• Archive of "social networking" Category

    Boston Bound: Lookin for Tips

    October 14, 2009 // 4 Comments »

    I have had something like a 15 year love affair with Boston, which is strange for someone who has never actually been there, but that’s about to change.  Amy and I are currently planning a long weekend in Boston and various excursions from there around New England.

    boston planning

    So, who’s got the 411 on Boston and the surrounding area?  What and where do we need to make sure to check out?  What’s our best bet for scenic, yet affordable accommodations?  Looking for any advice anyone wants to throw our way, thanks.

    Posted in Amy, social networking, travles

    Job Search 2.0

    October 1, 2009 // 5 Comments »

    If it wasn’t obvious by my open letter to HR, I have been looking for work.

    When Amy and I got engaged, we went round and round about whether to be in Memphis where I was pastoring or in Chicago where she was just getting settled into a pretty major career position.  Through lots of prayer, discernmnet, and discussion, Chicago won out.

    I moved up here at the beginning of May and since then, beside keeping myself busy with wedding planning and then getting us settled into a new apartment, I have been teaching an online class, The Emerging Church in the 21st Century, for Fuller Theological Seminary.

    With the wedding behind us, the apartment pretty much in order, and the class coming to an end, I am getting more focused on looking for work.

    Both because we are so at home in our church community, Life on the Vine, and because we are trying to make decisions that offer us the flexibility to be part of birthing a new missional comminity, I’m not looking for church staff positions.  Instead, I have mainly been looking for staff positions at colleges and universities as well as with non-profit organizations whose work in the Chicagoland area I could get excited about.  I have also given some consideration to working my way into the world of web development through project coordination and information architecture.  I am definitely open to continuing to be involved with online education.

    While I am conducting the job search 1.0-style (job boards, websites, and other manner of non-relational means), I’d rather go the route of Job Search 2.0, via relational connections, leveraging the power of social connectivity.

    So, at the risk of this being misinterpreted as some sort of act of desperation (IT’S NOT), but because I tend to be a relational networker, I thought I would open my search up to a broader audience to solicit your ideas and feedback.  Anyone, especially those of you who know me well, have any bright ideas about jobs, resources, or people I should try and connect with?  If it helps, here’s a basic resume and CV.

    Posted in chicago, community, social networking

    Virtual Community & Video Venues

    March 20, 2009 // 5 Comments »

    It’s not a new conversation, but there has been some recent discourse & interest around virtual community and the use of video venues for church communities. I wanted to point you toward a few resources of interest.

    © Oleg Gerasymenko | Dreamstime.com

    Bob Hyatt has written a great piece entitled, Video Venues: The Death of Preaching.  And I wholeheartedly agree with his thesis as well as closing remarks

    …just because God honors our silly methods occasionally doesn’t mean we shouldn’t look for better ways, perhaps less silly, perhaps ones with fewer unintended consequences.

    Shane Hipps, an acquaintance from Fuller, has caught some heat for his take on virtual community and in a recent podcast, “The Papacy of Celebrity,” had some good things to say about video venues as well.  The great thing about the perspective Shane is coming from is that he doesn’t need to demonize anything, he’s just trying to be honest about the full scope of these things.

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    I wouldn’t presume to speak for Bob or Shane, but as I have followed the various discussions and listened to what is being said, it’s because of my heart for spiritual formation that I lament the idea that connecting with people virtually could ever be God’s full intention for community.  More saddening, is the way in which we fail to see how the medium of video venues disfigures some of the most precious characteristics of the gospel and the Body of Christ – not because God can’t show up, but because of the adverse formative effect they have on people.

    If my kid steals some money from my wallet, I can probably fix the problem by crushing his hand with a wrench, but the point isn’t just fixing the problem, it’s fixing it in the right way.  There is no room in the Christian faith for being connected in community “at all costs,” much less for, good preaching “at all costs.”  That just misses the bigger point.  The medium really is the message, they are bound up with one another, which is why, in terms of discipleship, it’s not just about doing the right things, but about doing things the right ways.

    Perhaps for utilitarians, the means justify the ends, but for those who follow Christ and his invitation to “pick up your cross and follow me,” the means and the ends are indistinguishable.

    Posted in church, community, gospel, Jesus, networking, preaching/teaching, social networking, spiritual formation

    Wedding Help

    March 19, 2009 // 15 Comments »

    Amy and I are looking for some help with our wedding and the events (including honeymoon) surrounding it.  Aside from it being a beautiful and memorable day, we are hoping to infuse as much of what we are going to do with theological significance and creativity.  We already have a good number of friends that are going to be vital in helping that to be a reality, but, believers in networking that we are, we’d just assume hear from as many folks as possible.

    So, wonderful people out there, what ideas, experiences, and resources do you have that you’d like to share – we’re all ears!

    (think… cost saving, creative enhancing, meaning infusing, deal finding, value reflecting, & God-honoring)

    Please pass a link to this on to anyone that you think might have something to contribute – facebook it, twitter it, bookmark it, whatever.

    Posted in Amy, marriage, social networking

    Yay for Adium

    June 11, 2008 // 7 Comments »

    Just had to note one more free mac-only app – Adium.

    iChat is a pretty sweet deal for instant messaging. And if you want to do audio or video chat, it’s still the way to go. But if text chatting is your deal, then Adium is what you want.

    Aside from already being able to connect to all your AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Google, Skype, and other contacts through one application, they just added Facebook support in the latest beta release.

    The other thing I really like is how much you can customize the look and feel of the contact list and messaging windows. This is what I am looking at on my screen…

    See that little deal, yeah, that’s all I the screen space it has to use up!

    When you throw in a little Growl support (pop-up notifications) on top of that, it is a really, really great application.

    Posted in mac, social networking

    Social Networking and Our Desire to Be Known

    May 8, 2008 // 8 Comments »

    In conjunction with my previous 2 posts, I was reminded of this post which I titled, but never wrote. It is something I have been thinking about for a while and maybe now see a bit better, or feel a bit stronger, what I meant when I thought it up.

    There is something in each of us, in my opinion – part of what it means to be made in the image of God, that wants to be known. This is almost certainly bound up with (if not the same as) the desire to be loved. This is perhaps the great common denominator of humanity – the search and desire to have others truly know us.

    Social networking, in fact, all forms of communication, are tools which, to greater or lesser extents, assist this process. We talk, chat, text, share, link, and otherwise connect to know and be known. We long for connection – for those times when, in pregnant expectation, we reach out in communication to another and find common ground, affirmation, validation, appreciation, value, and mutuality. It is a powerful and empowering thing to feel and now that you are not alone.

    But for all the tools at our disposal, I don’t think many are experiencing what they long for – what they were created for. Many more, I am afraid, end up convincing themselves that their superficial avenues of connectedness are in fact, the best anyone can hope for in this day and age. Or perhaps worse yet, people are so scared of actually being known that this is where they end up living – in a shallow state of community and connectedness that allows they to remain finally hidden.

    There is no substitute for authentic, face-to-face, life-on-life, warts-and-all, community and connectedness. And it’s a huge risk to go there. It takes patience, sacrifice, discipline, courage and vulnerability – all of which are rare virtues in a culture stripped of its need of those traits (one can get by today without them with relative ease).

    I am increasingly convinced that one of the greatest opportunities presented to the church in Western culture today is that of cultivating communities and disciples whose character reflects these virtues. How often do we talk about creating a patient community or vulnerable disciples? If these sort of virtues really are the sort that make it possible for us to know others and be known by others – and if doing so is analogous to knowing and being known by God, then surely these ought to be among our chief concerns.

    Posted in church, community, love, social networking

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