Tag Archive - New Media

Getting Outside Our Villages

September 25, 2008 in Uncategorized with 4 Comments

I said something earlier this week about my appreciation for GodblogCon and their attempt to be more “missionally minded.” I know that when they brought the conference to Vegas from the campus of Biola not everyone was happy about it. In fact, I think many decided not to come to Vegas because it was….well Vegas. “Sin City” as it has been dubbed.

But I think that was the smartest move that could have been made, and I’m hoping that GodblogCon continues more and more to integrate its ideas, values and thoughts on social media into the rest of the Blogworld and New Media Expo.

I think that we can all learn from each other, and unless Christians and non-Christians (or those who have a practicing faith and those who don’t) continue to dialogue and listen to one another, then I think we all miss out on what we all have to offer.

I like what Diva Marketing says below:

Last year some of my greatest learnings came from sessions outside of my comfort zone – military and sports blogging. This year I sat in on a God Blog session and listened intently to the Andrew Jones, Tall Skinny Kiwi, tell his story about faith blogs. He begin with a light hearted joke .. You might be a faith blogger if .. My favorite .. You’re a faith blogger if your prayers are 140 characters or less because that’s all Twitter allows.

My big take away from Andrew’s talk (slides) was ~

A blog should not be a well. It should be a spring. ~

Although Andrew put it into a religious context, his concept makes perfect sense to me not only for blogs but for social media in general. Think about it .. a well contains stagnant waters. Stagnation occurs when there is no new flow of water. Blogs, social networks, wikis and all the other tools/tactics allow for and encourage fresh water or new ideas to flow.

Sidebar: I often say that the blogopshere/social media is comprised of many, many villages. There is the business blog village where Diva Marketing resides and then the mommy blog, golf blog, healthcare blog, beauty blog, race horse blog “villages” and more. The God blog/faith blog village is one of the most active. Skip over to the interview I did with Lead Pastor of the National Community Church – David Batterson – for some insights into this most interesting “village.”

I wholeheartedly agree. Some of the best times at the conference, and some of the greatest things I learned is when I ventured outside my village and comfort zone and saw what others had to offer. I look forward to next year. It a unique conference.

As Chris Brogan said in reference to Blogworld and New Media Expo:

Rick’s event brought diverse people like religious, military, sports, and political bloggers, and I liked that.

Blogworld and New Media Expo & GodblogCon

September 22, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 2 Comments

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.

  1. Moving GodblogCon to Vegas last year to be a part of Blogworld and New Media Expo was a great choice.  I would actually be interested in exploring with the Godblog people some ways that we can integrate even more, so it’s not two separate conferences.


  2. Huge, huge props to John Mark Reynolds, Dustin Steeve and the crew from Biola’s Torrey Honor’s Institute for putting together a great conference.  They are some of the most amazing and hospitable people there are, and I’m glad to be a part of such a great group. Thanks Dustin and crew.


  3. Missional thinking: The connection between the two conferences this weekend was tech, new media, social media, etc.  As Christians we need to do a better job of finding our common ground with others, with the world, build relationships, etc.


  4. New media and tech people seem to be very accessible, patient and easy going to me.  The Church can learn a lot from them, especially how they collaborate with one another, communicate from decentralized positions/relationships, etc, etc.  I was super impressed with how accessible all the big speakers were, and how they spent a great amount of time talking to people. Chris Brogan, Andrew Jones and Guy Kawasaki come to mind.  This conference doesn’t seem to have the speakers that roll in at the last minute VIP and then leave.  The speakers are great.  Very participatory feel.  Again, something Church conferences can learn from.


  5. It’s great to see friends at the conference who are involved in Church-land, but who get new media technology and are using it.  I’m thinking of people like Matt Singley, Andrew Jackson and Lars Rood.

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?

Who to Hire on Staff of a Church in a New Media World?

September 15, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 11 Comments

In light of much, much discussion about social media and ministry, and in light of many writing on online church community, I was wondering what you think of the post below, taken from Collide Magazine’s blog.

I Wouldn’t Hire You

If in some bizarro parallel universe I was an executive pastor (or whoever does the hiring at churches these days) and I was interviewing candidates for a ministry position that involved working with people between the ages of 12 and 30, I’d ask you about your vision and strategy for the ministry (youth ministry, college ministry, young adults ministry, whatever). I’d listen with great interest as you talked about discipleship, community, service, outreach, etc. I’d even ask you good questions about how you see those things fitting together and how you’d develop each of those initiatives. Then, when it was all said and done, and I’d heard your vision and strategy, I don’t think I’d hire you if you failed to mention your plan for leveraging social media. At the very least, I’d keep interviewing candidates in hopes of finding someone with similar passion and qualifications who was also social media-literate.

