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.

have you gotten your official united methodist calendar? i think i have

one of those tools in ministry i've used year in and out is the methodist calendar. i've used the classic spiral bound calendar many of those years. my fav details is the lectionary listings not to mention the special days listed in the classic calendar. it also fits nicely in my briefcase.

the last two years i've used the wall sized dry erase calendar which was helpful, but i never spent a large majority of my time in the office so it wasn't as helpful.

this year i'm kinda stoked to try out the digital version that is google cal compatible. i'll probably also order a classic one as well, you should get a version 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...

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

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."

welcome you umc.org peeps : a little history

i want to welcome you folks who find this little corner blog in the interwebs via the umc.org website. i was somewhat dumbfounded when i saw my face on the frontpage of my tribes denominational website. you see, when a more mainstream/mass media interface acknowledges us fringe blogger types it gives us some semblance that we are legitimate. like an internet pat on the back.. or a digital trophy..

well, for newbies here (i guess there could be many). i've been part of the methoblogosphere for, well, since the beginning. this blog has been somewhat dormant in '09 so most of the readership are hiding away in rss feeds. so if you find the post navigating away from the post you found your way here with, you'll notice my stuff lately is kinda campy, satirical in nature. that in part because over the last five years or so i ran out of stuff to say.. it feels that way anyhow. but within these links and many connected through the methoblog you will find a lot of commentary challenging & commenting on the state of our church we live our faith within. i encourage you to check that stuff out.

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

gold, silver, bronze awards : top john wesley moments on youtube

as i look over the church landscape & how they use technologies, i started wondering.. how is our church founder, john wesley, being represented on youtube? and with looking over all this (and the winter olympics in play right now), i decided to medal the top wesley moments on youtube.

  gold: john wesley chapel linebacker : the young folks at houghton college put this satirical parody of the terry tate office linebacker commercials together & they are just brilliant. involved a bunch of the students and some of the faculty. they reflect some of the core wesleyan theology tenants within the video mixed into a bunch of "ouch" and laughing moments. clear cut gold medal winner!

 silver: john wesley sermon, thoughts on war : mark topping is apparently know as a john wesley impresonator. this excerpt is taken from his dvd doing his shtick. the except is posted on the or more about the methodist church of great britain channel which has a few other cool videos. this sermon has the most hits of the excerpts. what i think is funny is quickly wesley would be run out of a pulpit in todays umc for preaching the way he did. the solid silver winner!

bronze: john wesley a heartwarming story : this is our dark horse that came out of no where in the medal podium to sang the bronze. i give you the history of john wesley via the confirmation class of first united methodist church of mercedes, texas. what are you doing with your claim the name curriculum? bet it is not as cool as a silent movie motif of wesley's life. anyways, this campy funny approach to sharing wesley's story is by far more entertaining than any of the other powerpoint movie presentations (though some of the foreign language, to me, ones were pretty cool).

standing looking on: relcaiming wesleyan tradition : yup, we tried to see if this thing could go viral for kevin some time back, so it had itself on the 'watch' list, but in the end, it couldn't pick up the medal. this little diddy by the gbod spins off the guinness commercials, which i suppose it okay since wesley had some guinness influence.

**look for the top medalists videos for the united methodist church. that's going to be a tight competition

give to who was there, because they will continue to be there : desparate times in haiti

received word the other day that one of my high school buddies was taking a team of doctors down to haiti for relief efforts. there was quite the bit of news coverages because, since our time in high school he's been able to wedge into the media market place. i saw another news article where a number of children who were up for adoption to american families were rushed to their pennsylvania homes with the political people showing smiling faces as if patting themselves on the back.

no slack on my friend & his medical team, they will do a lot of work and a lot of good work i am sure. but it had me wondering. slight slack to the political players who lord over visas and all these international adoptions.. it had me asking, "why now?"

sure, there was an earthquake & it is devastating, but long before that, there was extreme poverty & suffering... where was the anderson cooper's & media police alarming us to the worlds ills? chasing tiger woods?

i share my thoughts to say this one thing. as you are compassioned to give to help with relief efforts, give to the people who were already there, because, they are most likely to be there long after everyone is gone.. and they will be dealing with the aftermath of not only a physical earthquake, but a systemic poverty.

this is why i am so pleased to say that i am a part of the united methodist church & its continued work under the UMCOR banner. they were there before the earthquake, sadly some died in the earthquake, and will be there long after the earthquake. i applaud & more with the folks at highland park umc who have kept a long standing clinic in haiti since the 70's, but lost one of their church members in the earthquake.

learn more about the stories happening in haiti, long after the news vans leave & continue to help those who will be there long after cameras turn off and go home.

