UPFRONT
Ron Livingston
WiFi Gets Supersized McDonalds begins serving free WiFi In an effort to become more of a “come-and-stay” destination, McDonald’s, the home of the famous Big Mac and a somewhat creepy clown, will soon be serving up free WiFi. That’s right, you can now surf the Web while stuffing your face under the golden arches. With coffee shops and other restaurants offering free WiFi, McDonald’s has decided it’s about time to get in the game as well. In addition to the free WiFi, McDonald’s also plans to start serving gourmet coffee and frappes in an attempt to compete with Starbucks. Call us when they bring back the McRib.
One Billion Minutes And Counting ≥ Mobile users like reading the Bible YouVersion, LifeChurch.tv’s online Bible service, has reached an incredible milestone. Mobile device users have spent more than one billion minutes reading the Bible via YouVersion. Just to put that into perspective, that’s the equivalent of 19 centuries or 16.7 million hours worth of Bible reading. Thanks to the YouVersion Bible apps for iPhones, BlackBerrys, and Android phones, reading the Bible on the go couldn’t be easier or more convenient. And thanks to additions such as YouVersion Live, YouVersion’s popularity shows no signs of slowing down. YouVersion is truly redefining the pocket Bible. Here’s to the next billion minutes.
2 March 2010
Actor Sues Wikipedia Because Of (Gasp!) Inaccuracy What’s the world coming to? Remember Ron Livingston from Swingers and Office Space? Well, the actor made news recently when it announced he was suing Wikipedia. And why would anyone want to sue the most helpful website in the history of websites? Livingston’s entry said he was gay (despite the fact that he is married ... to a woman), a falsehood he alleges is defamatory. According to Mashable, the lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles County and “seeks unspecified damages for libel, invasion of privacy, and for using [Livingston’s] name and likeness without permission.” Following the Tony LaRussa lawsuit that put an end to a fake Twitter account in his name, it’ll be interesting to see if Livingston’s legal actions further protect private citizens from cyber-mischief.
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UPFRONT
Twitter On Top Once Again Named top word of 2009
Jon Acuff
A Blogger Helps Build A Kindergarten No construction experience required On November 9, blogger Jon Acuff of Stuff Christians Like (www.stuffchristianslike.net) announced a crazy plan: he wanted people to donate $30,000 to Samaritan’s Purse, which would be used to build a kindergarten in a Vietnamese village called Hoang Then. The post was titled, “What if?” and Acuff said he’d like to get it done by December 31. Just 18 hours later, Stuff Christians Like readers used their wallets and their respective circles of influence to get it done. The $30,000 was raised and the kindergarten would be built. Hooray! Of course, Acuff wasn’t satisfied. He immediately announced he was upping the ante. In faith, he challenged the Stuff Christians Like community to raise an additional $30,000 to build a second kindergarten in the area. Understandably, it took a bit longer than 18 hours to raise the second $30,000, but the power of the blogosphere eventually prevailed. On December 4th, Acuff announced that a total of $60,000 was raised in just 25 days thanks to God and generous people. In fact, Acuff revealed that an anonymous donation of more than $6,000 pushed the campaign over the edge. In a world where needs abound, it’s good to know that a platform and a community can share passion, vision, and resources in order to change lives. The hundreds of Vietnamese kindergarten students who’ll have a proper school this year are a testament of what can happen when we opt to blog about something other than our cats or bad customer service experiences. The next time someone suggests that blogs are a waste of time, tell them to say that to the kids in Hoang Then, Vietnam. You could also tell that someone they must be reading the wrong blogs (Perez Hilton: OUT; Stuff Christians Like: IN).
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According to the Global Language Monitor, which tracks language usage in media and on the Web, “Twitter” was the top trending word in the English language in 2009. We can’t help but wonder if Twitter’s success has something to do with CNN and other news sources embracing the tool last year. Other top words include “Obama,” “H1N1,” “stimulus,” and “vampire.” Yes, vampire. The top trending phrase was “King of Pop,” in reference to Michael Jackson’s death. In other social media verbiage news, the Oxford Dictionary named “unfriend” its word of the year, but that’s probably because the dictionary doesn’t have any friends.
Church Launches Social Media Before It Launches Communicating your vision on the cheap? Brilliant. Soul City Church is a church plant that plans to launch in Chicago in 2010, and from what we’ve seen, it’s the most media-savvy church plant ever. First, there’s the beautiful website--www.soulcitychurch.com. Then, there’s the content-rich blog (www.soulcityblog.com) maintained by pastor Jarrett Stevens. Next, there’s Stevens’s use of his YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/users/jarrettstevens) to host great videos that explain what Soul City Church is all about. (The “7 is greater than 1” video is particularly awesome.) There’s also a Facebook Page that leverages a great design to pull everything together (www.facebook. com/SoulCityChurch). And finally, there’s www.yearendstart. com, a fundraising site created by Soul City Church (and supported by several influential bloggers) that encouraged people to donate toward the start of Soul City Church at the end of 2009. If you’re in need of some social media inspiration, look no further than the efforts of Soul City Church.
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4  March 2010
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Illustrations by Scott Erickson - www.thetranspireproject.com
An Interview with Chris Seay By Scott McClellan
The Gospel According to Lost isn’t the first time author and pastor Chris Seay has proved himself an astute cultural observer. His previous books include The Gospel According to Tony Soprano and The Gospel Reloaded (examinations of faith and spirituality in The Sopranos and The Matrix, respectively), both of which serve as public declarations that 1) Seay is comfortable with parts of pop culture that some pastors might use their pulpits to condemn, and 2) he finds elements of truth and gospel layered beneath Hollywood production and “mature” ratings.
