Hit the Back Button to Move Fwd by Gavin Richardson

halloween overcomercialized? : the reason for the season

In The Know: Has Halloween Become Overcommercialized?

sam with cool pumpkin : october closing

Sam with Cool Pumpkin
Originally uploaded by gavoweb.

happy halloween to everyone. our family has a little tradition with the davidsons where we give out candy, eat chili & grilled cheese, then act sophisticated with wine & drink and conversation. its been a fun evening tradition. this year i carved a pumpkin in honor of sams endeavor of 'cool people care'

it was a quick carving job, but i thought it turned out pretty good. you can check out cool pumpkin in night action.

phillies win! : world series champs 2008

i never thought i'd see it in my lifetime. the phillies are world series champs! wow!

don't vote : or vote.. wait.. what?

ah, the power we give celebrity. how they use that is intriguing to me. this is a new hollywood sarcasm psa. reverse psychology?

shades of a youth room : new carpet

New Carpet
Originally uploaded by hfumcyouth

so today is the start of new carpet in our youth room. tomorrow these guys should finish it. as you may see, it's a drastic change from before. we are using a commercial grade recycled carpet. commercial in that it is low pile (thin) with a hard rubber bottom. it only needs to be vacuumed regularly and steam cleaned once a year. the recycle part comes that it uses recycled carpet materials. next week get our chairs, which i am excited about.

happy b'day to me : blog-aversary

today marks four years of blogging. wow!

as i think of my the life of this blog it's gone through some interesting times. days of big numbers, lots of posting, seasons of posts on church life, church & culture commentary, monasticism, youth ministry, methodist everything, then more and more oddities (which i think is what i've been doing a lot of lately).

my thought to celebrate four years is to do some rooting through the archives and find some gems. some cool thoughts maybe, some commentary or reflections that don't make sense anymore.

so i will be going through and finding significant posts that reflect the same week four weeks back.

back in 2005 around this time beth stroud's case of being defrocked, undefrocked, and defrocked again. i also had found some resemblance of the modern church in this monty python sketch.

true : what people see

i always enjoy when asbo Jesus is at the top of his game.

internet is our parish : nuts and bolts

in a few hours i will be in session for my first workshop here at christian educators fellowship conference in albuquerque. my first workshop is a nuts and bolts session we will be going over a better website and see where that one takes us. next session (tomorrow at 2pm mountain time) i will be going over building communities and social media. lots of fun stuff.

this is not the first time, but i am using liveworship as my presentation software. i felt the organic nature that this topic can take was disserviced by a linear training method like keynote (i actually started using keynote but abandoned it at last minute). liveworship is not as slick at keynote in bells and whistles and tweaking the spacings, but it will service just fine i am sure.

these are my all encompassing notes for my workshop... i might revise as i get closer to time.. i've revised them every time i've opened up the file. already did one edit to the first saved copy.

The Internet is Our Parish, by Gavin Richardson

I am also making suggested reading this free e-book from chris forbes

Facebook for Pastors, by Chris Forbes

taking photos : pilgrimage in albuquerque

Originally uploaded by gavoweb.

the wifey and i have been milling around albuquerque and santa fe the last two and half days in preparation for the christian educators fellowship conference. i am teaching some workshops (more on that later) but more interesting, we've been roaming around pilgrim style. these are some of our photos from albuquerque to santa fe, tram to winery. oh, the conference too.

i must say, some of mine need cleaning up. i apparently got some fuzz or something under my sensor. not sure how, but that dang spot showed up and i was without my tools to clean the camera. sounds like i will be doing some photoshop in the near future.

God hates shrimp : the catholic vote

friends have sent me these two things that i find, funny & interesting. worth a look.

if you are a westboro baptist basher, like i generally am, then you will want to bash the folks at God hates shrimp.

next thing is from the folks at catholic vote. agree with or disagree with. it's a pretty darn good video.

blog or not to blog : rise of social media

mitch joel has some expanded thoughts on why you need to invest in social media & disagreement over the life and/or death of blogging. he has rooted some great thinking lines.

