Hit the Back Button to Move Fwd by Gavin Richardson

just call me the sabbath boat captain

erin & i are hitting dale hollow lake with her family this weekend.

this is my vehicle for the weekend. just call me captain macleod. funny part, i've maybe driven two or three boats in my life. unless you count a canoe or kayak. so around 2pm friday  i'll be houseboat captain. why me as captain? not sure, but all agreed i am the most capable.. sad i know

i have my chair picked out and two books to read. gonna read me some ann lamott traveling mercies and thomas merton seven storey mountain. figured, less church, no theology, certainly no youth practices stuff.

blogging most likely will be nil. cell coverage.. possible. only technology i'm taking is the father in-laws satellite radio to pick up the bama game on saturday. can i call this a sabbath?

getting ready for college football weekend

since football is coming around my college background is surging. ie. my brother is sending me all kinds of football related articles and odd items. things to check out.

• put together your own custom season calendars
• an obsessive tribute to southern football.. excellent!

wow how things change!

i have spent a few hours this morning catching up with jonathon as we are trying to resurrect our covenant group. we met up at alektor cafe, one of our fav little stops. i have not been here in quite a while. they put on a little patio in the front lawn which is very nice. amazingly though, the wealth of wifi spots one can choose from is astounding. when we first started coming here there wasn't any wifi, then you could get one signal, but you had to be in the back of the shop. now, it's like a wifi candy store. random i know

listen up!

for those of you in the nashville area, check out the fish 94 fm this evening. why? maybe something, maybe nothing. from what i know they are planning on coming to our youth podcast tonight. that's all i know. we have been their "church of the week" profiled some last week and i guess this week. so you might find myself and our merry band of crazies on the radio. we meet up from 6:30 to 7:30, so you might hear something from us on the radio then, maybe not.. i wonder what they do plan on doing coming to our podcast?

update: if you listened in for us specifically, sorry.. all the fish people did was drop by and give us some freebies. nothing major, but nice.

2 years after katrina

it has been two years later since katrina hit land. maybe as you can see from our work down there this summer that there is still work to be done in rebuilding. the ny times has a cool little map with videos from some of the various areas. we shouldn't forget about the rest of the gulf coast either. our times last summer in long beach showed that rebuilding efforts are different, but no less difficult.

greenbelt conversations

greenbelt has come and gone. we might have one in the states one day, until then you might want to pick up some of the talks that happened over this years festival. some intriguing topics and fabulous thinkers.

let me answer for you miss south carolina

for those that have seen this video already, this is my response for miss south carolina. girl, i feel for you. if you haven't seen it, go for it. then come check out my 30 second response.

"that is a great question amiee. i might shoot myself in the foot for saying this and saying bye bye to the crown. however, i can only be saddened to hear of such a statistic. symptomatic problems that lead to such a travesty would have to be put on the school systems. they do not teach equally across the board and some people will make it through graduation without a proper education. a more root cause i can see with this is our pre-occupation with ourselves as americans. why should we care where in the world we are when we care very little for the world. do we even need a world. i would argue that we do, but our actions, other than our buying habits prove otherwise. our society as a whole needs to become more globally away which would in turn bring about some curiosity as to our place in global afairs and hopefully a recognition of where we are on a damn map. thank you"

this video has made it all over in the past two or three days. i held off talking about it because i wasn't sure what to say. i certainly didn't want to jump on and bash a teenager, even if they put themselves out there for the world to see in a pagent. in reflecting on this, it's not an easy question when you are dealing and taught fluff answers. it is a self-reflective question for a country, to put on a teenager, in the spotlight, on the spot. that is tough.. wish you had done a bit better with it though.

chuck colson doesn't like the emerging church

apparently he doesn't. i found this exchange humorous.

... I listen to Chuck Colson on the radio and he says the emerging church is dangerous. It’s not something we should be messing around with, and the fact that you’d quote an emerging church pastor in your sermon is very alarming.

i like the point of radio-orthodoxy. i suppose there would also be television-orthodoxy.. which might mean there could be an internet-orthodoxy? since blogging and internet communication has been a big part of the networking of the emerging church, then i suppose internet-orthodoxy likes the emerging church.

turning on the tv to find out vick found Jesus

monday is my day of rest. fancy that today i am able to spend so much time around television to find out that michael vick found Jesus. not sure if you have heard or seen it, but michael vick (famed atlanta falcons quarterback) officially pleaded guilty in court today and held his first press conference about the whole ordeal. in his press conference he mentions finding Jesus through this and will be turning his life over to God.

he isn't the first person who has brought out the Jesus or God card in the mdist of legal troubles. i certainly do believe that Christ can be found in rough times. i believe that submitting to God can only help in rough times. my struggle is what stock do i put into these persons who claim this in these circumstances? is it our place to question? if it is not our place to judge (which would be my conclusion), then do we protect ourselves with some parameters for living, or is grace given completely without question?

hmmm

vote for my cousin

hey all, get a giggle and vote for my cousin for an upcoming reality show.  jeremy is a very cool person, quite happy to call him a cousin (even if my marriage). he has been all over the globe traveling and doing various missions work. last december our 'foster family christmas' became something very cool as just about every monetary gift that was handed out was handed over to him at the end of the night for an orphanage he worked at earlier in the year. he asked what money he got go towards that, told why, and then everyone else handed over money. another cool thing was that he surprised us (and his own parents) by flying home from australia for erin & mines wedding. his brother covered for him by reserving a spot for jeremy's girlfriend, which surprisingly no one questioned. for my local friends, he's a nashville native which would actually represent the city well.

check out his video, kinda indie nature, funny in that he's reflecting some of his personality. go to youtube though and vote for him & favorite his video. that will help give him some notice.

cool versus not cool gospel

a fellow nashville minister has a bit of a rant over some newer mac/pc "religious" parody's. though i won't go so far as to call it heinous as jared does, it is a bit much. the older (very similar) parody's i didn't agree with much either. this one isn't nearly as friendly and further separates the us vs them divide. what i said back then...

if we were honest, we all should be both, Christian striving for knowledge and practice (however, this spoof likes to poke at some of the rigid & commercial faith stereotype) and one who is okay with moving outside the fringes of rigid rules of faith (or nonexistent rules) to follow Christ. the problem is most of us will find ourselves in conflict with both these persons, so to laugh at one is to be divisive. laugh at both and recognize we are both people.