The ways in which 12-30 year-olds communicate and connect has radically changed in the last few years, and frankly, as someone who wants to minister vocationally to that demographic, I’d expect you to understand that. On top of that, there are too many free or inexpensive tools out there—ROOV, Twitter, Facebook Groups & Pages, MyChurch, Flickr, Vimeo, Ning, and on and on—for me to be enthusiastic about a job applicant who is unaware of them and their potential for ministry application.

If I’m choosing between several equally-qualified candidates, I wouldn’t hire you unless without a competent plan for leveraging social media in ministry to emerging generations.

What do you think? Am I overrating the importance of social media-literacy among would-be church staffers? If you are a would-be church staffer, have you thought through your social media strategy?

I was thinking about this issue and realized that there has always been criteria for employment in ministry.  Those requirements vary depending upon church, denomination, ministry, etc., etc.

For example, when I was hired as a college pastor they were looking for someone with a Master of Divinity which I was just about to complete.  Having that degree told the church hiring me that I was sufficient in areas such as Greek, Hebrew, Church History, Systematic Theology, etc.

But over the years I realized that things that weren’t required of me, nor my degree were necessary.  Money management.  Administrative skills.  Counseling skills.  Web 2.0 skills.

The questions for us are, “What is required for us to do ministry in certain contexts?” “What is required in the context of today’s ministry climate?”

Today, I think a certain proficiency in social media/web 2.0 tools is required for ministry, especially as we head into this new century.  Now we can debate which skills are required for which ministries, and do all ministries require a certain minimal skill set.

But all things being equal (as Scott noted in his post), I would hire the person who had more social media/web 2.0 skill set, or who at least was willing to experiment and learn in that area.  That may seem like a no brainer with all things being equal, but maybe it isn’t.

There are certain intangibles in ministry, and certain gifts that we all have that can’t easily be taught.  Preaching, teaching, writing, management, conflict skills, etc. But,

Can social media/web 2.0 skills be taught?

And do you hire based on the possession of those skills or not?

As we become a people that live more of our lives online, I think the expectation will be there in ministry for pastors and leaders to be able to navigate themselves in that world.  Just as pastors are to understand the context of the text and the culture of those sitting in the pew, they will be required to have as a language skill set that of social media/web 2.0.  It will be like taking Greek and Hebrew, though I have a feeling Greek and Hebrew will be less and less taught due to the availability of online tools.


What skills set are looking for today if you were to hire for your ministry? And is social media/web 2.0 skills one of them?

Taking Risks…..

September 11, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 6 Comments

Saw this gem in The Dallas Morning News this morning.

It’s a quote by Alexander Muse who I have been following on Twitter.

“In Silicon Valley, it’s normal to quit your job and work at a start-up,” he said. But in Dallas, he sees many entrepreneurs “keeping their passion on the side.”

Locked into payments on 5,000-square-foot homes in the suburbs and tuition for private schools, these would-be entrepreneurs “go to work and trudge through their jobs and save their cool stuff for at night or on the side,” Mr. Muse said.

Great comment on so many levels.

I have been talking to more and more people who work crazy hours and pull late nights because that’s the only time for them to pursue their passion. I am guilty of that as well.

Whether it’s writing, blogging, dreaming (that’s me), or other things such as photography, web design, networking, etc. (other friends), there is often one BIG hitch. SECURITY.

All of us want security. So our day jobs often provide the security for us to live, but we would really love our passions to pay out.

But many take risks. Quit jobs. Move states. Plant churches. Launch start up companies. Cut expenses so one parent can stay home with children.

As I was talking to a friend the other day he encouraged me and reminded me about living a more risk-filled, adventerous life.

As a Christian, the Biblical story is definitely not safe. From the get go it’s about people throwing their faith and trust in God and going forth into new places, traveling through deserts, crossing seas, facing persecution.

But somehow, 2000 years later, we play it pretty safe.

One of the reasons my wife and I and daughter moved to Dallas was to be closer to family, but to also take some risks, not be tied to an expensive mortgage like we were in CA, etc. And it’s scary, but God is faithful, and it’s amazing the opportunities that have come our way since we have moved.

If it’s not security, why do you play it safe?

If you don’t play it safe, what are you doing differently?