It sounds like we're back to the relationship over the immediate sale.

Cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns now drown out the authentic voices of amateur wordsmiths. It's almost impossible to get noticed, except by hecklers. And why bother? The time it takes to craft sharp, witty blog prose is better spent expressing yourself on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter...

"Don’t blog to get known, blog to be knowable."

social media to real life : puppet pals musical

i'm a fan of the harry potter puppet pals. i find the composition of the 'shows' to be very entertaining. as with anything social media i am interested to see how it transfers into a mainstream model of entertainment/promotion. to show that people love these simple puppets even more in real life, just check out this fan video of the puppet pals tour.

out early playing often : teaching tech to church folks

tomorrow, waaay too early for me, i'm heading out to albuquerque. i'm meeting up with wifey, who is flying in from washington dc, and we are catching a free day before i get to work teaching technology stuff to folks at cef conference.

i'm sure to be hanging out with david camphouse & hopefully laura, who actually lives there but not going to the conference. anyone else going to be there?

photo courtesy of 'open thread'

the person is smart : people are paranoid & stupid

if you watch men in black (mib segment here) there is a scene when tommy lee jones character is sitting on a bench with will smith's character and jones says something to the effect of 'the person is smart, people on the other hand are paranoid, stupid,' and a few other things.  i always thought this very profound and telling of the mob mentality. it's what i thought of when i saw this behavior at a mccain rally.

tron vs matrix : not so new

so i've been rewatching some old sci-fi stuff lately and yesterday i was putting together some thoughts that tron & the matrix series are much the same. silly this may be & possibly i'm the only one that would get a kick out of processing this i'm still sharing. i told erin about it and she just gave me that sarcastic smile and nod.

etherial being/computer

• matrix: matrix computer, operates the slavery of humans in a cyber construct
• tron: master computer/control program, is deleting, getting rid of useless programs

antagonist

• matrix: mr. smith, beyond the matrix itself
• tron: sark, beyond the master control

antagonists buddies

• matrix: agents, or the many mr. smith's in last two movies
• tron: i don't know what they are called, but they looked like cylons from battlestar galactica

protagonist

• matrix: neo, special being who, who happens to move digitally into and out of the computer world, has to realize as he's going how he saves the world
• tron: flynn, special being who, after being zapped digitally into the computer world, has to realize as he's going along how he saves the world

protagonist buddy

• matrix: morpheus, he is the one that generally knows all about the antagonist and buddies and how to move around the world and go places to save the world
• tron: tron, he is actually a security program that is suppose to protect the computer system.

plotlines

• matrix is computer generated reality that uses folks for its survival. humans, if they figure it out can go into and out of the system digitally/virtually. if people died digitally in the matrix they were dead in the real world..
• tron is a super computer that does what it has to in order to survive, bring in a human into the computer (by breaking the human into packets) to protect itself. flynn was the only person, but the data information that went into these combat games were different people, accounting programs etc. so when their program data was killed, what happened to the person in real life? 'damn lost file!'

that is not all my parallels i can draw.. but i am feeling a real overload in geek that tells me i need to unplug this thought for now. care to share you own parallels?

music monday : sorta music

todays music isn't quite music. i'm spreading the word on budding artist, matt weddle / obadiah parker, trying to get a record cut here in nashville. here is is popular video on youtube a cover of "hey ya." tip to eric

hesed : third candidate

jay bought up that there is a third way in today's politics. now we have a third candidate.

wrapping up barcamp : processing thoughts

today was the blitz that is barcamp. for the second year in a row the wifey and i got to take part. it was fun to run into tech friends that we generally never see but online, others for the first time. i kept a rolling log of notes from the sessions for those with a lot of extra time.

