Google's Friend Connect

I read Jeremy's post today about Google FriendConnect and am trying it out here. Note the new boxes in the sidebar. I have no idea if this will prove to be interesting or not, but I don't mind trying it for a while!

new look

After almost 4 1/2 years of the same design on my blog, I decided to try a new template. I still have to replace some of my widgets, probably tomorrow. But for now, let me know what you think of the new look! (I totally am not into designing my own template, so check the link at the bottom for a link to the designer, who has several templates.)

Greater New Jersey Bloggers

Since I now enjoy relationship with two annual conferences, in addition to my NCNY bloggers list, I'm also adding a list of bloggers from the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference of the UMC. If you're a GNJ blogger, let me know, and I'll add you to my list. Here's who I know of so far:

Chris Heckert - Chris is a clergy member of GNJUMC, and Assistant General Secretary for the Advance at GBGM, blogs here about GBGM trips, mission stories, etc.

Joe Tiedemann - Joe pastors two churches, a long-standing church and a church-plant congregation. He blogs at Life in the Way.

Eric Helms, associate pastor at Grace UMC in Wyckoff, just started a blog, Eric's Blog.

Greg Milinovich, associate pastor at Clinton UMC blogs at agentorange (where you'll also discover that Greg's an artist - who knew?)

***updated to add:***

Pastor Blue Jeans, another Greater NJ clergyperson, blogs at Forever in Blue Jeans.

If you know of other GNJ bloggers, let me know and I'll add to my list.

Reflections: Bishop's Convocation - Part 1

Finally, a chance to blog about the Bishop's Convocation. The theme of the event was "In the Spirit of Fellowship," and on that note, Bishop Devadhar invited my colleagues Joe Tiedemann, Chris Heckert and me to present a workshop on blogging and how blogging can be used to create/enhance/nurture community. This is the second time I've taught a workshop on blogging, and I find it an interesting experience. Particularly for older people (clergy in this case), I find there is still a bit of fear/anxiety when it comes to using the computer/internet, etc. But once you walk people through how very simple it is to read and start a blog, people become hopeful and full of ideas about what they might do, how they might connect via blogging.

Question: I've been asked to retool my workshop to present to youth next week. Actually, I feel like most young people will know virtually everything I've presented in my other workshops. What would you say in a workshop about blogging to young people?

Monday evening we had a sort-of open dialogue time with the Bishop. (Bishop Devadhar is one of the most hospitable bishops I know. I know he reads my blog, but I can 100% tell you I'd be saying this even if he didn't. He must have stopped to chat with me 5 0r 6 times throughout the event to see how I was doing. He really goes out of his way to connect - I appreciate that!) Clergy were invited simply to comment, ask the bishop questions, bring up matters of concern. The conversation seemed to focus on the lack of young clergy in particular and young people in general in the church. The bishop said, (rightly, I think) that he believes young people are simply not finding the church relevant. (Actually, I think the bishop was quoting someone here, but you get the point.) Some young clergy in the conference shared that they didn't feel respected or equal or included in the conference. People seemed to want to show their appreciation for these voices, but I'm afraid much of the conversation continued with people referring to young clergy as if we weren't there in the room!

Tuesday, following up on the previous night's forum, the Bishop shared this thought from Brian McLaren, from a magazine - not sure which - anyone know the source?:
(paraphrasing) We are at a juncture where the changes we need are very profound. We don’t just need a few small tweaks . . . when you’re asking new questions, that’s what revolution is all about. I think we’re at a place where we need to ask a whole new set of questions . . . I think we need to face a few realities. Mainline churches realize they are using younger generations. (think answer is music, but jazzing up music won’t help if not answering real questions) Another kind of discomfort our churches will feel if they don’t address these questions. (Loss of younger generations accelerated) See the church as a religious country club – if they want to make a moral difference in the world, the church isn’t the place to do it in . . . In our mainline churches we have been so accustomed to the cold war between liberal and conservative that we haven’t imagined a new arrangement, a convergence . . ."

