Several months back, Relevant Magazine’s Neue Quarterly released the article Multi-Conversation, a three-part conversation on plurality in the Kingdom.  The piece is designed to be an exploration of new trends in church development.  Exploring multi-cultural, multi-generational and multi-site movements, perfectly normal church planter Earl Creps, absolute wild-man pastor Shaun King and myself all review and assess these church trending topics.  Enjoy the article, and order Neue Quarterly.

Friday is the day I often point to scholars who specialize in the study of media & the church.  This series of Friday posts entitled, Blog of the Weekend, is designed to cover a broad spectrum of world class teachers, researchers & scholars who assess the impact and influence of technology/media on Christianity.

This week is no different.  Today I feature Anthony Coppedge, someone I respect as a friend, colleague and resource for all things media-related involving the Church.  I have used Anthony’s expertise as a church consultant and on complicated issues he has registered his professional opinion (See his comments on my post: Viva La Vida – Did Secular Music Get Saved?).  Additionally, following meeting him last year at the Echo Conference, I’ve more closely followed his blog and work.  However, I completely missed a key project Anthony has been developing and thankfully he’s brought it to my attention.

The Reason Your Church Must Twitter, first draft e-book is currently available online.  When Anthony sent me an advance copy for review, I was amazed at it’s depth, detail and exhaustive all around thoroughness.  E-books are fantastic, instant, cheap resources that can’t be beat (I’ve written for several) and The Reason Your Church Must Twitter is highly recommended for those interested in harnessing participatory media’s value in ministry.  Two of my personal friends have already reviewed it…. see Jim Walton’s blog review and also Mary Beth Stockdale’s blog review.

Also, later today is the launch of a new website called Twitter for Churches. com.  Anthony will spearhead the site and some of us who use microblogging regularly have been asked to guest author.  There’s a progression of adoption  that most most people go through (whether you’re a maven or a luddite!) when it comes to new media.  Anthony quotes Rohit Bhargava, Senior Vice President at Ogilvy, in describing this progression.

Denial
“I think Twitter sounds stupid. Why would anyone care what other people are doing right now?”

Presence
“OK, I don’t really get why people love it, but I guess I should at least create an account.”

Dumping
“I’m on Twitter and use it for pasting links to my blog posts and pointing people to my press releases (or stuff about me).”

Conversing
“I don’t always post useful stuff, but I do use Twitter to have authentic 1-on-1 conversations.”

Microblogging
“I’m using Twitter to publish useful information that people read AND I converse 1-on-1 authentically.”

Collaboration
“Actual, meaningful relationships and collaborations have occurred out of my usage of Twitter.”

Facebook for Pastors by Chris Forbes is available now online. Thanks to all of you who spread the word and participated by submitting testimonials.

Facebook for Pastors was written to help Pastors and other ministry leaders make the most of the popular social bookmarking tool, Facebook.  It includes endorsements from Kent Shaffer, Greg Atkinson, Mark Driscoll, and many other Pastors and church leaders about the value of social networking.  These are some of the topics covered:

• * How to make the most of your profile information
• * Tips for Networking with People in Facebook
• * All about groups, messages, poking, etc
• * Brand Your Ministry
• * Meet prospects for your church
• * Learn more about the members in your church
• * Fine tune your communication skills
• * Testimonies from Pastors who use Facebook
• * and much more!

Get the e-book here free using this link: Facebook for Pastors
(PC users, right click and select “Save As” for best results) 

http://ministrymarketingcoach.com/free-e-books/

• Last call for Facebook for Pastors ebook quotes. (email or fb me)

• Thanks to the digerati leadership at LifeChurch.tv for making The Digital Sanctuary their featured blog this week at Swerve.

• Larry Norman – still innovating….  using the internet to say goodbye to all who love you.

• Don't forget to register for the Fellowship Technologies 2008 Conference.  My topic: Embracing New Media Values.

• Link of the week: Parchment and Pen blog.

• Additionally, note the plethora of diagrams all over the Internet this week that have sprung out of C. Michael Patton's map:

          Sorry, I know these graphics will display oddly, but since every single believer needs to make their own, it's worth  it….

Final image: Arthur Boulet

   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

Excitement is mounting for Imagine – Foursquare NextGen Summit '07.

The goal of the Summit is to spiritually awaken students so they are empowered to change their world today, both spiritually and physically.

More details here at the Foursquare events homepage.   In the meantime, think about this:

More importantly, come and pledge support for the Not For Sale Campaign like we did with the proceeds of Wikiklesia: Voices of the Virtual World.

Yes, my Wikiklesia chapter ended up as #38 (oh, if it were only my age) and got blogged today by Anglican Vicar Paul Walker (who obviously understands being a "Wa…." last name) over at his Out of the Cocoon site.  Here's the permalink.

Paul's been doing a consistently, innovative and insightful job of blogging the entire book ever since the online release.   This, for me, has proven to be a great service to the work.  Since the beginning of The Wikiklesia Project when I was asked to write a chapter, I'd always wondered if there could be any cohesion in publishing such a diverse set of articles by authors who have (potentially) so little in common theologically, and this, of course, underscores the experimentation of working with wikis.  It's collaborative but only in a limited sense.