Kickstarting Your Church’s Online Community…Some Ideas

September 8, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 7 Comments

If you are thinking about having more of an online web presence for you church, but aren’t sure how to dive in…or even if you have a great web presence and are in need of some ideas, check out below.

First, Tony Steward has a great post How to Launch an Online Community. Here is the link to much of what Tony talks about in regards to the work of Jeremiah Owyang, Online Community Best Practices Final.

Second, Cynthia Ware has a post 10 Challenges Facing the Church in Cyberspace.

Third, here are My 9 Posts for Formulating an Online Strategy for College Ministry (and ministry in general).

Fourth, Chris Brogan has a fascinating post, Workflow–Social Media Pastor.

Hope you can glean something from these posts, and if you have any ideas, or other links to blogs, or your blog, please leave them in the comment section.

My 9 Posts for Formulating an Online Strategy for College Ministry (and ministry in general)

August 26, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 2 Comments

Formulating an Online Strategy for College Ministry

Formulating an Online Strategy for College Ministry: Part 9–Opening Up Your Ministry, And Working Yourself Out of a Job (Or Maybe a New Position)

August 26, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 5 Comments

Opening Up Your API

An application programming interface (API) is a set of functions, procedures or classes that an operating system, library or service provides to support requests made by computer programs.[1]

* Language-dependent APIs are available only in a particular programming language. They utilize the syntax and elements of the programming language to make the API convenient to use in this particular context.

* Language-independent APIs are written in a way that means they can be called from several programming languages. This is a desired feature for a service-style API which is not bound to a particular process or system and is available as a remote procedure call. Source: API on Wikipedia

Yeah I know….probably too techy for most of us. I barely understand it. And if I don’t know what I’m talking about, please correct me. This is a learning process for me as well as I’m trying to stretch my mind on this topic.

But what I do understand is that many successful online applications open up their API’s for outside development. You Tube and Twitter are just two examples. If you are wondering on whether or not a company does this, you can usually find it at the bottom of the page. Another company such as Facebook has a place for developers who want to build an app on the Facebook platform.

Successful companies allow and encourage outside collaboration on their product and platform?

Yes. Why?

Because collaboration and voices from within a company or organization, or those voices outside of a company or organization can bring much innovation and ideas that those at the top of the company or organization’s hierarchy are often blind to or don’t have the skill themselves to achieve.

Hence, the reason why you have tons of Twitter applications that many people are using, and that Twitter didn’t develop themselves but that are highly successful. Twitterfeed, Tweetdeck, and on and on it goes.

Great example of how one company harnesses the creativity, energy, passion and innovation of thousands of other people.

What If Our Churches Did More of This

The parallel that I draw from this example in technology is that churches need to not “run”, “create”, or “plan” everything from the central office, but rather, need to harness the innovation and creativity from the dozens, to hundreds, to thousands of people they have attending their church.

Most churches function via committee, and most of the power is centralized at the executive staff level that only a handful of people have the “privilege” of sitting on. And I use the word privilege here lightly, because you know what I mean if you ever attend these meetings…they are sometimes more life taking than giving and innovation is usually not created here. There are exceptions I know.

Rather, I believe innovation is created, harnessed at the lower levels of a hierarchy, or where power is decentralized. There are many good books on this topic, but a few of my favorite are:

  1. The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations
  2. Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations
  3. Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything



Fear of Losing Our Jobs

I think that there is a great fear in ministry to decentralize power and unleash the potential and creativity of the people we minister to and serve with. I get it. Because if we truly let go of power than maybe we soon realize that our job is no longer needed when tons of people are doing it for free…and possibly better. I was fearful of moving my former ministry The Quest (at Bel Air Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles) over to Facebook as the main way of communicating. Fear of losing control of content, of losing power and control of being the central hub of ideas along with our student leadership team.

But ultimately I think that the most Biblical thing we can do is give our power away in our church (Jesus obviously embodies this, the Sermon on the Mount), as I believe that’s what Paul was striving for in Romans 12 and I Corinthians 12 in his teaching on the body.

If there are many members and only one body, then why is power so centralized in the Church? And the power I’m talking about is not usually centralized where it’s supposed to be…in the person of Jesus Christ as its head. Rather, we have centralized power to only a handful of people…usually men, and usually ordained, and usually among people who have been in a church setting alone for too long that innovation doesn’t really happen where it is needed.

Steps to Open Up Your Ministry’s API

There are a lot of things that need to be done in this area, but let me just suggest 5 steps (but keep in mind that each one involves a lot of other things…but that’s for another post).

