December 2007

According to Wikipedia:

Christmas is an annual holiday that celebrates the birth of Jesus. The date of the celebration is traditional, and is not considered to be his actual date of birth. Christmas festivities often combine the commemoration of Jesus' birth with various secular customs, many of which have been influenced by earlier winter festivals.

The word Christmas originated as a contraction of "Christ's mass". It is derived from the Middle English Christemasse and Old English Cristes mæsse, a phrase first recorded in 1038, compounded from Old English derivatives of the Greek christos and the Latin missa. In early Greek versions of the New Testament, the letter Χ (chi), is the first letter of Christ. Since the mid-16th century Χ, or the similar Roman letter X, was used as an abbreviation for Christ.  Hence, Xmas is often used as an abbreviation for Christmas.

St. Nickolas worshiped the Christ and was persecuted for it, but of course, consumer culture creates confusion about all that.  There's no confusion for us at our house about the reason for the season.  In fact if you're confused, this is probably a good time to link to one of my all-time favorite articles, Santa, Saved and Sanctified by Pastor Jack Hayford, Chancellor and Founder of The King's Institute and Seminary and President of the Foursquare Church.

Image:  Courtesy blogrodent.

Thanks to Julia Cooper, the WORDsearch Web Administrator, who just emailed me about a Free Bible Explorer software offer.

You can download Bible Explorer 4.0 plus over 150 Bibles and reference works; including English Standard Version, King James Version, GOD's WORD Translation,  Greek New Testaments and Matthew Henry Commentary, Barnes Notes on the New Testament, Talking Strong's Greek and Hebrew Dictionary, absolutely free.  New titles are added every week.

There is an affordable charge for most Bible Explorer packages.

Julia also notes they publish WORDsearch and LESSONmaker which are geared for those folks who preach and teach to change lives.  In all, they offer over 1000 titles totally nearly 2500 volumes.  

   The Wikiklesia Project, 

    Voices of the Virtual World:

    Participative Technology and the Ecclesial Revolution,

   Wins Award  of Merit!

All of us Wikiklesia Project authors are celebrating the 'Award of Merit' given to us in Boston last week from the Society for New Communications Research.  The SNCR, as it's called, is a global think tank dedicated to the advanced study of new communications tools, technologies and emerging modes of communication, and their effect on traditional media, professional communications, business, culture and society.

Our book, Voices of the Virtual World: Participative Technology and the Ecclesial Revolution, is a set of reflections about how emerging technologies are impacting the Church.  It includes the work of 40 diverse authors, including Dr. Scot McKnight.

You can buy it as an e-book or paper version. You've got to buy the book in order to read my article: Technology and the Virtual Church as our publishing agreement  stipulates that we will not individually republish our work for 1 year.  That way, we're assured that all the book's proceeds go to the Not For Sale Campaign designed to draw attention to the global slave trade.

"Uttered like a prayer retrieved from the year 2030, spoken in a new tongue, a new form. Listen!" - Kevin Kelly, Co-Founder / Executive Editor WIRED Magazine

speaking about Voices of the Virtual World: Participative Technology and the Ecclesial Revolution

Church in the 7th Dimension

a reflective post by Antoine RJ Wright of Mobile Ministry Magazine

When I was younger, I used to catch the reruns of the Superman cartoon. And for some reason, I would always seem to catch it when Mr. Mxyzptlk was on talking about being from the 5th dimension. I always thought it strange him speaking of this additional dimension, and at one time tried to figure it out.  But it always made sense that life from a different perspective is a lot like living in a different dimension.  Sure, there are some similarities and even many of the same laws apply, but for the most part, things are different.  Superman's engaging of Mr. Mxyzptlk in that new dimension required him to think innovatively and not lose sight of the sound fundamentals that defined who he was. 

In similar fashion, the church is like Superman. However, instead of the dimension being this magical place where saying a name backwards gets you back home, the dimension at play is technology. The church has had to think differently as to how to respond, use, and engage people with technology, but not lose sight of the mission (Matthew 28:18-20). For the most part though, we can say that the Body has been pretty successful at keeping Christ's calling intact, albeit sometimes a bit behind the secular curve of innovation.  When we [the Body] learn how to use a technology, our niche is usually easily discernable and ultimately beneficial.  The new challenge to the church isn't just mastering technology, specifically computing. While there is something very profitable about websites, graphic design, A/V production, and the like, we have always excelled when the technology got us into interpersonal relationships with people.  In the latest media dimension - mobile (called the 7th mass media) - the Body has a chance to get back to its roots of getting into the lives of people, while also taking some of the best parts of other media types to the engagement and discipleship process. 