highlights for me go like such; hanging with erin for a day doing geek stuff, laughing with at chris and his utter geekdom in geocaching, hearing some new tech ideas, going tweet mad & almost being affirmed for it. my favorite session is hard to say, but david bullock's with the barack 2.0 analysis was pretty cool. we've seen all the obama campaign stuff in action, to see it analyzed and the methodology behind it is insightful.

other thoughts? this years barcamp was way highend compared to last year venue wise. i liked the raw nature of last years venue at exit-in, though temperature wise today was much better. don't get me wrong, i liked the space for this years unconference. last year though it felt more like you were a part of something very organic, and this was getting more like corporate. i liked the four/three various camps compared to the two last year (though last year we stayed in the main venue). the geekdom was more basic than some of the stuff i experienced last year. purposefully erin & went to some of the basic stuff, but even the ones that we thought might be big challenges were more scratch the surface stuff. there were some stuff i sat in on last year that was so out there for me that i still think about it.

what is possibly going to come back to haunt me? dave interviewed me candidly while hanging out in the halls as part of a promo for a potential memphis barcamp. i didn't say anything stupid, really, i didn't. but upon further review i had a nice pimple starting to take space above my lip, and his camera was hd.. that won't work well for my ego.

other thing i realized from barcamp... i really need to just buckle down and do the site update of this blog that i have talked about for like 8 months.

looking forward to next year

barcamp nashville : live blogging

erin & i are attending barcamp nashville today. i'll be live blogging what i can, as i did last year. you can also follow my twitter, and the barcamp twitter feed.

the wifey and i are all settled in & registered. got a cool t-shirt and already ran into john.

wordpress 101 : power to the people via mitch canter in 'other camp'
why wordpress?

• dynamic
• easy to use
• open source, hundreds of plug-ins available
• powerful
• useful & free!
• is the last software you'll ever use to maintain a website

where can i get?

• www.wordpress.com & www.wordpress.org
• .org user downloads the software
• requirements php 4.2.x or above, mysql 4.0
• godaddy.com or dreamhost give good deals on hosting and will do a turn key application

why host it yourself?

• custom themes
• advanced heirarchy
• ability to host podcast (podpress & powerpress)
• you own content!

set up!

• copy wordpress to your site via ftp
• database name, database username, database password, database host, table prefix
• confirm, run the install
• name it, log back in, you're in!

files

• missed stuff
• sidebar, recent posts, recent comments, blog counter, page index, widgets, etc.
• footer
• index, brings in the template and 'the loop' displays posts in chronological order, can be customized for any theme design, runs using logical php

why so passionate about wordpress?

• you can edit or make changes without knowing code
• wordpress themes are designed just like regular web sites
• go from photoshop, to dreamweaver, then to wordpress, then internet (works well and custom)

successful social media overview by david bullock in 'basecamp'

what do to?

• small workable steps
• case study barack 2.0 (www.barack20.com), he was using twitter, linkedin, myspace, meetup, flickr, friendfeed, facebook, youtube
• obama, has over 100,000 followers on twitter, you can push a headline, you can be authentic, valuable to the people who are following you.
• a url now is a new premium. if you can find something cool and give to people you have added value to their life. do that often enough they start following you
• use email, twitter & be valuable across the medium
• twittterholic.com list barack leads
• mobile messaging, (trumpia) and you can send them a text message. obama campaign sent out txt collected over
• user generated content, "yes we can" if you create a story that people become interested in, they will create content on your behalf. over 10million views of yes we can video, 53,000 comments.
• product placement, xbox 360 burnout paradise
• widgets / calculators - visitor engagement. the use of the obama tax calculator
• know your numbers, bounce rate is critical, people come to site and then leave cause it's not what they want. low bounce rate.
• product creation & distribution, 81% conversion. go from video to podcast, transcribe it then put out ebook or newsletter from just one conversation then move it offline to magazine for monetizing
• barack 2.0 site folks interview the barack obama site creators, check out
• you can take a blog and podcast that is not monetized and make it work for you if you pay attention to the market

