Hit the Back Button to Move Fwd by Gavin Richardson

where is gavin these days?

i haven't been asked where i've been of late so much as "what i'm doing now?" which is an acceptable question since my leaving the paid staff church work back in july. the last few months have been a real ride emotionally and spiritually (not sure if those are completely seperate but for purposes of this sentance they are). i've run the gammet meeting/talking/chatting with people i respect a great deal on what they might see God's plan in my life. my general idea is that i was so close to myself that i needed help stepping back and looking in through the window. through this process i've identified some short term and long term places i'm putting my creative and passionate self into. thought i'd share those with you, so we can skip the "what are you up to now?" question.

All American Pest Control: this might be the most visible of the entities of late because for the past month or so i've been pretty chatty about my work with All American Pest Control. This is our family business and Erin has been working there for the last 7-8 years. We will eventually finish a purchase of the company in about 4-5 years from her mom & dad and we'll be sole owners. So, in the spirit of doing anything for the family, i've been crawling houses of late to help tend to our historical customers allowing our other employees to focus on some of our more current and up to date protection services. i am also helping erin our with promotions, marketing, and social media aspects of the company. you can follow the adventures of my life in pest control by following on twitter or facebook.

Sticky Sheep: this is one has been in the brewing for a year or two now. my buddy john ellis & i had spent a number or conversations talking up the mixtures of church & business, specifically marketing. we started writing a book on these conversations and we are still putting that together. in the mean time we figured it is time to start sharing these connections. you can engage in our little musings by hitting up the site or checking our twitter or facebook presences.

 

Proof Branding: this is an exciting project to be a part of. i'm joining in with long time friend sam davidson and a crew of others whom are especially creative in a full service branding company. my part in the team is to help translate and work with the church communities that wish to rebrand themselves. this would cover communications, marketing, design, creative directions, and more. i've been working independantly with with first presbyterian church youth in nashville before the launch of proof this past month and have had some real successes and enjoyable moments. you can follow the tweets of sam & matt via proof and the news on facebook.

YouthWorker Movement: is something that i'm really jumping into as my youth ministry passion. i am helping to put together a vibrant and transformational entity to help my beloved, and struggling, united methodist church & fellow wesleyan youth ministries. i've partnered up with charles harrison and a team of others i getting things mapped out and ready to roll next month. if you want in on the braintrust of a vast community of people you should get plugged in with the youthworker movement. in the short term we will have a new email list going out next week. a new website will launch in january (a temporary one will be available next week). in the spring we will be putting forth full service curriculum options from a wesleyan youth ministris perspective. through all this you can keep up on the 'movements' via twitter or facebook as well.

thanks a quick gist of me, if you want to talk further on any of these projects or hire me or my friends give a shout via email gavoweb(at)gmail.com is still my email. i'm pumped to get creative!

in another note: the company that hosts this blog is going in some different direction, so in anticipation of some crazy server issues. i'm going to be moving this blog over to my own hosting options sometime soon.. maybe when i have a minute not doing other cool stuff.

@stickysheep : new venture from the brilliant mind of @johnwellis & myself

john ellis and i started hanging out about two years ago and chatting on all things business, church, marketing, web, technology, family and more. eventually some of our thoughts and conversations about the business church marketing technology stuff had us thinking, "we need to write this stuff down. there might be two or three people who want to hear this." so we started writing a book (scary i know). as we are developing the book we have gone and launched "sticky sheep" our concepts home portal. so if you are interested in some of the new ventures of me and/or want to get a glimpse of this collision of business and church then subscribe. i plan on doing a weekly wrap up, such as this, of what have been my musings over there as well.

this week in sticky sheep

• sticky paper is great, but it's getting seen that is the stickiest
• giving up control to the freshman team sticks
• what is the best ever social media campaign

you can also check us out on facebook & twitter of course.

i love Jesus, but i'm keeping my stripping job

i threw out there via twitter last week about a group of strippers who were protesting the church that had been protesting their strip club.

it caught some decent media from accross the country. so much so that other churches came to the aid of the protesting church & apparently some christians who work with strippers as part of their mission.

the cool part is that somewhere in the mix of this chaos the two sides actually did some reconciling. two of the strippers actually accepted Jesus in this which is great! but the quotable regarding the strippers acceptance of Christ is telling.

"Two girls accepted Jesus in their hearts," Brown told the congregation, eliciting affirmations and applause.

The two strippers confirmed that, but they said they won't be leaving their jobs anytime soon.