Our keynote speaker on Tuesday was Garlinda Burton, the General Secretary of COSROW. I thought her presentation was very powerful, heartfelt, and moving. She spoke on the theme of General Conference 2008, “A Future with Hope.” She asked, "what do we believe the future should be? There's a distinction between just having hope and putting legs on our hope."

Here are my mostly unedited notes on Garlinda's presentation:

Part I

Hope in Jesus Christ. A difference between hopes in institutions (clergy, churches) rather than hope in one who actually holds the future (Jesus). “built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness.” Getting a paycheck from the church is not the definition of who we are as Christians.

Speak God’s truth to power when we see power capitulate to money, sexism, racism, etc.

Risk. Risk. Risk. We’re called by God to use the power we have. To transform the church. Clergy have considerable power.

Clergy: balanced, biblically grounded, spiritually healthy, self-loving. We ordain and assign too many unbalanced, ungrounded, unhealthy, self-important and self-loathing clergy. If they aren’t out of balance when we get them, the church can sometimes smack people out of balance.

We are not meant to be in ministry in isolation.
Finding covenant group and worship setting for yourself.
A future with hope requires that clergy be equipped to supporting ministries beyond institution.

Life in Christ can’t be only in our heads or hearts – our hearts have to be changed so we can’t see hunger, etc., without feeding! Walk out of the church into places of darkness and declare that the light has come. Sermon her pastor preached titled – “It’s been nice, now get the hell out of here.” Views shaped only by those who look like us, afraid to offend our congregations.

We’re not scratching where society is itching. Our love affair with our privilege is preventing us. Avg. household income of a General Conference delegate last time around was $110,000!!!!!!!!!!!

Establish RELATIONSHIPS.
You gotta get out there. (My note: "Get out There" is also the slogan of Royal Caribbean. Guess I still have cruising on the brain!)

By teaching/speaking recovery, repentance, reconciliation for racial/gender injustice. People of color – 25%-30% country, but only 10% umc, Less than 6% of our large membership churches led by women. People in pews – higher incomes, higher educations. UMC is climbing away from poor. Institutional racism, classism, and sexism.

“Diversity fatigue” – CEOs, one UM bishop, say they are "tired of being guilted." Patient thousands of year of racism, but not 40 years of diversity training.

You speak and act like the kingdom of God is coming today. If Jesus had suffered diversity fatigue…


Part II

Three Simple Rules – Rueben Job
(From JW) "First do no harm, do all the good you can, and stay in love with God"

$50million dollars in misconduct and related details spent this (year, quadrennium?)

Attending worship. Self-care.

Question: If you're a clergy person, do you have a place outside your own congregation where you can/do worship regularly? I've been meaning for years to try to find someplace where I can attend worship midweek.

Strengthening healthy boundaries.

Things we must stop saying:
• We’ll take a woman or person of color as long as he or she is qualified. Assumes men/whites are automatically qualified.
• We had a woman superintendent (or etc.) and they almost split our church. We’re just afraid to have another one….Don’t hear “we had a male bishop and he was so bad and we just don’t want another.”
• Their worship is so different than ours – they like to dance and clap and they don’t want to worship with us boring white folks. If your worship is boring, no matter what color you are, you have a problem!
• Ethnic churches are not financially viable. They can’t sustain themselves and become a drain on the resources of the conference. When we invest in people they will invest in the church and not a second before.


Song: “I will not harm you with words from my mouth.”

Prophetic pastors create more God-focused congregations.

Staying in love with God.

If I am unable to demonstrate love to _______, I am a noisy gong and clanging symbol.

“Cindy has a part of Jesus’ story that I need” (poor, but also (me) conservatives)

Clergy: moving up means moving away from the poor


I'll have another post with Part 2 (Leonard Sweet) tomorrow.

