Seriously, it’s only $40 if you register by Friday.
The Christian Web Conference will be at Biola University September 11-12.
The conference is tagged as Bright People Engaging Big Ideas, and should be a great time. I will be speaking on what else of course…Twitter. My talk will be, Twitter: Collaborate, Connect, and Resource via Your Story. Join me, and some other speakers such as Anne Jackson, Andrew Jones, Abraham Piper, Cynthia Ware, Tim Challies, Charles Lee and many more.
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)
There are a lot of amazing things happening in the world of ministry and technology. So much so that it’s hard to keep up with all of it. Some churches are on the leading edge of innovation, while others are still trying to get a website put together. Wherever you fall on the spectrum, below are four links that might interest you from this past week.
First:
Author, blogger, video guru and Church 2.0 leader Greg Atkinson has a great post which basically introduces the Digerati Team from LifeChurch.tv, SPOTLIGHT: LifeChurch.tv’s Digerati Team. Many of you don’t know that there exists such a team on a church staff. But I think that trend is changing, and as you read the article you will definitely see their fingerprints all over the world of ministry and tech.
Greg says:
You might be wondering: “What in the world does “digerati” mean?” To get to the bottom of something, I go to Wikipedia. Wikipedia reads:”The digerati are the elite of the computer industry and online communities.” From what I know of my friends Terry Storch and Tony Steward (and the rest of the Digerati Team) this fits them very well.
Maybe you don’t recognize the team, but you may recognize their work. Here is what the Digerati team has been up to and is responsible for:
* YouVersion (Web, Mobile, and iPhone)
* OPEN
* ChurchMetrics
* Internet Campus
* LifeGroups
* LifeShare
* OnePrayer
Second:
If you can make it to Pasadena, CA this Friday, then you need to so that you can attend Church Tech Camp. It’s the first in what I think will be a growing group of church leaders who are on the innovative edge of integrating technology and ministry, especially as it relates to social media, web 2.0 tools. If you can’t make it, then watch the live stream of the get together. Not only is the technology and its use in ministry innovative, but the organization of the camp itself is on the leading edge. Check it out and you will see.
Third:
Check out Andrew Jones’ Powerpoint presentation from his talk at GodblogCon, The Missional Church in the Internet Age. You can listen to Andrew’s podcast as well at Podcasts of Godblogcon 2008, as well as all the others from there.
This last weekend was a great time at Blogworld and New Media Expo, and GodblogCon.
It was my fourth year at GodblogCon, and my 2nd time at Blogworld.
I have some thoughts about the conference and I will be posting them this week, but just a sampler of some things that stood out to me.
Again, I will post more this week on some more specific issues. But before I do I have a question.
GodblogCon seems like it’s on the verge of becoming more integrated with Blogworld. And it probably can take some more strides.
Are there any other major conferences where we can bring together the Church and the non-Church world, using our common interests to unite us, but allowing our differences to teach and learn from one another?
10:44am: Andrew Jones is setting up for his talk….people are beginning to stream in the room..everyone looking for power strips. haaa
10:50am: #bwe08 is one of the best conferences to be at in my opinion. Where else do you get such diversity in the tech world (i.e. politics, military, ministry, tech, etc.)
11:00am: I’m chatting with Brett McCracken from Still Searching. Check out his blog…sweet stuff.
This quote is sitting up on the screen. I’m supposing Andrew Jones is beginning his talk with it…maybe.
“Let this observation be a safeguard against sinning: let us each note and write down our actions and impulses of the soul as though we were to report them to each other.” Athanasius, Vita Antoni, 4th Century
11:05am: Dustin Steeve is up introducting GodblogCon to everyone and welcoming them. Dustin and his team of volunteers have done a great job. Kudos to them.
11:10am: Welcome Andrew Jones…probably my favorite blogger there is, and definitely one of the smartest out there in the new media. He has been blogging for 11 years. Yeah, how many of you even knew there were blogs 11 years ago….
11:12am: Hilarious. Andrew Jones asked someone to come up and help him with the PC Powerpoint..awesome, Mac guy doesn’t know how to use the PC.
11:15am: Andrew Jones is giving us “you might be a faith blogger IF…..” You can see it on his blog here.
11:18am: Jones says the cyberchurch vs. the traditional/modern church is a false dichotomy. The “Church has always been virtual.” He’s using the story of the woman at the well to share the importance of our praise (which means to publish, share with others) in the new media world online.
11:20am: “blog your whole life. don’t be scared.” Jones is talking about how your sermons might be great, but your children and grandchildren are going to know what kind of cereal you want to eat. what’s your favorite color.
11:25am: “A blog should not be a well, but a spring.” It shouldn’t be a container for thoughts, images, etc, but should reflect the life given image of Christ in me, etc.
Andrew Jones blogging journey, and some milestones in blogging: Geocities–then he went to Blogger and loved the archiving. Then comments came, and changed the one way conversation that used to exist in blogging. Andrew is sharing about how he used to get emails back in the day before comments, and how he used to cut and paste emails and put them in the blog post. Then tags came. Then widgets came, and we are able to bring everything together….Twitter, Facebook, etc.
11:27am:
11:32am: Andrew is starting to talk about life streaming now. Blogging is just one component of life streaming/life streaming.
11:35am: Andrew talking about how to drive traffic: tags, history, etc.