Several of my friends were included in the final project and I've enjoyed meeting many others. Joe Suh (#37) and Steven Shields (#36) blog with me over at The Leadership Network's tech site:  digital.leadnet.org

As the global slave trade becomes a relevant issue within the Church, I think we're all happy that the proceeds from the publication will continue to go to the Not For Sale Campaign (their website looks great now, btw).

Online versions of the book as well as hard copy publications are available here.

John La Grou (who, yes, has mixed me up with his wife before due to too many incoming "Cynthia" emails) sent out this handy Wikiklesia authors' links list.  You don't even have to go to the wiki to get informed about the interesting and diverse authors who participated in the publication of Voices of the Virtual World. 

I certainly meant to blog some details about a few of them but I made the mistake of stopping by Bill Kinnon's achievable ends page.  There I ran into the Internet Way Back Machine!  (warning, warning, prepare to squander time…)

Thanks a lot Bill; now, instead of contemplating our future, I've researched my archived past.

 I'll put the list up now anyway and re-blog Wikiklesia later.

 
Andrew Jones
Andrew Perriman
Bill Kinnon
Bob Hyatt
Brad Sargent
Brother Maynard
Calvin Park
Cynthia La Grou
Cynthia Ware
David Hayward
Derek Flood
Drew Goodmanson
Ed Brenegar
Heidi Campbell
Jo Guldi
Joe Suh
John La Grou
John Sexton
Br. Karekin Yarian, BSG
Katharine Moody
Kester Brewin
Len Hjalmarson
Matt Reece
Michael Lissack
Mike Morrell
Mike Riddell
Peggy Brown
Rex Miller
Rick Meigs
Scot McKnight
Scott Andreas
Scott McClellan
Scott Ragan
Stephen Garner
Stephen Shields
Steve Scott
Steve Knight
Stuart Murray Williams
Thomas Hohstadt
Wild Grace

The Wikiklesia Project: Book One will be released on July 23rd in e-book format on Lulu.  Subtitled “Voices of the Virtual World: Participative Technology and the Ecclesial Revolution,” the print edition of the book will become available following the virtual release.

The publication features more than forty diverse authors who explore the growing influence of technology on the global Christian church. From the creative uberblogging perspectives of global pilgrims like Andrew Jones, aka tallskinnykiwi, to theological scholars like Dr. Scot McKnight (Jesus Creed), readers are promised one thing for sure – a diversity of perspectives. Criticism, evaluation and praise will likely all be present in this sweeping overview of technology's influence/impact  on the Church. (A huge thank you to Len Hjalmarson and John La Grou for inspiration, coordination, publication, revelation.)

You can see a full list of contributors and their chapter titles here, including mine.  A handful of friends couldn't participate or couldn't make the deadline and I'm hoping they get included next time.

This is a not-for-profit, non commercial deal with all proceeds from the sale of the book being contributed to the Not For Sale campaign, designed to support abolishing the global slave trade.

Here's a recent press release that further explains what Wikiklesia is about.

"Conceived and established in May 2007, the Wikiklesia Project is an experiment in online collaborative publishing. The format is virtual, self organizing, participatory – from purpose to publication in just a few weeks.

Wikiklesia values sustainability with minimal structure. We long to see a church saturated with decentralized cooperation. The improbable notion of books that effectively publish themselves is one of many ways that can help move us closer to this global-ecclesial connectedness. Can a publishing organization thrive without centralized leadership? Is perpetual, self-organizing book publishing possible? Can literary quality be maintained in a distributed publishing paradigm? We’ve created Wikiklesia to answer these kinds of questions.

Wikiklesia may be the world’s first self-perpetuating nomadic business model – raising money for charities – giving voice to emerging writers and artists – generating a continuous stream of new books covering all manner of relevant topics. Nobody remains in control. There is no board of directors. The franchise changes hands as quickly as new projects are created."

        The Wikiklesia Project

         supports the 

        Not For Sale Campaign

Wikiklesia: Voices of the Virtual World, is a collective anthology designed to explore the growing influence of technology on the global Christian Church.  A diversity of authors with multiple and varied perspectives, bridging denominational (or lack thereof) lines, all published together in a self-organizing experiment?  What an endeavor!  They contacted me a couple of months ago and asked if I'd contribute a chapter.  Risky, probably. Controversial, most likely.  A way to learn some wiki syntax?!  Positively; I'm in. 

As a virtual publication (sorry, I know even the word publishing is so old school) done in real time; 4 weeks, start to finish, the only way to accomplish such a project is via wiki.  It's a great opportunity to explore some of the questions surrounding the new media.  Does cooperation without collaboration accomplish definable goals?  Does user generated content have value for anyone other than the users who generated it?  Is a project with such a diverse contingency sustainable minus defined leadership?  (One of my Google Groups is having serious trouble in this very area.) Are there downsides to "edit summary" wikitext?

John La Grou and Len Hjalmarson are acting as editors for this publication but in self-organizing fashion will pass it along next year, providing its got support.  Since wikis are often criticized for their reliability because individuals may maliciously (or accidently) introduce false or misleading content, we'll see whether the apostles & the prophets "influence" its future or whether it ends up hijacked by misguided mystics. 

Certainly unconventional (I like that), possibly insightful (we like that), it's a risk for all of us to be in the company of each other.  Best of all, since I just read the book, I'm happy to support the Not For Sale Campaign. You'll be able to get the pdf on Amazon and the podcast from the site itself.