visit: www.umc.org/haiti

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

help me help children find a new home : miriam's promise & my heart

many of you have been with me for a number of years on this blog and you know quite a bit about me. you might know that i like trips to crazy monasteries, make fun of my celebrity look alike status, used some of the worship resources i've put online, shared in some deep conversations, and some not so deep.

one thing i have not shared openly is my care i have for children & youth within the foster & adoption process. as a child, looong ago in my birmingham years (those i call my impressionable south years), our family was a foster family. we hosted many kids of various ages that were needing a new home. some were abused children, some were given up for adoption for whatever reason and young and older ages. the older kids would generally stay in the same room as my brother & i (sporting some massive double bunk beds). the younger ones would stay closer by to my parents.

i vaguely remember names and as the years have gone by the faces get blurry, but the impression of having so many kids coming through our home hopeful for a permanent home placed in me a heart for them. tho, at the time, admittedly i wasn't always the nicest of boys to them.

fast forward some 20 plus years i have adopted Miriam's Promise as one of my causes that i champion. they are a methodist affiliated program (which means they get support from our church in name and personal devotion alone, they are not funded by the umc) and that partnership has allowed me to get to know them very well. they have a wonderful staff and board of directors made up of people i respect tremendously. i have a number a few youth from our youth community who have been adopted through Miriam's Promise which is neat to connect with. and who knows, even though we have Brooks now, erin & i have talked a number of times of adopting into our family because we know the need is out there.

they are having their annual golf tournament fundraiser on October 12th and i am trying to raise $4,000 dollars for our teams totals.

as i see some numbers, if everyone in my readership of blogs, twitter, facebook, and newsletters "chipped in" $10 then we could easily achieve this goal. $10 dollars is not ordering 1.5 starbucks drinks, 1/2 of a meal on the town (for one person). that isn't much. if you can give $20 or more, that'd be amazing too. you can set your giving, but please give. just use the "ChipIn" little meter above, it is secure, i've used it many times in giving to other causes.

help me help children find a new home, give to Miriam's Promise

shalom, -gav

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.

transgendered pastor comes out to congregation : what's in a history

i stumbled upon this article about pastor david weekley who recently came out to his congregation about his sexual reassignment past.

He told them that in 1984, just nine years after undergoing extensive sex-reassignment surgeries, he was ordained by the Methodist Church without telling anyone of his original gender at birth.

i am pretty stoked to hear of the congregations response, which was positive in support. it shows a wonderful example of grace & acceptance. i do have a wonder when it comes to the big umc church. what is in a person's history that needs to be vetted out in the process of ordination?

in the little segment i have quoted, it is said that he didn't tell anyone of his original gender. i'm fine with that not being an everyday conversation piece, but when we talk of an ordination process (one that i understand to be extensive and thorough) that it isn't a topic of conversation i find hard to imagine.

who is responsible for asking the question or being open? is it even an issue?

what do you think?

update: we are getting a good conversation over the posting at my facebook wall. if you're a friend chime in. if you're not a friend, ask, and then do the same. or just drop a thought here.

ministry tool you might not have heard of : new tech for the old tool

United Methodist Reporter & Variable Print as a Ministry Tool from Gavin Richardson on Vimeo.

note: i will be open about this one, i sit on the board for the united methodist reporter communications so i'm a bit biased that you need to use them for this ministry tip. but you might be able to find another variable printer.

do you ever feel like your printing needs miss the mark or you are having to create massive publications that are super wordy to meet you church congregation or ministry? well, that is a thing of the past if you want it to be.

andy clued me into the world of variable print some three years ago & i just love it. i have my plans this year to harness some of its beauty for our youth ministry.

the basic concept is this, you combine a spreadsheet document with some specific 'variables' such as children/young adult/active-inactive and your publication is set up (similar in concept to a mailmerge where they put your name into the 'dear someone' spot) with variable designations. when its all set up your publication is run with individual personalization in full color, address printed on, and then mailed & you never have to look at it.

cool thing about this

1. gone are the days when you needed to do plates that look the same for everyone and cost you extra money to make simple changes
2. you can cut down on the paper usage because you don't need to produce mega documents that you're specific ministry gets lost in the mix of everyone elses
3. color printing (at dirt cheap from what you might think) gets an almost 85% more response rate than a black & white or one color publication
4. youth can feel affirmed when their newsletter/postcard has them and/or their friends doing ministry activities (and they aren't mixed into a huge messy collage)
5. you never have to deal with stamping an envelope, taping a trifold, once it prints they can send it for you

so, if you want to know more about this stuff give andy a shout. he's one of the sales reps at the umr & my buddy.