What Does This Look Like:

At the intersection of faith and (mobile) technology, the church has to respond to a time and people who get media and engage life on their own terms.  No longer are the social rules of 'this is church time' and 'this is read your Word time' the dominant archetypes.  The social construct of our times says that people have to margin time for those things of God because everything else is engaging them.  How the church responds will say a lot towards how inventive we are towards walking like the early church did.  Mobile technology used in the Body means that mobile media must lead to social interaction. - Yes, it is assumed that mobile technology is a passive medium and that we are merely consumers. 

However, if the Body wants to use mobile technology as a means to engage people before, at, and after the cross, then we must make sure that whatever mobile tools we are using (SMS prayer lists, mobile-enabled chatrooms, micro-blogging, etc.) continue to keep the door open for whatsoever questions or comments that people choose to ask.  Mobile technology used in the Body means that we have to be the leaders of a healthy life/work, online/off-line balance.   Mobile technology is pervasive, and by no means is it something that people are having an easy time establishing the right boundaries. The Body must be innovative in thinking how to use mobile technology, but also how to enable people not to abuse it.  Interpersonal relationships growing in shape with the image of God should be the goal of using mobile technology.  Mobile technology used in the Body means that we have to have a greater awareness of cultural and economic contexts of those we are speaking/living towards.  

One of the hardest lessons of the computer generation is realizing that affluence is at the core of the technology. The assumption that most of your audience has access to this means of communication is faulty.  It would be great if everyone had access to the best mobile devices and services. Assume that mobile services and devices are had by only a small part of those who need to be reached, and by successfully equipping those who are near those who have not, the mobile technology becomes a conduit for greater works.

Conclusion: 

In order to defeat Mr. Mxyzptlk, Superman would have to say his name backwards while not falling prey to the attacks on his character.  In dealing with the 7th Mass Media (mobile technology), its easy to be discouraged that former methods of engaging people and places don't work.  If we are indeed taking this technology as another display of the Holy Spirit enabling us to reach the world, its not just accepting its ability to connect us, but accepting God's ability through us to connect people to His dimension of love and redemption.

What do you want to ask Mark Driscoll?  Well you've only got 2 more days to submit your questions.  Although it's kinda old news, it's still worth featuring because the sermon series won't be delivered until January. 

Some of our dearest friends attend Mars Hill in Seattle.  They tipped us off that at the website askanything.marshillchurch.org, they're collecting questions Twitter-style (beginning in November), and then inviting readers to vote on their favorite questions until December 14th.  So, you've still got 2 more days.

The top 9 questions with the most votes will become the sermon series beginning January 2008. 

You can expect controversy because Pastor Mark is known to be quite polarizing with his interpretations and applications of scripture. He can attract and repel, often even the same group. Unless you're a woman in ministry, like me.  Then it's only the one.  But only on that topic, of course.

In case you've missed it, Christian Computing Magazine has a sister product available online called Christian Audio/Visual Magazine.

Both publications are designed to apply tomorrow's technology to today's ministry. You can sign up for FREE to either CCMag or Christian Audio/Visual and you will receive a monthly email with a hyperlinked table of contents and an introduction to each article. All of the articles are provided in PDF format, ready to read on your screen or print out on your printer.

You can also, go to the online site to get their Church IT Discussion podcasts. 

David Kinnaman, President and Strategic Leader of the Barna Group, acted as lead researcher in a study released two days ago entitled What Teenagers look for in a Church.  The study gives credence to the fact people who are born over a certain period of time are influenced by a unique set of circumstances including global events, moral and social values, technologies, and cultural and behavioral norms. The result is that every generation has a different way of seeing life.  The newest generation, the Mosaics, view online technology's intersection with their spirituality as normative. 

As some of the nation’s first digital pilgrims, the research shows that one out of every four teenagers (26%) had learned something about their faith or spirituality online in the last six months.  This was true of two-fifths of born again Christian teenagers (39%). Furthermore, one-sixth of teenagers (16%) and one-quarter of born again teens (25%) said they had "a spiritual experience" online where they worshiped or connected with God.

Kinnaman, the author of a newly released book, unChristian, also comments on the gap between how teens live and what they learn at church. Although their world is inundated with choices related to media, movies, television, technology, etc., most churchgoing teens said they rarely recalled learning anything helpful on these topics in church.  Perhaps as a result, many teens grow up concluding that Christianity is boring, old-fashioned and out of touch with reality. Rather than simply giving teens do’s and don’ts, Kinnaman concludes that effective youth ministry should help them become engaged, thoughtful Christ followers who have sophisticated, biblical responses to life.

Barna Group research link.

Head on over to comment or recommend suggestions about needed topics.