on my best days i would not contribute to this, but i know i pull both strings of this myself, just look over this blog. i disagree with and will call old fashioned or outdated many practices of others in the church. though i do this, i do know that we have to claim and be okay with both sides of ourselves.

brings me back to a conversation with jonathon and one of our shared youth. what was being called into question were the crusades and inquisition, basically any atrocity that was done in the name of church and Christ. in the other realm to these are the peace movements of people such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. this was done in the same name of church and Christ.

we are people that live in a tension of both persons & history, not because we are an individual persona in Christ. we are the community body of Christ.

lolmethobloggers

john is having some lolfun with the methoblog community. some familiar faces are highlighted.

new orleans mission experience video 2007

           

this is our compilation video that hendersonville first united methodist church youth, from hendersonville tennessee, put together to help tell some of the story of why we went and what we did as our mission experience in new orleans the summer 2007. we share this with others so that the story of people hurt and efforts to rebuild are not forgotten.

i am doing a little playing around with googles video uploader.. this is the video i put together for our high school mission trip. as with most of these videos they are more about letting the kiddos see themselves within this experience than some refined video. so it runs longer than it probably should, but they don't care.

it's draft time

my wife has her bunko, me.. i get to have draft night! yup, draft night for one of my two fantasy leagues was tonight. i'm pretty stoked for my team.

• willie parker
• brian westbrook
• marion barber
• michael turner
• philip rivers
• donovan mcnabb
• tarvaris jackson
• tj houshmandzadeh (lock it up!)
• braylon edwards
• jerricho cotchery
• drew bennett
• randy mcmichaels
• daniel graham
• eagles defense
• rams defense
• matt stover
• stephen gostkowski

i'm feeling the sunday school championship!

gridiron results

station camp goes in for a touchdown on hendersonville to put the score 9 to 7 just before halftime. it was back and forth after that till station camp scored a winning field goal in the closing seconds. conspiracy theories abound about the clock runner stopping the clock for station camp and letting it run for hhs. hey, that is why it is a home game and you get an advantage that way.

more pictures from the evening found on the youth community flickr. quite a few pictures of our station camp players, pavlik and polka, standing on the sidelines.. hey, it's the only place and way i could get some decent shots.

gridiron friday

tonight is the beginning of fall in many ways for tennessee. i am heading out to station camp high school to watch the bison's take on the commandos of hendersonville high school. i have  youth on both sides of the playing field so you will find me somewhere wandering around the field.

after that we have a "5th quarter show" at the church. part our offerings of our space as a concert venue. a lot of anticipation for this day, i am glad to have fall here.

for those local to middle tennessee this is the css game of the week. so maybe you will see me walking around.. maybe not..

friday five

playing the friday five game with the revgalblogpals.

With that in mind I bring you the cultural Friday 5.
Name a
1. Book : In the Name of Jesus, by Henri Nouwen. one of the most influential books i have read. i like to say it ruined me.
2. Piece of music : Phantom of the Opera. I don't know if it was this piece exactly, but one of my significant musical experiences was performing at Saint Patrick's Cathedral in NYC while a freshman in high school with my youth bell choir. we kicked butt, but mostly the atmosphere and sound gave me my first "strangely warmed" feeling (ref. for those john wesley fans).
3. Work of art : Impression, Sunrise by Monet. i really like it, not sure why, i have a print that hangs in my office so i stare at it often. after that it would the Trinity icon, also in my office.
4. Film : Mr. Hollands Opus, i can't think of a movie that reflects more the spirit of my life. at least i think so, i can't not cry at the end, which has to mean something too.
5. Unusual engagement with popular culture : it isn't 'popular culture' but i like to escape to a monastery for a period of time a time or two a year to spend time in silence and prayer which are amazing times for me.

That have helped/ challenged you on your spiritual journey.

myspace sacred space

eric has found a book by christian piatt titled "myspace to sacred space: God for a new generation." hmm.. i'm kinda on a book buying hold, but this might interest me. i have already done a lot of talking about myspace before now..

• myspace ministry (my first myspace share, an honest conversation w/ struggling teen, happy to report he is alive & doing great two years later)
• churches & myspace
  
• ministers use myspace to hang out with youth group (um reporter article i was interviewed for)
• you won't find Jesus on myspace
  

preaching and blogging to no one

i found this interesting, darren rowse on feelings of preaching to empty pews can help you with blogging to no one. nothing terribly prophetic, i was just intrigued to know this tidbit and felt like sharing.

As I reflect upon my early days of blogging where I felt that nobody was listening I now realize that that was a time where I learned a lot about what I wanted to say and how to say it.

In those early days I tested ideas, tried new ways of expressing them and learned a lot about my topic and the medium of blogging.

So my advice to new bloggers who feel like no one is listening is to not give up and see the experience of preaching to the empty pews on your blog as a learning experience.

techno youth pastor & the church

so i am thinking i want to start a series on the techno youth pastor & the church.. why?

1. youth pastors are generally more technologically inclined than their church congregations. ie. i don't know how many times i sit in a staff meeting and listen to the lack of knowledge about the capabilities of technology at hand to alleviate the gripes
2. youth ministry technology practices will be the next practice for the church congregation. ie. i don't know how long i've been doing email newsletters. our church is just now doing that. i'm thinking of moving to videos and podcasts for updates
3. what are the now & next tech things a youth pastor can do for plugging into their youth

those are initial thoughts.. is there anyone out there that would be interested in such a thing?

small tip.. if you have a website already going then check out darren rouse on how to link properly for search engine optimization.

now your daughter can get her mrs. degree for real

now i don't have children yet, but i say bye to adoptive children each fall as they go off to university. i have high hopes for them. college is such a wonderful time for growth personally, socially, and educationally.

disturbed i am that youth will come into this time of growth with the end result of being a housewife.

[in speaking of a humanities course only open to women] such courses are needed to arrest the collapse of the American family and society -- a view held by many conservative Christians in America.
..