Eco-articles from CNN.com

Two interesting articles I saw on CNN.com today:

First - "Solar Power Makes Tiny Village Beam" - This is story about a village in India that previously without electricity - until just two years ago. Then, a man named Ram, who doesn't have a high school degree, attended a nearby program called "Barefoot College" - an institution started to help rural Indians help themselves to learn to solve their own problems. Ram was selected by the elders of his village to attend the College, and he learned about solar engineering. Now, most of the homes have solar panels on their roofs.

Second - "Growing Front-Yard Food Can Rile Neighbors" - This article talks about the growing group of people trying to grow at least part of their own food in their own yards. Apparently, some neighbors in some communities find this offensive - apparently fresh food growing is an eyesore? But people are working hard to grow at least some of their own food, and even working with city boards to grow crops that look good and taste good! The article sites several sources if you are interested in trying this yourself. My older brother is a good role model for me in this - this August, he has vowed to eat only locally grown food for the month. I'm impressed. I tease him about how this will cramp my style - we won't be able to eat out together this coming month - but truthfully, I'm impressed. I'm not sure I'd last a day eating only locally grown foods. But he's been working hard in preparation - growing some food in his own little garden, hitting all the local farmers' markets, and researching options for local flour, soy, etc. I enjoy seeing these kinds of news stories making CNN's front page. Very hopeful!

Alas!

Alas, my computer has died. The hard drive was making terrible noises this week, always a bad sign, and it seems nothing can be done to save it. Having previously had an issue with my laptop, I've been better about backing up files, but I still lost about the last 15 files I had worked on, and about 25 emails or so that I had downloaded but not yet responded to. Ugh!

Weekend Update

Nothing too lengthy and/or profound to say, so here's what's left:

- I like watching the Oscars, but I hate listening to acceptance speeches. I find them so awkward 50% of the time. I give people about one sentence to see if they will actually give a good speech, and then I hit mute until the speech is over.

- I think I like facebook better than myspace.

- I've given up Diet Coke for Lent (all soda, but I only drink Diet Coke anyway.) Two of my members challenged me - one is giving up soda and the other is giving up meat in exchange for me giving up soda. The one who said she would give up meat is being very delinquent so far (not unlike Melissa at Going on to Perfection :).) I've been wanting to stop drinking soda for a while (at least so much soda) because it seems that all those chemicals can't be very good for you, but I really love my Diet Coke, and haven't made myself take the plunge before. But I am extremely competitive, so I'm finding it easier to hold up my end of the deal this time around...

- I've added some new blogs to my regular read list: Will Samson, Lisa Samson, TallSkinyKiwi are a few to check out.

General Conference and the Use of Technology

Sorry for the lack of posting - I've had a busy week. As I mentioned, I had a Book of Resolutions Task Force meeting this past week, in conjunction with the Interagency Legislative Task Force Meeting. The Interagency thing is where staff/members of different boards and agencies get together to talk about legislation they will be submitting to General Conference 2008. The idea is that agencies will be able to collaborate on legislation and avoid submitting similar/overlapping petitions or avoid assigning work to another agency without informing them beforehand.

During our conversation together, the issue of technology and General Conference came up. Someone asked about the rules for using things like PDAs, cell phones, and laptops during GC, especially for delegates. Currently, there are no rules in place. The conversation quickly turned to all the 'bad' ways technology might be used at GC, and a suggestion that device-use be restricted for delegates, and signals jammed onsite.

At this point, I had to speak up. I think the conversation was showing some fundamental differences in the way people make use of technology. I immediately thought of Leonard Sweet's language of 'native' and 'immigrant' when it comes to digital technology. I don't always agree with Sweet's ideas (he was a professor of mine at Drew) but I think he puts this in a helpful way to think about. Natives don't just 'use' technology - it is a fully integrated part of life, a way of life. But 'immigrants' may use technology, but more as an external tool that is employed to facilitate work. To me, attempting to limit use of technology at GC would be limiting a huge part of how people expect to be able to live, interact, and carryout work and relationships during GC. I think some of the folks as the meeting only thought of ways that technology could distract from the 'real work' to be done, but I see exciting possibilities for how it can actually positively and radically impact the work of the church.