  1. Decentralize Power: Haaa. If it were that easy. It’s not. But that would be nice. So let’s start with step 2.


  2. Evaluate Your Organization: (interview staff, observe, talk to “outsider”, etc.) find out where the “bottleneck” is occurring and where communication is lacking.


  3. Develop an Online Strategy: that utilizes tools for doing this effectively. It’s not good enough to use Facebook, Wiki’s, Twitter, etc., but there needs to be a strategy for using these tools and how these tools will help decentralize power and allow for more voices and innovation.


  4. Allow for Other Voices: Ministries need to invite other people to the table. Just not the people at the top, or those with the money and power. Let a wide spectrum of people within the church give voice, suggest and create.


  5. Collaborate: When you have set up the tools, developed a strategy, allowed for other voices, then we must begin to collaborate as a team. Only when we work together will we truly be in a place to move in a new direction, or try new things, or create “effective” ministries.


Formulating an Online Strategy for College Ministry

DISCLAIMERS: 1)There are better technical people out there concerning the web. 2) Do as I suggest, not as I do. I’m trying to keep up myself, and our college website reflects almost nothing of what I talk about. That’s how fast things change. 3) There are a lot of college ministries out there, and there are a lot of online tools to use, but it doesn’t seem like many are thinking through how to best utilize the new media and Web 2.0 (and yikes, Web 3.0) in their groups. 4) Knowing that things change overnight in technology, I hope to somehow impart to you some of the things I have been learning and wrestling with in these areas. You don’t need to be an expert in this area, just know enough to think critically about the issue. 5) If you have feedback, suggestions, criticisms, please comment. This is by no means all encompassing.

Framework for Chapter in Book: 5 Movements for Online Social Networking

August 21, 2008 in Technology-Social Media with 0 Comments

Just wrote my first blog post over at our book blog for The New Media Frontier.

My chapter is New Media Ministry to the Myspace-Facebook Generation:
Employing New Media Technologies Effectively In Youth Ministries. And the following is some of the framework I laid out in the chapter.

It’s hard to keep up on the social media scene as so many things have changed in the last year since I wrote the chapter, but I have learned so much and will continue to do so. Though I might think through some things differently I still like the general framework laid out in the chapter.

I tried to approach the chapter more from a spiritual/psychological/philosophical framework, then a how to tech manual. The technology is the tool, but how we approach and apply the technology and how it shapes us in the process is very important for us to think about.

Check it out.

5 Movement Towards Online Social Networking

Social Media Events, Church Ministry Conferences…Where are we going?

August 21, 2008 in Technology-Social Media with 0 Comments

Chris Brogan has a great post today, Social Media Events Are Fragmenting.

Read the whole thing, especially if you put on a conference, attend them, or are involved with social media.

Now, though he is talking about social media events (of which churches and church staff are involved), I was thinking of church conferences as well.

The list of conferences in either arena (and really in all fields) is growing, that it’s almost impossible to attend the ones you want to unless someone is paying you to go to all of them, or they eventually conflict with each other. And sometimes they eventually begin looking like each other.

He does mention Blog World & New Media Expo, which is the event which GodblogCon is a part of. This is a conference I have spoken at a few times and will be attending this year as part of our new book, The New Media Frontier. He says this:

Rick’s event brought diverse people like religious, military, sports, and political bloggers, and I liked that.


I like that too.

But I guess the questions remain:

Where are all these conferences going?

And are they all beginning to look a little like each other?

I have a few that I make every effort to attend every year, but keeping up is getting hard to do.

How many conferences do you attend a year?

Which ones?

Why?

ECHO Conference: Great from top to bottom

August 18, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 7 Comments




Last week I was debating on whether or not I should attend the ECHO Conference, mainly because I was pretty exhausted from just moving here. And second, I wasn’t quite sure if I wanted to pay the $329 for the conference.

I debated, but ultimately I felt like it would be a great opporunity to take part in this new conference. I thought I would make some good connections and hopefully some friends as well. And last, I hoped to really take away some valuable things from my time there.

Hands down, it was one of the best conferences I have been to, and I have been to a lot. I realized on Friday while I was looking at the snack table and pouring some more Starbucks coffee for myself, and for that $329 fee I was easily getting my money’s worth between the great speakers, the great food, the great connections, the challenges put forth, etc.

At this point, let me just state a few of the highlights for me and what really stuck out for me.