Evangelical Christians number about 60 million in America and many see the country's social ills as stemming from the decline of the traditional family with the mother at home and the dad at work -- a family they see as Biblically sanctioned.

ugh..

nothing against the housewives of the world. i respect it tremendously, plus i'll probably be one myself (more on that later), but why pay the college fees for that.. plus, what kind of stigma does that label a young girl with when they meet a man.

boy: "hey, what is your major?"

girl: "i'm in the mrs. degree program."

boy: "that's cool (internal dialogue "runaway, runaway")"

today i was listening to a youth specialties podcast interviewing ginny olson the author of "teenage girls." somethings she said hits this kind of effort on the nail head. 1) girls today are more narrowly defining themselves, and not looking at themselves holistically, ie. their identity is tied into being able to capture or "be" someone's boyfriend over capturing a vision for who they can be. 2) we go after the symptoms of problems without looking towards the real causes.

this class perpetuates both of these root problems, it ties a persons identity with who and how they are in a relationship with and it doesn't really go after the problems to divorce, abuse, etc. which all have something to do with the man.. does the man get a class or two? "daddy degree," that is the next thing

 

there is an interview as to the intent of the class.

Q: What are the reasons for offering it and what are the needs for it now?

... It is a course of study whereby a woman can prepare herself intellectually and in her basic skills to be a better homemaker."

Q: This brings us back to why you see the need for it.

A: "We have rampant divorce in our society, literally hundreds of thousands of children who are bereft of one of their parents. We have abusive situations ... We have women who are trying to make homes without the basic skills they need. We have young women who are going to the ends of the Earth (on foreign missions) for Christ and the church and find themselves in situations where the ability to be a good homemaker is a survival technique."

Q: What would the curriculum involve?

A: "It's a ... four-year program. Two years of classical Latin, two years of classical Greek. It requires them to read almost all of the great books of the Western world. In addition to that they have 23 hours that is directly associated with homemaking enterprise ... this requires a three-hour course in general homemaking.

"In that we are primarily talking about the Biblical backgrounds for the making of a home. We are talking about relationships to husbands and to children. And then there is a three-hour course in clothing design and apparel ... there is a personal family management course which includes how to make and maintain a successful budget."

now the funny part, for this with regards to my family.. i am the one that has the degree from the human environmental sciences college of my uni. in the past it was known as home ec, the building still has that etched on the front. my wife makes more than me, which will probably get exponentially more than me as the years go (the church doesn't usually do regular pay increases). so as i see it, i am the future mom.. sorta..

why can't i go and get my mrs. degree? or does the bible require a female parent at home?

thanks revfife

updated: music city bloggers has picked up this post and put together some links from prior conversations. good stuff all the way around.

update on jay

since this effects not just jay, a good friend, but  the methoblog community as well. earlier stephen asked what happened to jay.. he's fine, over on his facebook he's been able to say..

jay voorhees is.. "is ticked off that my ISP has suspended my hosting account without warning."

updates coming, if anyone really cares.. if you know jay, you know he will be back online as soon as he can help it.

update: jay got back online. thus, the methoblog is back online

my office view

not exactly sure why i am sharing this. i can't imagine anyone who actually cares. but this is the view out my office window. generic church parking lot, the old high school, now middles school to the left, the field in about 3 hours will be filled with the girls soccer team and boys football team. about the same time the street and drive to the middle school will be packed with cars of parents not so eager to pick up their children.

as for my decor, there is a glass celtic cross, which puts a cool glow onto the floor and wall of the office, depending on the time of day. a salvadoran cross to the top right, some brain teasers that i still haven't figure out (the kids haven't figured them out either which probably makes them even more screwed up than they should be), and a candle that i'll need to replace as the heat and sun the last few days melted it on one side.

that's my view of hendersonville. maybe tomorrow you get a view of my office.. isn't that a treat!

tuesday randomness

today's random links come via music city bloggers or my own news feed stuff.

• a funny look at the jury assembled in the michael vick case (funny)
• sneak peak at the next mac computer design (cool, or too much)
• sex offender get pulpit time, though i have heard the pastor and offender has now left the church since they have gotten press
• a virus to be blamed for obesity?
• let's get together and take on itunes!
• pictures after the peru earthquake
• dean is messing with my honeymoon spot

simple way update

being that i call philadelphia "home," sorta, as i grew up across the river in new jersey & have quite a few memories of "the city of brotherly love." i am upset, but not surprised to hear of this update about the progress / regress after the kensington fires.  if you have some extra few minutes the simple way is wonderful movement to support.

CALL OF THE DAY:

Since so much is happening so quickly, we want to leave a few numbers for you. AND PLEASE KNOW THAT YOUR CALLS ARE MAKING A HUGE DIFFERENCE. Whenever we talk to folks in these influential positions, they say things like “Who in the world is the simple way!?” Hahah. Over and over they tell us that the dozens and dozens of calls they are getting from all over the country have made it clear that they cannot ignore the things we are asking! Well done. So here we go…

This week we are asking Mike Curran 215 686-2588 at License and Inspections to help us by boarding up 3214 H. Street (we boarded up the other houses ourselves). And to help us get a police presence on H. Street to keep other houses from getting broken into while they are being repaired.

We are asking Susie Jarmon and John Coates at the Redevelopment Authority
(215 209 8612) to help us secure title to 3202 and 3204 and 3230 Potter Street. These are all formerly abandoned properties we are hoping to restore as we recover from the fire. And we need them to put a rush on the title transfers because of the fire so that we can begin rebuilding soon.

We are asking John McDonald (215 739 1600 x134) and Steve Culberson (215 739 1600 x146) at Impact Corp. to help us create a park for recreation and community gardens. You might mention we now have over 1000 signatures on our petition, including hundreds of neighbors and all area block captains.