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.

getting over our control issues : linked data for everyone

i'm a huge fan of ted. if i had the money i would so geek out at their conference. so it is with no real surprise that there is something shared that might in fact aid one of my passions, the church & specifically the umc.

in a lunch conversation i had with larry hollon on tuesday (thanks larry for the time) he had asked my thoughts on some of the things i might address in rethink church & the agencies approach to using social media. one of the things that i suggested was the release of control of materials. creative commons is the new framework we move in, not exclusive copyright. so i found interesting some similar themes & possibly an answer in tim berners-lee ted talk on how he developed the internet (no, it wasn't al gore) and his newest 'play project' of linked data.

things that jumped out at me quickly were when he mentioned "you've payed for this" in regards to the data that the government has. because we have payed for them with tax payer money. within the united methodist church, we have apportionment's that pay for the agencies to do a large amount of their work. in essence, we are owners of that information. we should have access to it.

but there is a control mentality that if you give it away you loose 1. your ability to make money (which isn't the role of umcom or the other agencies) 2. that people will re-purpose your stuff (ala. a mashup or sound clip it for their own thing)... both of which, are navigatable (i don't think i just made up that word). many of our biggest companies give their braintrust away for free and they've parlayed it into a living and the most loyal of customers. why assume that someone re-purposing your stuff is innately bad? i go with the assumption there are more creative people out there than i. as a youth pastor i keep trying to groom them that way as well. they do things i would never have imagined re-purposing my ideas for the betterment of the ministry.

so what do i suggest with this?

• get over your control issues. that might start with just naming them. (as a personal shot, why are we asking people to take down meaningful & helpful videos on youtube)
• put people in charge of sharing your braintrust. put together the linked data setup with your information and let others come in and put in their part.
• allow them full access so that they can know their people better & serve more fully
• open up resources for them to re-purpose graphics, videos, logos, etc to reach a demographic that you are trying to reach, but painfully not.

don't confuse who you are actually reaching : why i say your church tech stuff is lame

in my recent presentation at podcamp nashville on spirituality and social media i was talking specifically about podcasting when i made statement along the lines of 'sermon podcasts are lame.' i believe that statement.. really i do. i have posted sermons online, in video and audio format. i have downloaded sermon podcast in video and audio format from many churches and the thing i've found.. i generally don't care about them. i'll end up deleting the subscription after a few months of only watching one or two.

why is this? is it the preaching? generally no.. most of the time the preaching is quite good. its the relationship. i have no clue who this person is really. i don't know their family, i don't know if they like football. we've never shook hands.. i just have a hard time investing in the words of someone i have no connection to. i can listen to you. take your wisdom, but in the long run, the lack of connection wins out and i fade away.

but i have heard stories where people say "but this person checked out our podcast and came to church" sure.. there are those folks. they are not me & i'm pretty average so i default that most folks are like me.



but i hear that churches like mars hill bible church is at the top of itunes subscription list. how is that possible? well, for one, it doesn't stay up there. but two, why does anyone care about a church up in grand rapids michigan and what they have to say on sunday morning? truth is, they don't. what they do care is what rob bell has to say. people who have heard him speak at a conference, watched a series of nooma videos or read one of his books are invested in this guy. he's opened up to them in various ways. they know him & they want to know what more he has to say. the podcast, is just the conduit to continue to keep that relationship going. even if it is one sided.

so with this train of thought in mind. let's be honest about what our tech is used for. 1. your church facebook page/church twitter account/etc is not going to be populated by people who are unchurched and looking for a church. yes, a few may lurk as they church shop, if they are that point (which would technically not be unchurched). the grand population of all that technology is speaking to your own people. that's not a bad thing, just be honest about it and direct your energies with them as your focus.

i will give blogs (not housed on your church website) and youtube accounts a pass on this because they are more readily showing up in keyword searches (if you have indexed & keyworded them well) on google or youtube platform.

truth is, if you are wanting to reach out, what you are generally only doing is 'speaking out' and with todays cultural and generation values, that just doesn't cut it anymore. no one cares to get involved in a one sided conversation.

so when you are talking up or talking about how to use technology to reach out of your church. remember these thoughts. just taking what ever is created within your church walls and then broadcasted out for people to hear is just lame. figure out a way, commit to doing, some things that truely engage people in a converation.

some quick thoughts.

