Tag Archive - Matt Singley

To Get, or Not To Get an i-Phone?

July 28, 2008 in Uncategorized with 3 Comments

Before the new i-phone came out I was drooling at any site of, or rumor of it’s impending release.

The days leading up to it and on release day I was glued to TechCrunch’s Twitter just so I wouldn’t miss anything.

But now I’m pretty glad I didn’t rush out to get one. I’m no tech expert, but it seems that first generation i-phone users haven’t had many problems with their phone as they uploaded the new software. But I’ve heard nothing but complaints from most of the people I know about the 2nd Generation phone.

And then Terry Storch who I respect decided to take his back.

So we will see what happens. I still want one, but I’m not in as big a rush anymore. In regards to my post, I don’t want to become a slave to the i-phone, and I think I was getting close.

My former co-worker and good friend Matt Singley has a humorous vlog about his new i-phone. Check it out below:

ROOV: Gathering Christians Around Their Passions, and Moving Towards Action

June 19, 2008 in Uncategorized with 3 Comments

On Tuesday afternoon I went to coffee with Chris Capehart, one of the co-founders of ROOV. I told Chris when we met that I wasn’t quite sure what to think of ROOV when I heard about it. 1) One more social networking site seems like one too many right now. 2) I don’t like Christians removing themselves into “all Christian” environments to live life there , unless it’s for gathering around very specific or niche causes, etc.

But once I created an account and scoured the site I became more and more impressed with it. And one thing that stood out to me is the statement on their site:

ROOV is an online community that connects like-minded individuals around their shared experiences and passions within their church and city.

It’s one thing as Christians to go into our own bubble and live there, and it’s another thing to gather around our beliefs and causes so we can live them out in the world. ROOV is the best of this idea. I was really impressed with Chris and the other founder’s vision behind it. I’m excited to see where it goes. And I’m excited to see Christians gather around their passions, but not to keep them to themselves, but to move them towards action out in the world.

Here is a quick video about ROOV, and then just a couple of closing thoughts:



ROOV.com Stories from ROOV.com on Vimeo.



I first heard about ROOV from Cynthia Ware, and she thinks highly of it, and so I was immediately interested.

Then Matt Singley talked about it in his highway vlog, episode 4, Media That Rocks My World.

One of my former students compared it so 43 Things, but a site that gathers Christians around their passions and interests towards change.

And last, my friend Chum had a few good thoughts on ROOV that he shard on his blog. Chum said:

• It Connects People – The idea of connecting like-minded Christians based on what they are passionate about has a lot of potential.

• Forced Interaction – Since you have to add a comment or question to add the Roov to your profile, it keeps the discussion going. And it keeps people who are “add” happy from just build up their profile.

• Good Design – The site is easy to use and it works. And since it borrows elements from Facebook, Bloger, and LinkedIn, is already familiar to me.



So check it out. Get an account. Play around with it a while. And let me know what you think.

Formulating an Online Strategy for College Ministry: Part 5–How Twitter Can Catalyze Your Ministry

June 16, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 11 Comments

Despite some of the bad press recently regarding Twitter, I still must say that I absolutely love it. Sure there are days when things take way too long to load, or they don’t load at all. But despite all that, Twitter is still the first site that I log onto when I get on the internet in the morning. What other site is going to instantly bring me up to date with what everyone in my network (friends, family, co-workers, etc) is doing?

For a great step by step primer on Twitter, check out Matt Singley’s post.

Check out Twitter in Plain English series below:

Those are some great resources on Twitter. And in fact, lots of people are writing about Twitter so it’s not hard to find online some effective ways to use it. So what I want to focus on in this post is just a few ways how you can effectively use Twitter in your ministry…or as I say above, how it can catalyze your ministry.

Three Reasons to Use Twitter in Your Ministry Continue Reading…

The World is Not Flat: The New Media and it’s Burgeoning Influence Upon the Church

April 18, 2008 in Technology-Social Media with 0 Comments

Obviously we have reached the tipping point, or maybe we are now beyond it. But as others are saying more eloquently than me, the New Media is not a trend, and it’s here to stay.

The New Media, Web 2.0, Social Networking, etc….