We will post here a "Call of the Day" when there are influential folks we want to contact regarding the rebuilding of the neighborhood. So keep as eye on the site here and when you see the Call of the Day post, please take a minute to make the phone call and be sure to leave a message. Your calls are already making a huge difference as City officials see the support from around the world.

i loved the end sarcasm by shane of returning their taxes & they would police themselves.

don't get left behind on this video

i am no fan of rapture concepts (being that the word is never used in the bible, at least the ones i read) and i remember listening to one of the aforementioned songs by dctalk. which is probably why i find this video a must see. personally i find that left behind theory leaves out too much of the gospel and is a horrible scare tactic for manipulating people into taking on the faith in an unhealthy relationship. people have been powerfully impacted by it, but it isn't God's word or truth, which to each their own, just don't push it on me or expect me to teach it. the trinitarian message is one of love, service, prayer, sacrifice in relationship. not some end result.

did i just rant? just watch the video, check the linked videos for some backstory. thanks john.

agenda wiki

bw3 linked to this article on a new software that apparently has been implemented to track the isp of people who have made changes on various wikipedia pages. the results, funny, not too revealing, expected maybe?..

favs

• Dell Computers deletes negative comments on customer services and removes a passage how the company outsources work to third world countries (kinda close to home as one of those cs hubs is here in nashville)
• Exxon Mobil edits spillages and eco-system destruction from oil spillages article (can you really hide that?)
• Scientology removes criticism and negatives article from Scientology page (just start your own wiki with various levels of status and membership, don't worry about us who don't care of xenu)
• BBC changes Blair's drink from coffee to vodka and his workout from the gym to the bedroom. Someone from the BBC also changes Bush’s page, changing the name from ”George Walker Bush” to “George Wan*** Bush” (that is just funny)

the watchdog need for this is that wikipedia has become a fist stop source for information for many teens, college and adults writing & researching. i think we all know it is a risk getting accurate information, but we trust and hope that it is correct information. i find it quite useful, but then again, nothing i do is considered academic or scientific. for those that want to be legit, you can be safe for most things, but stay away from the items that people have clear and harmful agendas..

can an agenda be clear? does anyone actually have concrete research anymore?

nevermind

music reminiscing

i am thoroughly enjoy walks down memory lane. a week or so ago i actually bought an ipod. i had looked at them for a few months (long bus rides with teens will urge you to have your own personal music and movie device). i didn't need it, but on an impulse i threw in a bid on an ipod on ebay.. and i won.. so i now have this little trinket.

the cool thing is now i am moving all my old music over to said ipod and it has been the best time catching up with some of my older bands.. not so cool i am finding out how many cd's i apparently am missing.

so fun bands i am enjoying the sound again.

• toad the wet sprocket
• indigo girls
• traveling wilburys
• blues traveler
• rem
• stone temple pilots
• chris rice (for christian music fans)

can't wait till i get into my classic rock section of cds. hopefully i still have some of my 80's hair bands.

closing out barcampnashville

what a day! erin i started out early this morning, did some errands as we made our way to west end for barcampnashville. my notes currently consume the blog. it was fun to have erin there, she got to geek with me for at least a day. her coming was in part though to develop some dream ideas of growing the family biz through some innovative marketing ideas. be on the lookout for an erin blog or podcast in coming months. here are my highlight thoughts in no particular order.

• barcamp opened with a bang. chris and mitch were awesome in presentation and content. the 20 minute talk (40 min for keynote) limit stacking people on top of each other is a cool format. they also appeared to be some of the more seasoned public speakers/presenters.
• very cool to see some of the nashville blogging crew. i didn't know many of them this morning, and still don't know all of them, but i do know more. i'll be jazzed to get more involved with the mcb crew.
• people seemed surprised to find out a youth minister was there.
• learned some cool stuff about google... more than i probably wanted to know, but i'll be sure taking advantage of google a bit more.
• enjoyed the dinner break, the organizing a place helped in meeting new people. since we sat in for the main sessions we didn't network during the event.
• brittney's presentation wasn't mind blowing, but wonderful. she has an endearing spirit about her that comes across and i think that's why people love her. you could feel that sentiment in the room.. or maybe that was the room getting a little cooler. naaah

thanks to the sponsors, it was way cool. erin & i were glad to be a part of it and it was well worth our time in the sometimes too hot exit-in.

saturday @ barcamp (now liveblogging)

today erin & i will be heading to barcamp nashville. we are both going to pick up, hopefully, on some fresh perspectives on marketing and media use with the internet. along the way i might meet up with some other blogger friends. john is the only person i know personally that is going.. knowing only one person at an event usually ups the odds of meeting someone new. so that should be pretty cool.

gonna be there? look for me there, say hi

live blog (linking to happen later)

12:00... erin and i arrived before the 11:30am opening. quickly ran into john, whom is the only person i knew going into the event. so i was pretty happy to 1. see him again 2. immediately have another person to talk with. the folks waiting in line were quite nice. so it looks positive as an event. since getting in we met up with rob and newscoma. we see some other people we know through networks (not necessarily blogging)

12:30... chris houchens, "blogging gives you are word of mouth outlet." "social media it not the place for sales." people in corporate marketing have failed in trying to do that (sale over social media). "you need to be honest and sincere with social media" warhol revisited, "in the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes. with social media everyone is famous to 15 people." now is the best time to be in marketing we've ever had, because the market is self-sorting itself. embracing the medium. corporate blogs do's and don'ts

• first, let's kill all the lawyers. it needs to be direct link out and not filtered through lawyers
• blogs work when they are based on: candor, urgency, timeliness, pithiness, controversy..
• blogs are NOT a press release machine
• understand what a blog is (example chrysler firehouse blog)
• don't be fake (example the coke zero blog as fake)
• discuss the Industry NOT just your Company (example brew blog by miller brewing)
• fictional characters CANNOT blog (example the pink panther blog, captain morgan)
• watching from the sidelines is important too, be aware of what is going on online about your company. search youtube and search engines about what is being said.
• if you are not going to blog about yourself, someone else is

chis put his presentation on www.slideshare.net "the youtube for powerpoint"

12:39... bryce wells from athlon: podcasting, lessons for traditional publishers. i hear, "content online is a black hole." wikipedia defines podcast as. what is a "traditional publisher." having a website does not mean you are a traditional publisher. in april 2007 over 100 million ipods are in the market.

• our magazines only come out once a year, our editors are consumed with our core sports throughout the year. some editors do more that 100 radio interviews a year.
• our online strategy is to turn each sport's preseason into an online event, team predictions..

lots o' information about logistics of podcasting. now applying lessons to video podcasting.

as traditional publisher should embrace podcasting and find ways to complement their core offerings.

1:00.. mitch joel, six pixels of separation, the new world of new marketing.