• twitter is actually a mailing list.. think about it
• engage people who have a lot of folks who are following them. they will ask, who is this person?
• instead of talking about cats & what eating, have stuff of value
• 140 characters is a headline

• your major marketing channels: your blog, your list, your customers/clients, your comments/commentators, internet-email/twitter/social media, offline-magazines/etc
• props brought up for jackson's urlzen

times up!

pr 2.0 the deer have guns now via steve horton & bill seaver in 'other camp'

• some book drops, missed those
• choose a tool, simple tool or high end
• monitor, set up rss feeds on google alerts for business, boss etc. if you are into/needing metrics you can go paid route
• who are the talkers about you? what is their motivation? how much influence do they have? who is in their network? (how are they connected)
• you can feed twitters searches into your rss feed
• learn the culture, if you are new to this space you need to learn the culture to give your 'pitch'.. its not a traditional media outlet
• second, become a participant, get on twitter, comment on blogs, join relevant discussion boards & forums. (there is active chatter in discussion boards, don't write off them completely)
• pitch bloggers strategically, don't pitch them like traditional media outlet.
• the p.o.s.t. method (from ground swell book, that was one of the book drops)
  
  • people, who is it that you are trying to reach, who is going to do the reaching? marketing & pr are increasingly coming together in the social media space (so true). put money into people cause people have time and time is what is needed to work.
  • objective, what are you trying to do, accomplish
  • strategy, how are you going about doing that?
  • technology, tech comes at the end when you identify objective people and strategy. that is the only time tech should come up. where most folks start the tech and back into it.
• creating really good content, create & enable. e.i.e.i.o (average american gets hit with 4000 advertisements)
  • entertain
  • inspire
  • educate
  • inform
  • outrage
• measure your engagement, are the things you are specifically concerned about influencing are they happening? where should people be talking us? where are you no where on the radar?
• make it easy for others to create content, be not afraid for people to create content for you. how easy is it for them to grab all the logos and images they would want to create content for you?
• maybe create a whole news room on site for such a thing
• don't cross the post it note car and others this day and time!

times up!

podcasting, blogging, etc via mitch canter in 'other camp'
what is new media?

• social, the collaborative efforts of us
• interactive, not just something we do and push to side, but interact with
• immersive, there is always something we do
• omnipotent, it only knows what we put in it, but once its on there its there forever
• adding & sharing information, ideas, and lives

three main categories

• blogs
• podcasts
• social networks

blogs

• a conjunction with web/log
• shares easily
• rss (really simple syndication)
• to start, find a topic you enjoy, sign up, start blogging
• "the power of the press is only available to those who can afford a press, we all have press' now"

podcast

• main fear is getting over the fear of your own voice
• takes the information from your brain and puts it out there for others to listen too
• start with a blog it has rss, software (audacity, protools, garageband)
• microphone
• really really easy
• record it
• upload it (archive.org)
• publish it (podcast.com bluberry.com, itunes)
• lots of podcasting directions, get your artwork ready before distributing through itunes
• 2mobile used for sending out video feed anywhere. is there a place for podcasts? let us know

social networks

• network for people meeting together, connecting together
• general networks (facebook, myspace, twitter)
• niche networks (deviant art, linkedin)
• why use? to connect with people, to share ideas
• search.twitter.com for rss searches on twitter & hashtags
• privacy issues? hopefully we will be smart enough not to put stuff on the net that we don't want others to know about
• tubemogul.com to send one video to 17 services, 5 for free
• throwing out friendfeed for putting a plug in on site to harness all the stuff you are doing

times up!

free! digital loss leaders in the new economy via josh goggans in 'other camp'
how can we understand using free products, or sold as a loss to generate more sales.
the rEvolution of free! driving the new economy