Check out Collective Muse. It’s a college ministry social networking site that I created and launched earlier this week. It’s an attempt to fulfill my desire and passion for connecting those involved in college ministry, in hopes that we can collaborate together on college ministry. I hope others have a desire and passion for that as well. So check out, pass the word, and get involved.

Purchase a copy of our new book, The New Media Frontier: Blogging, Vlogging, and Podcasting for Christ.

My friend, and former Executive Director at our church, Matt Singley, started a series today, What Is The ‘New Media’? This should be real good. A primer for those who aren’t quite sure what it is, and an encouragement and confirmation to those who do.

My friend from church, Robert Yang, who is the founder of Kindle (prayer social networking site), posted some great thoughts as well, Future Church: Be Like the Internet.

Cynthia Ware posted Is Your Church Leadership Interactive, which I talked about a little earlier in the week. Cynthia is a great blogger to follow on this topic.

Charlene Li (who I don’t know, but wish I did), who is an expert in social computing and Web 2.0, gave a presentation on “The Future of Social Networks”, posts a blog about it. She says:

I set my time frame for the long term – five, even ten years out. That’s because unless we know where we want to end up, how could we ever craft a strategy to get there? For inspiration, I thought about my grade-school kids, who in ten years will be in the midst of social network engagement. I believe they (and we) will look back to 2008 and think it archaic and quaint that we had to go to a destination like Facebook or LinkedIn to “be social”.

Instead, I believe that in the future, social networks will be like air. They will be anywhere and everywhere we need and want them to be. And also, without that social context in our connected lives, we won’t really feel like we are truly living and alive, just as without sufficient air, we won’t really be able to breathe deeply.

Here is her slide presentation from Graphing Social Patterns West 2008.

Blogging

Wess Daniels posts, Henry Jenkins on Why Academics Should Blog

Abraham Piper gives six reasons why pastors should blog.

Dr. Mark Roberts has his 18 Theses for the Pastor as Godblogger.

Music/Podcast

If you aren’t listening to The Habanero Hour, then you are missing out on some amazing music. It is such a sweet podcast, and I’m not just saying that because I am friends with Brent (who is a great guy). Check it out, and you will become a fan. Plus, did I mention he is a prolific blogger.

Lost a Great Servant Leader

April 15, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 1 Comment

Bel Air Presbyterian Church lost a great Executive Administrator today in Matt Singley.

Matt was a great boss/co-worker.

Matt was a tangible example of what it meant to be a servant leader and to lead within a church and organization.

Matt challenged the status quo and asked tough questions.

Matt represented a new and innovative way of doing leadership and I was on board.

So Matt….you know there is more that I could say, but we will talk more soon over a beer.

You were missed today.

What to do with that growing blogroll? That is the question.

March 21, 2008 in Technology-Social Media with 6 Comments

At some point or another you begin to say to yourself, “My blogroll is growing larger and larger….what do I do?” Maybe you don’t ask that question, but I sure do. I have been blogging for almost four years and over that time you read a lot of blogs and make a lot of friends. So it becomes this almost delicate matter of if I trim up my blogroll will people be offended if their name is not on the list. But something has to be done because I’ve come to the conclusion that the more stuff someone has on their page, and the longer the blogroll, the less likely they will actually click on any of them and read. But if you present them with a few names, it seems more likely that they will click and read. That is the conclusion of my non-scientific, unverified research.

But supporting each other is important, so there are a couple of options:

  1. Trim it down, make some hard decisions, and yeah some people might be offended. I don’t like this one.
  2. You could do a rotating blogroll. My co-worker Matt has some nice code written out on how to do that.
  3. You could put your blogroll on some external site in a easy to find manner. This is what I have decided to do thanks to Wess.

So I’m still in the process, but I’m moving my blogroll, as well as other sites over to my del.icio.us bookmarks. I have found this to be the best solution. With tags it’s easy to find the bloggers you want to read and who write about the things that are important to you. And you can create various feeds such as this one for college ministry stuff.

I’m sure there are a million other options, but this is the one I like so far. Keeps my blog simple, not too cluttered, and hopefully the handful of links I have under PERUSING might be read more. These blogs tend to be ones that I read every day, as well as ones that are written by some of my close friends. I will probably rotate this list often as well just to give it a different flavor. But with newsfeeds and blog aggregates, one is constantly reading through more blogs than can go on a site.

What do you do about this issue?