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March 2010 5
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In The Gospel According to Lost, which was released in anticipation of the show’s final season, Seay combines a deep understanding of Lost, the Scriptures, and the human condition with a pastor’s heart for teaching and redemption.
About Lost, Seay writes that, “Each plot, each story line is infused with deeper meaning.” It’s from the show’s characters and story lines that he derives his talking points, which range from the teachings of Christ to human trafficking to 17th-century philosophy. Throughout the course of the book, Lost’s various character arcs are laid bare, and so are the struggles of our lives. For readers ready to put the best show of all-time (Lost, of course) and themselves under the microscope, The Gospel According to Lost is the ultimate guidebook. Recently, I asked Seay a few questions about the show.
COLLIDE: You begin The Gospel According to Lost talking about mystery, which is a major part of the show. What do you think makes us so uncomfortable with mystery in our lives and worldviews? Chris Seay: J.J. Abrams tells a story about getting a box of magic tricks called a Mystery Box as a gift from his grandfather. He was just a kid so it was the biggest gift he’d ever gotten. But, he never opened it because of the power of what’s inside. To this day, he keeps the box on his desk, and he has never seen what’s in it. For him it represents the power of mystery. It’s similar to the creation account in Genesis. We’re created in this garden and God says, “There’s one thing that I’m asking you not to open,” and it’s the one thing that, in our broken humanity, we rush to open. Whether it’s in the biblical narrative or in the shows that we watch, this quest to know everything and have all the answers is the desire to be like God. That’s why Lost is so good for us spiritually—it forces us to wrestle with the unknown, which is something we don’t even want to do in our faith. We try to turn Revelation into a grid that we’ve mapped out, and we know everything that’s going to happen long before it has happened. Clearly, the Scriptures aren’t a map created so we could know everything. In fact, that’s probably what Scripture is most clear about—God’s in control, and we’re human. Part of what I love about Lost is that it forces us to live with mystery, which is part of life. As a pastor, I can’t explain why somebody gets cancer. I can’t fully explain the sovereignty of God, or how we choose God and God chooses us. I’ve got to live in the mystery and beauty of it, and so I love a show
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that calls us to that. I’ve never experienced a show that does it as well as Lost. COLLIDE: As a pastor, do pop culture elements often make their way into your teaching and conversation? Seay: Pop culture weaves itself in naturally. I’m not a sermon series kind of guy— typically, we go through books of the Bible—so I probably won’t do a “The Gospel According to Lost” series. I didn’t do one on The Matrix or Tony Soprano either. But I draw from it a lot, in a more natural style, like what I picture Jesus doing when he walked through the fields and said, “Look at the crops. Let me explain to you what’s going here in terms of reaping and sowing.” I think that’s what we’re called to do as teachers, just with everyday life. We have to use the things around us to explain the things of God, and Jesus was so good at that. Clearly, the gospel dwells within the culture, and so we’ve got to be people that see the signposts and call people into conversations and call them toward truth. Pop culture is part of that, but it can’t be the whole thing. If you teach Lost and you don’t get to the gospel part or to Scripture, you’re just running in the circles of a postmodern narrative, which is not what I feel called to. COLLIDE: Your book discusses a lot of the big issues Lost explores— past mistakes, science and faith, good versus evil, destiny and free will, father issues, and community. Are these issues that resonate with culture and, therefore, is this the kind of art and the kind of message that churches should regularly explore?
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Seay: Those themes are really about what it means to live well in the world. Think about the way the show deals with things like torture, the Church has a hard time trying to grapple with that. Many have decided not to talk about it because, quite honestly, they don’t know how to deal with it. The Church has opted out of discussions about what makes a just war. These are things the show explores and, hopefully, as the Church we can learn to better engage these things. Lost is constantly asking questions for which many of us are searching for answers: What’s our destiny? Are we in control or do events happen to us? It’s hard to draw answers from those questions without a narrative that adds context, and that’s the great thing about Lost—it gives us a narrative. We say, “I relate to Kate in that,” or “I relate to Jack and I see how similar issues with my father have led me down this path.” I’d probably draw more from the show during counseling because all of these characters are so deeply broken, and yet we’re drawn to them. Not despite their brokenness but, in so many ways, because of it. We see them and say, “I’m broken like that, too.”
Lost is constantly asking questions for which many of us are searching for answers: What’s our destiny? Are we in control or do events happen to us?
“As a pastor, I can’t explain why somebody gets cancer. I can’t fully explain the sovereignty of God, or how we choose God and God chooses us. I’ve got to live in the mystery and beauty of it, and so I love a show that calls us to that. I’ve never experienced a show that does it as well as Lost.”
COLLIDE: One of the major themes of Lost is redemption, and, as you write in the book, “the beauty of Christianity is that no one is beyond redemption.” In Lost, there’s still hope for all these people, but nothing’s guaranteed for them, either. It’s an ongoing struggle to find redemption. Seay: Yes, and hopefully we begin to realize that in ourselves and the people around us. If we’re rooting for Sawyer to experience redemption, then in our personal lives we should root for the people in our families, churches, and workplaces to be redeemed. COLLIDE: The sixth and final season of Lost premieres February 2. Do you have any quick predictions on how the show will come to an end? Seay: I only have a few, in the end. I believe that the themes from Exodus that we saw play out in earlier seasons will make a strong return. I mean, in the final episode of Season Five, we see this huge statue of an Egyptian god. We have this struggle between Jacob and the Man in Black, who I believe to be Esau, and we’ll find out exactly who he is. And I think the biblical narrative will play out, like the children of Israel, enslaved in Egypt and enslaved to their failures. But God steps in for a kind of miraculous, redemptive, freeing work. That’s my hope. I think the story is pointing more and more toward God’s divine work. Apart from that, in terms of what will specifically happen, I have no idea. And I think that’s probably what I love most about the show. People ask me, “How can you write the book before the show is done?” The reality is, it’s not as much about the conclusion as it is about the journey and what we learn along the way. My expectations for the final season are pretty high, but I’m just going to enjoy every step of the ride.