• technology is cheap. everything on the net has a fixed cost & it is fairly cheap to add more in distribution. as numbers grow the per user cost goes down. you can get more users and eyeballs by giving it away.
• attention economy, with the net you can distribute digital content to a vast majority that you were never able to reach before, because they have something valuable, time.
• youtube has a vast amount of content and users so they have a vast amount of resource of peoples times, so they are getting a lot of monetization from that
• google forced yahoo to give away its email services for free
• the downturn is driving the free economy, so people are looking to save money. when the economy is good people are willing to spend money for convenient (netflix, example) when the economy goes down people have more time

models of free!

• the direct cross subsidy (askaninja.com you watch videos for free but pay for , local rabbit room offers music for sale to the free fanbase)
• media business model, business is offering free content because someone else is paying for the advertisements (leo leporte's podcast network is subsidized by advertising niche audiences. city paper might be a local model)
• "freemium" multiple teirs of a product, one limited set is free, to get more unlimited framework is paid. (flickr as an example, basecamp as well)
• "gift economy" capitalize on the scarce resources of peoples time (google 411 as example instead of cellphones companies paid call, they are collecting the data for future efforts, noisetrade.com is a more local example)

rules for using free in the economy

• you need a business plan. you just can't go out giving away free stuff
• be transparent, if users are feeling you are shady they will walk away
• it needs to be free. if you say it is free it needs to be free, no clauses. they will feel slighted and never use anymore
• value to them/user
• needs to be easy, if it is a complicated process they will walk away

people will watch if it is unique information in how its presented, has to do with you, niche

times up!

digital enablement in rural tennessee via paul van hoesen in 'other camp'
need to educate the stakeholders in the community, particularly rural area as many times agricultural background

• we are 15th in per capita broadband penetration among developed countries
• the us ranks in the lower third of nation in terms of the rate of broadband adoption. ie. 2/3rds of the developed world is connecting its population to the internet faster than we are. the top third is doing this at 2x the rate of the us
• in about 2000 the rural and urban areas diverged as usability and for some groups if you are not online you are not part of the conversation puts rural communities out the conversation
• digital citizenship produces the unseen downward spiral. high tech workforces leave out those who are not familiar with tech
• realities of fall survey, 29% had no computer at home, 47% did not have broadband, large gaps in broadband availability
• connectedtennessee.org
• the school is an important place of exposure to technology. for some students, its is all the exposure they may ever have
• real transformation occurs when the major local stakeholders agree to work together toward a common goal
• technology quotient? measure of personal technology readiness, regions attractiveness to new industry and ability. needs digitally educated employee

digital citizenship

• essential life skill, having email, instant messaging address, being able to find online information, posting a resume, online banking, online purchasing, relational online networking tools
• essential life skills are now the essential business skills
• increasing the technology quotient can stimulate an upward economic development spiral
• how to increase? computer ownership at home, community labs or collaborative environments, technology incubators to have young with mentors in digital business by peers and connection to outside support groups

initiatives

• expand internet access to unserved areas of the country
• touch typing, train students in touch typing starting in 6th grade. you have to know 30 words a min to get into 8th grade in lauderdale county
• video as supplemental lesson
• lynda.com fab resource for online training

video production goals

• incorporation of video into non-cte classrooms, creative writing, science, school morning broadcast, school's psa
• incorporate into advanced cte classes, teach commercial software packages like adobe
• courses are very wide-ranging

how can the digital have help?