"Our hearts are with Jesus, but our bodies are at the Foxhole," Gina Hughes said.

what i feel is notable, a learning moment, for the church is that even if someone does accept Jesus the work of transformation doesn't stop there. these girls will also need before you begin to break into the self-actualization of the soul they need help with all the safety & physical aspects of life (yes that is very much maslow's hierarchy of needs). as Jesus did, feed the folks and cure they ills before they can be the transformation for the Kingdom that we want them to be.

in support of a tent city and homeless #savetentcity

today i ran into Quita, asking her "you have a few papers for me?" and she responded with a sigh and a "yes, you know what these are all about?" myself along with my buddy jason had a nice chat with her about her travels since being displaced from tent city during the flood. she had her housing voucher paperwork and said more than a few times "it's not my permanent solution." we hugged and exchanged our pleasantries and went along our ways.

in the last year and a half God has moved me around some people that brought me in touch with this community of people i was aware of but never knew. note: as a church staff person it is rather interesting that it is hard to be with people who have no home. many times they carry with them little value to the church, except a 'mission' or 'outreach' cause. many times, those are charitable in nature and hurt an eventual goal of getting folks off the streets.

as i have been finding my way these last few months and meeting folks in the homeless community i've given my support; in small acts, prayers, needed resources, and just being to the folks at "tent city."

i've done this for a reason. i believe in a process and a place. there needs to be a place that people can land when all the bottoms fall out. if the world falls out from under me i have back ups and places to go. we are richly blessed in that manner. but many do not have those options. so there is a need for a place to land.

but that place isn't the only need. there needs to be a process and the people to help getting folks back to where they want to be. as i've been around the tent city community i believe and am seeing the people who have gotten involved in bridging relationships and helping folks pick themselves up and get back into the life they dream for themselves.

homelessness is complex and this doesn't address all the needs, but a place for folks to build from is, and needs to be, an option. so that is why i support a tent city

the fundamental problem with mixing business and church

my recent & other staff's termination at my church has come as a shock to many in our church community. in listening and talking to many (congregation members and fellow staff members) i kept hearing sayings like "this felt like a business decision" or "i'd expect this in a business." it is a common saying in these scenarios and to me it is totally expected.

the methodist church is based around its committee structures and the people who make up the decision makers are laity giving their time in ministry and not ministry professionals by any mark. they are business people.. it is what they know.

as i see it though, there is a fundamental issue with bringing business practices into the church.

1. the people in your church are your consumers
2. the people in your church are your investors
3. the people in your church are your workers/employees

think about it... that cycle doesn't work in a business plan, why do we think it'd work in church?

looking at the people in your church this way has to say that a pure business practice doesn't work. yes, business practices can translate and help, but just cutting and pasting into any/many instance and some decisions are heading down a slippery slope & a bad response.

"but the church is a business!.." true in many ways, but people want it & need it to be different. i think Christ would want it that way as well.

i don't have a great solution at the moment to move away from sayings like this, but i share this little spot light on where a root problem lies so that some of you with more intelligent minds can turn this around as well.

two letters : one result

two letters went out to our church community today. first one from me

Dear HFUMC Youth Community,

In Deuteronomy there is a really dynamic scene where Moses who has led the Isrealites through the wilderness since the Exodus exclaims that he is no longer directed to lead the tribe. He speaks to his apprentice Joshua and tells him that it is he that God wishes to lead the tribe into the promised land.

It is with that scripture in mind and a very heavy heart that I write this note to share with you that my employment at HFUMC as your youth pastor will end effective immediately. With the direction of the church my gifts and talents are not the match they once were for the ministries of the church as an employee. As tough as this is to accept, Erin & I are at peace with this and hope you find that as well. We plan to be at church on Sunday, but will not be leading any activities as we begin to identify who we are within the church community in our new roles.

Know that I love you all, have loved being in ministry, a part of your families, and seeing us all grow together. It has been my honor to be a part of your last five years. As we redefine who our family is in the midst of the church we hope that those relationships stay the same even though the nature of what brought us together has changed.

I don't know who your Joshua is but I am praying for that person and the 'unique community' that I know you to be.

May the Lord Bless You and Keep You
May the Lord Make His Face Shine Upon You & Be Gracious Unto You
May the Lord turn His Face upon You & give us peace.

Shalom
-gav

 

&:~)

second one came from our staff parish

After much thoughtful prayer and deliberation, your Staff Parish Relations Committee (SPRC) concluded that the final necessary element in the staff reorganization was an overhaul of the youth programs of our church. Therefore, effective immediately, the positions of Director of Youth Ministries and Director of the New World Generation Choir are open. Searches will be launched to fill both positions. In the interim, Associate Pastor Brad Holliman will assume leadership of the youth division, assisted by the adult leaders and volunteers already engaged in youth ministry at HFUMC.