≥ Scott McClellan is the Editor of COLLIDE.
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March 2010 7
UNPLUG By Sam Duregger
8  March 2010
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There was a time when I was working as a Project Manager for a digital innovations team at a large church in the Bible Belt and living in a tent. It was a dichotomous lifestyle that changed the way I interact with people, the environment, and technology.
During the day I was plugged into the matrix, working on a team that prided itself on developing innovative web applications for the Church. It was a multi-layered environment, much like Grey’s Anatomy, except monogamous and straight edge. What I mean is it was a fast-paced, collaborative environment with multiple threads, all tied to an overarching meta-narrative related to creating new technology-driven tools for churches. It was sexy, it was cool, and it was exhausting. After work, I would drive or bike to my campsite, settled among 15 acres of woodland in Metro Oklahoma City. I called it “TentLife.” It was a place to unplug and unwind, where everything took longer and nothing was easy. (Find out more about TentLife at www.tentlife.net.) Now, I’m not anti-technology, I love the new channels that the Internet has made available for the Church to proclaim the message of Christ across multiple mediums. It has truly changed the face of communication, community, and the collection of information. This “age of convergence” gives us the ability to do more, use more, and be more than our grandfathers ever dreamed. It’s a world where “me”-enabled technology allows constant digital connectivity and exploits the Internet as an avenue to disseminate personal knowledge and firsthand experience to the masses. The world is no longer our backyard—our backyard has become the world. In this digitized environment, many are careening toward the edge of the unknown. In the marketplace, we say these people or businesses are on the “bleeding edge,” on the forefront of technology, innovation, and discovery. Inventors are always getting dirty, stubbing their toes, and cutting their fingers on projects for tomorrow. In a real sense, our world has been shaped by hours of toil and the cumulative blood, sweat, and tears of innovators. In my opinion, social media has contributed to the deception that we all can be innovators and leaders, experts and specialists. I think this false sense of ingenuity has led many to adopt a lifestyle
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that distracts from where God is calling them to employ their gifts and talents. At some point we must slow down, take a moment, and listen. I love being on the bleeding edge, but I realized that continuous innovation can distract from reflection and living in the present. Have you found this to be true? You’re talking with a friend or acquaintance and all of the sudden there is a lull in the conversation, an awkward silence, and instead of redirecting with a question, you pull out your smartphone and check Twitter. I have committed this social faux pas innumerable times. At times when you used to experience uninterrupted silence, do you find yourself once again pulling out your phone to check your RSS feeds or play a game? I’m guilty. In a way, TentLife began as an adventure in simplifying my life, but it became something much more than I anticipated. During my time living in a tent, I experienced an awakening of my imagination and a rekindling of my passion for deeper relationships with God and people. All these things were found in the deafening silence of solitude. The Bible (specifically, 1 Kings 19) tells a story of a man named Elijah, who was running from his enemy and trying to discern from the Lord where to go next. As he was lodged in a cave on the side of a mountain, he waited for the voice of the Lord. Suddenly, gale force winds tore into the mountainside, but the Lord was not in this rush of air; then an earthquake shook the mountain’s foundation, but the Lord was not in the rumbling; after the earthquake a fire broke out along the mountain’s terrain, but the Lord was not in the roaring flames; finally in the aftermath, in the silence, a still soft voice whispered. It was in silence and solitude that Elijah found a centering voice, balance, and direction amidst the noise of his life. Noise is very familiar to us. It seems that everyone has a voice nowadays thanks to blogs, Twitter, and Facebook. Everyone is a social media expert selling their knowledge to the world via 140 characters.
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“During my time living in a tent, I experienced an awakening of my imagination and a rekindling of my passion for deeper relationships with God and people. All these things were found in the deafening silence of solitude.” The conversations are incessant —constant streams of commercial advertisements, personal propaganda, and prideful ignorance that flow into an ever-growing river of white noise. In many ways, technology has made it easier to voice your opinion and expertise, but this ease of communication leads me to an important question: With all this chatter, who is actually heard? The loudest? The coolest? The most provocative? The most polished? Thanks to reality television and overnight Internet success stories, we all desire to be known, to be famous. But fame is a deplorable desire. Fame is a replacement for affirmation we should be receiving from God. Fame is a short-term placebo. Fame is a narcissistic pill that feeds an addiction. Those affected cannot shut off the spigot of nourishing flattery derived from social media and expect to be triumphant over the fear, the horror, of not being heard. In our struggle to be discovered by the masses, we forget to listen. It is a dichotomous life. Drowning in the noise with our fingers on the drain, we lack the discipline to unplug. To be clear, social media is not to blame for our inattention to the voice of God, as it is just a medium that has the capacity to distract. Just as the story of Elijah suggests, there are countless awe-inspiring diversions keeping us from the stillness of silence and solitude. If you feel technology has overrun your life, disconnecting you from God and those around you, the solution is simple: each piece of technology has a switch, an on/off button that controls the flow. And in turning off our devices we can change our perspective. No longer controlled by technology, we find time to be creative for His purpose and to connect with others in meaningful conversation. We become a body of believers striving to bring the Kingdom of God to those around us utilizing any medium necessary—sometimes we may even use Twitter.
