January 2007

Posted yesterday (depending on where you are) at Jason Clark's site.  Jason's bio can be seen here but his real credentials come from his generosity towards others.  This has been demonstrated time and again to those who visit his site, as well as to me personally.

To visit, you can go directly or use this permalink to the post The Emerging Church & New Media Technologies. 

Cory Miller, who runs Church Communications Pro, has a couple of great January resources worth checking out.  How he keeps blogging while frozen solid is beyond me.

First this link: 20 Free Web Tools and How Churches Can Use Them from early January.   Although I only use 8 of these 20, Cory's post is a great reminder to keep adding. 

And secondly, this week he added: An Untapped Internet Ministry for Churches: Developing Online Community Websites completely discrediting my nixing of the "surf web cam" from our church site with the conclusion that it was not spiritual in nature.  Shame on me; when will pastors learn?

Between Kent Schaffer at Church Relevance, Cory Miller at Church Communications Pro and Swerve - a new blog from the LifeChurch.tv guys, it's no wonder Oklahoma is becoming a Gospel networking hotspot. 

I just subscribed to the brand new archiving resource Footnote.com.

If you're interested in sleuthing through history, this site will give you access to millions of images of original source documents, many of which have never been on the web before.  Even more importantly, it's interactive.

You might find a lot of the currently archived material uninteresting, but like all Web 2.0 participatory media, the ramifications and impacts of this kind of software will be amazing. The collaborative nature of wikis continues to tear down the boundaries that have made knowledge proprietary.

For those of us with that odd and peculiar drive to research, Footnote.com promises to be a regular link.  Dead Sea Scrolls here I come.

It's not only a waste of time, but it is scripturally prohibited - online criticism instead of online collaboration, that is.  Using online means to argue theology and create or empower a spirit of disunity is such a waste of the tool that could be used for constructive collaboration purposes. 

Open dialog is valuable until it digresses into debate, dividing individuals into opposing camps of self-righteousness and criticism.  This observation is based on Titus 3:9 which says: "But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless."  

The beauty of online communication is that the wonderful truths of God can be shared in a broader fashion to more individuals than has ever been possible before.  Furthermore, they are often free of charge and usually without boundaries!

Additionally, online communication can, in some cases, foster deeper understandings of God's great love for us, provide a clearer understanding of God's Word and sometimes produce conversations that enlighten us with new applications of Biblical truths.  We can celebrate our differing views, approaches, interpretations, etc. rather than attempting to "prove" how right OUR theology is.  God's Truth is absolute.  Our vantage point is simply that - ours.   Any arguments?

The LA Daily News reports in a January front page article on the ministry of Pastor Jack Hayford, currently presiding as president of the Foursquare Church Denomination.

A man both admired and esteemed, Pastor Jack's credentials include composing over 500 songs, authoring 50 books, acting as editor of the Spirit Filled Life Bible and chancellor of The Kings College and Seminary. 

Pastor Jack is featured amongst Hollywood celebrities and Southern California sports teams, a scholar among men, a preacher to many and a pastor of pastors.  Thanks to Brad A. Greenberg for a piece that spotlights faithful, godly leadership instead of sensuality or scandal.

My friend, Jim Walton, over at Church Tech Matters is posting about the Net Bible this week. What a great way to start out the new year. 

Through a series of posts, Jim plans to highlight a variety of Bible Software resources available either online or via download.  I encourage visiting his site, designed to equip the church to effectively use technology, and additionally visit www.bible.org for more Net Bible resources.

Also, both The Digital Sanctuary and Church Tech Matters are contributors to dipnoi, a blog aggregator hosted by Scott Howard.   You can also find Church Video Ideas there as well as the Christian Web Trends Blog.

I was tagged over the holidays by a handful of people but currently I can only remember Billy Calderwood John Smulo and Fernando Gros.  Although it's well into January I want to respond and my apologies to the rest of you.  Hopefully my highly spiritual blogging friends will demonstrate their profoundly mature and substantial "heavyweightness" in their postures of mercifulness towards my tardiness which could easily be mistaken for neglect.  I've decided to be brief so….

Five things you should know about me: 

1) When tagged I pander.

2) When tagged I exaggerate.

3) When tagged I make-up words.

4) When tagged I break all comma usage rules.

5) When tagged I get overtly snarky.

Oh, and some other things:

1) I am a Pentecostal Christian who regularly speaks in tongues (and more!).

2) I am a trick roller skater and can 'shoot the duck' backwards (although the last time I did it, I got pretty hurt!). 

3) I was a rock and roll groupie until age 21.

4) I live about 10 miles from Malibu Beach (I cannot even defend this).

5) I have a tendency to do twice the amount of work required for the simplest of assignments so I'm often behind. 

This is what it looks like when one is the new many.  Or is that many is the new one?     ….Either way, prepare for the reality of a hand-held church experience from Apple (Guy Kawasaki had to have seen this coming!).

As anticipated, mobile web browsing for the masses, and new levels of media convergence will be provided through the new Apple iPhone unveiled Tuesday in San Francisco. 

The device combines several features of the "old" iPod with a digital camera and a smartphone with portable computing capabilities on a handheld display device with a touch sensitive screen (see coverage of touch screens).  

Steve Jobs, addressing at the annual Macworld expo, called the device a "revolutionary mobile phone" that will feature an iPod, phone and "Internet communicator." (See Jobs make the announcement.)

The iPhone runs Mac OS X.  And if it doesn't look just like you've imagined, you can still dream up your own prototype and compare them to other Apple fans' images here. 

I was somewhat indecisive as I passed up the Treo and a Blackberry Pearl.  I'm feeling much better now.

Faithful blogging pioneer from National Community Church in Washington D.C., Mark Batterson, blogged recently in his popular Evotional blog that he would be taking the GodiPod.com site down.  See Mark's post here.

We're very sad to see the site's demise and it was one of my favorite to highlight.  No doubt the concept will soon be replicated by other Christian entrepreneurs, but likely will not look as good as Mark's site (very possibly the work of David Russell on a monster drink). 

I've chosen to leave the site on my resource roll temporarily until such time as I'm actually willing to part with it.

Just for reference, the single most common search words used as entry points for this site are "bible + ipod".