• connect with the school system once a month as volunteer
• classroom webinars
• build and online mentoring relationship
• volunteer to help a tech teacher get resources they might need
• volunteer with community non-profit
• offer tech training to work programs

times up!

took some lunch with wifey, john and chris. talked a lot of geocaching in rippy's

seo site clinc by john w ellis & jon henshaw in 'other camp'

• if sites are structured well you shouldn't need a site map
• its all about who is linking to you, amazon and others selling your product are getting the link love
• going through www.chefjoanna.com website

not too much from this.. hard to follow what felt like a consulting session

brand management & marketing foundations via pinky gonzales in 'base camp'

brand is like describing the wind. brand is different for every single person that observes it. the brand is one thing & the perception of the brand is another thing

• imaging (logos, typfaces, colorschemes, etc)
• reputation, it is important to tend to the reputation that coincides with your brand
• associations, you are defined in part by who you hang with and associate with. we define a brand based on the preconceptions that we know about that person. politicians work within that especially
• platform
• stereotypes, if you brand is in anyway associated with a stereotype it can get you brand out even quicker
• communication, how you communicate the functions, flickr uses casual error messages, southwest humor

know thyself. personal brand. madonna & bono classic examples. the better we know ourselves the better we know the brand we can develop.

personal brand

• appearance, says something about my brand
• personality traits, the way you are wired
• psychological attributes, the way you think
• spiritual views, some peoples entire brand is based on their spiritual views. it will help to dictate what your brand eventually is
• political opinions
• social associations
• occupation,

to know yourself is to know your perspective on the world. to understand your perspective on the world is to justify the strategic decisions you make for yourself and those you serve.

company brand

• logos, can be so iconic that you don't even need a word.
• names, we are in a new era for corporate name branding.. in part due to domain squatting, trademark is easier to own a misspelling than a correct spelling,.. amazon is a name that we have re-purposed, sprint & apple the same way. catagory killers, names that created the category itself, kleenex/xerox/q-tip. slogans, spend so much time and effort that we are now familiar.
• iconic brands,
• product brands, brands within a brand, ipod. sum of the brands reaches the overarching message
• marketing foundations, be genuine, who are we after? how do we communicate? our reach? be in touch.  know. be consistent. a solid strategy implemented consistently over time has no other option but to grow, but in our hyper society we sometimes want abandon. listen, persistently

times up!

make google your bitch by jon henshaw in 'base camp'

keywords and domains sitting in a tree..

• google loves keyword

keywords and domains shouldn't use birth control

• buy domains that relate keyword to your
• buy domains, with dashes can be read better
• create vertical micro-sites

vertical mini-site

• focus on the keywords in the domain
• reuse/rewrite content, rewrite a bit so it doesn't look like duplicate content
• contribute frequently, build wordpress suggestion
• build links and test with ppc as a landing page
• link liberally to main parent domain

own competitors' traffic

• register a keyword centric domain that includes the word 'reviews'
• create a review website (wp and a good theme)
• only write about your competitors. am i insane? possibly..

avoid nofollow (nofollow is something the google police came up with, an attribute to put on blog comments so i could build links, they won't pass 'link juice')

sans "nofollow"

• with rare exception, always try to build links that don't use nofollow
• its a popularity contest, they are looking for who all people follow
• use 'do follow' directories, the absence of nofollow
• keep track of social networks that are 'do follow'
• use raven's free firefox toolbar to highlight nofollow links

external, internal & inbound

• write blog entries and articles frequently
• link out to high quality, relevant websites often
• make a habit of referencing high traffic sites, it will stroke the ego
• internal linking will reinforce keywords and context to google
• make anchor text keyword specific - don't use 'click here'
• nofollow unimportant pages, re-emphasize the important pages in your site
• keep and eye on nofollow links
• advertising won't help much other than to temporarily advertise

reputation repair

• social networking profiles
• wikipedia entry
• create vertical micro-sites
• argh missed the last three..

not my best note taking, but it's been a day. i'm sure you understand.
times up! barcamp nashville is over for this session. will check the website for future video updates.

