Tag Archive - technology

Subscribe to My Blog: Lots of Exciting New Content Ahead

January 15, 2009 in Technology-Social Media with 4 Comments

flamocon_190h1I’m usually not one to ask people to subscribe to my blog, but I think it will be worth your time. 2008 was a great year, but 2009 has brought with it a new focus, clarity and purpose in my blogging that I don’t believe I have ever had before in my writing.

I love to write, but usually I would write when the desire hit me, and my attention was very unfocused that I rarely had the patience to stay with an important topic too long. I think John Saddington described me as a “passionate blogger”, basically meaning that when the passion hit me I would write and post…but all the other times…well, nothing to say or write.

So why should you subscribe to my blog? Because I think I have begun to find my voice amidst all the noise (lots of noise coming from me), and instead of blogging about things that are just of interest, I have decided to focus more on issues and topics that aren’t blogged about very often, and ones that allow me to use my training and expertise in ways that I have not before.

So what kind of content can you expect from me in 2009? Well, let me tell you about some of the topical series that I will be writing about in the next couple of months.

  1. Depression in the Church and Pastoral Roles
  2. Pornography and the Church
  3. ChurchTechCamp
  4. The Perspective and (sometimes) Stigma of Singleness in the Church
  5. Introduction to Pastoral Counseling from a Barthian Perspective
  6. Couple of Book Reviews
  7. Narcicissm and the Pastor
  8. Genograms, Family Systems and the Church
  9. Updates on my 2009 Online to Offline Meet-Up Goals
  10. Building a Private Practice as a Rookie

And that’s just a small sampling of what lays ahead?

So what do you need to do? Hit the Subscribe button under the home page tab, and choose your method of delivery…and you are good to go.

I appreciate it very much. And if you like the content, please pass on the word. And please share any suggestions of topics that you would like to see me address.

New Blog Look…New Blog Focus…A Work In Progress

January 12, 2009 in Marriage-Family, Ministry-Theology, Technology-Social Media, Therapy-Psychology with 13 Comments

penAs some of you have been reading on Twitter, I have been in the process of creating a new blog look. In reality, I just watched John Saddington help me create a new blog look. John went above and beyond what I expected…I was looking to just change themes, upgrade my WordPress to 2.7, but John was interested in helping me shape a new direction for my blogging as we spent time talking about my interests, passions, gifts, etc.

There are a few things I still need to fix (i.e. About page, add some more page tabs, clean-up some duplicated comments, add images to my 8 categories section at the bottom, clean up some minor bugs, etc, etc.)…so it’s a work in progress, but I might as well not let my moments of perfectionism handicap me. That being said, what you see will be in the process of refining, and I will let you know about some of the cool features as time goes on.

So this blog not only signals a new look for me…it also will signal a change in the direction of my blogging.

As many of you know I’m pretty passionate about 3 things:

  1. Theology: Ministry, Church
  2. Psychology: Therapy, Counseling
  3. Technology: Social Media, Innovation

You will continue to see me blog about many things related to those topics, but I’ve decided to focus more of my writing in the future on issues that stem from my last run at graduate school and what I’m currently engaged in.  What that means is that you will see me address more issues related to the topic of psychology, specifically issues of pastoral counseling, as well as marriage and family (or more broad, relationships).  Not only will I be looking at these issues from a counseling perspective, but I will be looking at how they intersect with our lives in the church, ministry, pastoring, etc.

That’s one change…

Another change is that though I love blogging about ministry and the Church (and will continue to do so), I will be sticking (focusing) on areas that I have more training and expertise in (pastoral care, college ministry, leadership), and will bring more attention to those who are writing great things in the area of ministry and Church that I’m not as gifted in.

That’s another change…

Last, I love technology.  But technology expert I am not.  So I will continue to be a “technoevangelist” (see John Saddington) and write about those tools that I’m passionate about, and the ones that especially connect with those that I’m using in ministry and therapy.  But I desire to bring more attention to those who are much more knowledgeable in this area.

So you will continue to see my write about ministry, counseling and social media, but I hope by the end of the year you notice a much more focused approach to my writing that allows for a much more distinctive voice in areas that best fit my giftings.

And I hope that you learn a lot from what I’m learning and writing, that we can enage one another, and become partners along the journey.

But in the meantime, please be patient as I continue to transfer information over, change/update/create new pages, and fix some little bugs.  Thanks.

ChurchTechCamp–8 Things To Know If You Want To Help Organize One–Part 1: It’s Organic

January 12, 2009 in Ministry-Theology, Technology-Social Media with 4 Comments

Organic…however you want to define that word, I am using it in the context of something (an event, circumstance, this “unconference”) happening naturally. It is not an event that is planned out on the calendar with strategic locations and dates in mind, but rather comes about quite naturally and instantly when conversation arises and a desire and need for it becomes apparent.

This organic process may take place in a conversation that someone has with Tony Steward, or it may evolve out of some Twitter conversations. I mentioned in this post how ChurchTechCamp:.Dallas evolved out of Tony “stirring the pot” when he knew I was in Dallas and interested in attending one, and that John Saddington would be in town for some classes at Dallas Theological Seminary. Tony saw a desire for one, threw out the possibility, and the rest was history.

