Spring is in the air and all God’s people are preparing for that most holy of Christian holidays: Internet Evangelism Day.  Oh yes, I am not making this up.  This is a true day that my cynical mind predicts will be full of overzealous facebook and twitter addicts quoting scripture in hopes of saving their friends, who liberally post drunken pictures of themselves for the good moral folk to judge them by.  I heard about Internet Evangelism Day on the Church Marking Sucks webpage.  The author had the same gut check moment I did, although for different reasons.  He raised an interesting point: if we are the incarnation of Christ should our social networks reflect that?

If the thought of this kind of transparency freaks you out… that’s okay. It should. It’s easy to compartmentalize our life, leaving God stuff for Sunday, and disengaging from any type of God-speak throughout the week. The problem is God calls us to be a witness everyday and everywhere. If you find your online presence to be you-centric rather than Christ-centric, this may be a chance to redeem that space.

I am still kind of freaked out.  Social networks and transparency is a funny line and can be played well or not so well.  We have all seen the pictures of the friend that got a little too tipsy.  We have also seen the status update that begs for shallow attention, “My life is so hard, nobody likes me.”  And we all have had the misinterpreted post that sounds funny in our head, but ends up hurting someone we forgot was on our friend list.  So how should Christians be transparent on social networks?  While Internet Evangelism Day may have many flaws I am glad it ask this question…. [Read more →]

Last night we had a young adult gathering for my church.  Our group is not huge, but they are loyal and are growing close through our meetings.  The group has only been in existence since November and although most were around as youth and children they are re-entering the congregation as adults for the first time in several years.  We have had several social events in the evening, but in February are taking the group to the next level.  We will start a young adult Sunday school with two objectives.  First, is to gain basic tools and understandings about faith as adults.  Second, is to build relationships with the larger congregation so this group can be sustainable with out my leadership.  I have developed a variety of ways to do this, but want to hear your ideas and feedback…. [Read more →]

Internet Explorer... human's best friend?

Online Library Collections…Spiritual Disciplines Classes on the web…online chatting with friends… the Internet has become my reality.

As a grad student who spends a good amount of time in class, studying and preparing for class, I am noticing how much of my work for school is dependant on the virtual word: the Internet.

Actually, when I think about it, my whole life: work, friendships, family ties, entertainment… is wrapped up in this technology. Is this a good thing?….. [Read more →]

For once in my life I actually got up early enough that I had time to spare this morning before church, so I decided to take in some news. For me this means checking my Blog RSS feeds, which bring me all new posts from sources like GoPowercat.com, change.org, my sisters blog, wired.com, and of course CNN. The article that caught my attention today was on CNN’s rolling news feed and is called Online Churches Draw Believers and Critics.  The article talks about a new phenomenon of webcasting worship services.  This isn’t a particularly new idea.  It has been done in some medium since worship was first put on the radio.  With the accesiblility of technology webcasting your worship in audio or video is now pretty easy to do, even for novice folk like me.  In fact my college alma mater does this very thing for their weekly chapel service.  But one church is taking there online service to a new level…. [Read more →]

Have you been wondering about the timeline of the Southern Kingdom?  Desperate to find out about Deuteronomistic History?  Looking for outlines for nearly all the OT books?  Well do I have a treat for you.  One of my favorite professors (he is on our blog roll as Anumma) is taking pedagogy to the world of web 2.0.  When I took his class we had to memorize outlines for books of the Bible and create hardcopy notes (which I have lost) to study for our INTENSE mid-term and final exams.  But those were the good old days.  This term he had his class create a Wiki (an online collaboration of ideas and notes) so that they could build off the collective whole.  There work is impressive and is available to anyone who is interested in seminary level information about the OT.  My mathematical mind really likes the outlines and timelines, but there is lots of info for the harvesting.

While I will never be a seminary prof (thank God) I am inspired by this type of learning.  I am waiting for an opprotunity when a small group or Bible study could have a Wiki, a blog, or a discussion board…….. [Read more →]