I'm not sure I convinced everyone, but there were some who were certainly on the same page as me. To illustrate the point perfectly, one member received a text message while we were talking that had important information for our meeting. God moves in mysterious and timely ways, right?

What do you think? How can/might/will/should/shouldn't technologies be used at General Conference?

**Update: Jay mentions in comments that some rules are already in place. I'm surprised no one at the meeting knew about these. I understand the concerns Jay mentions - really, I do. But how long will these rules hold up against a changing world? That's another issue...

Help: Software Question

We're looking into buying electronic membership software for our church. Any recommendations on what to try? I've been looking around online, but can't find good reviews anywhere. We're not looking for anything fancy. Something that is simple for our office staff to use would be best over something with more bells and whistles.
Thanks in advance for your help!

Review: The New UMC.org

Last night I attended a 'launch' gathering for bloggers of the new UMC.org. The web meeting itself was interesting - I simultaneously logged on and called in, and the meeting used Acrobat Connect to guide us through a presentation of the site while we listened to commentary over the phone from Matt Carlisle, Larry Hollon, and Stephen Drachler. The phone connection was a little iffy - feedback and random background noises made it hard to communicate clearly. After the presentation, there was time for Q & A - not many questions were asked - I didn't ask any myself - but I think in part this was because 1) The presentation was clear and the features are somewhat self-explanatory and 2) Until you get a chance to actually check out and use the new site yourself it is not clear what you might want to ask.

So - the new site...

The main feature of the new site is that it contains a social-networking component, which is being hosted/run by 7 Villages. Apparently, some annual conferences (that are cooler and more technology-hip than mine) have already been using 7 Villages, and the hope is that more UMC groups will begin to hook into 7 Villages as a major piece of their web ministries. I've made my page, as well as a 'village' for my annual conference. I'm pretty excited about this site - it's certainly no myspace - some of the features of myspace are missing, and member pages aren't as dynamic and unique, but I think this may change over time as people begin using the site more. Right now things are a little - bulky, I guess I would say - hard to navigate. But there is a lot of potential there, and I'm excited to see what direction it takes.

Other features: Overall, Hollon and Carlisle talked about their process for design and their focus on being user-oriented vs. institution-oriented. They've focused on making navigation easier, making connecting with people and ministries easier, and making local ministries more apparent and more at the center of attention.

Serve: Another new feature allows users to search for volunteer opportunities and for users to submit volunteer opportunities. I think this is a great idea. In the past, I've been searching for a VIM trip opportunity for myself, and found it difficult to find any place where all trips are listed. Still to work on here - the search features should be expanded. I want to be able to search for opportunities by date, or by age-group, etc. Carlisle (or Hollon, I can't remember) mentioned that a recent Christian Science Monitor article notes an increase in global volunteerism - 29% of people volunteered in 2005, an increase, a 30-year high actually. Interestingly, the age-groups volunteering: older teens, baby-boomers, and senior citizens. People want hands-on ways to make a difference.

Pray: You can now submit prayer requests online, which are directed to the Upper Room Living Prayer Center. A more interactive prayer center might be interesting, where people could respond to one another's prayers - a feature like this was shared at the Web-Empowered Church workshop at the Congress on Evangelism - anyone have a link to that feature?

Other features include a still-being-added-to Methopedia, which is a bit skimpy now, but could be quite useful when more articles are added, and a section for local church leaders, giving resources for different positions and ministries. Also, churches now have more freedom to enter their own information and images and details in the find-a-church feature, which is the most-hit feature in the site. I definitely need to update my church's page!

I think this is definitely a positive new direction for the site. A work in progress, for sure, but what isn't? Check it out, and let me know what you think.

Cross-posted at the Methoblog.