• "the the conversation is dominated by consumer themselves, and they're paying scant attention to the self-interested blather of the marketer, who needs ads- offline, online or otherwise? this raise the question of agencies are left to do." -bob garfield, dec 2005
• aol commercial "is the internet a bad thing?" put out commercial because they don't have a choice, people are saying these things anyways.
• blogs and these things are not a fad, they are not going away
• people do this because we can, we've always wanted to do these things. (connect)
• half of youtube's audience is over 34
• 17% of sony playstation owners in america are aged 50+
• 48% of leisure time is pent online.
• quiz: youtube's growth from april 2006-2007? 616% wow!!
• facebook growth from 2006-2007? 2424%
• "i really don't know whether we'll be printing the times in five years, and you know what? i don't care either." arthur sulzberger, owner, chairman and publisher of ny times.
• "newmark told an all-too-knowing audience that this is a time of 'creative destruction' and that he has a 'great deal of sympathy for people who run the printing presses. they are screwed.' it's not that journalism is becoming obsolete; rather the deliver methods are changing: 'even the kids realize new is important. the problem is paper is too expensive, ' he said." craiglist founder
• talking of being told that 'you' are killing the news. problem with that is, the daily show is only funny if you know what the news is.

one to many conversation

• if you understand you internal conversation, your one to one conversation.. how do we tell the world?
• advertise cost millions.. though the 'one to many conversation' has been democratized
• nobody talks about this, they talk about control

connecting real power creating community conversations

• "real power" never before have you been able to go through you day to day lives and affect change
• show another time and media where this could have happened?
• it wasn't enough where you could read and look, you can now create
• we are all intrinsically connected
• it's completely different from how we are conditioned to do things as marketers
• blog stats: over 71 million blogs.. some of them must be good, 120,00 new blogs started every day, over 1.4 million blog postings every day. 58k blog postings in an hour. don't try to get ahead of this today, just get on-board.
• 300 story of, civilization could have gone one way or another way. barcamp is our 300.

know control

• consumer is not in control.. because manufacturers still control the price and products. the only difference is the consumers voice is as big as the companies. we live in a world where the consumers voice is an equal

what is social media

• the web as we knew it. look, it's about eyes
• today, it's about hands, you can change stuff

wisdom of crowds (book to read)

• together we are a lot smarter (example motorola q wiki page)
• co-creation, example starwood creating new...
• trust economy, is what this world is based on. i trust him through the online channel. in ebay, you would buy from the person with positive
• digital darwinism. if it is not good, no body will come and it will become extinct. if it is good it will evolve.

six points of separation

• make people the heroes - not the brands
• everything is "with" not "instead of"
• don't be fleeting - build, grown...
• earn the right to get your consumer out of lurker mode
• it's attitudinal not generational
• upload a video to youtube.. do something now

juan mann brings it all home

1:45.. wow!! break

2:05.. Luke Kanies & David Touve talking about humans and computers.. people are still chatting away after the break, so it's somewhat difficult to focus on these guys.

it's getting hot here.. okay, it got hot a long time ago. some 500 people in and out of the exit in while the temp goes up. you couldn't expect anything else.

dave and luke are making some great points about the limitations of computers due to limitations of our own self. the interactivity or imagined interactivity of computers we come in contact with. they are running a loop of computer/human images (six million dollar man, old ascii comps, etc) while talking.. which is pretty darn cool.

these guys are really sharp.. probably too sharp.. i can only imagine their late night drunk conversations. that'd be interesting.. or completely insane

2:26... jackson miller, 3 dimensional social networks. too many web applications don't do #$!. they make me do all the work. things need to be simple. pen and pad are simple. macbook tries to make complex things simple.

one dimensional social network

• do you know them?
• yes or no, true or false, boolean
• myspace, instant messenger

two dimensional social networking

• do you know them?
• in what context do you know them?
• facebook, linkedin, etc.

three dimensional social networks ?

• do you know them?
• in what context do you know them?
• how deep is your relationship?
• can there be a system that can identify how well and through avenues you know someone?
• "i want my communications to be weighted by this." sort by the amount of attention you give them
• our network apps will be able to know what is more relevant and we don't have to do all the work
• "relevance is measured by attention over time"

2:44... chris wage, centre source, demystifying web 2.0.

• web 1.0 the beginning. traditional client/server interaction. web as information-repository. cgi-the web gets interactive.
• what web 2.o isn't. not a new technology. involves a fair amount of marketing hype/buzz. will not do your dishes.
• what is web 2.0. primarily represents a change in thinking about how the web works.
• advantages of web 2.o. participatory, open communication, decentralized architecture, social networking, semantic web.
• technical changes, ajax, semantic markup, tagging, rest, xml (rss/atom)
• development processes, rapid development/extreme programming, the end of the software release cycle. (ie. google maps is still in beta)
• problems, nobody knows what web 2.0 means, semantic web is not an idea that is perfectly reconcilable with the real world, "bubble 2.0".. technologies like ajax circumvent a lot of standard assumptions about web-browsing.
• conclusion - web 2.0 is not a cure all, involves some useful rethinking about web usage, dangerous marketing buzz/hype.

3:20... caleb garner, on gaming stuff. at the moment he's talking about an upcoming game. i am not a big gamer person.. actually i never really play. that is a long story about me being a young child and not getting an atari. my family had to purchase a colecovision. apparently we were the only family that had one, so none of my friends wanted to play at our house cause we'd kick their butt.. my brother and i didn't want to play at their house cause we'd get our butts kicked. so eventually, gaming was not part of my life.

people are talkative again after the break. go outside!.. oh yeah, it's hot out there. we tried. i think the blogger friends went to the cafe. i hear it is cooler there.

you know, i think this stuff would be kinda fun to play with.. now, if only there were four more hours in the day that i could be awake.. hmmm

3:41... jared scheel on iphone application development.. can't afford it.. so i'm gonna rest the comp and let my lap cool off.

4:02... matt reed, on design aspects and techniques for the user. cool splash page thing. is that something design companies still put into a site. what they do with cabedge.

• entertainment (20%)
• informational (70%)
• application (10%)

when designing, what to keep in mind

• designer, client, user, google
• designer and clients need to begin with the users and google in mind
• in bad design, designer thinks they rock.. client thinks it rocks.. user is out.. google doesn't know what it is. in the end the client is not happy.
• if you break the site down to the core, the html, then what? it makes sense to the broad web and google, but real people don't eat it up. the designer is ashamed, the client feels jipped, user doesn't think it looks legit, google loves it.
• applying a style sheet, designer is happy, client is happy, user thinks it looks legit, google is able to index it. a lot of architecture on how to show the information, shorter design time, shorter changes
• text navigation helps in making sites changeable
• design for the user, all things circle around that, and it is sometimes hard to get a client to see that.