• start a podcast that uses call in or email questions, much like father roderick or mitch joel.
• have other people in your church be given a recording device to take home or on a trip to record some real life conversations and put that out there.
• go interview some people just walking the street (use video or audio) and ask them what questions they'd like someone to give an answer for or expand upon. then sneak them a business card with the feed url.
• take the effort to transcript a video or audio podcast so that is searchable if someone was looking for Christ the King sunday thoughts (no affense to CtheK sunday, you're one of my favs).
• set up personal accounts for facebook and twitter and make friends with people who are not in your congregation (this might mean putting an email note in the facebook friend request so you don't weird someone out). don't immediately invite them the the umw meeting (no affense to the united methodist women here either, i love you gals).
• visit some secular events, take photos (good ones) then put them in facebook and then ask to be someones friend so that you may be able to tag them. then you can have an opportunity to share in one more vehicle.
• if you put up a sermon, why not do a 'directors cut' with some commentary that makes it accessible, or trim down to just the most key points (trust me, not all of a 20 minute sermon is a critical key point).

archie carver jr. : may you rest in peace

this morning i received word that one of my dads, archie carver jr., passed away after his long battle with liver cancer. he didn't talk about his cancer battle much, but i believe this was his third onset that he had to take on treatment for. he passed away this morning, march 9th, 2009, around 8:30am with friends and family with him.

i will alway remember archie jr. for his quiet michievous-ness about him. in the big crowds of friends we'd find ourselves in at church he'd be the quiet one with this sneaky smile on him. telling jokes in his head, laughing at the rest of us trying one up each other,.. i'm not really sure, but that smile was always there. i know he wasn't always the quiet one, but i'll always see that face, that michievous smile and i'll smile myself.

archie was beloved by his friends. he was an active part of the cancer society in hendersonville, and many joined the cause on his behalf. last years relay for life was held in his honor as a survivor even. he was getting treatment in tulsa for the last 6 or so months. as is liver deteriorated and prognosis became grim a number of their friends left for tulsa to be at his & terri (archie's wife) side. yesterday his sunday school, at first united methodist, class spent the whole hour plus in prayer for their friend. they joked it would have been archie's favorite class to spend it in prayer without any real lesson.

you will be sorely missed in our church family archie. take rest & hope that you have been a part of something special in your friends & family. your children are wonderful extensions of yourself and terri, tiffani, archie III, and william.

may the Lord Bless you and Keep You. may he Heal you and Hold you. may he allow you to help cook some great eats for that communion of saints. until we meet again. shalom

update:

visitation is set on thursday, march 12th from 1-2pm, with celebration service beginning at 2pm and food afterwards, at hendersonville first united methodist church.

gracepoint church : thoughts on leaving the umc

no doubt, the few of you who are church nerds & internet types (and not in the kansas east conference) have heard about gracepoint umc separating itself from the umc leaving behind the old church to create a new church.

to give some backstory, andrew conard (thoughts of resurrection) has a pretty darn good synopsis & timeline on what has been happening since things were announced on sunday. i have even been quoted, sorta.

one thing i ask from anyone talking about the happenings here. please bring grace to the conversation. there is more depth to any story such as this. many people are involved at many levels. people are broken & people are overjoyed. there is a depth to this action that covers more than yours & mine first impulsive reactions and questions.

i emailed pastor bryson yesterday and received an email response from him. i'm not republishing it because i didn't ask. but he shared in essence that they (the folks who are moving to start gracepoint community church) are giving all things back to the umc and wish to just move on into the vision God has given them. as much as it hurts to have someone from the family leave, i subscribe to a rule of life of grace and will adhear to that as much as it hurts.

where is our hope : dealing with the downturn

this comes from a pastor friend ryan bennett, who posted this on his facebook. thought it was worthwhile sharing today.

Well, the news is out today. The economy is bad - real bad. Recession is giving way to talk of Depression. The stock market is at its lowest point in over a decade, taking with it the retirement accounts of many of our elderly. Things are bad.

So, with things this bad, where are people turning? In Tennessee, the answer was obvious this morning with the news that February was the biggest month EVER for the Tennessee lottery. $208 MILLION dollars were spent on lottery tickets in the month of February alone.

This is a damning statement about the hopelessness and irrationality that is so pervasive in our culture now. It is also a damning statement about where people are not turning - the church. Why would people seeking hope not turn to the church? I guess the answer is that hope is not what we are offering.

The daily news is offering gloom and doom. Shouldn't the church be more bold in its offering of Good News? Not good news on the economy but true Good News from the Hope of the World, Jesus Christ!

I think that the world has largely written off the church. "They don't care about my needs. They are too concerned with fighting and bickering amongst themselves about polity and doctrine."

If we can't offer Good News then who can? I believe this is an opportunity for the church, but we must first relearn the unique message God has given us then we must engage the world in which we live in a real way. It will get messy, no doubt. But I don't think there is anything else we can do and be faithful.

Lord, let the church offer more hope to a hurting people than the lottery.