  • Hospitality: It was the most hospitable conference that I have been to.  It began on Friday when I swung by only to pick up my registration packet and head home. I wasn’t planning on staying since I had my daughter with me.  Two young women offerred to hold my daughter for me while I walked around the place too see what was going on and to find Cynthia Ware.  First, let me say that I would never just hand my daughter over to complete strangers, but there was something in these women that made you feel like you knew them personally as friends.  Great people to have at the front greeting conference attendees.  But I did.  I passed my daughter to the two of them and I walked around, only to come back and find my daughter having a great time playing with one of the women’s i-phones and smiling.  Thank you Haley Thomas.  That type of hospitiality continued all three days of the conference and it was one of the easiest conferences to mingle amongst not only the attendees, but the speakers and workshop leaders as well.  Great hospitality.


  • De-Centralized/Flattened Leadership: This is a really important ethos for what I want leaders to embody. And even though I knew who was putting the conference on and who was in charge, it was nice to watch them serve people all three days, and not be above setting up things, helping cars find parking spots and being there to resolve any issues that may have arisen.  You just don’t see that enough.  Most speakers and leaders are often the first to leave after they speak and never stick around to help with the day to day work.  So props to Rob Thomas and the people at Igniter Media, those at Worship House Media, and Scott and the crew at Collide Magazine.


  • Great Challenges from the Speakers: I’m sure if I were to poll the people at the conference everyone would have something different to say about each speaker.  I didn’t attend all keynote sessions, but I did attend Donald Miller’s and Mark Batterson’s.  Mark had me thinking all weekend about the quote he shared by Martin Luther: “It is wonderful’ proclaimed Luther, ‘how at this moment in history all the arts have come to the light…like the art of book printing, God’s highest and extremest act of grace, whereby the business of Gospel is driven forward.”  His challenge that Christians and churches should be on the leading edge of innovation, and who of us in the room would develop that tool to drive the gospel forward has been echoing in my mind a lot.  And Donald Miller’s message on “Story” was amazing.  It held special importance to me because my wife and I were listening to that message about 6 months ago (he had given it at Mars Hills in Michigan; check here for it) as we drove from Los Angeles to Phoenix to visit my family.  After his message all we could think about was the story God had given us and were we truly living in it.  That message gave us courage to continue our move to Dallas, and to hear Miller give it on Friday night was confirmation of God’s grace in my wife, daughter and I’s lives as we had safely made the journey from Los Angeles to Dallas…desiring to live a different story than the one in LA…desiring to live the story God had given us.  I know many of us are still chewing on that talk as it continues to resonate with us.


  • Networking: This is probably one of my favorite things to do at conferences.  But there was something different about the networking going on here.  It wasn’t the typical, here is my card, and if you can meet my needs, then we should hang out more.  Rather, I genuinely felt like that the people I networked with are people I want to spend time with.  Over dinner, drinking coffee, going to church, dreaming, etc.  The networking had a sense of humility and friendship, and I think it was evident that people’s connection with Christ and ministry is what motivated them, and not money and power.  That is a very different feel.  So at the end of the day, networking was about friendship and dreaming together, not money and fitting a peg along someone’s ladder of success. I have to believe that that tone was not only set and embodied by those putting on the conference, but also those who came through the door.  I am looking forward to the new friendships, and the times we will eat together, play together, and dream big dreams together.


  • Innovation and Creativity: Truly the keynote speakers, lab leaders and workshops were led by people doing very innovative things in their field. So no matter what breakout you attended or speaker you heard, it was always challenging and refreshing.  Who saw the creative work of Barton Damer and was amazed?  Everyone.  Those are the type of people doing ministry that a conference needs and ECHO had plenty of them.


  • Christ, Church and Ministry: No matter who I came into contact with during my time at the conference, I was impressed with which everything came back to Christ.  It is Christ who has given us our gifts, our talents, our relationships, and it is Him that we glorify when we use our gifts, and so in humility, always pointing towards Him who has given us such grace.  I was excited that not only was Christ evident during our time there, but people were concerned about ministry.  How does what I’m doing affect ministry?  How does it spread the gospel and enhance ministry?  So the talents and gifts and creativity were embedded in the local church of these people and they all came together to learn from each other.  Obviously not everything must be tied to ministry and church, but when it’s a conference on media arts and church, well, it’s nice that it lived up to its billing.

I learned a lot, made a lot of new friends and was encouraged by the passion in others. And I’m looking forward to many coffee times and Mexican food lunches and dinners here in Dallas with many of you.

You can find some of the notes from ECHO here.
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