Yesterday I watched a brief interview with Larry Osborne, pastor of North Coast Church in Vista, CA. The webcast was hosted by Linda Stanley of Leadership Network and was designed to help promote and publicize the upcoming Innovation3 gathering later this month in Dallas, Texas. I’ll be blogging from that event.
Dr. Larry Osborne, who is the author of Sticky Church, a book about “closing the back door” at church, elaborated on the book’s premise. Sticky Church helps leaders remember that getting people to attend church or visit periodically isn’t really the goal. If we really want to fulfill the Great Commission, then we must be mindful of our discipleship strategies and keep people around long enough to disciple them.
Additionally, Larry has a new book coming out entitled 10 Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe that looks at spiritual cliches and misinterpretations and gets specific about the rules & regulations we often believe that really don’t have a base in scripture.
Larry is one of nearly a hundred featured presenters at Innovation3, to be held at Bent Tree Bible Fellowship.
If you missed it, check out the other Leadership Network webcasts this week with these innovative leaders:
Dino Rizzo — Tues, Jan 6, 4 PM EST
Dave Gibbons — Wed, Jan 7, 4 PM EST
Dave Ferguson — Thurs, Jan 8, 4 PM EST
“Communication technologies change, but the fundamentals of good, true, and beautiful communication are age-old. How can we communicate better with one another—along with or sometimes in spite of new technologies?” These are the thoughts of this week’s media scholar and Blog of the Weekend, Dr. Quentin J. Schultze.
Dr. Schultze (the “e” is silent) is a professor, writer, and speaker who earned a Ph.D. in communication from the Institute of Communications Research at the University of Illinois. He is the Chair and Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I was fortunate enough to participate in a devotional he presented at the now defunct Internet Ministry Conference several months ago.
Dr. Schultze’s scholarly publications have appeared in several dozen journals. He has also written over a hundred articles for general-interest periodicals. He has been quoted in most of the major media, including The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Fortune, the Chicago Tribune, USA Today, and many other publications. He has been interviewed by CNN, CBS Radio, NBC TV, National Public Radio, and dozens of additional radio and television stations.
Professor Schultze received the Presidential Award for Exemplary Teaching at Calvin College in 2000. He has consulted for a wide range of non-profit and for-profit organizations on communication-related issues and opportunities. And he mentors communication scholars and practitioners across North America.
His book Habits of the High-Tech Heart addresses some of the issues surrounding the new media and Christianity. I highly recommend the conscientious & prudent mindset of Dr. Schultze. He says, “much of my research has focused on the impact of communication technologies on groups, corporations, families, schools, and religious institutions. I am particularly interested in how new communication technologies such as email, blogs, twittering, and podcasting are affecting society and individuals. Are they making us more responsible and compassionate? More effective at work? Do they improve our communication? Are we more patient and empathetic because of new technologies? Or are we more prone to gossip and snap judgments about others? How can we use the new technologies wisely and well?”
by Cynthia on December 25, 2008
in Ministry
Just a reminder that the well-known Presbyterian blogger, David Wayne, loved by many as JollyBlogger, could use our prayers this Christmas.
David underwent surgery performed yesterday in Baltimore after a sudden cancer diagnosis.
This will be followed by additional treatment.
His daughter is currently updating his blog.
Prayers, comments and updates can be found at his blog, his Facebook page, twitter and his friendfeed.
More open source, freely distributed church resources coming in through my emails.
This website is for churches worldwide to download and use an entire library of creative materials - absolutely free. You heard me right. Cost = 0. Materials include sermon audio, countdowns, promotional design graphics and opening videos from a wide variety of message series and churches.
Login or create a free account to begin downloading files. Merry Christmas.
There are growing numbers of people taking a scholarly approach to studying ministry & technology. I have a larger and larger list of scholars appearing on my reader these days.
So I’ve decided that over the next few weeks, you’re gonna meet some of my brainest friends and check out what they’re studying, evaluating, testing, hypothesizing, and just, well, all that kind of stuff.
Kicking off this “blog of the weekend” series, let me introduce you to Dr. Dave, as he’s called around here, aka Dr. David Bourgeois, a prof. at Biola University who blogs at Lessons from Babel. I’ve observed Dave’s work for a long time, had the privilege of hearing him speak and even shared a meal with him. He is an absolute pioneer when it comes to studying online ministry data.
His newest course involving Internet ministry launches next semester and in preparation, Dave recently contacted me asking if I had access to any online ministries who are pioneering corporate prayer on the internet. Specifically, he’s looking for people praying together online, via text or voice. In exchange for the info, the good Dr. is allowing me to audit (I mean crash) his course, so I responded.
Do I? How about this example from the LifeShare online challenge hosted by LifeChurch.tv where I got to pray with people from all over the world. Unfortunately, although you can get the live mogulus stream you won’t get to see the saved chat with visitors from across the globe.
You’ll be hearing more about Dr. Dave’s upcoming class here soon. In the meantime, he’s also asking for other examples so if you’ve got links, post ‘em here. He’s looking for options where there are interactive prayers going on (i.e. not like great services like Kindle where you can post a prayer.)
Who do you know who’s pioneering the work of online interactive prayer? And while you’re thinking, add a feed from Lessons from Babel.
The ECHO Conference 2009 dates are set, the website’s up, and speakers are being added. If you have any interest in church multi-media & technology, you won’t want to miss it.
Besides great keynote speakers, it’s a wonderful nerworking opportunity located centrally in Dallas. This year it will be held at Irving Bible Church.
Just some of the people I got to have conversations with at last year’s conference include:
- Ben Rugg & Jim Elliston (Clover)
In fact here’s a link to some of the photos I shot of Barton Damer explaining how he comes up with his amazingly cool graphics. You won’t want to miss it.