Ryan

i don't know what more commentary i can put on this, but say "yup." we should be doing better. where do we start?

enough review : the advice you probably already knew but forgot

a few weeks back i was sent a few copies of 'enough, discovering joy through simplicity and generosity' which is the latest book by adam hamilton. as with many of my reviews, its more about my emotions reading through the book than the content. sorry, i try to balance it out, but sometimes to no avail. if you want something a bit more lengthy & thorough then catch up with my friend shane raynor's review.

it is a little bit more than 100 pages and a small size paperback retailing for 8 dollars. which is pretty attractive to me in that the topic is not one i'd normally invest in, but i would consider this one. it was a pretty easy read. i started it, put it down after the intro and then finished the rest in one sitting. if you have ever heard adam preach you can really hear him preaching withing the pages (at least i was).

it is obviously a writing that reflects on our current economic crisis. much of the advice rendered through the pages, that is actual financial navigation void of spiritual framework, is stuff you would hear from a credit-less advocate (ala, dave ramsey who is actually mentioned once or twice). adam brings up some old school ideals of 'layaway' which i remember all to well. he breaks out the classic thought of "wants" vs "needs. in the beginning adam brings up our reshaping of "the american dream" from living well and improved from your parents conditions to this idea of having more stuff. my default to talking about consumption is 'the story of stuff' which has similar parallels. still, i was rather intrigued with naming how that ideal has changed.

hamilton moves from the need to manage money and then into giving with the tithe as an example. its in the ending chapters that adam really hits his stride, or it just took me two or three chapters to get into his rhythem. i was thinking at the end of the reading if this was the next consecration/pledge campaign for a church.. i sure hope not, but it is possibly. this doesn't feel good as a curriculum/training book. its a good conviction book, but it is still much of the same advice i've heard for years. people know these practices, complain about the various problems, get this kind of advice from various outlets, we just continue to forget about it. sage advice, but we will probably still learn the hard way.. or maybe we are already learning it.

the future of church : a green life returns to what we knew

 

a few weeks back i was in a conversation where we were talking about the future of the church. i made some statement, not slamming the megachurch, but being less than kind to the megachurch as the future of church. which, i am prone to do.

one of the people just happened to be a part of the staff at one of the biggest megachurches, that i will leave unnamed (haha!). and he offered his view. he shared that he felt that the future church will look like megachurches and house churches.. hmmm..

now i pondered that. it most certainly could be the case. people seem to embrace the large corporation securities/offerings or they go against the grain in some anti-establishment stance, which could bring about that dynamic. but i don't know if corporation is the future (and lets be honest, the megachurch is a corporation) of the life of the person.

what i got to thinking about was the inclination people are having to live the 'green' lifestyle. it is just now becoming a norm and part of peoples daily practices. so as families develop with young adults that have grown up being 'green' what are some of their behaviors that might shape they way they participate in church life?

we are already seeing that people are not too worried about their church denomination loyalites. the economics are poor in large global corporate climate, which was otherwise safe & secure 5 years ago.

so these three things, 1. green living 2. falling denomination loyalty 3. an unsecure corporate economic will lead to resurgence of parish life.

people, conscious of their impact will doing old school transportation, walking to & from the markets/cafe/stores. because people cannot blindly count on corporations for their economic securities there will be a move back to small business (which i hope government taxes make easier, or less taxking, to do) bringing up local entrepreneurship, and finanicial control back to the individual, that we have not seen in 50+ years. people will move back into those houses of worship that were abandoned by a church denomination, or are a dieing congregation, in their neighborhoods and reshape them to what is core to their local needs.

when will this happen? maybe 20-30 years or so from now. there will be that generation shift where the older folks who have grown up with behaviors of driving all over God's green earth to get what they need are not the norm. they will be replaced by children of my family who have grown up living simply, using canvas bags for daily grocery pick up, walking to schools, riding a bike to the post office, knowing who all is in your neighborhood (instead of driving in and driving out).

will this replace what we currently know? not completely. just as the corporation will never leave us the megachurch will never leave either. but it will become less a significant voice in our day to day lives. there will be nothing to be enamored about as people lives will have become reoriented towards a parish life. house churches i don't see as being a norm, but being the new 'satalite' campuses of the parish church, which isn't such a new idea at all.

in the future, we will see parish life return.. will we, our denominations, be ready or will we have moved out our stakes?

chime in? agree/disagree? thoughts? am i crazy?

look back into the past : the things that were about this time years ago

in my on going toss out of lifting up some of the archives of this blog from similar time period over the years.