≥ Sam Duregger wishes he were a social entrepreneur because it sounds very sophisticated and important. He blogs at www.duregger.net.
10 March 2010
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visual
On first glance, the catacombs just outside Rome are not all that impressive. Stepping down into the depths of these underground Christian burial sites, one finds a narrow path with long rectangle holes chiseled into the walls. These rectangular cutouts form a network of shelves that make the sides of the catacombs appear as thick stone bookcases. But in ancient times, the bodies of deceased Christians were laid to rest upon these stone shelves while the faithful who remained alive would decorate the walls with various images. Because they date back to the 4th or 5th century, the images found here are some of the earliest forms of Christian visual media (and you thought your PowerPoint backgrounds were ancient). Throughout history, images have played a role in church worship. The impact of seeing and studying these early Christian paintings remind this generation that we are not the first to use visual images to convey the power of the gospel. Furthermore, the legacy of these paintings suggests that our choice of imagery in modern worship services should be viewed as a ministry and an act of lasting worship. As the old adage states, a picture is worth a thousand words, and few proverbs are more fitting for our worship services today. We know from a Barna study conducted last year that 76 percent of Protestant churches that average 100-250 in attendance use a large-scale projection system for various components of their worship service. The number jumps to 88 percent for larger congregations, and it’s likely that these numbers have increased in the year since the study was conducted. The local church is conveying a lot of images, and therefore, a lot of words. The implication of this infusion of media and technology is that what we communicate through images in our worship service becomes as important as what we communicate through words. Any concern we have for the preaching and worship songs must be carried over into a concern for the kinds of images we display. Take a moment and try to remember the last sermon that challenged or encouraged you in your walk with Christ. Now compare that with the last powerful video that challenged or encouraged you. Research suggests we remember far more of what we see than what we hear. Of course, this attraction and concern for images is nothing new for Christianity. After all, the catacombs outside Rome are hundreds and hundreds of years old. Though our modern technological world may seem like light years away from the pre-modern life of the early Church,
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there is much we can learn from these ancient Christians and the way they depicted their faith. The images are often crudely preserved and most are faded from age, but in many cases the pictures are unmistakable. The simple ones include classic images such as a dove, an anchor, or a fish. But the walls of the catacombs bear several more elaborate images representing key characters or events of the biblical narrative such as Noah, Jonah, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the Good Shepherd, and many of the miraculous events of Christ’s ministry. Many of these images can be found throughout our Sunday worship services as well. These images, in the words of Mike Aquilina, “…were a proclamation, a telling of the good news in symbols that would speak to many people, regardless of literacy, regardless of even language” (Signs and Mysteries, 12). These images created a basic pictorial grammar that individually and collectively told of the good news of salvation in Christ. In so doing, they had the two-fold function of education and devotion. The educational value was the ability to communicate the gospel to non-Christians, and the devotional effect was in the ability of the images to remind the faithful of God’s mighty acts. Every picture bore the weight of their early Christian faith and conveyed a thousand theological words. Even more fascinating is that these images still communicate to us. Even though we are separated by time, language, and a multiplicity of other cultural barriers, these images still perform their original tasks. These images communicate the faith of the ancients to us! For example, imagery of Jonah is rather popular due to Christ’s words in Matthew 12:40: “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and
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three nights in the heart of the earth.” Most often, Jonah is depicted as emerging from the rough seas, his body naked, his eyes gazing upward toward the heavens and his arms extended outward in triumph. The notions of freedom, resurrection, and victory emanate from the image. A Christian cannot help but be reminded of the work of Christ, and thus, Jonah came to symbolize the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. This is a key image of hope for those who had died in the faith, and the significance of this visual message in the context of a burial site is unmistakable. Another common image is the Good Shepherd, which appears more than 100 times in the catacombs of Rome. This image evokes the story of the lost sheep in Luke 15:3-7, but also alludes to Psalm 23 (“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want”). Christ is presented as a humble shepherd with a single lamb lying across his shoulders. As you might expect, this image communicates the atoning work of Christ and his loving care for his people. Typically, He has other sheep at his side (many times just two on either side of Him), which is symbolic of the faithful grazing in heaven and the hope of eternal life that is found in Christ. We
images because they are trendy or convenient. A lesson we can learn from these early Christians is that every symbol and drawing served a purpose. We need to work together each Sunday to use imagery that helps convey the message of the cross. Media and imagery in a worship service should not be a silo that stands alone; instead, it should be interwoven with the message from the pulpit and the songs sung from the stage. Many times, as media teams, we focus on being the focus rather than letting the images speak for themselves. How does this help us on Saturday night, when we have a service in the morning? First, know what you have. You may not always know exactly what the pastor is going to speak about, but you can know what resources you have available. The more you are aware of what images are available to you through your media library and online resources, the better you’ll be able to select and project appropriate images. Of course, this requires that you be a constant student of technology and church culture, but the result is worth the investment. Second, remember that what your congregation sees has the power to stay with them throughout the days and weeks that follow. This very
