Tag Archive - Fuller Seminary

The Inagural Church Tech Camp–And the Role of the Pastor in the Age of Technology

September 26, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 8 Comments

I wish I could have been there this morning with the crew at Church Tech Camp, but since I couldn’t, it was great to watch it live and participate.

Props to Tony Steward for putting on the “unconference.” And props to #churchtechcamp making the Twitter trends today and making it on the Twitter blog.

Check out some of Tony’s thoughts on the day.

Check out the live blog from Church Tech Camp today as well.

You can see my question on the live blog that I posed to the audience.

11:22
[Comment From rhettsmith]
I’m wondering if we move more and more towards open source in the Church…what role do you see the pastor taking?

There was some lengthy discussion about my question and what I meant. But in general, I wonder with the ability for congregations to quickly self organize and communicate without having to go through the pastor, the hierarchy, etc., what role will the pastor take in the future? I think many pastors are nervous about losing power, status and position that has always been afforded them from behind the pulpit, so what if they are no longer needed? And by that, I don’t mean they won’t speak, preach or teach, but what if their particular brand of one person leadership is not needed? Will they become more of a facilitator? Are the traditional vocational roles of the pastor in jeopardy (as in paid staff)? Lots of questions I am asking.

But what I’m really thinking is that the decentralization of the pastor is actually a great thing for a church community, and it places the pastor in a role that I think he or she was meant to be in. That of shepherd, facilitator, etc. Someone who leads from within….not above or out in front.

P.S. Thanks to Rich Kirkpatrick for being my voice in person at the conference when I was actually in Dallas. He helped better finesse and define some of the questions I was having trouble articulating.

The Making of the Postmodern Family

June 23, 2008 in Marriage-Family with 3 Comments

My great friend and former co-worker RO Smith always “complements” me for being a co-nurterer of my daughter along with my wife. RO will make comments about us as a typical “postmodern family”, defying traditional and stereotypical role playing of the sexes in our marriage and family structure. I take all that with a great complement as RO intends it to be. Traditional or non-traditional, we have had to adjust to each other’s vaules, roles and expectations, as well as what it is like to live in the high cost of living state of California. Which makes life interesting in a dual-income, one baby family.

As I enter my second week as a full-time stay at home dad I want to post a couple of blog entries that RO wrote a while back at Collection of Crumbs on The State of the Postmodern Family.

The two posts are, The State of the Postmodern Family (Part 1), and (Part 2).

A lot of RO’s thoughts and research are derived from the Family Ministry Class at Fuller taught by Dr. Chap Clark. Check out the post and see what you think about the values, roles and expectations that RO talks about.

I’m curious to hear what you think.