This is the latest edition of ‘did you know 3.0′.
How do we be Christ, move as the church, and engage culture in such exponential times?
{ 0 comments }
Posts tagged as:
We live in an age of networks.
Most of us know that we can’t do anything truly visionary on our own. And if we can, our visions are likely too small. The internet (which is only about 4000 days old) has accelerated our capacity to network with one another.
The internet allows grassroots tribes to come out from nowhere, upending established institutions. You’ve seen this with the Obama comapaign, and you can see it in the rise of new church networks and associations as denominations decline.
Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve been sensing a rapid land grab for the church network of the future. “Church networks” brings up over 3 million hits on google. Rick Warren says he wants to create the ‘network of networks’, as with many other visionary leaders.
In techie terms it’s the platform. Microsoft Windows is a computing platform, google is an online platform, you could say facebook is a social networking platform. The biggest and broadest rules them all.
There are many advantages to a common platform or network. The economies of scale, standardized best practices, and phenomenal impact. Imagine if David Yonggi Cho of the 830,000 person Yoido full gospel church in Soul Korea asked every person to pick up one piece of trash each that day?
What’s astounding is that at the very foundation of these massive Christian networks, is just one man.
Sometimes I find it hard to tell if our networks are simply reflecting Christ’s heart for unity… or if they’re pyramid schemes of influence?
May the biggest network win…? What do you think?
{ 4 comments }
Here’s my latest technology update that helps me in life, ministry, mission, etc.
- I’m on google chrome (their new browser), right now. It rocking so far. You can read the comic book they released describing what’s behind it here.
- A new google picasa v3 is to be released today as well, with synchronization and facial recognition.
- I’ve switched from using Microsoft OneNote and Google Notebook, to evernote. It doesn’t have onenote’s snazzy tabs, but it allows me to sync my laptop, desktop, and online notes finally.
- In preparation for the event, I researched online ticketing and discovered brown paper tickets, eventbrite, and money transfer through paypal. All with a lot of potential, but I was too cheap to succumb to the 2-3% cut the services take.
- Facebook Events… somewhat works. I was feeling really about about the response rate for my event, but then looked at many others, and it looks like there’ really only a 5-10% response rate. I know I’ve rarely responded to mine, but a great easy start for building some buzz.
- Skype – I’ve began doing marraige counseling through it for some friends out of town, but I’ve found it’s almost as good even with local meetings, saving gas and travel time.
- Google phone – I don’t know how many years I’ve been waiting for this one, but rumours are it’s coming along to be released by the end of this year. Some pics here. One day I’ll be cool.
- Wordpress, absoutely rocks. I created the event page with it. And lightbox plugins bring photos to a whole new level.
- Starbucks wifi – This one applies to Canadians too for once, 2 hours of free wifi with an active starbucks card. And no, you don’t have to be a bell canada customer.
- After a long while, I just received my first hundred bucks from google ads, but text-link-ads pay out is probably 3-4 times more on average I find.
- Search – through del.icio.us bookmarks and my own blog. I can’t describe how many times I’ve depended on archived clippings and personal writings I’ve long forgotten for talks and ideas.
{ 3 comments }
- When I go to starbucks, I’m so cheap, I always order a venti for value, then put it in the fridge and slowly drink it over three days
- I’ve recently began watching old episodes of Party of Five
- I never talk about being in anyway affiliated with the emergent church because I think Mark Driscoll will come and beat me up.
- Our S80 Canon digital camera flew off our car on to the highway this past week, and we saw it as an ‘opportunity’ to replace it with a shiny new Canon Rebel xsi DSLR
- Since my daughter was born, I went from working out five times a week, to zero, and I’ve lost 25 pounds.
- I’m eating expired popcorn as I type this, I generally eat a lot of expired food.
- I’ve never been so convicted of what I’ll be doing with my life, while have no idea about how I’ll be doing it. Somehow this makes it all the more exciting for me, but probably a little confusing to those around me.
- I probably haven’t had a single decent conversation with 80% of my ‘friends’ listed on facebook this year
- I don’t know many people more hopeful than I am. I pretend to be cynical sometimes just so people think I’m thoughtful and not naive.
{ 1 comment }
I committed an hour or two yesterday to international facebook day.
It’s amazing the level of connectivity we have today, like no other point in history.
Facebook offers some interesting ’stats’ on the networks that you’re a part of.
Missiologists often speak of how we must not only exegete the Scriptures but our culture as well. I thought I’d do some comparisons between the seminary I’m a part of (Tyndale), and the metropolis of Toronto in which I live.
{ 0 comments }
Since I’ve joined facebook, I’ve been horrible with making the most of the connections I’ve established through it. I’m backlogged in replies, and friends I haven’t spoken to in fifteen years, well, I still haven’t connected with them, though we’re now ‘official’ as friends.
I declare this Sunday December 30th International Facebook Day. I’m going to dedicate a chunk of my time on it and see where it goes. It’s long overdue and I don’t exactly have pressing deadlines at the moment. Maybe you should do the same!
{ 1 comment }