The Christian faith, from its earliest days, was a visual faith, so Christian imagery is altogether appropriate for Christian spirituality. could go on to talk of the images of Adam and Eve, Noah, Moses, David, and Daniel, not to mention the others, but it’s important to note that all of these frescos in the catacombs were meant to “symbolize protection and deliverance” (Christian Art: A very short introduction, 4). The point we wish to communicate is that the birth of Christian spirituality and Christian imagery go hand-in-hand. The Christian faith, from its earliest days, was a visual faith, so Christian imagery is altogether appropriate for Christian spirituality. Therefore, the question for us is: how can we creatively communicate these age-old beliefs, doctrines, and statements of faith for our people today? It’s worth noting that these early Christian images are all biblical images. The first Christian art is biblical art which demonstrates that despite living in a pre-modern, illiterate culture, these Christians have a high biblical IQ. They see themselves as inheritors of the biblical story. Their work begins with Scripture, and they communicate their faith through the images and stories of the biblical narrative. This raises significant questions: Do we have the same concern for biblical images in our worship services? Would images of Moses or David communicate the gospel as they did for the early Church? What would biblical imagery look like for our worship services and how might we express our faith through biblical imagery? Let us be creative and thoughtful as we communicate biblical images and stories in the images—still and moving—we project each Sunday. One shortcoming in our creative process may be that we choose
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thought should humble you as you prepare your imagery each week. It’s imperative that the images we project communicate biblical themes to the minds in which they’ll be embedded. Third, realize you are not alone. Our worship services are not about only images; we must work with pastors and worship leaders to make sure we are all telling the same story. It is through the collective creative force of our ministry and mission that we will change the world in which we live. If, hundreds of years from now, someone were to write an article about the images you choose to project this Sunday, what would they say? In light of the early Christian images, there’s much we can learn from our ancient brothers and sisters in the faith. When they took time to emblazon their frescos on the walls, they chose biblical depictions that communicated the story of God. Let us continue telling that story as we live, speak, and project.
≥ Stephen Presley is a PhD candidate in early Christian studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Mark Presley is the Minister of Communications at First Baptist Church in McKinney, Texas. They are brothers, and this article is the first thing they have agreed upon in a while.
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The Watch List
2010
Conference Calendar
As we’ve said many times before, nothing beats a good conference. You get to hang out in a different city (eat in a different Chili’s), meet new friends, and hear new ideas about ministry and leadership. Here’s a quick look at the conferences circled on our calendar this year.
Alice in Wonderland
March 5 disney.go.com/disneypictures/ aliceinwonderland
Clash of the Titans
April 2 www.clash-of-the-titans.com
Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too?
April 2 www.whydidigetmarriedtoomovie.com
Letters to God
April 9 www.letterstogodthemovie.com
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
April 21 www.wallstreetmoneyneversleeps.com
Iron Man 2
May 7 www.ironmanmovie.com
Robin Hood
May 14 www.robinhoodthemovie.com
Shrek Forever After May 21 www.shrek.com
16 March 2010
Catalyst West Coast
Catalyst
Q
MinistryCOM
The second ever Catalyst West Coast promises to be even better than the first. The scenery promises to be beautiful and Dallas Willard, Donald Miller, Mark Driscoll, Erwin McManus, and Scott Belsky (among others) promise to blow your mind. April 21-23 in Orange County, California www.catalystwestcoast.com
This conference is the coolest of the cool. How cool is it? You don’t register for Q, you apply for it. If you get in, you’ll get to hear Tim Keller, Brian McLaren, Phyllis Tickle, Charles Lee, and Laura Waters Hinson. April 28-30 in Chicago, Illinois www.qideas.org
Drive
North Point Community Church is known far and wide for its creative and effective approach to ministry. Drive is your chance to look under the hood and learn from Andy Stanley and the North Point team. May 3-5 in Atlanta, Georgia www.driveconference.com
Echo
In the world of church leadership conferences, Catalyst is the granddaddy of them all. How great is Catalyst? Last year’s event at The Arena at Gwinnett Center sold out its 13,000 (give or take) tickets. Catalyst gets better every year, so register now. October 6-8 in Atlanta, Georgia www.catalystconference.com
This conference has earned its reputation as the place for church communications professionals. And that it’s going to be in the Dallas area this year is just another reason for you to come, especially if it’ll already be cold in October where you live. October 21-22 in Dallas, Texas www.ministrycom.org
Story
Story, the brainchild of our friend Ben Arment, made a great debut last year. And it’s coming back ... we’re pretty sure. What will the 2.0 version of this unique event for communicators look like? We wait with bated breath. Date and place TBA www.historytellers.org
Echo is brought to you by COLLIDE Magazine, so yeah, we’re looking forward to it. In fact, we think of it as the in-person version of COLLIDE, a media and technology jamboree for creative church leaders. See you there. July 28-30 in Dallas, Texas www.echoconference.com
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VISUAL
REVIEWS Sho Baraka, and Trip Lee contribute to each of the video lessons and start conversations about important topics. Our Take: Not many people like to talk about it, but a lot of Christian media tends to look the same—affluent, suburban, and ethnically homogenous. The 13 Letters bring much needed diversity to DVD curriculum and provides accessible material designed to foster spiritual development in youngsters. If you’re looking for a small group study that’s both fresh and familiar, sample The 13 Letters.
The Dude Abides Book
Him
Short Film Media Fuel worshiphousemedia.com or sermonspice.com
≥ In Short: “No matter what this year brings,”
this short video says, “whether sorrow or joy, remember, look to Him.” What a great January message from Media Fuel! And now that we think about, that message would be a good fit for a worship service all year long. Our Take: Media Fuel consistently produces helpful media resources for churches and “Him” is no exception. The visuals and typography are strong, the pace is quick, and the theme inspires viewers to respond in faith.
