Graham Stanton wrote a great post today about some of the dangers he’s found since using twitter. He paraphrases 1 Corinthians 6:12 – ‘Twitter is permissible, and may even be beneficial; but I will not be mastered by anything’ and then outlines his strategies for not being mastered by twitter. Here are his four points:
4. Missing what’s happening because I’m telling other people what’s happening
3. Being constantly occupied with thinking I should be tweeting something profound
2. Mistaking Twitter for the Bread of Life
1. Living my life for the praise of men
The picture above is from Portwiture – it grabs the most frequent words from your twitter feed and matches them with a relevant (and random) picture from flickr. (h/t church crunch)
I implemented the overall marketing strategy. Including: website; online registration; A3 poster; postcard; PowerPoint display for use in churches; communication strategies.
Failing to thank God is one of the symptoms of sin and rebellion (Romans 1:21). It follows, therefore, that part of repenting of sin and turning to God is being thankful to God. Colossians (in the Bible) has a thankfulness thread that runs through the letter.
Paul is thankful to the Father that the Christians in Colossae have their faith in Jesus (Colossians 1:3). He then encourages them, as those who’ve been forgiven by God, to likewise give thanks to the Father (Col 1:12). Presumably, part of their conversion to Jesus was shown in thankfulness, hence Paul urges them to continue to be overflowing with thankfulness (Col 2:7).
In chapter 3 they are then urged to “be thankful” in response to the peace that Jesus brings (verse 15). In the next sentence they are to teach and sing with thankfulness to God (verse 16). And then finally, the section closes with a verse that suggests that thankfulness is to be an all-consuming characteristic of the Christian life: “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (verse 17)
I watched Mark Driscoll’s first sermon in the new Mars Hill 3 year series on Luke’s Gospel. Driscoll basically set the context from Luke 1:1-4 for the book of Luke and the rest of the series to come. The final 5 minutes of the sermon were particularly moving:
“It is finished”
EDIT: My friend, Marty, has left some very useful comments below.
The best book to read is the Bible. Hands down. But I think I’ve recently discovered the best book, after the Bible, to read. Over the last 10+ years I’ve been recommending books to teenagers, to help them get to know who Jesus is and what it means to follow him. My top three were the John Dickson trilogy for teenagers: A Sneaking Suspicion; A Hell of a Life; and Hanging in There. Now, don’t get me wrong – JD’s books still rock the suburbs, seriously. But they are starting to date and we need more good books that will help to introduce young people to the real life that is found only in Jesus.
Introducing, Jesus All About Life by Murray Smith. This book is now my number 1 recommendation to teenagers (closely followed by JD’s trio). It’s brilliant! Murray, one of the Pastor’s at Kirkplace Church, is a really smart dude. So he knows his gear. Yet he writes in an informal and teenage friendly style, without trying to be a teenager!
Moore College is the best theological school I’ve been to. Thinking about studying at a Bible college? Come along to the Spring Carnival and Open Day this Saturday (26th September, 930am-230pm). Check out the digs, ask questions, meet some peeps.
Jesus. All about Life – it has started and it’s gaining momentum. Later this week the month-long television campaign will begin. Christians in the Media have produced a study guide and accompanying DVD that “tackles Jesus’ answer to each of the issues raised by the TV commercial”.
Jesus: Connections for Life will prove to be a useful tool. Christians can be better equipped to know how to respond to questions their friends may have in response to the TV commercials. Likewise, the material could be used in a small group or lounge room of friends interested in hearing more about Jesus. The short responses in the booklet are readable and to the point. There are real life stories at the beginning of each session on the DVDs. The talks from Revelation are clear, engaging and effective in presenting Jesus as the one who offers everlasting life through his death and resurrection. Dominic Steele gives the following talks:
dmdc has previously featured two regular photographic posts: friday foto + snapshot. What’s next? Wait for it. Visual Twitter. Here’s the deal: every week or two (or three) I’ll post a collage of pictures that I have uploaded via twitter. Kinda like a visual summary of the tweets from that week(s). Not a visual learner? Follow all the action in text.
I’ve been looking forward to announcing this event… it’s going to be BIG!! Tickets aren’t available yet, but lock it into your youth group calendar for term 4…LIVE OUT LOUD is a youth rally sponsored by Connect 09 and fervr.net on Friday 4th December 2009. Christian teenagers can bring their friends along to hear the good news of Jesus.
I’ve recently installed BackType Tweetcount and Su.pr URL shortener on dmdc. What does this mean? 1) There is a number in the bottom right corner of each blog post displaying how many times it has been tweeted. 2) A button so you can easily retweet. 3) su.pr makes short web addresses for each post eg. davemiers.com/vCmV
Interested in doing it on your site? Check out church crunch for the how-to (there’s one bit of code you need to change – see it in the comments on that post).
There are valuable and important lessons to be learnt from books on leadership, strategy and vision. In the quote below, Don Carson warns that insights from these fields must never replace the Cross of Jesus at the centre of Christian life and ministry.
At the moment, books are pouring off the presses telling us how to plan for success, how “vision” consists in clearly articulated “ministry goals,” how the knowledge of detailed profiles of our communities constitutes the key to successful outreach. I am not for a moment suggesting that there is nothing to be learned from such studies. But after a while one may perhaps be excused for marvelling how many churches were planted by Paul and Whitefield and Wesley and Stanway and Judson without enjoying these advantages. Of course all of us need to understand the people to whom we minister, and all of us can benefit from small doses of such literature. But massive doses sooner or later dilute the gospel. Ever so subtly, we start to think that success more critically depends on thoughtful sociological analysis than on the gospel; Barna becomes more important than the Bible. We depend on plans, programs, vision statements – but somewhere along the way we have succumbed to the temptation to displace the foolishness of the cross with the wisdom of strategic planning. Again, I insist, my position is not a thinly veiled plea for obscurantism, for seat-of-the-pants ministry that plans nothing. Rather, I fear that the cross, without ever being disowned, is constantly in danger of being dismissed from the central place it must enjoy, by relatively peripheral insights that take on far too much weight. Whenever the periphery is in danger of displacing the center, we are not far removed from idolatry.
The progression from preaching the gospel to denying the gospel is a dangerous slippery slope (preaching > assuming > neglecting > denying). Are you a Christian? Keep the main thing the main thing! Not a Christian? Go read about the main thing.
I think I’ve just had my longest blog break ever. I’m back. Here’s the haps since september 1: study for exam; exam; disappointment over performance in exam; holiday @ killcare; hang with family; play with son; read the bible; watch series 3 of The West Wing; hang at pool; take nephews to zoo; 2 goodfriends got engaged; teach drama classes; read some books; drink coffee;do some stuff; see some things; go some places. While the blog has been silent, the tweets have been chirping. If you’re waiting on me to reply to an email… give me a day! If you wrote something incredible on your blog – let me know (I just deleted all unread posts in my feed reader).
Here’s a snapshot at some posts that are coming up soon(ish):
Jesus All about Life
Matt Chandler’s Visit to Australia
The Incarnation of Jesus
My Black Book
Good worship music in small churches
Carson quotes on the Cross
Latest on Church Planting
Youth Ministry and the failure of Christian parenting