All previously scheduled Youth programs and activities are expected to go on as planned. If you would like to help with these programs as a leader, chaperone or driver, please contact Brad Holliman.  Any changes to the calendar will be communicated via e-mail, Facebook or the Corner website, so check in before finalizing your plans.

Our prayers go with Gavin Richardson and Tiffany DePriest, and we thank them for their contributions to our church and its ministries. Please watch the newsletter and other church communications for more information about the searches in the next few weeks.

The Staff Parish Team

moving on...

"do the church dance" : also known as my next youth ministry lesson

this might be something for friends of mine like matthew paul turner to give some satirical response.. me, i'm just wondering if my church would allow me back if i tried to dance like this.. i'm guessing not, so i do what all youth leaders do, get the kids to do it. muhahaha!

prezi for the presentation : not your mamma's powerpoint

i tweeted about prezi the other day. erin told me i needed to check it out (she was quite proud to know that she knew something tech that i didn't). i am doing a quick intro presentation on tech & church today for a small group of pastors and the rest of the time together is q&a and i thought, heck i'll try out prezi for this.

well, it is really cool!

what i've done is pretty simple. i've taken images that i've garnered for other presentations over the year and inserted them all onto my 'canvas.' i did the path thing for the few slides i want to make sure to start going through getting the session time going, but after that you can move in and out and focus onto each element on the canvas as questions or ideas come up. 

i am super stoked about that. so many times in doing these church presentations on tech you get a huge gamut of knowledge, questions, and 'expertise.' now i can adapt for the audience as i see who is there and the questions they ask.. brilliant! i can also put a number of presentations on the canvas and then just re-route the 'path' of the presentation for a more specific focused presentation.

i'm stoked to share this with this pastors group and i'm stoked to share this with you & tell you to go kick the tires. it does cost an annual fee, but not an unrealistic fee. especially for those who use it on a regular basis.

note: for the stickler, i did correct the gutenberg spelling.

methoApp : the methodist church into the 21st century mobile technology

you might have seen my tweet about it, or maybe the article itself about the british methodist church's new iphone app. in the short time i've had it i really do like it. my quick thoughts:

it isn't over done: too often when we make stuff in the church it has to do everything for everyone and it ends up sucking at all things. like a 'one size fits all' life preserver, it doesn't actually fit anyone. so it has a daily prayer, a daily scripture meditation & news.

it has a simple news section that not only provides the usual suspect news on the methodist church, but also tweets mentioning 'methodist' (at least that seems to be the key search term, so you should see this posting show up at some point).

the formatting is really good. some of the stuff other churches put out is taken from some other medium and just put in through some cut & paste job. i appreciate that the content looks like it should be there.

it is free.. that is a nice part about any iphone app.

i know some of the other umc agencies and entities of the church are trying to put out their own application, i think they'd be wise to take a look at the first one on the scene

save tent city : our latest efforts

starting yesterday my buddy brian & i started working with some other, less techie types, on gathering materials for tent city nashville. our big effort is getting drop sites around middle tennessee and putting out information through a new hub site http://www.savetentcity.com

so that is where i will be the next few days. if you can jump in and help do that. tent city relief efforts are different than those of the many displace homeowners in middle tennessee area. tent city residents will need tents, sleeping bags, tarps, and other camping/outdoor equipment. they also will need toiletries and clothes as well, but primarily our first efforts are to help with establishing the community, infrastructure and housing.

in case you missed your weekly pbs tour : ginghamsburg work with darfur

if you involved in the united methodist church at any church geek level, as i am, then you no doubt know that ginghamsburg united methodist church does a lot of work with darfur. they were recently profiled on public broadcasting's show "religion and ethics weekly."

what you think you have right about your communication is wrong : saying and communicating is different

i know when we meet as a staff we talk a lot about the need for better communication. it is a huge pain in our b'hinds. so i'm totally spinning in thoughts stemmed from rev. dan dick's latest posting on communication misconceptions of our 'good' communication that undermine actual good communications.

here's his three hit points.

I believe there are three main problems we encounter that prevent or undermine good communication: 1) confusing “transmitting” with communication, 2) over-reliance on information as the most important part of communication, and 3) making assumptions about what people “know.”

currently i'm wondering what push of information i do and how different that is from actually communicating to folks? in the size ministry i have, its impossible to pick up the phone and call everyone, not to mention many folks would rather not have a phone call (or they will tell me so). i might have become so conditioned to this that it is my norm. i actively use twitter cause i can spew out information, but if no one communicates back i just move on. did i ever really convey an idea? does that mean i should start blogging regularly again since its more of communicating an idea/plan/dream/rant/etc.?

what can i do better to help with communicating to you? my church peeps? my family? my internet networkings?

in the meantime, go check out the rest of dan's thoughts on communications.

