the Eclectic Soul

Just Awesome!

Playing For Change | Song Around The World "Stand By Me" from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.

Great Article...

Great article from presby pastor and church leader Bruces Reyes-Chow.  

Check it out here.

Link-Love

Thought I'd start a new weekly post and share some links that I've found interesting.  Love 'em or Leave 'em they are what they are. I hope they're interesting and entertaining.

• My sneaking suspicions has been confirmed.  According to USA Today, Protestant Christians are more loyal to their toothpaste brands than their denominational affiliations: Read here.  
• Church in Abilene Texas drops utilities not just to save a dollar but so that they can use the money they would have spent on electricity to give it away in service to others: Read about it here.
• Why, Why, Why? Read about it here. 
• Oh the possibilities and perils of Facebook and other social networking media:  Read about it here.
• In other Facebook news, Facebook asks the question: Who Owns the Content: Read about it here.  
• My own denominational tribes is asking some good questions: Read about it here. 
• Shane Claiborne shares his compelling vision of discipleship:  Read about it here.  
• Seminaries need to talk more about human sexuality and its complexities: Read about it here. 
• Is Darwinism waning?  What say ye?: Read about it here.  
• Some great advice for church leaders handling criticism:  Read about it here.  
• How do you define "church?" Read about it here.  
• My seminary alma mater to announce new president:  Read about it here.      

Peace,

E

Tech News From Across the Pond

I've owned an iPhone for a little over a month, and its safe to say that I continue to be impressed. This little device has really made my life more productive and more entertaining. It isn't a perfect device by any stretch of the imagination [but it is as close to it as I can imagine]. Even for all of its marvels, there are relatively simple things that it cannot do.

For example, it cannot copy calendar colors over from the desktop version of iCal.  Seems a really strange and very simply thing to be able to achieve with a native app.  There is no cut and paste feature that would allow one to cut and paste a link for example from the browser to a blog page.  Flash media still isn't supported on the iPhone.  These are just a few things that I have named.  

But I will say, even with it's small imperfections, and I do mean small, there is a vast world of tech junkie stuff at one's disposal.  The App Store is one of them

Now it seems that Nokia and Microsoft will be opening their own version of an applications store in 2009. This latest tech piece from the BBC annouces the intentions of these two technology giants to move into the sacred ground broken by Jobs and his band of merry men [and women].

One could only hope that either they, or someone will come out with syncable word-processor program for the iPhone that will allow you to not only read MS Word files but also edit them.  Also, it would be nice if Apple, instead of simply making an amazing Keynote remote, could also make a mini Pages and Numbers interface for the iPhone.

Well, for all you tech junkies I just thought I'd share some news.

Happy Monday to all!

Peace,

E

Powerful Parable...

For anyone who leads a church here's a parable that proves to be packed with much food for thought:



Let's get the conversation started.

Out With the Old...In With the New

Just retired my second Moleskine journal of the year and cracked a fresh one.  Call me pretentious if you want but I love this little notebooks for the fine paper, durability and portability.  You should really check them out.  I tend to use the small pocket plain ones for my personal and creative journal.  I use the larger size for message prep and textual exegesis.  I purchase mine here.

VMA's NBD

Anyone else particularly feel that the VMA's were No Big Deal this year?  Not to mention that quirky & crude host who had absolutely no chemistry with the crowd.  Sorry MTV, but there wasn't much to keep me impressed this year, save maybe Kanye's performance.

Peace,

E

Church Sign Sayings...

 I've got to tell you, I have a "thing" about church signs that have the ability to put pithy sayings on them:  I hate them.  I type this as a hypocrite because my own little tribe that I serve just bought the own "bling" sign as my Trustee chairperson called it.  I told them that it would be great to have the opportunity to put  community pertinent announcements on it, but I never...NEVER...want any pithy, puny sayings put on it, at least not while I'm here.

When the company that built the sign bid it [and yes we stayed local to support the home team] they had placed on the picture the saying that you see here.

This morning, thanks to the Questing Parson, I went to churchsigngenerator.com and made my own sign.

What say you?  Pithy church signs: a blessing or a curse?

Peace,

E

What Do Adam Hamilton and I Have in Common?

Well, not much, other than the fact that we're both pastors in the tribe we call United Methodists and we both do this...

"Every summer the church allows me to take a week away from the office in order to develop sermon series outlines for the next 18 - 24 months..."

Check out his blog for the full post.

Peace,

E

Willow Creekings Continued...

After having set the bar for what it means to be an attractional seeker sensitive model church Willow Creek is shifting its weekend emphasis from primarily seeker sensitive to believer centered.  

Of course no one is sure what exactly this means and if Sunday will now look like Wednesday night services, but a recent article from Christianity Today attempts to get at the rationale for the change.

Honestly, I've been to both and I think its probably a good change.  The biggest difference that I saw in my few times there was that Sunday mornings was more of a experiential worship wherein participants "watched" the action of worship leaders and Wednesdays was much more participatory wherein participants were invited to take part in what was being lead on the platform.  Also the Scriptural diet on Sundays was a much lighter fare than Wednesday nights.

All in all I think it's a smart move.  Although I'm not really sure what the difference will pragmatically mean for their Sunday gatherings.  I give them credit for doing a pretty authentic self evaluation and then actually making some decisions based on the results that they faced.

Way to go Willow!

Peace,

E