• i jumped in on some oovoo conversations with marketing & tech type people (pretty sure i was the only youth minister participating in the event). that was fun, but oovoo hasn't taken off. tokbox seems to be the next multi person video conference center.
• some ponderings from the desert fathers & mothers on parenting & youth ministry
• everyone can use some new 'faith filled' pick up lines
• an early morning reflection on the homeless in my city
• remember when the nfl was going to sue churches if you had a super bowl party.. seems they have learned from that pr nightmare
• i was again likened to a celebrity.. well, he wasn't so much celebrity then, he's more now
• church shopping & the devices of the entertaining church
• i took the strengths profile test that our church is big proponent of. can you guess what i came out as?
• my abbey journal kept while on retreat at gethsemani. good times, need to get back soon.
• in what is the only time you see capital letters use consistently, my pastor michael williams guest blogged on the theological conversation with miroslav volf
• this is what happens when you are friends with jonathon norman
• thoughts on how justice issues can become an idol unto themselves
• some ponderings on contemporary worship in my church context & how our greater church sold their soul to contemporary worship
• starbucks goes down!

online disciple : experiment in being a facilitator

many of you, my faithful readers know that community can happen over the bits & bytes of the internet. the folks behind the disciple study series are seeking to cultivate some disciple communities that will study and grow together. they are currently looking to fill out their facilitator list if you are interested visit the site and drop your name into the hat. tell them i sent ya & they might still let you in. haha! shalom, -gav

DISCIPLE Bible Study -- Online

Do you have persons in your congregation who are missing out on the transforming power of DISCIPLE because of their schedules? Do you have some whose travel keeps them from committing to a weekly class meeting? Do you have some who might like to take DISCIPLE with others who have a similar life experience?

The Richard and Julia Wilke Institute for Discipleship is excited to offer Disciple Bible Study -- now online at BeADisciple.com.

Here is how it works. Persons simply go to www.BeADisciple.com and enroll in the Disciple Online class they wish to join. A $30 fee is required to underwrite the costs of nine months of technical support. Next, participants will need a manual which they can purchase online from the Cokesbury site or through their local church. High speed internet connection is recommended.

Disciple Online may be offered to groups of 12 within a congregation. A few members of a congregation in one state may join together to study Disciple with a few from another state or even another country. Or individuals may enroll in Disciple Online with other individuals from anywhere.

Disciple Online will be presented in a standardized format. Each group will need a facilitator to watch over the sessions and to encourage participation. The facilitator will remain “a learner among learners." In addition to Disciple facilitator training, online facilitators will need to complete the online workshop “How to Become a Disciple Online Facilitator ” prior to leading a group. This workshop will be offered periodically at BeADisciple.com for $50.

Participants will do their daily reading and reflection with their manual on their own. Participants may enter their daily scripture notes in the online workshop environment if they choose, and assignments will be available with instructions for weekly group work. This will include discussion questions to be completed in a group-interactive discussion board by the participant at his/her own convenience. Prayer requests and written prayer petitions will be included. This online work covers what is normally accomplished in the first half of a normal face-to-face DISCIPLE class.

 Each week, a short review of the week's scriptures by Bishop Wilke, the author of DISCIPLE, will be presented online for participants to watch. These will lead into key questions for weekly discussion.

 The class schedule will be determined by the group facilitator. Every seven days the facilitator will conduct a live session online (approximately one hour) which walks the group through more discussion, exercises, and time for prayer together. This section will be conducted similarly to the second half of a face-to-face class and will transition the group into the next week. Each session will be recorded so that participants who have to miss a live session may view the live session later.

 Disciple Online will use the DISCIPLE (Becoming Disciples Through Bible Study) participant manual and facilitators guide but not the UM Publishing House DVDS/videos which normally accompany the study. Participants are encouraged to gain access to these materials through their local church or through Cokesbury.

If you have any questions, or would like to provide some input into the development of Disciple Online, please email Lisa at [email protected].

 Bishop Wilke -- A message regarding Disciple Online

 Information for potential Disciple Online facilitators

thoughts on a experiement : social media & the methodist

updated: blake huggins has some thoughts to add & i, as seems customary, have comment

kevin watson, proposed a little experiment to the metho-blogosphere after i made posting on how our general agencies just don't get how to use social media. he has posted his observed results and some opinions about the experiment.

I was surprised that more than 25 bloggers linked to the video in some way on their blog. And I do think it is significant that simply passing on a video was able to revive a video that was basically dead on YouTube. A change from 44 views in 6 months to 715 views in 2 weeks is a significant change. I think that this experiment does show that there exists a significant group of Methodists who are willing to work together in some capacity to raise awareness and get the word out. The big question is: Get the word out about what?

i had some thoughts on the results, not to mention my idea of how general agencies need to target their mild marketing efforts.

like i mentioned to you earlier kevin. the next step would be to spread it around through people’s email lists. email is going to tap more of the mainstream folks versus the early adopts of the blog world.

some numbers can be low because we share information amongst ourselves. i had already seen the video so i wasn’t going to watch 25 times because 25 of my friends posted it. i also am not sure if the embed watching shows up in the views on youtube or that is just a ‘hit’ to that page. that would also keep numbers rather low as most folks embedded the video. i know i did that.