providing for the needs : staying at home

mark is at it again, and that is cool, it's his message he shares about men being men, and he's consistent with that message.. apparently he's curbed his message a little from john hagee (tip to phil for that one). i can agree that men need to responsible, that's cool with me, but being responsible is very different from an implied breadwinner role with wife at home. i'd say there are other ways of raising men and the machismo attitude can be left at the door. as for stay at home dad, i can recognize that every child needs a mother, i've run into this all too often with a kids at camp whom don't care for my comfort. but being in a household where we both make about equal and erin's role with her family business it may be more a reality that i become more the stay at home dad. just for the record too, i'd be pretty darn good at it. i already have the 4 legged kids helping out around the house.

worship evaluation : if only we had nba coverage

there's been a lot circulating around about mystery worshippers. i recently talked about someone leaving a less than favorable review of our church on google. what happens when you bring in nba/nfl type coverage of your church? something like this?

tip jesus needs new pr

living biblically : immersion

playing around : president 2028

we were doing some lighting things for an eventual (hopeful) video. johnathan & i thought this looked like a campaign poster.. so we made it one.

blog action day : poverty

today is blog action day on  poverty.

red & blue : may we find the land of hesed

this is may be the most brilliant thing jay has done this year. &:~)

billy graham : technology and suffering

i really do love that ted is putting their talks online. this one from 1998 billy graham speaking on technology and suffering, the evils of the world and how Christ is the only answer. he also throws in some fun old testament bible study. very billy.

talking high definition : being digital

one of the troubles of reading old technology books is seeing how things were projected and knowing how they turned out.

The reason is that computers are becoming more and more video enabled, equipped to process and display video as a data type. For teleconferencing, multimedia publications, and a host of simulation applications, video is becoming part of all, not just many, computers. This is happening so fast that the snail's pace of television development, albeit digital, will be eclipsed by the personal computer.

"being digital" by nicholas negroponte (copyright 1995)

so is it isn't hard to believe that, though television has become pretty cool with hd technology, it might actually be lacking in its user ability to control and create that has brought about the trend that youth are watching their tv online. funny too, that grainy youtube videos are the industry standards and okay by most/all web users.

a definite thumbs up : churched by matthew paul turner

i recently finished reading "churched, one kid's journey toward God despite a holy mess" by matthew paul turner. matthew i know through our cohort and was able to catch a glimpse of the essence of churched a few weeks back. so i was actually looking forward to reading a preview copy.

i wasn't disappointed. i call this a definite thumbs up read.

basically 'churched' is a early childhood memoir of growing up in the world of the fundamentalist church. a world that i am quite foreign to. so for me it was an eye opening and question raising memoir. "really?" "what's that all about?" for those that are part of the world they may not be a happy reader, matthew is not mean about his experiences, but in the light of a mirror i cannot imagine these reflections being taken in without some apprehension. for those who grew up in this world and have found themselves out of it, i can only imagine you will see yourself in these pages as well.

'churched' is not a huge theological book, certainly not an academic book.. which i gladly welcomed into my world. i enjoyed some stimulating thoughts mixed in with engaging stories. the book moves well and is not super long (only 200 some pages) so it isn't overloaded with too many stories.

mostly, my fav part, is the writing matthew has in this book. i totally moved into the witty one liners and sarcastic humor mixed in with his story telling. from being told that he is his own worst enemy & going immediately into counseling to being the best christian in a graduating class, not to mention the descriptions of the various teachers in his life.. its very close to how i operate and would write a memoir, if i was really capable of writing a memoir.

if i had to critique any part of the book, it is possibly that there is not much explanation of why each story was significant and how it plays into future life, as a separate entity.. but i was not one who cared for that, so it is not a critique of mine. that short capsuling just is not there. what is there is that all the stories comprise into a whole narrative of who the person is now and how they are reconciling their way into a life of faith, and more importantly, a community of faith.

if you are in nashville, go check out matthew at davis kidd tonight at 7pm.

grace online and the church : the anonymous response

a coworker friend mentioned to me that when he was coming up to visit he noticed that someone had written a less than favorable review on our church on google.

"really?"

