The Center on Media and Human Development in the School of Communication at Northwestern University recently published "Parenting in the Age of Digital Technology: A National Survey," which highlights ten key findings. This list includes: parents still turn to family and friends for parenting advice far more often than to new media sources like websites, blogs, and social networks, parents do not report having many family conflicts or concerns about their children’s media use, and Read More …
blogs
Top 200 Church Blogs (#0867)
Kent Schaffer founded Church Relevance to "help ministries become more effective and efficient." Earlier this month, Church Relevance published its annual list of the top 200 church blogs, including an explanation of how it determined the rankings. So What? While certainly not a comprehensive this list, it provides a wealth of possibility for the would be reader. I plan to visit each of the blogs listed at least once over the next few weeks, and look forward to being introduced Read More …
New Perspectives (#0712)
Matthew Paul Turner's recent blog post entitled "25 Christian Blogs You Should Be Reading" highlights a list of blogs he finds insightful that don't typically receive significant attention or traffic. After reading his list and clicking through to a few of the blogs, I started to fashion my own list. After listing just a few I realized how easy it would be to add several dozen Christian blogs I have found of interest that would not appear on any lists of top Christian blogs. As Read More …
Associate Pastors & Technology (#0691)
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) recently released its first systematic look at associate pastors in an 88 page report "Associate Pastors in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)." The comprehensive report is based on a 2011 survey of associate pastors and a 2008 & 2009 survey of key leaders. The survey found associate pastors spent an average of 11 hours a week "emailing, text messaging, or using the Internet" in their personal lives. Professionally, these pastors used differing Read More …
Internet Technologies for Discipleship (#0563)
Kelly Walsh, Chief Information Officer at the College of Westchester and seasoned IT professional, recently updated his list of ten internet technologies about which educators should be informed. Walsh's current list has changed dramatically, including only five items from his original list. The new list, in order, follows: video and podcasting resources, digital presentation tools, collaboration and brainstorming tools, blogs and blogging, social networking tools, Read More …
Online Worship: Should My Church Offer It? (#0255)
What it means to be church, especially in the area of worship, has changed dramatically due to recent technological advances. Douglas Estes' SimChurch (2009) continues to be an important book in this emerging field (you can read my review here). In that text Estes focuses on this new way of being church, which he labels third wave. In the first wave churches used the virtual world as a marketing billboard, primarily via a website with little or no interaction. The Read More …