Literally within minutes we cemented the reality that Dallas would have a ChurchTechCamp in January.

I formed a Facebook group #churchtechcamp:.Dallas.

Chris created the webpage.

Tony and John organized the talks.

Tony took care of the details like online registration, the tools we would be using, etc.

I secured a location.

Done.

That is organic…and this style fits with the ethos of the “unconference” that Tony has tried to foster.

Some of ChurchTechCamp’s challenges probably come with the fact that it is organic, but that is also its greatest strength and a strong value that I’m sure will continue.

Where do you see the need and desire for ChurchTechCamp? Is it where you live? Why?


Disclaimer: Tony Steward is the main organizer, facilitator and influence behind ChurchTechCamp:.LA and ChurchTechCamp:.Dallas, I’m simply writing this series from the perspective of helping organize the details (location specifics) for the Dallas event, and hopefully this will be a useful series if you find yourself wanting to or in the position of helping organize one for your city.

Two Opportunities to Meet Your Online Community In Person

January 12, 2009 in Marriage-Family, Ministry-Theology, Technology-Social Media with 1 Comment

A few weeks back I posted “Taking Online Community Offline:” What I’m Doing About It And My 2009 Goal. Since I posted that, and since 2009 has rolled around it’s quite amazing how many opportunities I’ve already had to connect in person with the people I’m friends with online.

And it just so happens that January is a great month for me to continue to meet these people.

So here are two opportunities for you as well:

First–
ChurchTechCamp:.Dallas Website

ChurchTechCamp:.Dallas Registration

The Twitter and Blog tag for this event is:
#ctcdallas

Second–
Connect, Network and Collaborate are just three of the things that I hope to do at the Innovation3 Gathering in Dallas, TX on January 27-28.

The event is put on by Leadership Network and is host to a plethora of speakers in just two days. Leadership Network says this about the conference:

I will be one of the live bloggers along with Carlos Whitaker and Cynthia Ware at the event so I hope that we all can have an opportunity to meet and connect with one another.

In the meantime, peruse the website to get a look at all the speakers that are presenting.

Also, check out the Innovation3 blog.

Formulating an Online Strategy for College Ministry: Part 2–The Purpose of Your Website

May 22, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 15 Comments

I think it’s important for college ministries to be forumlating a plan, and developing some ideas about how they can strategically use the internet to best serve their ministry.

There are a lot of topics that I could cover, and maybe 9 posts is too much, so I will try and keep them shorter than my last post.

Last week I posted Part 1–Simplicity, Flexibility, Cost and Speed. Bottom line: You need to have a design and plan that is simple (easy to navigate/aesthetically clean from a design point of view. You also should keep the costs low which is easy to do with all the free and inexpensive tools out there. And speed should be taken into consideration, mainly from the perspective of how fast can you integrate new technology to meet the needs and wants of your ministry. Way too many ministries plunge lots of cost and time into a site, that they no longer can adapt to changes, but are stuck with it for years to come.

Today I want to post about The Purpose of Your Website.

What is the purpose of your website?

This is an important question to begin with. What do you want it to do? What do you want people to come to the site and see and use? What should they walk away with? Sometimes ministries just build websites because they feel like they should have one, but never stop to consider its purpose.

Is it for college students to retrieve information? Is it for them to sign up for Bible studies? Is it for them to be able to visit forums and dialogue?

With these questions in mind we also need to keep in mind that with all the tools out there (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc.) a website shouldn’t have to do everything, unless it can do it better than those services (which I doubt it can do).

So here are a few pointers that I have found helpful:

Continue Reading…

What is the Millenial Generation About?

April 10, 2008 in Uncategorized with 20 Comments

Here are some observations on the Milennial Generation from the Hugh Hewitt interview with Morley Winograd and Michael D. Hais….authors of Millenial Makeover: MySpace, You Tube, and the Future of American Politics.

Whether you care about politics or not, this generation is already influencing and will be transforming everthing they interact with.

And whether you agree with them or not, they bring some much needed ideas. I’m especially interested in how they are influencing the Church, which is not talked about here. But that’s for other posts. Just know that what is discussed here is obviously influencing the Church.

Now here are some very brief observations on some of the summaries that authors make in the interview. I didn’t really organize it…but peruse the observations made by the authors. Very interesting.

  • Millenials are people born between 1982 in 2003 (at least as defined in the US).
  • Largest generation in American history. 1 million more than the previous largest generation…the Baby Boomers.
  • Twice as many Milennials as Gen X’ers
  • Most ethnically diverse generation in American History…40% are either African American, Asian or Mixed Race; 20% have at least one immigrant parent.
  • Generation “least bound” by gender and role restriction.
  • Half of Millenials that are in college are female; first time in history.
  • Highly socially tolerant generation.
  • “Civic Generation”…lineal descendants of the last Civic Generation the GI/Greatest Generation (i.e. Depression, WWII, etc.)
  • See a need for a greater economic equality in the country…respond to economic injustice. Will be interested in re-distribution policies to make economic inequality to go away. Continue Reading…
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