11:45am: Andrew Jones on Len Manoviceh’s 5 Principles of New Media: 1) Numerical Representation 2) Modularity 3) Automation 4) Variability 5) Transcoding
Jones: In regards to the Church “We are talking about transcoding and not just translating….we don’t go native enough.” The Church just too often translates and not transcodes.
11:50am: Jones says if you want to see how the church is being formed look at the new media (i.e. collaboration, crowdsourcing, etc,) Jones says that Church is going to be more modular, not singular. We won’t be going to one church anymore where we have everything. We will have a worship service somewhere. A bible study somewhere else. A prayer meeting somewhere else. Something online. A conference, etc.
11:55am: Andrew is talking on the idea of a “gift economy” in the blogging, and new media world. Amazing stuff. You can see his thoughts on this issue at his blog, here.
Lots of good questions for him, and not enough time for him to talk. He is awesome. Great way to kick off the day.
I had the privilege yesterday of interviewing Andrew Jones along with Andrew Jackson, Cynthia Ware, Matthew Anderson and Marcus Goodyear.
Jones has some great insight into the history of blogging (he’s been blogging since 1997/1998) and ministry. Some really good thoughts on setting boundaries online, as well as a church’s need to have a sense of integrity of what they display online and what it’s like in real life.
Check out the interview here.
There are a lot of conferences out there, but here are two that I will be talking about more, especially as time draws closer.
DRINK–CollegeLeader Conference
September 4-7, 2008 in Southern California!
DRINK: The reservoir of college-age ministry resources is no longer dry. It’s no secret that it’s been bone dry for years, but we thought we would provide a little refreshment! Come and join us for a time of learning, brainstorming, discussion, networking, and talking about church-based college-age ministry over cups of coffee.
The conference doesn’t stop with leaders though! This weekend will also be for students. We can all drink from the fountain!
Speakers include Chuck Bomar, David Kinnaman and others.
September 20-21 in Las Vegas at Blog World & New Media Expo
I will definitely be at GodblogCon again. I look forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones…looking forward to meeting Andrew Jones. That’s worth the cost of travel, hotel, food and conference.
A little over a week ago I was having coffee and talking technology and ministry with Cynthia Ware of The Digital Sanctuary. And she told me a story about some friends of hers and how they had received information from Twitter regarding some events that later became the news.
Basically, because of the posts on Twitter, these people had firsthand accounts of news before it hit the major news stations. She talked a little then about how Twitter or even some tool like that (who knows what the future holds) would basically produce/create people who were journalists on the ground and would be able to convey news stories before the major outlets got a hold of it (Cynthia, if my details are off on our conversation, let me know).
So it’s not really a surprise then that I found out about the China earthquake this morning from Andrew Jones on Twitter. I read, “reading about twitter and china earthquake”, and then quickly turned on the news.
When I get online in the morning Twitter is the first site I check in with and it often delivers news to me that I had not known, or that would become important for that day. My Twitter network is more valuable to me then turning on some major news outlet. With that diverse group I know I will get the stories, news and updates that are important to me.
How many of you check Twitter first thing when you go online for the day? If not, what is it?
Check out Andrew Jones’ post China earthquake, where he links to this fascinating story about Twitter and the China earthquake:
China Quake–Twitter Comes of Age as THE Breaking News Tool
Fascinating reading…I think. Especially when I think about Twitter and it’s use in ministry. Very powerful tool. I will posting next week about Twitter and college ministry.
And though Twitter is an awesome tool, let’s be praying for all those affected by the quake itself.
Everytime I think I am advanced with the Web 2.0/New Media stuff, I realize I’m not. I usually realize it after reading one of Andrew Jones‘ posts.
Take yesterday’s post for example.
His spring cleaning led to my anxiety. But don’t worry Andrew, it was good anxiety.
Because out of that came the social web browser Flock.
I never thought I would stop using Firefox as my default browser until I came across Flock on Andrew’s post.
I downloaded it and was instantly hooked. It was like browsing on steroids, and once I had my feeds from Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, blog, etc. all streaming at once, my head almost exploded. Wow!
I just got back from 8 days in Mexico City and one of the things that stuck out to me the most (in a sad, discouraging and appalling way), was all of the photos, paintings, etc. of a Euro Jesus with blond hair and blue eyes all over the city. That is what you get when you ignore contextualization and import some idea of who Jesus is to a foreign culture.
Why do I bring this up? Andrew Jones has a great post on John MacArthur’s and Phil Johnson’s thoughts on contextualization.
John MacArthur said:
The apostles went out with an absolute disdain for contextualization. The modern drive for cultural contextualization is a curse, because people are wsting their time trying to figure out clever ways to draw in the elect. Contextualization is “zip-code ministry.”
And you can read MacArthur’s sidekick Phil Johnson’s thoughts here.
Andrew Jones says:
Well, its true that I do see the need for some cultural sensitivity to both our own culture and the culture to which we are sent.
When some missionaries went to Africa with complete disdain for contextualization, they brought pipe-organs with them so the natives could worship God properly, without their nuances of culture.
When some missionaries went to North America with complete disdain for contextualization, they took away their native dances and forced the converts to learn English so that they could worship God properly, in the correct language, and without their nuances of culture.
I'm a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (MDIV, MSMFT, LMFT), and co-facilitate marriage intensives. I also love to write, speak, and run.
Author of The Anxious Christian: Can God Use Your Anxiety for Good? published by Moody Publishers.
To schedule a counseling appointment contact Auxano Counseling at 972-312-8893.