Jesus is the shirtless guy : following is the new leading

i'm pondering this quick little ted talk by derek sivers this morning. i caught this idea to be quite radical in shift in the way we look at leadership.

"it was the first follower that transformed the lone nut, into a leader... if you really care about starting a movement, have the courage to follow and show others how to follow."

as with most things it has me pondering of faith.. wondering if Jesus is the nut, then who is the follower who showed us how to follow? Saint Paul? some of the Disciples?

where am i in this? am i the guy that's trying to get attention by some silly song and dance or do i need to figure out how i show to follow better?

i think if we asked Christ about the idea of following to lead he'd be pretty stoked by it.

@glennbeck & his minions : the u.s. government is not my church

a lot has been made over the glenn beck 'leave the your church if it says social justice or economic justice' in the doctrine or whatever. i think he claimed they were hidden codewords for the liberal left. and with such an action he's getting quite a bit of pub.. not to mention my attention, which he's only gotten on daily show spoofs or when i'm at my parents house as my dad has foxnews on a constant cycle (till i find the remote). personally i want to think mr. beck has done this to ignite some media response cause he was low on ratings, why not stir the pot. i'm sure though he's just like many who have confused that social justice in our church setting is separate from the government.

 

i posted a comment on john meunier's blog as he's concerned over jeremy and his obsession with glenn beck.. i am too, worried, not obsessed.

my thoughts went like this.

i am totally with you that the speaking for social issues sounds like a political party discourse, or shout match.

also to say, when we talk about social issues & their subsequent interventions, don’t we automatically assume its the churches job, not the govt?.. (crickets).. oh, so i’m the only one there?

as i got it, Christ wasn’t terribly thrilled with the government of that day and didn’t seek to use them for his kingdom, so we we default opt on using them as a Christian nation is beyond me. churches should step up to their namesake they claim

so i welcome glenn's fanboys to tell me what he was really thinking.. i'm willing to tell you what Christ had in mind. i'm staying in my church, btw, with my social justice & economic justice agenda, you can keep your government partisan hackery (thanks jon stewart for that) to your news network.

ashes on your forehead : a little diddy for those with dirty foreheads today

this was just too cute. my buddy eric coomer sent it to me. i haven't checked out jonathan rundmans's other works, but eric says they are really good as well.

gold, silver, bronze : top methodist moments on youtube

so why not!

on monday i gave out medals for the top john wesley moments on youtube. figured i'd give out medals for methodism realized over youtube.. why not!

this list i couldn't help but get onto some of my soapboxes, so i hope you don't mind some of my subjective judging.. feel free to leave your suggestions in the comments

gold medal: the methodist clayride - i was pleasantly pleased to see this back on youtube. years ago i had a copy of it that i uploaded to youtube but was asked to take it down by a certain agency. i felt that was a real loss at the time because the video then created a lot of buzz and nostalgia amongst us methoblogger types. not to mention, its a great video for sharing the history of the methodist church. if i remember correctly it had over 15k views (mind you this was the early days of youtube as well). so i hope the clayride gets to ride on & as the methodist presses in the early days of the movement shared its stories, theology, sermons, etc. maybe you all can help share this gold medal of methodism.

silver medal : methodist amendments  maxie dunnam - whoa the scandal!! maxie gets the medal for this one because his video showed up on my radar first, though eddie fox put his up a few days earlier. these videos struck off the biggest abuse of the youtube medium by methodist pastors at large. seriously, lets take our sermoning communication medium to a media medium that is short, sweet, entertaining, and engaging (see how youtube community reacts by how they mashedup maxie). still, in the metho-nerd circles, this was scandalous to take the churches business outside the authorities of the general/annual conferences. which, may or may not be a bad thing.. not to leave them out, bishop jones & tex sample took notice and made their counter arguments as well. for stirring the pot and getting a whole lot of amendment mush on youtube, maxie gets the silver medal.