Cathleen Falsani www.godgrrl.com
≥ In Short: Cathleen Falsani is a respected
author and columnist with a knack for exploring faith and pop culture. In The Dude Abides, Falsani examines the big questions of The Big Lebowski, the cult classic written and directed by the Coen Brothers. Our Take: We love The Big Lebowski, and we love that Falsani, who holds degrees in journalism and theology, has taken a deeper look at the film. When existential films resonate with our culture, it’s important we engage with their themes and measure them against the gospel. Beginning to end, Falsani’s book proves itself a rewarding read for fans of The Dude.
The 13 Letters DVD
ReachLife www.reachlife.org/13letters/
≥ In Short: The 13 Letters isn’t just any old
13-week study of the Pauline Epistles. It’s a DVD small group curriculum from urban ministry ReachLife. If you’re familiar with Reach Records (and you should be), you know they’re the purveyors of the best Christian hip hop around. Reach artists such as Lecrae, Tedashi,
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The Visual Miscellaneum Book
David McCandless www.informationisbeautiful.net/book/
≥ In Short: Every kid knows that picture books
are more fun than chapter books. The Visual Miscellaneum represents something of a happy medium between the two. Page after page, information is creatively displayed in eyecatching infographics so that readers can learn without their eyelids drooping. Our Take: Information is Beautiful (www.informationisbeautiful.net) is one of our favorite sources of visual inspiration, so we were excited about the arrival of The Visual Miscellaneum. Grab this book and see how statistics and data can be presented beyond spreadsheets and crude pie charts. Then, the next time you need to communicate something, you’ll be prepared to make that information beautiful.
Gumballs Short Film
Community Christian Church www.communitychristian.org
≥ In Short: In less than two minutes, “Gumballs”
by the team at Community Christian Church makes the argument that parents, not churches, are responsible for the spiritual development of children. The best part is how the argument is made through the creative use of gumballs. Our Take: Even if you don’t want to issue this gut check to the families at your church, you should take a look at “Gumballs.” The video is essentially an infographic in motion, and it substitutes creativity and simplicity for a big budget and time-consuming production.
March 2010 17
tech & web
What we’re looking forward to in 2010 HTML5 We’d be lying if we said we fully understood HTML5, but word on the street is that it’s awesome. Essentially, HTML5 extends the capabilities of the Web (Google Wave is powered by HTML5), and that’s a good thing for all of us. 2010 will usher in more and more sites and services that take advantage of what HTML5 has to offer.
Chrome OS If cloud-computing really is the wave of the future, we all need Google’s Chrome OS to get stable and consumer-friendly. More specifically, we’d like to see Chrome OS evolve to where it’s a widely-used operating system for consumer netbooks, laptops, and nettops.
The Next Iteration of E-Readers As Ben Arment recently wrote on his blog, the current batch of e-readers simply recreate the experience of a book. But what’s next? What about a more media-rich reading experience? Barnes & Noble’s Nook just isn’t going to cut it.
The Lost Finale This one goes without saying. The talk of this spring will be the end of the show Lost and the uncovering of its mysteries. Jacob, the statue, the smoke monster, the Man in Black, Christian Shepherd—fans of the show demand answers to the question, what the heck is going on with this island?
The Apple Tablet At this point, Apple’s tablet is like a unicorn; a lot has been said about them, pictures have been drawn, children have dreamed dreams ... but no one has ever seen one. Word is that 2010 is the year we’ll finally see the mythical device, perhaps even early 2010. Consider us giddy.
18 March 2010
Top Trending Tweets of 2009 Twitter recently compiled the top trending topics for 2009 and blogged the results. If you’ve wanted to know what the world talked about in 2009, this is pretty darn accurate. Here are the top 5 trending topics divided into categories. News Events
TV Shows
1. #iranelection 2. Swine Flu 3. Gaza 4. Iran 5. Tehran
1. American Idol 2. Glee 3. Teen Choice Awards 4. SNL (Saturday Night Live) 5. Dollhouse
People
Technology
1. Michael Jackson 2. Susan Boyle 3. Adam Lambert 4. Kobe (Bryant) 5. Chris Brown
1. Google Wave 2. Snow Leopard 3. Tweetdeck 4. Windows 7 5. CES
Movies
Hash Tags
1. Harry Potter 2. New Moon 3. District 9 4. Paranormal Activity 5. Star Trek
1. #musicmonday 2. #iranelection 3. #sxsw 4. #swineflu 5. #nevertrust
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tech&WEB
REVIEWS
Dropbox Software
www.dropbox.com
≥ In Short: Dropbox offers online storage across
all of your computers for free. Simply sign up for a free account, download the program, and start saving and sharing your files. Because Dropbox stores your files on their virtual server, you can access them anywhere, even from your iPhone. You get 2GBs free or you can upgrade to 50GBs or 100GBs for $10 or $20 a month, respectively. Our Take: Dropbox is by far the best free cloud storage and syncing solution out there. Being able to save files on one computer and open them on another with ease sure makes things convenient in a number of scenarios (travel, working from home, hard drive failure, etc.)
