Commodity: Religion
The future of Religion as predicted by Ted Peters a professor at Pacific Lutheran Seminary in 1980 gave a glum outlook of what Religion will look like in the future. Materialism will overtake our minds and thus religion will just become another commodity in a materialistic society. It’s amazing to me how accurate his predictions have become. People go to and from between churches or religions shopping for what interest them and thus we are bound by the whims of newness and so called biblical innovations. I’m not saying this is necessarily a bad thing, but something to watch for; since so many have been enslaved by their human ego and not allowing Jesus to be the focus in their lives.
Tags: Religion, Future, Ted Peters, 1980, Materialism, Materialistic, Pacific Lutheran Seminary, Human Ego, Jesus, Shopping, Church, Commodity
Apple TV
Apple announced this week a new update for Apple TV which now allows the device to connect directly to the Internet wirelessly without a computer. If you have a Video Podcast or Audio Podcast then this can be sent directly to whoever subscribes via Apple TV. In a sense you can now have your own channel of content watched on a standard television for those that are computer illiterate.
As far as ministry opportunities goes, there are many streaming to my mind on this on. Why not put them in nursing homes or give them to families that are taking bible studies and they will get the latest content as you produce it. The only requirement is a high speed Internet connection, which ~ 50% of US families now have in their homes and businesses.
Tags: Apple TV, Bible, Ministry, Apple, Internet, Podcast
Ministry Notes
There is a movement toward an authoritarian style of ministry leadership in many denominational and non-denominational groups. I see this as a direct attack against the new postmodern mind movement. A movement that reflects a large portion of the secular world especially here in the US. Below are some statements that hopefully will help guide any ministry approach and reflect a more genuine style of ministry. The tech connection to this post relies in the methods used to connect with people and ways technology can be abused or misused in reaching outward. Whether you agree with the following statements or not, they are a belief held by many in and out of the church in what I call the new postmodern movement.
1) Baptism isn’t indicative of health. It’s indicative of evangelism only.
2) Ministry isn’t or shouldn’t be a numbers game.
3) A church cannot be a all for everyone. Be good at one or two types of ministry to a selected group.
4) Don’t alienate the baby boomers, have a ministry for them, there are still a lot of them around.
5) Don’t create fake relationships for the sake of having a relationship. This isn’t genuine now is it!
6) Don’t push people out of church to reach your vision or goals. All kinds of people can be together and worship. A sin is a sin and all have fallen short.
7) Don’t create a church using modernist methods for the new postmodern person.
It should never be my way or the highway methodology. Leadership isn’t about doing it my way, but modeling a direction and educationally focused. Leadership is when the followers have a choice.
9) Minister to the ones in the church first, guide, model and educate them for health before being externally focused.
10) Don’t do ministry at the expense of others. You feed the circle of burnout and this gives the ever so popular bad name that Christians have today.
11) Christianity isn’t a exclusive club with membership rules.
12) You can never establish metrics for ministry. God is the only one that has the ruler for metrics. The Lord can use any ministry.
12) Don’t let time be a determining factor for ministry success. Our time isn’t Gods time.
13) Church growth isn’t indicative of church health. Numbers isn’t necessarily a reflection of health. A church can be healthy and not be growing in numbers. Numbers isn’t a metric of spiritual growth but healthy relationships are one example of a positive outgrowth of spiritual growth.
14) First and foremost be relevant to your ministry focus.
15) Don’t mentally compartmentalize, segment or classify people as lost, un-churched, sinners, or other judgmental terms. Reach out to all and reflect your relevant ministry focus only. Your definition is only yours, while another mans definition of you.
Lastly- remember that all have fallen short of the glory of God. No sin is worse than another. Romans 3:23
BTW: One can get further help and understanding, direction from the new book. unChristian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons
Tags: unchristian, leadership, ministry, growth, church, sin, evangelism, christianity, metrics, david kinnaman, gabe lyons, postmodernism, relationships, healthy, healthy church, relevant
coRank
I have talked about Digg.com before and the power at which it has for self promotion and brand awareness. Now there are a number of sites that do something similar, one which is called coRank.com. They use the power of promoting stories but instead of linking back to the original story on the web, you now can have your own page with all the topics and stories together. In sense you are creating your own mini digg.com site. The ministry and networking potential is huge with such services, especially since you can have your own page placeholder on coRank where you can build community. They are still in beta and rough around the edges but they still have some big possibilities.
Tags: coRank, Digg, Networking, Community
Life As A Computer
I ran across some good humor that really illustrates how dependant we are on our God, while computers are dependant on humans to adjust and to run. Though sometimes I think it would be nice if life would be as easy as a computer.
If Life Were Like A Computer:
- You could add/remove someone in your life using the control panel.
- You could put your kids in the recycle bin and restore them when you feel like it!
- You could improve your appearance by adjusting the display settings.
- You could turn off the speakers when life gets too noisy.
- You could click on “find” (Ctrl, F) to recover your lost remote control and car keys.
- To get your daily exercise, just click on "run"!
- If you mess up your life, you could always press "Ctrl, Alt, Delete" and start all over!
Tags: Humor, Computer, God, dependance, Life