Reflections: Congress on Evangelism - Part 1

This week, as I alluded to yesterday, I am at the Congress on Evangelism in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. My motivation for coming, I will admit, was solely to meet up with other methobloggers. Otherwise, I can’t say this is an event that would typically appeal to me. But I am enjoying myself and enjoying the event. More on that in a bit.

First, Myrtle Beach. I’ve never been to Myrtle Beach before. I drove down from Central New York because, if I haven’t mentioned it before, I have a huge fear of flying. I will fly if I have to, but I find that in the continental US you very rarely have to fly. Myrtle Beach is a 14 hour drive from my home, and I left at a god-awfully early hour on Tuesday to get here. Book on CD make this kind of drive feasible for me, but by the last two hours, I was well past ready to be at my destination.

I remember in elementary school that a few of my classmates always vacationed in Myrtle Beach. My family would take vacation in more manageable (read: inexpensive) places like Canada, or in a good year, Washington, DC. If we wanted to go to the beach, we’d go to the local State Park. Hey – they had a beach and a place to swim just like Myrtle Beach, right? Actually, looking back on things, I’m glad of how we vacationed. I can’t imagine how crazy Myrtle Beach must be in the summer. It is beautiful, for sure. I’m staying at the Dayton House, where my “efficiency King” room, which is the smallest I could book, has a stove and refrigerator and sink and sofa and living room area and king sized bed and a view of the ocean which is literally about 50 yards out the back doors of the hotel. This is a vacation city. In January, the Beach is stunningly quiet and empty. If you are smart, and you don’t consider vacationing at the ocean when it is only in the mid-sixties or seventies out a hardship, you should bring your family here on vacation in January at an easy $50-$60 a night for resort-like hotels.

Anyway, beautiful setting aside, this is an interesting event to be at. The keynote speakers include J. Ellsworth Kalas (whose book I reviewed earlier this week) as Bible Study leader, Bishop Scott Jones, and Adam Hamilton, among others. This is not an event I would likely have come to, as I mentioned, were it not for the methoblogging component. It’s not that I don’t want to learn about evangelism. Contrary perhaps to stereotypes of ‘liberals’ like me, I think most ‘liberals’ are very interested in learning how to better communicate the good news of Jesus. But I think ‘liberals’ like me often have stereotypes about what others, other more conservative folks mean by evangelism. So I was a bit nervous – or curious I guess – about what this event would be like. The atmosphere is certainly different than most gatherings I’ve been to – the speakers so far are surprisingly centrist in their presentations – not saying things the way I’d say them, but not generally saying things I totally disagree with. The worship and music is more traditional than I would have expected – a little disappointing, actually, but the content is solid. I will probably spend the next few posts focusing in on each speaker more specifically.

I’ve gone to four workshops – three sponsored by our methoblogging sub-conference, and one with blogger/DS Susan Cox-Johnson focusing on Wesley and the emerging church. I’ll also write about these in more detail, but my gut reaction is that I wish there were different ‘levels’ of workshops for people coming in with different ‘levels’ of knowledge. Re: web ministry, some people are here with a lot of experience already, but others don’t know anything about using the internet yet, and it is hard for workshop presenters to meet all of these various needs.

Of course, the most fun part of being here is hanging out with the other methobloggers. It is so much fun to meet people you’ve only known in part online. It is fun to see how my mental images match up with the real people and personalities. I won’t confess to them which is which, but let’s say some of these methobloggers are exactly like I expected, and others are nothing like what I expected! I’m reminded of taking my doctrine and polity courses online at Drew, and then running into the professor on campus, and being totally thrown off – he wasn’t what I had been imagining at all!

To be continued…

Surreal

I'm currently in the same room with John the Methodist, ReverendMommy, Dogblogger, Gavin Richardson, Jay Voorhees, Revabi, and Jonathan Norman. How cool is that? Also, ironically, on the world's slowest internet connection. Give or take a bit. More later.

Multimedia in your Local Church

Jason has written a post about using multimedia in local churches. Check it out to weigh in.