OmmWriter Software
www.ommwriter.com
≥ In Short: In a world of applications that boast
Google Chrome Software
www.google.com/chrome
≥ In Short: In the web browser world, Google’s
Chrome is the new kid on the block, but there’s a lot to like. Chrome is fast, reasonably stable, and easily customizable, and it (predictably) plays nice with all of Google’s web services. Our Take: We know what you’re thinking— another browser is just what the world needs. But why not let Google try their hand at it? Microsoft’s Internet Explorer hasn’t done a good job of pushing Mozilla’s Firefox, and Apple Safari has its foibles, so we welcome the browser competition from the King of Search. Chrome isn’t ready to unseat Firefox just yet, but we’re willing to keep an eye on it. After all, the price (free) is right.
than Blogger but won’t call upon your webmaster skills as much as a self-hosted WordPress blog. Our Take: On its site, Tumblr bills itself as “the easiest way to blog,” and that’s a fair claim. From the Tumblr dashboard or iPhone app it’s easy to post text, photos, quotes, links, conversations, audio, video, slideshows, and more. It’s also easy to customize your site’s design, connect your Tumblr site to your Twitter and Facebook profiles, and publish your site under that domain name you registered but don’t know what to do with.
Gowalla Mobile App
www.gowalla.com
≥ In Short: Despite the funny name, Gowalla is
Tumblr Web App
www.tumblr.com
≥ In Short: A tumblelog is a kind of blog that is
more of a stream of embedded media files and brief bodies of text than traditional 400-word posts. Tumblr is a fantastic tumblelog platform, especially for those dissatisfied with the big names in blogging such as Blogger and WordPress. In fact, Tumblr might be the best of both worlds—it’s much more customizable
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a million functions and features, Ommwriter is a breath of fresh air. It’s a simple word processor that’s mostly devoid of menu bars and buttons. Ommwriter helps would-be writers focus on what matters most—getting words on the page. To create the most productive environment possible, Ommwriter provides users with just a few background and sound options. For this app, concentration is the name of the game. Our Take: Ommwriter is a delight. The free beta won’t overhwlem you with bells and whistles, but that’s the point. No excuses, no clutter, no spellcheck—just write. The only drawback, in our estimation, is that Ommwriter is only for Macs. What, PC users don’t need to concentrate on their writing?
a nifty new geo-networking service that encourages users to share their experiences with the world. Simply put, Gowalla users check in to locations like restaurants and parks, share what they are doing via Twitter or Facebook, and collect rewards and stamps for locations they visit. Our Take: If you’re into sharing with the world where you are eating or hanging out, then you should check out Gowalla. While the geonetworking idea may be too much for most people, many see it as fun—like a video game in real life.
Screenr Web App
www.screenr.com
≥ In Short: Screenr is a free online screencast
solution that lets you capture screencasts and easily share them with your friends. This completely web-based app lets you record your screen activity, saves it on the site, and lets you promote it via Twitter, all for free. Our Take: Screenr is a solid screencast option for those looking to capture and share their work. It’s great for training and tutorial purposes, or for demoing a new website or project. The downside is that you can only record five minutes worth of activity.
March 2010 19
voices
THE ARTIST’S CRY:
What Artists in the Local church Wish They could Say gary molander
How do you know what the Creative Arts staff and media volunteers in the local church are thinking? Some will tell you outright. But most won’t. Most just stay quiet. There is, however, a surefire way to know what they’re thinking; it’s simple, really. Put them in a room with no lead pastors, no church executives, and no church elders. Now add a dose of other artists: worship pastors, filmmakers, web designers, a couple of painters, a dancer, and a host of graphic designers, and it happens—authentic conversation. “You feel that way too? I thought I was the only one.” Every time I get the honor of speaking and teaching to this kind of crowd, I’m blown away by the dialogue during the time we spend together. I’m even more amazed by the line that forms after the presentation. Without fail, there are themes that keep resurfacing, themes that senior pastors and church executives should be anxious to hear. So, please listen to the voice of the people who form this line. They are artists. They are evangelists. They are already in your congregation. And they are limping. These are not words from the mouths of those arrogant creatives who think they can do your job better than you, or who only want to talk about their art, their design, or their ego. They form a line too, but they’re whining, not crying. The following statements are taken from broken, quiet, and fearful people who are, above all, good. They may get paid by your church, or they may simply volunteer as much as they can. Here’s what they’re saying: “Please give me more time” — This is, without a doubt, the most common desire heard from church artists and media folks. Christian artists wish executive leaders would understand that they can’t simply click the “Be Creative” button and then turn it off when they’re done. Creativity comes in the middle of the night, or in the shower, or while they’re
20 March 2010
“Christian artists wish executive leaders would understand that they can’t simply click the ‘Be Creative’ button and then turn it off when they’re done.”
mowing their lawn. “If I say no to you, I feel like I’m saying no to God” — You may think this is crappy theology, but many artists feel like God speaks to the senior leader, then he/she speaks to the staff with God’s message. When I was in pastoral ministry, this was a voice I battled with every day. There is enormous freedom for the artist when an executive leader is secure enough to say, “It’s okay to tell me no.” “I want you to be pleased with my art” — Artists need to know that executive leaders like the stuff they create. Most artists struggle with the feeling of not being appreciated for the time and effort they expend on a project. “I wonder if I’m really making a difference” — Artists need to know that their art is impacting the lives of real people, and a key role executive leaders can play is connecting those dots for them. Names and faces help artists make it real and do more to motivate Christian artists than anything else I know. “I spend more money out of my own pocket than you’ll ever know” — When God plants an artistic idea deep in the heart of a filmmaker or a graphic designer, they can’t not create it. And when there’s no money, the artist pays. I know an artist in my former church who’s paying off a $6,000 Visa balance, spent entirely on video and web projects for that church. “Ultimately, I want to get this right” — The artists I listen to want desperately to do whatever is best. They’re willing to change and revise their art. They just don’t want a constant re-envisioning of their art to become the norm during the life cycle of the project. I’ve heard countless stories about teaching pastors who excessively play the “God card” as a reason for changing their entire direction for a series, and then telling the staff to scrap what they’ve already done and start over. Will this happen on
occasion? Yes, and artists need to deal with it. But should it ever become the norm? Not if you want to honor artists and creatives. I know. I know. This all seems extremely one-sided, pitting the “poor, misunderstood artist” against the “tyrannical over-bearing boss.” Those are extremes, and I’m not writing to either extreme. But this article is, by design, very one-sided. It has to be. It’s the cry of the artist, whether right or wrong—it’s what they are thinking, feeling, and beginning to say out loud. And more important than any of that, there’s something even more disturbing about this whole discussion. Tragically, I’ve only met a few executive leaders who even think they need to read an article like this.