(battery low.. got to switch to computer #2 soon)

switched to back up computer.. yeah it works (the battery sometimes likes to run quickly, which it may still do). people are kinda loud. bluepaw paid for a round.. well $500 worth of a round.

5:03... chip gallent, from linearmill on tips to increase web traffic (conversion metrics).

• the conversion funnel, breakdown you site behaviors. understand all of the steps to understanding your success metricscale, lead or registration. what you think you know is unimportant.
• the goals, break down your conversion process to determine where the opportunities for success. understand why your site visitors don't continue to the next step.
• conversion funnel chart, internet traffic 2 website visitors 2 website prospects 2 transaction initiation 2 transaction steps 2 transaction success.
• understand the funnel, at each step within the funnel, your visitors are going to make 1 of 3 decisions. continue to the next step, leave the site...
• what worked?, stop guessing. start knowing. invest in analytics. a/b test your registration/shopping cart steps & order. eliminate all intra-registration, on-page links. the offer will impact the results.
• ? used google analytics because they rely on google adsense. also used omni(something)

www.conversion-funnel.com

5:22... john ellis, from resort quest, 7 habits of highly effective pay-per-click advertisers.. the travel biz in search engine marketing is very important. so how do we convert our searchers into buyers?

• separate content from search. know that there is a difference between the content links and search links that are
• control spinning by adjusting bids... not daily spend budget. set it and it won't go over it, but if you only manage that you miss out on a lot of clicks. lowering your position on the page can get you where you need to be, but you must monitor your cost per click.
• create a negative keyword list.. it's not the traffic that counts, its the quality of traffic that counts. lose unwanted traffic. get rid of the people who are not really interested. (ie. if you are a soap company take off soap opera to eliminate that traffic)
• conversion matters, not clicks. what you want is the buyers. what are they doing when they come in and when they leave?
• avoid #1 spot. the return is not in the number one spot. (hey i'm number one in google) you get a lot of wasteful traffic. the people that want to buy look at the 1st and 2nd but will buy at the 3rd or 4th position. if you try for #1 it's more expensive and a competitor will start a fight wasting money for that one spot. they will get more traffic which you have to be cool with, but the end results are similar
• bid exact, avoid broad.. these are the exact keywords that you put in. being exact enable the more targeted consumer.
• good analytics are needed to measure the cost per click. where are they coming from, figure out the funnel path. follow the customer path.

it's not traffic that matters, it is unwanted traffic that you want to get rid of and get the close. you will start paying less and making more. google is still the top dog in searches, be there first, 60-70% of your traffic is there. yahoo is around 10%.

5:43.. stasia holdren from sitening on local search and narrowing your results.

• why? $243.1 billion in the us online retail sales in 2007, people are researching online and then looking local for the services or product.
• what is a local search? with people looking you want as a local business to get online there.
• why is it cool? because there is money to be made there.
• could be found through tradition words or zip code type applications to help match people and products
• identified as local,
• business listings in google is now in google maps.
• you as a business owner can put in more detailed information into the google local information. there can be reviews put into the website. (this is really cool, i'll have to see if i can do this with the church's listing i am sure the other churches don't know this)
• some local portals will sort by ratings
• how do i get listed? at the bottom of the google maps page there is a link to edit business information.
• if you can show your address and information in a traditional envelop style the google bot can pick up the information is easier.
• they then will do a phone call verification.
• ppc and google level. local searches are not limited to google, but they are like 70%.
• ppc geotargeting. get your information out there and make sure it is correct in as many places as you can. if it is wrong then other sites will pull information that is incorrect
• targeting.. (that was fast)
• roadblocks, isp prevents google from identifying ip, ip doesn't match location of searcher, google doesn't recognize location.

6:04... dinner?

7:32... parker and colin polidor, cell journalism/nashflix and community powered media.

• immediacy of sending content remotely is undeniable.
• okay.. so we are all of a sudden talking about how said self grows up with the internet.. uh, we all have that history, you have 20 minutes.. get going, this isn't a one hour presentation where you touch my heart, why cell journalists? why community media?
• okay, so just realized that time is running out.. also mentioned in the twitter page
• kat asking what benefit for the community sending it in if it is monetized. answer, this is a platform for putting up new media.
• nashflix is still in beta, which we heard today one is always in, but then they mentioned that they are seeing what the users want.. which i can't help but think is an interesting perspective

7:55... brittney gilbert, on blog bold.. learn the rules , then break them. getting back to the basics

• what are the rules? specialize, standardize, have a message/mission statement, identify your traffic & write for your readers, make money by selling ads.
• breaking the rules. specialization is a good idea, but overrated. a personal blog can be both "general interest" and successful. many people read blogs for the person behind it, not the subject matter.
• people read your blog because of who you are.
• note: brittney looks small behind the podium.. she's not that small
• breaking the rules. your blog need not look like everyone else's. don't have a blog roll if you don't want. don't allow comments if you don't want. don't look at too many other blogs before you design. having a mission statement is great, but not essential. you don't need a message, ramble if you want. some of the best-loved blogs have no mission or aim. write when the mood strikes, about whatever that may be.
• breaking the rules. forget you have an audience. write for yourself. look less at your stats. trust yourself and your material.
• breaking the rules. ads are not essential. bloggers make money in other ways-writing gigs, employment opportunities and book deals. concentrate on the content, not on the advertising. blog because you love it, not for the money.
• rules worth following. post often (every post doesn't have to be a masterpiece), mind your manners, don't feed the trolls.
• want a blog job? don't wait for one to open up. create one. lobby local media outlets. pitch your blogging skills to companies big and small. they don't even know they need you yet. show them that they do.
• odd, she waves bye and i for some reason i wave back... hmm..