bronze medal : hallelujah chorus by mute monks - okay, this is silly, its only methodist because this one happened to have happened at a methodist church and the youth basically ripped off an otherwise other youtube sensation, but with a hit count of 100k and just observing the reaction of the congregation (or lack there of) and the pastor (what was that?) at what i assume was a christmastide service.. oh boy. bronze medal for having the cajones to try it pine castle umc

standing looking up : patriot guard - this a news report, from united methodist news (i assume), on the methodist pastor who helps with the patriot guard. for those that don't know what the patriot guard is there is just a simple search on youtube and you will get countless videos, some even by national news coverage. this gets the honorable mention for a couple of reasons, 1. it tells the story of how some have take their community into action for the forgotten and the fallen of our culture. 2. it has a pretty decent hit count (i have a version of same video on my youtube channel) which almost doubles it. yes, #2 is not nearly as noble as #1. 

so tell me who got robbed from the podium. there's lots to choose from

for you liturgical nerds : little black spot on your forehead

couldn't resist posting this gem. what does one get when you combine the police with 40 days of lent? thanks ironic catholic

top tech trends of 2009 for youth ministry : new day in @ymtoday

i was asked to write a, shorter than this, article for ymtoday on the tech trends of 2009. this is my unedited & proper use of capitals article for your review.

Gone are the days where spent calling everyone on the youth phone list, cutting clip art books and taping graphics to papers for making posters, and sorting slides into a projector carousel. Today's youth ministry is full of early adoption to new technologies to communicate and build relationships. It seems to be 2009 amped that trend of leaving behind the those things we used to do so routinely in the early 2000's.

Here's a little list of technology trends from the past year used, being used, or to use for your youth ministry. Not all were created in the last year, but they did seem to pick up more steam.

1. Facebook: Do you remember MySpace? I do, and I thought it was pretty cool. Facebook though is just a fabulous youth ministry tool where MySpace wasn't. Create a group or fan page for the ministry you are a part of, easily send messages to the whole group, create events, post pictures & videos. It is easy to do, takes less time, and its where your teenagers are hanging. Have you watched your teenagers spend time onFacebook, it borders on problematic. If you have some cash, you can invest in ads on Facebook , the metrics for adverts is amazing, not terribly expensive either, plus it shows who are 'fans' in your ad extending the trust relationship. You can even get on board with a free mission trip via the social media network.

2. Twitter: People are up in the air as to whether Twitter is a usable youth ministry tool. My teens many follow a few friends and a bunch of celebrities. I don't have a youth who would create a twitter based newsletter for us like Adam. Twitter for me is brain trust & community of other youth and ministry leaders. Have a question, need prayer support, want to celebrate, need consolation after loosing a job, and more you can join into the community of youth workers on Twitter. I sought help developing this list via my Twitter community.

As a program, Twitter is a mobile based application, so it has txt and alert capabilities. Which leads us to our next item.

3. Mass Text Services: If you think it is going to be a pain to get all your people onto Twitter and then to enable the cell phone alert tweets for your twitter account, just set yourself up for one of the many mass text messaging services. If you are like me, youth gathering times are their normal loud and crazy, but now its all that with the teens staring at their cell phones. They have entire conversations overtxt . I've even caught teens not answering their phone calls but then answering text messages. Tap into that behavior with some of the paid services like txtsignal or a free service like broadtexter.

Note: Txt services use two basic formats: One is where message is more like an email going thru the system. Different cell companies handle that information differently, so a txt service will have you indicate what type of provider the corresponding phone number is. Other services are more like a phone to phone communication, big difference with those is you do not need to know service providers, but they will most likely charge by the number oftxt's and phone numbers (ie. each txt to 1 number is 5 cents, so one mass txt to 50 people is $2.50).

4. SmartPhones: I was told once that 'there haven't been any new inventions, only inventions making everything smaller.' This is certainly the case with the fusion of computer & cell phone. Whether you are iPhone, Blackberry, or now Droid the day of a phone being just for talking is gone.

The smartphone as it continues to become more affordable & builds in development will become the youth workers greatest tools (might even out do the guitar,haha!). As new applications are being developed from YouVersion's Bible app, Youth Specialties Tough Topics, productivity apps like Evernote, GPS directions, to even creating your very own phone application more & more will administration and communication will be done through the phone. I can be sitting at an sports match and send out emails & text messages to the whole group or just our leaders, make notes for the next days to-do list, take pics of the game and load them up to ourfacebook group or flickr page, and then post new information to our website.

5. Flip Cameras: Video used to be the toughest thing in the world. Cameras cost a bunch of money and then you had to edit the videos. Chances are your computer was not powerful enough to deal with all the resources needed for video, so it took many days to put together and render videos. Those days are gone.

