Church Leadership Conversations

Why to Try Blogging and How to Start
I am teaching my Christian Educational Ministries "Program and Curriculum Development" students how to blog tomorrow. (I talked more about the books for this course here).

They have already had to make comments on two different blogs because that is a good way to familiarize yourself with blogs. (For inspiration, see my list of the Best 70 Church Leadership Blogs).

Tomorrow we are meeting in a computer lab and they will all be setting up a blog on WordPress. I have told them that they can set up a fake ministry blog or a personal blog.

Here are three reasons I am teaching them to blog.

1. Churches and ministries need websites and the blog is the easiest way to get a basic website going. Even for one event they may want to be able to do this.

2. I want these students to get over their fear of doing web design. You don’t know if you are good at it and like it until you try.

3. Even if they don’t do it the future, they need to be able to work well with designers and they will do that better if they have done it a bit themselves.

Here are the basic instructions for them.

If you are new to blogging, this sequence of tasks may be a good quick way to try your hand at it.

The screen photos are on the attached Microsoft Word handout here if you are interested. Download WordPress_Blogging.doc

My sample blog which I practiced with tonight is: http://ced352.wordpress.com/
1. Go to http://wordpress.com/
2. Click: Start a blog in seconds »
3. You need to figure out a Username and Email Address and click the legal box and then click gimme a blog.
4. Then you need to come up with the url for your blog and the name of the blog and whether you want it to appear publicly or not. The url will not be able to be changed but the blog name can be changed later.
5. Check your email for the confirmation email.
6. Write a post. Then click Publish.
7. Upload a post with a photo.
8. Update your profile. Change your password to something you will remember.
9. Presentation. Pick a new theme.
10. Presentation. Do a Custom Image Header by uploading a photo. You can only do this for some themes.
11. Go to Manage . . . Pages . . . Edit your About page.
12. Under Manage . . . Pages . . . Create a New Page
It literally took my students less than 10 minutes to get blogging.

Lots of people in the blogosphere are recommending the new book The Blogging Church by Brian Bailey (who has a blog here) and Terry Storch. That is the best place to begin probably.
February 18, 2007
Five Innovative Missional Ideas for Serving Your Community
Here are five wacky ways I have tried to love my community this year. I thought they would be fun to share and might stimulate some other ideas. Only number 4 was actually "successful." These are extremely experimental. In chronological order, here they are:

1. Fix the Wikipedia entry for your town so that it is accurate and helpful. I did this earlier this year with Upland, Indiana. The description of the town where I live was about three sentences before I added to it earlier this year. I thought it was good for the world and for the town to have an accurate description at Wikipedia. Has it had a positive impact? I don’t know but I know lots of people have read it.

2. Start a blog for your favorite organization or business that does not have a website. This blog can serve as a fan club for that organization and post relevant information for the world. I did this earlier this year for Ivanhoe’s – a local ice cream shop. Has this had a positive impact? I don’t know but it has gotten lots of hits.

3. Write a politician. I recently wrote Barack Obama to urge him not to portray himself as a one-issue politician because I was reading that he was getting his biggest cheers for his "Pull our troops out of Iraq by March 2008" talk and that his campaign believed his stance on Iraq was his primary strength in comparison to Hillary Clinton. From what I know about him, he has more to contribute than just that perspective. Has it had a positive impact? Maybe I’ll never know.
- Obama’s speech to Call to Renewal in June 2006 is especially helpful to listen to if you are interested in learning about his faith. The transcript and MP3 of the talk are both at Obama’s website here.
- You can also read the transcript of his speech on AIDS at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church in December 2006 here.
- Evangelical? Obama’s faith too complex for simple label is also an interesting article.
4. Protest appalling things. Yesterday I was really annoyed to see the four-inch banner advertisement for the Swimsuit Issue on Sports Illustrated’s website SI.com. I wrote them and complained. See my note here. (I also sent a note to The Jim Rome Show and Dan Patrick of ESPN radio but I don’t think anything was said on the radio about it. I like both of those sports talk radio shows). Well, a day later Sports Illustrated reduced the advertisement to a half inch. I’m shocked but thankful. Thanks, Sports Illustrated.

5. Advocate for something better in your community. Today I wrote a letter to Burger King (which is the closest fast food restaurant to where I live) because the children’s playground has been "closed for maintanance" for five months (at least). I sometimes study there and it breaks my heart to see kids come in disappointed which today (a Saturday) was like five kids per hour. So we’ll see what happens on that. See my letter here.

Update: They reopened the playground at the end of March! 🙂
February 17, 2007
Ben Witherington on Rob Bell

If you are a Rob Bell fan, this is must reading.

Update February 26, 2007

Witherington has now reviewed all of Bell’s videos. He thoroughly appreciates all of them. He questions a couple of his Jewish rabbi comments but still thinks they are outstanding.

Rob Bell’s Nooma Videos 11-15

Rob Bell’s Nooma Videos 6-10

Rob Bell’s Nooma Videos 1-5

Update February 18, 2007

Ben Witherington has written a more comprehensive and gracious appreciation and critique of Rob Bell at "Velvet Elvis and the King"– Has he Left the Building? Read it. He encourages Bell to consult the standard commentaries and to ignore some fringe scholars who would liken Jesus to a third century AD Jewish Rabbi.

Original Post:

Ben Witherington has posted his assessment of Rob Bell’s presentation last night in Lexington: Rob Bell hits Lexington and a Packed-Out House. Ben is a professor of New Testament at Asbury Seminary and a prolific commentary writer. Rob is the most downloaded preacher on the internet (perhaps behind Joel Osteen) and pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, MI. (See ITunes "Religion and Spirituality" category – Bell’s ITunes podcast link is here).

Witherington praises Bell’s style but critiques his substance saying that Bell doesn’t know the difference between 3rd century AD Rabbinic judaism and Jesus’ context and he critiques Bell for waffling on homosexuality. I guarantee that this post will be the hottest one in the Christian blogosphere today and this week.

I commented saying that I don’t know how Bell puts together his creative, brilliant presentations each week. With his influence, he should speak a little less and research a bit more. (By the way I love listening to Bell). I also say that perhaps Bell was addressing pastoral responses rather than actually stating his doctrinal position. Brian McLaren took some heat for this a while back on the Out of Ur Leadership journal blog.

I also mentioned that Bell was the most downloaded preacher on the internet. Those statistics change regularly though. See the iTunes Religion & Spirituality podcast page for the latest rankings. Like other iTunes store links, that link will only work if you have iTunes (which is free to download and install on your computer) installed on your computer.

February 16, 2007