certainly the video didn’t go viral, but i don’t know if it has elements to that seem to be ingrained in a viral video. something that is familiar, humorous or heart tugging. the old gene cotton claymation clay ride history of methodism got a lot of traffic, until umcom told me to take it down, as people had some kindred tie to it. it was a good video, but for many it was more nostalgic to the soul. who knows how well that video would be doing now. i have some news story on the patriot guard, and westboro baptist, that seems to get a comment or two and a hundred or so views a day.

though the experiment didn’t go viral that isn’t the measure. the measure is that it is talked about and people are more aware of ‘reclaiming wesleyan tradition’ now. which, they might not have been before.

some thoughts

as for kevin's observation that views dropped after the 2nd week.. well, it wasn't the kind of video that so many people kept going back too to show off or laugh at again. months later i still go back and laugh at the nashville gas crisis (though it isn't as funny as it was that week).

what are your thoughts?

a band by any other name : wind farming

the good bishop schnay-z whom i got to hang with the other night had some really nice thoughts on connection from our evening conversations. much more well spoken than my bullet list. one thing that i found interesting, and i quite like it, is he called jay & myself 'wind farmers' for some of our work with the methoblog. jay thinks itd be a great band name.. i'm just glad the bishop isn't from tennessee as we don't have much wind farming in tennessee.. itd be more like coal ash mush shovelers.

congress on evangelism : mike slaughter on worship

i was not there for all the mike slaughter speak at last week's congress on evangelism. but i made his session on 'passionate worship' and took a few notes.

creating a passionate worship environment comes from asking

• what is the theme
• what is the felt need
• desired outcome

5 dimensions of worship in creative process

1. the message: preaching, teaching, & healing
2. the medium: environments are an important 'theology of space'
3. the mystery: how do we experience the presence of God
4. the music: (nuff said, i didn't take any added note)
5. the mission: clarify what matters for God

i don't usually comment on my notes. usually there are completely exhaustive. these are not for some reason. i liked mike's presentation, but i found little transferable to my own context that i don't already have my own framework for implementing. that's not a bash of ginghamsburg or mike, i really like what they do, but nothing resonated.. except maybe that they use a lot of video to connect their community to ministry narratives.

congress on evangelism : tyrone gordon on Acts 4

one of those new voices to my life came in quickly at the congress on evangelism last week. rev. tyrone gordon of saint luke's community united methodist church gave the opening worship sermon. some little quot-ables that i jotted down. he was preaching a sermon called "who said you could do that?" based on acts 4.

• most of our christianity is nothing but talk
• as long as we preach a comfy Jesus we will get along just fine
• it got them IN trouble, before it got them out of trouble
• (holding up the bible) this tells me i don't need permission, i already have the authority

vision for the umc : virtual church plant experiences

i have pondered this, but i actually said it yesterday to blake huggins while we were watching clif guy talk about the church of the resurrection new internet campus. i have not participated in the cor's internet campus but essentially it is a live streaming of the church's services. this isn't new, but it is a significant cost to enable the bandwidth, not to mention all the hardware (if you didn't already have that). for cor, they already had the cameras and projection stuff, they just needed to project out to the net.

another internet campus that i know if is lifechurch.tv internet campus. again, i've just visited, but not during worship times. so i can't say what all happens there, but it too is essentially a live stream as well. they do compliment it with a internet campus blog. one internet experience i have participated with lifechurch folks is their second life campus. i got to make one of their services which again, was a piped in live stream. the difference with that environment was that i could chit chat with people and see others worshipping. (that is kinda funny to think of but, suspend your disbelief, and go with me)

the thing with these two campuses is that they emminate from the same place. not a bad thing at all, its who they are.. but it had me thinking

what if the united methodist church, in order to build more actual connections across the global church, by setting up some internet campuses around the world? there would be something beautiful for me to tune into a church in kenya, russia, latin america, etc..

easter services could all be celebrated with a church in australia or korea as they are the first to welcome the sun of easter day.. and you & i could be there. how cool is that!

we would see & participate in some of the familiars that come with a traditional liturgical background and a common hymnal. but to familiarize and come to know the differences of our family church would just be incredible.. this could be even be enhance by offering in virtual environments where i can meet up with others, much like we did for general conference this past year.

consider this a charge united methodist church entities, help coordinate a global campus to bring together a fully connectional church.

congress on evangelism : blogger bishop meet up

tuesday was my second day at the congress on evangelism. i took in two workshop sessions, one with mike slaughter of ginghamsburg notoriety, and bishop robert schnase of 5 fruitful practices notoriety. the cool part, and the anticipated moment for the day was a sit down conversation with bishop robert schnase about church & technology with some of our "methotweet" & "methoblogger" community.