With the advent of YouTube being the quality standard and the destination for most created video content the Flip Camera is the new video must have. Not only are they extremely cheap ($100-180, for a decent one) they shoot really good quality video, transfer extremely easily (digitally, so you don't have to do the tape playback recording), and portable so they can always be on your person. You can purchase one, two or three of these gems & hand them out to youth during events to capture footage for a highlights video. Pull out a camera when you are out on the town and inspired to do a little devotional for a video podcast. Get some of the youth to create a news/announcement video. Have a bunch of cameras to do a scavenger hunt and post stuff immediately to your presentation software or to the web.

So what's on your list of big trends for the year? Leave a comment or two, I'm sure there is something I'm missing or maybe my numbering is off.

Honorable Mentions:

• Digital Photography: Every youth event I go to seems to have youth & youth leaders in tow with high quality cameras. Bye bye disk camera & slide film.
• Digital Publishing: All those pictures & graphics can be printed into beautiful books & posters for affordable prices & effort. Forever keeping the narrative of that ministry
  
• Netbooks: Though I'd say that might be more for the college scene
• Google: From Google Voice, Docs, Earth, Ocean, Maps, Latitude to the beta test of Wave there's something for everyone
• Affordable Presentation Equipment: Doing the projector thing was a huge ordeal (not to mention projectors were HUGE!) now the hardware & software is small in size and price
• Collaborative Tools: Maybe its Basecamp, could be Google Wave, we all are using stuff to help us collaborate with our team of ministers & cohorts.

naming the paradigm : rob bell on youth ministry

i've often said when working with other youth ministry leaders, 'you can get anything done if you can speak to it well.'

my thinking behind that is, my observation, that much of youth ministry actions are intuition/gut moves (some may say Holy Spirit leading, which i'm cool with). those movements are done with great intentions and well meaning, but just as i have a hard time telling folks why i am a 'nice guy' (something i've been accused of on occasion) it is hard to explain intuitive actions. coupled with, many 'professional' youth leaders are quite young and haven't had a great deal of experience working with & coaching adults sometimes twice their age. but, if you can speak to people why this or that is necessary, they are more apt to go with your leading, even if they do not completely agree. thus, an importance to speaking well of what you are doing in ministry.

with that in mind, i was quite excited to read some of rob bell's thoughts on youth ministry in this interview with youth worker journal. he speaks so well to some of the issues i feel at hand for our current crop of youth growing up in youth ministries around the country.

YWJ: OK, the magic bullets, if you don't mind.

RB: The dominant paradigm in churches is production, not discipleship. It's about how to keep kids coming—how are the numbers? In the gospels, whenever there were large crowds, Jesus gave a difficult teaching that thinned out the crowd. Over and over, He chose those moments: John 6—Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood. Nice. Very accessible for kids. There is a certain pattern where He's trying to find out who is serious. Youth workers are put in this position where their paychecks are based on how many people they can keep in the place. When they read the gospels, they realize this whole system seems to be going the other direction. Many youth pastors I've met are promoting something they don't believe.

YWJ: Like what?

RB: They're told by the senior pastor to encourage the students to attend the service where there's a seven-part sermon on raising funds for a giant building, and kids don't really buy it. At the same time, the kids are wearing a red bracelet and becoming passionate about AIDS and water in Darfur. So the youth pastors and the kids sit in a system that says the preservation of this system is the first priority, and they look around at these giant issues of justice that are demanding a generation to step up and do something about it; and guess what they do?

this excerpt i pulled basically because it shares two tensions i feel in youth ministry, 1. the need to have top notch programming & 2. the culture of preservation (something i feel is paramount, not in a good way, in my mainline tribe). those two things are just not part of the Kingdom of God that i envision.. now, can #1 be a gateway, sure.. can #1 help in discipleship, sure.. but at what cost are we going so overboard that we loose sight of our goals.. living at Christ lived, loving as Christ loved. to me that isn't grounded in a program or an institution. those are ground out in relationships beyond human measures and being remarkable because you have been inspired to be that way.

anyways, check out the interview i could go on and on with the various questions & answers.

a heretics advent : how do you give thanks

A Heretics Advent from Gavin Richardson on Vimeo.

i read this little parable for our youth the first sunday of advent. we were coming off the thanksgiving holiday and it seemed poignant. i share with you to ask the same thing i asked of our teenagers. 'what are you doing to not live into this parable.

here's what i am encouraging you to check out.