≥ Gary Molander is an extremely fulfilled husband, father, and business owner. The beta version of an organization in which his deepest desires are married to a legitimate need in the world is called Floodgate Productions (www.floodgateproductions.com).
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March 2010   21
voices
It’s 2010, Where’s My Jetpack? John Dyer
When we were kids, 2010 seemed like a far off world full of “rad” new technology like holographic TVs, atomic cars, hoverboards, and the most awesome of all—personal jetpacks. Well it’s 2010, and the best jetpack out there costs $100,000, can fly for only 60 seconds, and is the size of a tractor (check it out at www.martinjetpack.com). Personally, I’m pretty disappointed, but I’m not the only one. There are a bunch of blogs titled, “Where’s my jetpack?,” a 2007 book titled, Where’s My Jetpack?: A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future that Never Arrived, and even snarky T-shirts with slogans such as, “The future is now, and we are not impressed.” We may not have jetpacks, but we are surrounded by a dizzying array of technology that would have amazed us just a few decades ago. However, since these devices have become so integral to our daily lives we often miss just how much change they have brought to our world. To help people understand the changes technology can bring, Neil Postman gave a lecture in which he outlined five things that happen when we start using a new technology. Instead of looking back at past technology, let’s take his observations and imagine what a future with jetpacks would look like. 1. Jetpacks will have trade-offs. Our new jetpacks will be the new awesome. No need to worry about traffic or parking spots at Walmart. Just fly on over, walk in, get some Oatmeal Creme Pies, and then take off. But along with all the awesomeness, jetpacks will come with some downsides just like every previous invention. There will, of course, be some sad accidents and crimes committed with jetpacks, but jetpacks will also bring more subtle cultural changes. Public places will likely become quite a bit noisier, and the skies will be more polluted with exhaust fumes and flying mullets. One of the difficult things about technology is that the greater the benefits a new device brings, the more negative the possible trade-offs.
22 March 2010
2. Jetpacks will create winners and losers. Another observation Postman made about technology is that its benefits don’t usually get shared equally among people. For example, computers and the Internet have created a world where churches now hire programmers, designers, and videographers. This is great for guys like me (and most readers of this magazine), but it uniquely advantages us over other skilled workers. If we choose to have a jetpack ministries we might do some incredible outreach, but we’ll also be choosing to favor one group over another. That’s not necessarily bad if that’s our calling, but it is easy to get so excited about a new technology that we end up leaving some people in the dust. 3. Jetpacks will contain a “powerful idea.” Mark Twain is credited with saying, “To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” In other words, the tools we use tend to color the way we see the world and the situations we encounter. Photographers tend to see the world in images, and pastors often see events as sermon illustrations. What idea or way of looking at the world does a jetpack have? I know that if I had a jetpack, I would feel invincible, as if I could go anywhere at any time without help from anyone or anything. Hmm, maybe the jetpack has a bit of embedded individualism? I would probably have to work hard to make sure that I used it in community rather than always going off on my own. 4. Jetpacks are ecological, not additive. What happens to a fish tank when you drop in a baby shark? The shark won’t just exist alongside the other fish; it will change the makeup of the fish tank in a big way. That kind of change is ecological, not just additive. Though not quite as dramatic, technological change is also ecological. The auto industry “ate” all the blacksmiths, digital downloads are eating into CD sales, and projectors pushed hymnals out of churches. Jetpacks will probably result in altered recreational habits and, sadly, they
might put a halt on research into hoverboards (because who would want a hoverboard when you could have a jetpack?). Whenever we choose to use a new technology, something else will get pushed out. 5. Jetpacks will eventually become “normal.” In 1989, when I was 10 years old, my dad let me build my first computer—a shiny, new, top of the line 486 processor running at 25 MHz. Twenty years later, my phone runs at somewhere around 500 MHz, and my laptop is in the 3,000 MHz range. But you know what? Even with those insane speed increases, my phone and my computer seem soooo slow to me. The problem isn’t with RAM or my OS, it’s that we’re very quick to forget how cool things are. Over time, special effects don’t seem very special, beautiful people seem flawed, and one day, even jetpacks will seem pretty boring. It is at this point—when we forget how powerful, influential, and life-changing technology is—that technology has truly reshaped us. What new technology are you considering adding to your life, your family, or your church? It might not be as cool as the mythical jetpack, but it will likely bring some change to your life and the life of those around you. It might be helpful to run your new stuff through these five questions: • For all its pros, what cons will it bring? • Which groups of people will benefit from this and which groups will not? • What subtle influences will it have on me? • What older tools and trends will it push out? • And finally, what happens when I stop noticing it?
≥ John Dyer is a web developer in Dallas, Texas, and he writes about issues related to faith and technology at www.donteatthefruit.com.
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When they said, “Let’s change the vibe of our worship service . . . ”
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24  March 2010
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