept of identity and vocation as being simply about “me”, “I”, et cetera and expands it to the community and the relationships that we have. It is one thing to ask questions about and wrestle with what I should do, but it’s a completely different thing to ponder about whom I’m to live out my vocation before, and from whom am I to gain a sense of identity from. For Palmer and others, any sense of identity comes from the relationships that we are a part of, and outside of those relationship, we do not get a clear picture of our own identity.

Let’s play this out:

  • As Christians we gain our sense of identity in our relationship with Jesus Christ. Outside of this relationship with Jesus Christ our lives bear no meaning and our sense of calling, vocation and work is lost. Think about who you would be without your relationship with Jesus Christ? Is it Christ that helps give shape to your identity and meaning to your vocation and calling? Continue Reading…

Jason Taylor: What Are You Passionate About?

March 20, 2009 in Ministry-Theology, Technology-Social Media with 2 Comments

jason_9-25-08Who Is Jason Taylor?
I met Jason online of course (thank you Twitter), and I was impressed with his thoughts, and I appreciated the great comments he was leaving on my blog, and the encouragement he gave via Twitter. Jason has a varied work experience (mortgage industry, former church planter) and he currenlty lives in Oregon where he works for a company called Ministry Coaching International. You can check out his ministry coaching bio to find out more about him.

I haven’t met Jason in person yet, but we are chatting about meeting up in Texas at some point when he is down in Austin on business. I’m loving how the online world is coming to fruition in the offline world. I find his enthusiasm and passion to be super contagious and I definitely think that there needs to be more life coaches like him.

Check out Jason Taylor’s new blog. And connect with him on Twitter.

In His Own Words

What are you really passionate about?

I’d have to point back to my Life Plan and say that my #1 passion is to influence and inspire others towards life transformation.   For me, there’s just nothing like helping someone move forward in some aspect of life.   It can be something as simple as teaching someone how to use a new technology or walking with someone through a really dark time.   I love that.

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Identity in Weakness

March 19, 2009 in Ministry-Theology, Therapy-Psychology with 5 Comments

weaknessThis post is an ongoing reflection on the book Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation by Parker Palmer.

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” 2 Corinthians 12:9

In the previous post I discussed the issue of our limitations. That we live within the tension of facing both our potential and possibilities when it comes to career, calling, vocation, as well as facing our limitations and how that may shape, form or guide our direction.

We sometimes are trapped in language games and when we don’t use the right word we can sometimes fail to really understand or grasp what we are talking about or the issue at hand.

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Exploring Virtual/Online Church

March 18, 2009 in Ministry-Theology, Technology-Social Media with 7 Comments


LifeChurch.tv Second Life Campus Tour

Douglas:

Is the virtual church a real/genuine church?

Andrew

Absolutely not. But neither is a physical gathering in a church building on a Sunday morning. The body of Christ is a spiritual aggregation of believers whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. That body finds itself aggregated, or called out into assembly with each other, in both physical and virtual gatherings. There are seeking non-believers in both physical and virtual aggregations so neither expression can claim to be fully church. And also, there are believers in physical churches who connect with each other online during the week and there are believers from cyber-churches and online faith communities who intentionally seek out physical meetings when possible. The dividing line between the two is therefore more artificial than actual. (Andrew Jones being interviewed by Doug Estes)

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Paradigm Shifting, Life Shaping Books

March 17, 2009 in Uncategorized with 15 Comments

It seems we all like books. And we especially like making lists of books. In 2005 I wrote The Five Books I Would Recommend to a College Student…or Actually, to Anyone!, and listed in another post the Top 100 Religious Books of the 20th Century According to Christianity Today. If you want you could access lists for the 100 Best Novels and 100 Best Nonfiction Lists, and yes, there is even a list for the 100 Must-Read Books: The Essential Man’s Library. Sorry women, I couldn’t find your list.

But what I’m interested in here is another list. Books that have been paradigm shifting, and life shaping for you.

When we think of books in those terms I think the lists we have are often reduced, because just not every book, or every other book….or even 1 in every 1000 book or so is paradigm shifting, and for that matter gives shape to your life.

There were many more I could have listed, but I have listed my 10 below. It’s interesting to notice how many of them come out of required reading for graduate school or my vocational interests. So though these books are important to me, I wonder what new books will be added as my vocational interests broaden over the years. As a former pastor, current therapist and social media/tech dabbler, the books I choose might be very different than someone else in the same lines of profession, and maybe very, very different from someone in different vocations. Maybe?

What 10 books have been paradigm shifting and life shaping for you?

The Latin Quarter, Paris, France

These are my 10, and I will just say why in 1-2 sentences, or maybe just a few words…AND they are not in order of importance (except the Bible), but rather alphabetically by author’s last name.

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Limits and Potential: Living Free Within That Tension

March 16, 2009 in Ministry-Theology, Therapy-Psychology with 5 Comments

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“Everything in the universe has a nature, which means limits as well as potentials, a truth well known by people who work daily with the things of the world. Making pottery, for example, involves more than telling the clay what to become. The clay presses back on the potter’s hands, telling her what it can and cannot do–and if she fails to listen, the outcome will be both frail and ungainly. Engineering involves more than telling materials what they must do. If the engineer does not honor the nature of the steel or the wood or the stone, his failure will go beyond aesthetics: the bridge or the building will collapse and put human life in peril.

The human self also has a nature, limits as well as potentials. If you seek vocation without understanding the material you are working with, what you build with your life will be ungainly and may well put lives in peril, your own and some of those around you. “Faking it” in the service of high values is no virtue and has nothing to do with vocation. It is an ignorant, sometimes arrogant, attempt to override one’s nature, and it will always fail.
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