Hit the Back Button to Move Fwd by Gavin Richardson

social media love song : it aint no joke.. well, maybe it is

how can i resist a country music song extrapolating the ills of a man trying to meet a woman via social media. many thanks to john for unearthing this one

where faith is going wrong in social media : life without pants & a little bit of south park

the last of my four installments guest posting at matt cheuvront's "life without pants" blog on spirituality & social media is out for the world to see titled "where faith gets it wrong." i bring back some thoughts you've seen on this blog before, from my thoughts on why your podcast isn't reaching who you think it is to some of my ideas i shared at podcamp nashville. go check it out and comment on any of the postings. tell me i'm full of crap (i just might be) or whatever else your get to thinking about.

why i'm pulling for greg paulus : bunking an epidemic

if you are not a sports person then you may not know of the big story (before the nfl draft week) of greg paulus. greg was a star player for the duke university basketball team the last few years. before coming to duke though greg was a super star high school football quarterback. he is now, with his one year of eligability left as student athelete wanting to take his game back to football and the university of michigan looks like they will give him a shot.

as i've been listening to the 'experts' they are all skeptical and pretty much predicting that he won't make it as the starter or even show any sign of success. i suppose that's understandable, but i am really pulling for greg to prove all them wrong, but probably not for the reason you might guess.

as a youth pastor i have two entities that compete with me for our teenagers time and energy the first is school, the second is sports. when its school sports its compounded. (notice i didn't say that family competes with me.. that's another blog posting)

some 6-8 months ago i put together our calendar for the summer with missions and camp experiences. one of my girls, who is invested in what we are doing and loves the mission experience for junior highers was super stoked to go. its tearing her up now, that a few weeks ago the high school coach has scheduled soccer tryouts for the same week, the very first week of june (yes, soccer tryouts are june1-5th). my guess is that she will not be going on the missions experience, which i understand, but it continually bothers me when stuff like this comes up.

when i was a teenager i played soccer, skied (the snow kind), and played golf as sports go. i moved to new jersey from alabama during those soccer years and because my brother & i were unknowns by the local coaches we ended up not getting invited to the travel teams and spent three or four years of PAL league soccer. when high school came i remember starting training 2-3 weeks before the season and we ended up making the teams & eventually onto varsity playing with many state ranked players & a state championship. soccer stopped & skiing started then golf.. well, golf was pretty much year round cause that was my favorite, but i didn't start playing till i entered high school, rather late for today's kid. i then spent time at church doing bell choir, singing choir, youth group, even young life. we had family vacations not associated with any of that. never once did i feel pressure to have to compete or make decisions (at least hard ones) on doing one or the other.

those days were great, you got the importance of teamwork, competition, physical fitness, school pride, and personal self-esteem. somewhere along the years the thing that brought on good things has gone to such an extreme it has flipped on itself.

apparently now you need to compete in your sport or choose your instrument at an early age and give yourself over to the coaches & teachers or you will never be able to make the team/band whatever. i get that scholarships are a big deal, but scholarship is supposed to get you into school so that you can be well rounded & educated. in our environment today that doesn't seem such the priority. why are things so uber competitive? is it that important that we start our girls soccer the first of june. even worse, football before school has even let out in the last two months of spring.

i root for you greg paulus cause you might show some of the culture that you change your sport focus and still be 'okay' the world will not end...

some things are still just fun : revisiting one of the things

as i am catching up on the blogosphere & other feeds i was reading up on josh browns continued dismay with social media. i get his sentiment.. it had me thinking then of some of the stuff that made the early onset of social media really great. wandered around the net a bit and stumbled back upon this viral video gem. it is still great to me & for many others i am sure.

it has me thinking, what gives some web sensation staying power?

technology & youth ministry : my chippendales life

one the youth within our youth ministry had a little fun with some of our youth leaders and jibjab. enjoy!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

blogging towards enlightenment : discovering your virtual self

i've been doing some guest postings over at matt cheuvront's 'life without pants' blog talking up spirituality and social media. last week we talked about enlightenment & blogging today we are talking about discovering your virtual self.

got check them out, let me know what you think. lay claim to some of the stories & expand on them. did i mention that my latest posting i actually use capitalization? yeah, it was wreaking havoc on matt post editing

songwriters night at hfumc : come help a youth ministry out

if you live around the hendersonville tennessee area i want to invite you to our songwriters night tomorrow evening to benefit our youth ministries missions for the summer. it will be at hfumc in our youth lounge area.

Multi-Award winning songwriters Larry Cordle, Carl Jackson & Jerry Salley (Cordle, Jackson & Salley) will be performing this Thursday night, April 16, 7:00pm at the "Songwriter's Night at Hendersonville First United Methodist Church (HFUMC). The Grammy, Dove and IBMA award winning trio have written songs that have collectively sold over 100 million records, which includes songs recorded by everyone from Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire, Ricky Skaggs to The Oak Ridge Boys, Steven Curtis Chapman and many, many more. This event is a benefit fundraiser for the Youth Missions ministries of HFUMC. Door cover will be $15.00 with further donation support welcomed

monday music : stop motion video version

this was one of the more creative videos i've seen in quite some time. oh yeah, and gabe dixon band is quite good too.


The Gabe Dixon | Till You're Gone.

prayers for the day : resonating

Lord, You have always given
bread for the coming day;
and though I am poor,
today I believe.

Lord, You have always given
strength for the coming day;
and though I am weak,
today I believe.

Lord, You have always given
peace for the coming day;
and though of anxious heart,
today I believe.

Lord, You have always kept
me safe in trials;
and now, tried as I am,
today I believe.

Lord, You have always marked
the road for the coming day;
and though it may be hidden,
today I believe.

Lord, You have always lightened
this darkness of mine;
and though the night is here,
today I believe.

Lord, You have always spoken
when time was ripe;
and though you be silent now,
today I believe.

shared from the northumbria community

rear view mirror on violence & identity : because you need more marshall mcluhan

almost 30 minutes of great thinking & conversation debate

marshall mcluhan on getting it wrong : shades of a new politic

i don't know care about your politic with this posting. but one needs to take notice of how the obama campaign took a long shot candidate and made him into a anomyly. david bulluck goes through how the campaign used social media in barack 2.0.

went back to these thoughts as i listened to mcluhan bash how presidential campaigns used television. are politician handlers figuring it out finally?

holy week worship video : worship tricks

next week we are doing our midday holy week services in our youth space (cause its' the coolest) and most artistically driven area and the pastors want to do some more experiential worship stuff. we'll do some prayer stations stuff for sure & some various smells. but what about our visuals?

i've pretty much sold myself on parsing this video stopping it through good friday & then showing the full thing on easter. i love simple & creative stuff. this is right up my alley

spirituality & social media : perfect together

when i grew up in new jersey i remember these ad's saying something like 'new jersey & you, perfect together'.. well, matt cheuvront at 'life without pants' has posted the first in my guest series on spirituality and social media. today i throw out the case that this who social media / web 2.0 explosion can be good for the faith.. is twitter the new town square, introduction to spirituality and social media.

marshall mcluhan on church safety : life without pants guest post

for the next few weeks i will be guest posting over at matt cheuvrot's blog 'life without pants' covering thoughts on spirituality & social media. some thoughts (listen for the return to tribal culture mention) i ponder in my first posting are reflected in this snippet of marshall mcluhan. as with most things i hear, i relate them to church life. can you guess what i was thinking?