folks in attendance, were my wifey erin richardson, theresa coleman aka reverend mommy, jay voorhees, amy shanholtzer & stephen drachler, wayne cook aka tnrambler, kathi ambler, bishop schnase, midlife rookie, & amy forbus of dog & God.

some of the things we discussed as i can best frame

• the essence of blogging community & how they are bona-fide relationships for us
• the sharing of information & creative media, creative commons ethos
• communication across the lines of the church, cultivating a relationship connection
• finding the bright voices to lead the church, who are they?
• some of the role of technology in church
• we solved global warming, but jay doesn't think it'll work
• the bishop as a blogger and engaging in social media
• how we have huge divides in the church over a theology of bbq
• plus more

we had some really great conversation for about 3 to 4 hours. a bunch of laughs, stories, and a few deep thoughts. strange though, we didn't talk about twilight or potter puppet pals. i would loved to have discussed that.

i've posted some of the photos from my days hanging out at the congress.

congress on evangelism : making friends

congress on evangelism '09
Originally uploaded by gavoweb.

last night kicked off the 2009 congress on evangelism. it is here in nashville after being here about four years ago. i like the congress, not for the content, though some of it is very good, but the networking here is a lot of fun. i get out and meet a lot of people who are not in my regular circles.

last night i spent the evening in conversation with some of the boy from church of resurrection & the foundation talking techie geek stuff, but it was fun to finally, finally meet my long time blogger buddy wayne cook of tnrambler fame. i would visit his blog as i bet he will be doing some good recaps of the event. got to say hey to amy forbus who is all over the place cause she is so popular.

jay has some spurred thoughts on connectionalism from our evening together.

today i will be cleaning our house a bit then heading over to the conference again. come say hi to me

the purple church : reaching the early adopters

i was pondering my earlier post about how my church misses the mark in some of these marketing attempts things and getting their message (which i believe to be good) to the mass. i felt sorta bad because i made a critique without any real suggestion, something i am prone to do (and be done too). so what is a piece of advice or starting point in suggesting to my tribe church & its general agencies which are charged with supporting it?

i came back to thinking of seth godin & his purple cow. as he mentions the purple cow in this ted talk, stop trying to focus your energies on these broad based middle audiences. look for the early adopters to get your message to & inspire them to tell others. i liked the videos created, so i share it, and the viewership spreads from there.

not that i am the earliest adopter, but i do consider myself an early adopter. i am interested and listening to what my church has to say and putting out. i have google news feeds on my church (as i am sure others do as well) to tell me happenings in the world. i pay attention to technology & art and how it is being used in our church. i've used resources in my ministry work that has taken root in the mainstream of my church and conference. five years ago when jonathon and i started doing prayer station worship it was new, fresh, 'remarkable' for our context. today our youth & youth leaders are well versed it and have contributed to published books and articles.

one thing with the early adopters, it is a small demographic and those folks don't take as much money to communicate with as a mass audience. as the open hearts open minds igniting ministry campaign put out with how many millions of dollars? yet our church has continued to decline. imagine instead of getting people who watch 24 hour news (the only time i saw the commercials was on cnn) you reached out to a core enthusiastic audience who cares about the church and what new can happen. as godin mention's the steve jobs keynote, a general board can do an open meeting free to anyone who has a internet connection and microphone (and video camera too to see folks) via www.tokbox.com. content could be the newest ideas, what is happening in the local areas & around the world, who knows. it costs you nothing but your time to do it. millions can then be invested in to user generated ministries & missions that people can talk up with passion instead of a tired tv campaign.

those are some first thoughts. i hope this helps you be remarkable.

blogger meet up : the bishop robert schnase

if you are in the nashville area, a blogger, and got some free evening time on wednesday evening. come over to the congress on evangelism for a blogger meet up with bishop robert schnase. amy posted info at the methoblog.

Several of us attending the upcoming Congress on Evangelism in Nashville are pulling together a blogger meetup at the supper break time on Wednesday, January 7. We haven't yet set the location; one factor in that decision is how many people we expect to have. So, please email me at aforbus(at)umr.org by Friday, Jan. 2 if you plan to attend the meetup. Bishop Robert Schnase will be part of the gathering.

UPDATE: We've decided to meet later, to get around the time crunch of the supper break. We are going to meet up after worship and go somewhere that'll let us sit around and talk past 9:00.

bishop schnase is the toast of methodism with his fruitful congregations book & resource. i first ran into him at the umerging event back in 2006 when he sat in as a q&a with bishop scott jones. that was a heated little conversation, but in the following years i believe we all understand each other more. i liked bishop schnazz then & i expect to like him more after hanging out.