8:18pm... penelope trunk, the brazen careerist, someone who sticks to a path that is true to themselves. she "was like the best at selling ads on her bikini" as a beach volleyball player. so as she climbed the ladder she sees that all the people at the top are such "losers".. talk will be 10 myths

1. job hoppers will hurt your career. it's a smart thing, get the learning and then go and get more learning. 18-24 yr olds will have a new job every two years and it will persist till 2010. you build your skill set faster and network faster. job hopping is actually good
2. office politics is about backstabbing. true, if you are a backstabber's. the way to get the projects you want or get someone to take you further is that you get people to like you. find the people who have empathy, can forge relationships, that people will want to bring you up.
3. do good work and then you'll do fine. good work is totally overrated. people will rather work with someone who incompetent and likeable than someone competent and a jerk. focus on how likable you are more. if you spend the majority of your work day with your head down getting your job done then you are not getting your work done. pay attention to people.
4. you need a good resume. a resume only gets about 10 seconds worth. that 10 seconds is to help them throw you out. 90% of jobs people get from connections. think about your story. your resume is not everything. you need an integrated story about how you got to where you are.
5. promotions are good. promotions are someone elses vision for your career. it is what the company needs for you to do, not what you need to be doing. people who were recently divorced and promoted says that divorce is less stressful. instead of promoted from programming to management, promotion means you get to pick the cool project
6. grad school opens doors. grad school generally closes doors. if you are not going to a top 10 school for an mba the degree is not worth enough to give up working to get, keep working or go to night school. the people who are making law partner are better marketers.
7. entrepreneurship is risky. corporate life is just as risky as there is no safety net. in entrepreneurship now it's the less risky move as you can rely on yourself instead of others. the bar for entrepreneurship is really low right now. a good idea sticks and if it is not then it is only a wasted weekend. if you are learning and able to live then you are a success, but if you are stuck in corporate and miserable then can you be a success.
8. don't reveal too much of yourself online. no one needs to give you warnings about what is too personal. plus, human resources is not going to go through all your myspace to only find that everyone else is unhireable because of the same thing. if you are going to blog then get credit for it, put you name into it.
9. work hard to reach the american dream. college, wife, house, kids, retire.. yeah. generation x is the first generation to not make more money than their parents. but it's not biggie as they are not money oriented as their parents. generation x and y value their time more than their money. if we have our own company then we control i time more. we are redefining the american dream
10. find a stable job and have a stable adult life. unfortunately companies cannot trade off that type of safety. people can offer the ability to find fulfilling work and specialties. find stability inside you by accepting that things are going to change.

"my blog is a community where we ask these same kind of questions".. i like penelope trunk, she's cool.

8:52... whew!! it's been a good day, but we are outta here. (will clean up grammar and links later)

prosperity gospel explained

my sunday school is full of some great people, but "bless their heart" they are not the most well rounded theologically. on more than one occasion we have gotten into conversations about the prosperity gospel. we don't always call it that, but it comes up being that.

michael spencer has a great listing of what is prosperity gospel is and isn't. he also diagnoses why americans are drawn to it.

A) is the presumption that God wants us to be rich.

B) is the assumption that the blessings of the Gospel are a guarantee of material and financial blessings now. (The mediation of Jesus makes all blessing possible, but it does not guarantee wealth or health, etc.)

...

Why does the Prosperity Gospel appeal to American Christians?

a) American Christians are focused on money as a symbol of the “good life.”

c) American Christians have a strong preference for legalism and transactionalism.

d) The Prosperity Gospel (or elements of the message) appeals to particular churches:
-Suburban churches stressing the teaching of “life principles.”
-Church growth churches interested in drawing crowds.
-Word-Faith and TBN influenced churches.
-Churches led by faddish pastors.
-Churches that emphasize miracles.

g) American Christians prefer manipulation and transactionalism as ways of dealing with God to confessing dependence on his sovereignty.

m) The teaching of Jesus on material possessions, money and discipleship are generally ignored or reinterpreted in American Christianity.

 

i won

hey, i won a caption contest put on by john. i think this is my second winning distinction which would be awesome if he didn't run three or four contests a week. still i'm quite proud of my creativeness.

reactive america

i have often said that america is a reactive society. this viewpoint was mostly from my education in the early child field and seeing more of a need for better pre-natal and parenting resources for lower income (and some higher income) families. i was always of the opinion that if we spent a fraction of what we do on imprisonment on proactive measures we would diminish over the long term needs for reactive things, ie. reactive law making, imprisonment, social programs..

with this i really liked a friends quote & closing paragraph by brian mclaren in talking about a commentary by james skillen on the war in iraq.

A friend of mine says that we're only as sick as our reactivity. If our reactivity to Sept. 11 played a part in getting us into this terrible situation, we will not be well served by reacting to the status quo with still more reactive behavior.

frustrations with the bom

note: as i go through this post, the "bom" stands for board of ordained ministry. this is the group of people who decide your fate as an ordained pastor within the united methodist church.

andrew has brought to the methoblog questions about peoples experiences with the bom. not being a candidate for the process of ordained ministry (though i have thought about it and been encouraged to do it many times over). i can't give testament to my own personal experiences, but i can give testament to my personal experiences with friends who are taking on the call to ordained ministry.

to put it flatly. the bom has been incredibly poor in dealing with the younger people who are seeking to enter the ministry. matt isn't an isolated case, but he has talked about his bom experiences in his blog, so i will reference him so as not to "out" a friend.

here is a young person. i knew matt when he got out of high school. he was under my leadership at our short term mission camp. he has gone on to lead his own camps, has done well at school, finished divinity school in an appropriate time, has a stable relationship, kept active in the leadership of the church (working as a youth minister and then a worship leader for his congregation at that time), and all the while seeking ordination through the proper channels. though, this year instead of being ordained as an elder with the church he was not only passed over, he had a slap in the face (in my opinion) by being appointed to another church where he would need to change residence.

think about it. "we don't think you are up to our snuff kid".. "but, we are going to send you here to this little church." which appointments are not just for elders (local pastors and deacons can be appointed to new places if needed) but i don't know how he manages to put up with it. the only thing i see different from this case is that it is a young person who does some challenging things within ministry, worship practices/experiences & theology (but what else would you expect from a vandy div school grad).

after that i come to two close to heart stories. one of my closest friends (many of you can guess who that is) who has been passed over a number of times for new reasons every time. paperwork has been lost for months at a time. communication has been less than professional. i know how much this person is gifted and wanted by the church they are at, but the run around keeps happening.

a third is more the tragic story. this is a girl who i knew as a youth. she felt a calling to ministry years ago and went into college with divinity school and ministry in mind. somewhere in her schooling (i believe it was while in div school) she was sexually assaulted. since then she has gotten proper counseling and psychiatric care to help deal with that part of her now life. she accepts that. what is harmful is the way in which she has been treated by the bom. they don't need to pass her just because of her being a victim of crime, but they can show grace and understanding. instead she has been held back and pushed away because she was a victim. she is dealing with the depression that comes with an experience like that and she continues to be victimized by the way in which she is treated by the bom.

it is sad.. and every annual conference (when ordinations happen) i get bummed that more of my contemporaries who are dedicated and willing to put their passion out there in ministry are held up by people who can't see past their own homeostasis and trust that younger people, though tenderfoot and less experienced as they may, have innovative ideas and passion to bring to the church. they can't see past a persons cracks and breaks of perfection to trust that God uses them to help healing those broken people in and out of the church (which percentage wise is much larger than the perfect people) because they themselves know brokenness.

plus, it makes me want to stay as far away from the system as much as possible.

nations are nations nothing else

phil has a great take on america not being a Christian nation. in related thoughts, it reminds me of my readings of thomas merton's peace in the post-christian era. my favorite part of phil's thinking...