"yeah, but don't worry, it looks like that person who gets mad at the slightest things"

so i checked it out. some of the stuff is shallow in the grand scheme of things, but it's real. it is making me wonder. how does one show grace as a church amongst the anonymous criticism of the social media allows?

i am sure larger and higher profile churches & ministries have dealt with this or ignored these type of things. but as this becomes the norm for smaller or mid-sized communities, is there a difference to responding?

churched : a funny

"I had only been a Baptist for a few weeks, but it was already clear that God who came to the Baptist church was a lot more particular than the one I heard Methodists talk about- or he was schizophrenic. Of course, at the time, I hadn't taken any psych courses, so I concluded that the Baptist God just did things differently than the Methodist God."

from churched, by matthew paul turner

i thought that was really funny

pumpkin head : life in the pumpkin patch

  goofy face 
  Originally uploaded by gavoweb.

so i'm spending a lot of time on the front lawn of the church. our group is selling pumpkins. it's a  cool thing, a lot of work, but cool. i enjoy talking to folks and taking photos of some of the children i know who stop by. it's funny how they surprise me, being all shy then popping out some personality. a part of the ministry logistic that i enjoy

methodist church : my office

  methodist church 
  Originally uploaded by gavoweb.

photoblog from this weeks work

joys of youth ministry : our morning

when you are in youth ministry as long as i have been you expect mornings like this. i am already rounding up the usual suspects. you can view my line up of suspects on facebook album.

you too can be a hater : picking on jay

i'm picking on jay. he can take it. having a little fun with this westboro baptist church sign generator. tip jeremy

he's alive : a literal video

this is just too good. tip to mitch

things on tab : random linkage

its been awhile since i've done a set of links. haven't done a whole lot of blogging lately either. oh well, here is stuff to keep you occupied till i figure out the latter of the issues.

• the martin luther rap, get your reformation gangster on
• modern versus post-modern politics
• most companies struggling to figure out how to serve millennial generations
• how to recruit on campus..
• the under 30 don't care about your nutrition labels
• olive on a wesley wedding
• millennials want more feedback from their managers?.. really..
• is it the parents or the technology that has reshaped dating?
• a new kind of giver

come visit : take these away

Originally uploaded by gavoweb.

if you live in the middle tennessee area and would like a good pumpkin and other assorted vegetation to decor your home. i've got a plenty. come see us at hfumc and take home a little bit of fall with ya. you can find us here!

spread the word : stop the disease

via the ted folks, visit xdrtb.org for more info.

i need help : case for being stay at home dad

  Cleaning the Dishes

i figure i'd be a pretty good stay at home dad since, as you can see, i get the whole family involved in chores. this is crimson & coe cleaning up the dishes before going into the dishwasher. this precleaning saves on energy and raises the overall house moral by 4 legged children. its a win win.

jesus for president : shane claiborne

 

yesterday i went with my church clergy to hear shane claiborne as part of belmont university's sermon series. here were some of the fun quotes from that morning out of the office.

• My pastor. It gives me hope to here this message and see all these young people.
• SC. We vote everyday with our lives. Advise everyone. Endorse no one.
• SC. The bible doesn't say God so loved America but God so loved the world.
• SC. We are supposed to live in ways that don't compute.
• SC. Im not so sure how we as Christians became so normal.
• SC Song. Come patriots bring your flags. We're doin a foot washin and will need some rags.
• OpeningPrayer. How could we worship a homeless man on Sunday and step over one on Monday.

i've heard shane a few times in the last two years. this presentation was a little different. partly, i believe, he was speaking more to the empire and work for the poor. most of the other times it was more about reframing church. i like his message. it is terrible for me though as someone who is trying to go back and write down notes.

in other fun. we discussed politics & faith, using jesus for president as part of our framework. i'm still chuckling at thomas for saying 'shane is a better christian than Jesus'.. he had a good point, regardless of the point, the statement just has be cracked up.