• 61st Avenue umc & the last minute toy store: little ole’ 61st ave umc is putting together its annual “last minute” toy store to help families in hardship provide some toys, food, and sometimes a christmas tree for over 3,500 children here in nashville. toy store starts at noon on friday and goes thru Monday. join me on friday by driving yourself over. volunteer orientation starts at 12. The Toy Store will stay open till around 6:30pm when the last shoppers go thru.
• send a message of hope to our growing church in cote d’ivoire, west africa. there is a lot of need, and when there is need a little hope goes a long way. send some encouragement.
• check out advent conspiracy, get yourself aware of the conditions people live in outside your world. spend less, give more, love all!
• maybe you are just a cool person who cares
• volunteer at the community care’s fellowship or nashville rescue mission
• become aware of local and global issues.. maybe the world AIDS or water problem

making a splash in social media : its okay to loose control

i liked this little ted talk presentation on social media, in part, because it is short and tells a simple story. the learning point that i would suggest my church tribe needs to take a hold of is, "its okay to loose control" and that "no longer does the message come from the top down."

we can all think about how 'the world is flat' and everyone has an equal voice to traditional media institutions and powers & that was really scary to them a number of years ago (might still be). but if you embrace that others are talking maybe not just about you, but with you, then they are people to lift up and share the genuine voice/face of your ultimate cause.

but, the control factor comes into play.. 'what will they say next?' etc.. well, as someone who comes from a religious background, we say that one needs to have 'faith'.. yes, novel concept, but a good concept when one practices it. my experience though is that people really only have faith as long as it falls within their boundaries of human control. with that, we miss out on the possible beauty bound up in the mystery of individuals and community. i hope for a day when my tribe's structural institutions that helped it to get a certain status and size, see the way to get out of the way and have faith in its community to do something remarkable.

return to church : a few chuckles at ourselves

i had some great giggles today watching these videos on 'return to church' (tip from ian at youthblog). it had me thinking of some of the tricks that we are used to get people 'in the door' and that when presented with a disingenuous invitation people run quickly. reminded me of a nice quotable, "what you win them with is what you win them to." i will give this vicar some props, he's not just letting his church become a museum.

kleenex & tissues : talking about the holy spirit

kleenex & tissues and the Holy Spirit from Gavin Richardson on Vimeo.

last week i went to hang with my friends at the nashville cohort. we had our annual, 'what are you thinking about' session. one of the questions had to do with the our understanding of the Holy Spirit and how to communicate to others what that is.

certainly as methodists we have our 'strangely warmed' historic experience that we can be comfortable with a physical reaction in our bodies to the spirit's movement, but for so many people our modern idea of the Holy Spirit comes from azusa street & the birth of pentecostal movement.

my odd connection in our conversation this day was to say, this is basically a kleenex & tissue issue. when you grab something to blow your nose what do you call that thing? many times you'd call it a kleenex.. however, kleenex is just a brand name for a tissue. however, we often don't distinguish the two as different. they are one in the same. the tissue has been has a history longer than the kleenex, but we still mix the two. same thing with the Holy Spirit.. sorta..

we've allowed the pentecostal movement to lay claim to the Holy Spirit and brand it as what we often times know today. so there is a need to, as we talk about & experience the Holy Spirit, to let folks know that we are experiencing the 'tissue' not necessarily the kleenex.

chris brogan on evangelism : being there before the sale

chris brogan : be there before the sale : relationship in marketing & evangelism from Gavin Richardson on Vimeo.

so i took in that live web event last week with chris brogan and i've been pondering on some of what he said and i'm reading in "trust agents." he wasn't at all speaking to a church context, but as with most things (but is becoming much easier in todays business environment & language) i turn it around into some church framework.

one of the things chris brought out were some stories of 'trust agents' who were "there before the sale." it was one of those quotable moments as you could see heads dive into notepads and laptops typing.

it reminded me from a time last summer where i hosted a conversation with regular church going folk & those who are disenfranchised with the church and might call themselves non-religious or spiritual but not religious put together by my friend jim palmer. one of the stories that really stuck with me from a participant was how they were put off that the friends they made in their neighborhood, invited them to church, eventually helped them come into Christ, then left them hanging as they moved onto some other couple. this person then found out that this was a process of that church and they were to go befriend new people to bring them to the church as well.

so what makes up evangelism in when our common framework makes up some commodity sale & that conflicts with how people want to be treated & how we improperly fix some consumption to grace? is there a way in which one could just "be there" with people and not try and control the workings of God to force a sale of salvation, but allow God's mystery to work?... i don't know, maybe you have some ideas

church in second life : religion and ethics expose

stumbled across this story covering the various church & spiritual experiences found in secondlife. i've chronicled here many times my happenings in secondlife. its been a few months since i 'hung out' there so it was like seeing an old friend as they visited the anglican cathedral and seeing other creative spaces that make up the imagination of the virtual world.

theology of twitter : spirituality and social media

emergent conversant, fellow social media friend, steve knight put together this presentation on a theology of twitter. it has some great content. maybe the greatest content is him quoting me from my spirituality and social media series i did with matt cheuvront.