...I don't believe that nations can be Christians. They can be largely comprised of Christians or even led by Christians, but nations are largely about self preservation and protection of its citizens. Whatever the cost. Basically nations believe that the lives of their citizens are inherently more valuable than the lives of people of other non-allied nations.

i think that is a great thought about nations having self-centered interests. anything Christian should be about God & neighbor before self.

friday five

i am playing the friday five after a long hiatus, if i remember correctly, john said i blogged like a girl..

Tell us the first thing you think of on reading each one. Your response might be simply another word, or it might be a sentence, a poem or a story.

1. vineyard: a good wine.. and there is a new vineyard outside franklin tn that i want to check out

2. root: root directory.. my inner geek coming out

3. rescue: my days as a firefighter and emt back in new jersey.. those were interesting years

4. perseverance: if i continue to sit at this desk eventually i will get some work done

5. divided: the church.. all kinds of ways

top green religious leaders

thunder picked up this list of 15 top green religious leaders. what is interesting is that many are not of the famous names. some are more recognizable. who has more street cred? the big name or the lesser known name? another interesting note is that the list is primarily mainline church leaders (of the ones of the Christian faith). there is only one figurehead & mention of evangelical pastors whom make up a large portion of the notable 'megachurch' leaders.

youth, a glimpse at our world

... young people reveal society's fault lines, including violence, despair, technological dependence, and poverty, precisely because they are so sensitive to the tremors of culture.

kenda creasy dean, practicing passion

so i thought.. what does some stats of youth today..

• 45% of internet users, or about 60 million Americans, say that the internet helped them make big decisions or negotiate their way through major episodes in their lives in the previous two years.
• The number of teenagers using the internet has grown 24% in the past four years and 87% of those between the ages of 12 and 17 are online. Compared to four years ago, teens’ use of the internet has intensified and broadened as they log on more often and do more things when they are online.
• about 15-20% of American teens have experienced a serious episode of depression, which is similar to the proportion of adults suffering from depression.
• Adolescent girls are twice as likely as boys to experience depression.
• Gay students hear anti-gay slurs as often as 26 times each day; faculty intervention occurs in only about 3% of those cases.
• Gays and lesbians are at least 7 times more likely to be crime victims than heterosexual people.

that is just with a few minutes of research.

cleaning house

so i'm running a new theme, simple, a little color.. mostly the change comes from a need to clean up some of the links and stuff.

we want a church that doesn't exist

this article captured my attention (via umportal). what would your perfect church look like? some of my favs

6. An engaging, exciting, relevant, progressively-oriented, open and inviting twentysomething group that is co-pastored by a young couple just out of seminary, and staffed with engaging, exciting, relevant and progressively-oriented volunteers and parents from the congregation.

5. A church where everyone loves the young people in the church and encourages them to bring their unchurched friends to church (no matter what they look like) and has no problem letting the youth group band lead in worship.

4. A church that has a traditional service, a contemporary service, a modern worship service, a perfectly-blended worship service and an alt.worship gathering.

when i think of church shopping, i have a couple of thoughts and experiences. the one that circles around my brain lately, is the methodist church around the corner from my house. back-story: we live in a little historic area that is quaint & condense where people walk (or could walk) to their church, community center, & shoppes. however, we (wifey & i) travel some 11 miles (20 minute) drive away to go to church. this is solely due to my job. being on staff at a church requires some commitment to participate in the life of the church. however, if i were to leave my current church position and we were to "church shop" would we go to the methodist church around the corner?

more back-story: erin & i are both die-hard practicing methodists. the both of us have a bulk of our growing up in the methodist church, some good times, some not so much. we've attended and participated in other denom and nondemon churches, but we continue to find our place in the good ole umc. so no need to change that.

coming back to a potential for church shopping. would we even consider going to the local methodist church? if i had to guess, probably not. why?

first off, we do like our current church. there is a great core of people and younger adult couples that we have really enjoyed being a part of and fellowshipping with outside of the walls of the church. after that it would be reasonings dealing with program stuff, some great children's programs & a top-notch youth ministries program. the church around the corner (in my great judgemental self) does not have any of these things.

honestly, i know very little of the methodist church around the corner. i imagine that is older folks, retired or on the verge of. why? basically that is the make up of the neighborhood and i don't see this church as drawing from more than the neighborhood.

this begs a new question. should not i, and all involved in the life of a church, be ingrained in the church local to your own residence? this would probably bring more understanding to "loving thy neighbor" as people you worship with know your neighbors and you know theirs. the needs of the neighborhood are known by the congregation. be-it a soup kitchen need, consignment, festival gatherings, meeting spaces for recovery/neighborhood awareness/secular groups, raising children through programs (as the adage goes, it takes a village to raise a child).

in my asking of questions about this church i drive & walk by on a daily basis. what would happen if erin & i were to start participating in this church? (keeping my already claimed judgemental hat on) we could be the young couple to welcome other young couples (our older neighborhood is transitioning). we could help ourselves know the community more by meeting more people in the neighborhood. this might help us to know more about what the needs are of the community. it might help our status in the neighborhood as well. currently we are the ones with "the fence" and "the loud/big dogs."

bottom line honest truth of it all. we are probably going to end up shopping for church just like everyone else. we will want a church that fills some needs of ours. probably never asking what needs of the church we can help to fill. i am not sure that shopping is a bad thing. shopping does in my questioning bring up some negatives; never learning sacrifice for the benefit of the community or Kingdom of God & never seeing the purpose of church as anything more than an entity that fulfills my own personal/family needs.