A Framework for Seeing Our World: the Millennium Matrix
A I prepare to write my book and update my curriculum for my summer course in online ministry, I have been catching up on some recommended reading (many of which I pulled from John Dyer’s excellent list of books). One of the books that has come highly recommended is The Millennium Matrix by M. Rex Miller.
The goal of this book is to provide a lens through which we can look to better understand how the changes in communications technologies have affected our culture in general and the Church specifically. Published in 2005, this book gives clear insights into why we do things a certain way and why those things are beginning to fail. In many ways, this book discusses the same issues that books like UnChristian and, even more so, The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture do. And, like those books, it offers a plan for moving forward to address those issues. But I would have to say that, of the three, this book is the most comprehensive and detailed. › Continue reading
Being intentional about our online lives
As part of my preparation for my book on strategic online ministry, I am working my way through some of the latest books and other materials on the topic. As I review these for myself, I will also share my thoughts about them on this blog.
When I first started reading The Church of Facebook by Jesse Rice, I was a bit cynical. The title seemed a bit corny and so many people have said so many things about Facebook already that there couldn’t be anything new to say. Besides, any book written about a specific technology is going to be outdated a year after it was published, and since this was published in 2009, I figured it was already going to be out of date. But, as I began working my way through the book, I was pleasantly surprised in many ways by this book and would recommended for reasons having nothing to do with finding out about Facebook or online ministry.
The book begins with a quick history on the rise of Facebook, in which the author compares the impact that Facebook has had to other technological breakthroughs in modern history. I did find it a bit hard to buy the comparison of Facebook’s impact to that of air conditioning or London’s Millennium Bridge. The discussions of how quickly Facebook’s popularity rose and the founder’s plans for the future can be found in many places. But for the uninitiated, it provides a good background on the popular social networking tool.
Is your online presence credible? Thoughts about the book “Persuasive Technology”
As you know, I am now on a “half-sabbatical” for the next two semesters here at Biola, with one of the outcomes being a book on using the Internet and social media for ministry. As part of this process, I am spending some time reviewing some different materials for possible inclusion in the book and/or my online course this summer. As I complete my review of these materials, I will post a summary to this blog. To see all my reviews, click here.
Yesterday, I finished working my way through Persuasive Technology by B.J. Fogg. Dr. Fogg is the founder and leading researcher in the field of “captology”, which is defined as the design, research, and analysis of interactive computing products created for the purpose of changing people’s attitudes or behaviors. Though not written specifically to help churches and ministries with their online efforts, this book has a myriad of insights that are extremely applicable to those us interested in understanding how our ministries can have a more effective online presence.
Book Review: SimChurch
Just this weekend I completed reading SimChurch by Douglas Estes. For those of you unfamiliar with this new movement, the idea of online church is not just putting a recording of your church service online. Instead, it is actually conducting an entire live church service online, complete with worship, teaching, offering, fellowship, and possibly even communion and baptism. This can include both churches with Internet campuses and those who conduct services in virtual worlds, such as Second Life. The author tackles questions surrounding the validity of online church and asks some tough questions. He ends the book by challenging online churches to break the mold and attempt to do things that no physical-world church can.
If you have read this blog before, you know that I have been a critic of online church. However, as a lover of technology and the Internet, I am always open to thinking in new ways about things and want to see how technology can be used to share the message of Christ. But I am also a realist: I know that just because we can do church online does not mean that we should. So I read this book with an open mind and heart – looking for new ways of thinking about online church.
Book: The New Media Frontier
This is the second in a series I’m writing describing the books I’m planning on using in my upcoming course on Internet ministry. Last time, I discussed the Aubrey Malphur’s book ChurchNext. That book, written in 2003, was a relatively short book focused on explaining to church leaders why they should embrace change in the shape of the Internet. This book, released just a few months ago, shows what a difference five years can make. Written for pastors, educators, youth leaders, academics, and anyone else who who has a passion for sharing the message of Christ, this book explains why it is crucial to get involved with the Internet as a medium and describes how it can be used in a variety of fields. Its focus goes far beyond having a web site, blogging, or podcasting, and focuses on all the “new media”, including social networking, online education, and video.
Talk to the hand
Last week, I posted on how the study of online gaming, specifically interactive multiplayer games such as World of Warcraft, could lead to new insights into how to best minister on the Internet. As part of that research, I have just finished reading I, Avatar, a fascinating book about just what happens when someone spends more and more time in a virtual world and focuses specifically on the concept of the avatar.
The author, Mark Stephen Meadows, defines an avatar as “an interactive, social representation of a user”. And here is where it gets interesting: while we may think of an avatar as something that only exists in a virtual world such as WoW or Second Life, he also points out that anytime we create an interactive, social representation of ourselves we are, in effect, creating an avatar. So that Facebook account you keep where you present the most interesting side of yourself to your “friends”: avatar. That blog you write where you put all of those highly intelligent posts: avatar. Even that car you drive that tells everyone something about you: avatar. The way I see it, all of us have multiple avatars, whether we use them in interactive online games or not.
Book: “Church Next”
Over the past several months, I have been reviewing books for my course on Internet ministry, trying to narrow down my choices and select books that will be most appropriate for the class. My goal for these books is that they would provide a range of views on Internet ministry, with an appropriate mix of theology, philosophy, strategy, and technology. I am NOT looking for books on how to create a web site or how to blog, etc., because these are secondary to first really understanding the concepts of online ministry. I also want books that are readable by the mix of students I will have and that will foster good discussions.