The Theology Of Twitter

View more presentations from Steve Knight.

crummy church signs : thou shalt remember the sabbath.. or try

i've chronicled this church before and their interesting church sign sayings. this one popped up yesterday and all I could think about was "what about the sabbath?" suppose that is lazy even though god mandates that.

youth ministry's future : glimpse of youth ministry in the year 2400

so i don't usually write fiction, let alone, sci-fi type fiction, but when ken asked if i would contribute to the upcoming issue of the reporter (which is focusing on youth culture & youth ministry issues) i felt honored to do something.

"so what do you want me to write about?"

"well, something on youth culture."

little did ken know, i for some reason had this curiosity for buck rogers that day.. so i had been doing some reading up on the old show & comic series.

"how bout youth ministry in the future."

"like 2050?"

"no, like the year 2400...?"

some time passes

"cool, can you write that by monday?"

"probably not, but i'll try."

"you sure?"

"yes, it'd be nice to have something not so serious"

here's an excerpt of my futuristic view of youth ministry in the year 2400. published by the umportal, that i turned in on thursday, after my monday deadline

Just then, he receives a ringing in his communications chip. Zahn taps his head and a visual hologram appears of one of his teenagers, Jessup (one of the oldest and more active teenagers in the ministry). Jessup is visibly upset. 

Annika, Jessup’s girlfriend from the Saturn moon Titan, has broken up with him, and Jessup is worried he’ll never find another person like her in the entire Milky Way galaxy. Jessup is now convinced he will grow up alone. 

my concept for this article is simple.. the tools and trademarks of the culture will change (which was fun to try and imagine), but the human needs & behaviors will not change. as i see, they haven't changed in thousands of years, they aren't about to start. beyond that, anything you read into it is purely your own speculation.

radical discipleship : shane claiborne at duke chapel

one of my youth sent me this.. its really great when your teens send you stuff.

methodist amendment mashup : its what you get for going on youtube maxie

a lot has been said over the latest rage in methodism, taking your political viewpoints to youtube. one thing maxie dunham, who seems to have started this should have done his homework on is the concept of mashup's. cause buddy, you've now been mashedup. i think the fact that someone did this is brilliant, rather slanted, but brilliance as i am sure the egos that decided this vehicle was the way to go didn't see something like this happening.

instruction manual of life : so many ways

saw this via don heatley's facebook page. i find this compelling and certainly worth my 8 minutes of time to ponder. it is obviously directed at christianity, the church, and the bible

• the problem with challenging one's cupboard is that peoples identity surrounded by the things they organize themselves with. to express that someones meaning to life is wrong is threatening to their very sense of self. Christ isn't an arguement to win, but there is a better way, how does one help illumine that?
• i don't feel the bible is to be a book on the shelf (tho, admittedly it sits on my shelf more than it probably deserves. how much of an idol do we make of the bible?

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.

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

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?

religious spiritual christ-follower emerging emergent missional : other defining typos

i just love religious satire. its so telling & holds up a mirror showing us how we really are. i pulled this gem out for a twitter conversation, but it reminds me of some of the whole definition/tags that people are willing & not willing to give themselves. it also reminded me of one of the snippets of prophetic twitterspeak i shared at my spirituality & social media session at podcamp nashville.

someone who gets social media : interview with charlene li @ sxsw

as i've mentioned. our church gets social media & networks wrong all over the place. here's a gem of an interview with charlene li of groundswell. its not over the top point making, but she is so on target for where church/corporate entities need to examine themselves within the social media spectrum.

more explaination of technology & virtual community : shane hipps day

zach lind did this little video interview for his podcast expanding a little more on what shane was getting at with technology & the virtual community.


Shane Hipps and Zach Lind Discuss Virtual Community. from Zach Lind on Vimeo.

virtual community is not possible : shane hipps day

this is the video by shane hipps in a little snippet interview by the out or ur folks at the national pastors convention. scot mcknight took some of this to task as well & kept going with it as shane chipped back in. tony jones also threw in his thoughts on virtual community into the conversation.

know how your technology is shaping you : shane hipps day

this is a good little video interview between rob bell & shane hipps (tip terrace) where shane flips on you what might be your preconceived notions on how technology is shaping you & culture.

Rob Bell Interviews Shane Hipps About Technology.