I have finally settled on three primary books for my course (though I still have a couple I am thinking about adding). Over the next few weeks, I will share my selections here on this blog. The first book I have selected is Dr. Aubrey Malphurs’ Church Next. Written with his son, Michael, I found this book to give a good overview of the current state of the Church and makes a great case for why the move to the Internet is the right one. For those who do not know who Aubrey Malphurs is, he is Senior Professor of Pastoral Ministries at Dallas Theological Seminary. He is also the head of the Malphurs Group.
Book: The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture
I finished reading this book on the plane home from the conference last night. Wow – this is heady stuff. I had studied McLuhan briefly a few years ago but this book really helped me put his theories into the context of Internet ministry. Those theories can be summed up in McLuhan’s famous saying: “the medium is the message”.
The author of this book, Shane Hipps, takes a look at how the church has tried to see technologies such as radio, TV, and now the Internet, as just another tool and that as long as the “message stays the same” then the medium used to transmit it does not matter. This line of thinking has led the Church to embrace all technologies and not consider how the use of the technologies themselves send a message. Hipps does not say that technology is bad, only that we need to be informed about how the use of a technology can change our message.
Getting Things Done in the Four Hour WorkWeek
As part of my planned switch to a Mac, I have switched to gmail. Overall, I really like the way gmail functions, especially the ability the use of labels instead of folders and managing email threads as one “conversation”. As part of this switch, I moved my personal management tools (email, calendar, to do) from Outlook to Google. The switch to gmail and Google calendar was pretty straightforward (I even found tools to sync with my PDA), but the “to do” list switch was more difficult. I looked around the web for web-based to do lists, but none of them really gave me what I was looking for. I then stumbled upon the methodology called “GTD” for “Getting Things Done”.
Getting Things Done is a methodology for managing all of your daily activities in such a way that you always know what you should be doing at any time and in any place. Here is a flowchart of the overall process. If done correctly, this can then free your mind from worrying about what you “should” be doing and let you be more productive. It also allows you to find time to relax and not worry that you are forgetting something. I have begun using this methodology and it does seem to help. What has been really helpful, however, is the gmail add-in that is available to support using this methodology. Using my email, I can track everything I have to do and instantly bring up a list of all my outstanding tasks at any time. The tasks can be grouped by location (things to do at the office) or by project. I think it will take a while for me to master both the methodology and the use of gmail to support it, but I am excited by the prospects of managing my tasks this way.
As part of my research into task management, I also came upon the Timothy Ferris’ book The 4-Hour Workweek. The point of the book is to teach us how to get out of the daily grind, reduce the time commitments we have to work, create income streams, and allow us to spend our time pursuing the things that excite us. This book had some very interesting ideas about how to streamline your life, but I had a problem with its overarching premise: that the goal of life is to fulfill yourself by pursuing that which is exciting. As a Christian, I see our goal in life as glorifying God, seeking out His will for our lives, loving Him and loving others. But it did make me think about how we Americans fall into a pattern about how we live our lives and never dream big. Why wait for retirement to do things we could be doing right now?
After I read both of the above books, I realized something: they both are about the same thing. Both books are about how to make our busy lives easier to live. I can take lessons from both authors and make them my own. From GTD, I can learn how to organize my life so that I can focus on the tasks that I should be doing and serve the Lord more effectively. From The Four Hour Work Week I can learn how to ask some bigger questions about life. It made me think about the possibility of doing the unconventional, such as taking a year off to travel the world with my family. I will take principles from each to help me understand how I can serve the Lord in the best way possible.
Pretty good for someone who was just trying to switch to a Mac…
The Transparent Society is now
…and we are in city #2.
Let me explain: in The Transparent Society, David Brin argues that the march of technology will bring us to a point where every part of our public lives will be recorded. According to Brin, this will be accomplished via “tiny cameras, panning left and right, surveying traffic and pedestrians, observing everything in open view.” The book asks one basic questions: who should have access to the images captured by the cameras? Two scenarios are given: in “city #1″ the police and governing authorities have access to the images, in “city #2″, the public shares access with them. He argues that, while both would lead to a large reduction in crime, the latter would reduce the abuse of power by the authorities. When I discuss this book with my students every semester, many are doubtful that this would be the case: members of the public would abuse the use of the cameras and invade privacy. But we all agree that it is very likely that this “transparent society” will indeed come to pass, and very soon.
Written in 1999, the book did not envision armies of citizen with their own personal video cameras embedded in portable phones. Since these cameras are not public, they are owned by the individuals and the authorities may or may not get access to them. In effect then, we now live, right now, in city #2. I am prompted to write this by the latest news story out of UCLA, where video images captured by a cellphone camera will be used to document their abuse of a student there. However, it is not just this story that tells me we are in city #2: just recently the Texas Border Patrol has made their cameras accessible to the public and are seeking the public’s assistance in watching the border and reporting any illegal crossings. And here’s another story that shows how an arsonist was captured by video footage.
It may not be the transparent society specifically depicted in the book, but David Brin saw this coming seven years ago. Check out his site and specifically the pages devoted to this topic.
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Welcome to Lessons From Babel
This blog is where I share the latest thoughts on my research in the world of Internet ministry. Feel free to join the conversation by leaving a comment. For more information on what I am doing in 2010, see my first post of the year. To find out more about me, my company, and this web site, or to see what resources are available on this site, click on the images right below this.
- Dave Bourgeois
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