Lisa Miller is the author of Heaven: Our Enduring Fascination with the Afterlife (2010), and formerly served as religion editor at Newsweek. She recently wrote "My Take: how technology could bring down the church," for CNN's Belief Blog. In this article Miller argues that the printing press was the key technology that enabled the success of the Protestant Reformation and the current move away from print editions of the Bible to digital ones like YouVersion may enable Read More …
Classroom Conversations Go the Way of Social Media (#0372)
Trip Gabriel's recent New York Times article, "Speaking Up in Class, Silently, Using Social Media," explores the uses of backchannels (real-time online dialogue about a speaker or topic) in the classroom. While backchannels are being utilized at all levels of education - from elementary schools to graduate degree programs - the overall adoption rates are low. Those who leverage this new interactive supplement to the learning experience employ a variety of means including Twitter, Read More …
Review of God Is Not a Christian (#0371)
Meet the Author and Editor The Most Rev. Dr. Desmond Tutu was the first black person to serve as General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches and the first to serve as Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa. Tutu is best known for his tireless and effective work to end apartheid. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism in 1986, the Gandhi Peace Prize in 2005, and Read More …
Another Day When the World Didn’t End (#0370)
Harold Camping has been in the news the last several days thanks to his prediction (and his organization's costly campaign to alert the world) that the rapture will occur today at 6:00 p.m. in all time zones. Writing for the Chicago Tribune, Manya A. Brachear explains: Don't mark your calendars yet. Reports that the world will end Saturday are greatly exaggerated, according to many evangelical Christian scholars. For starters, California radio host Harold Camping, 89, president Read More …
Misleading Blog Post Titles (#0369)
I write about matters of faith that matter. Many of the ideas for my posts are birthed by content on blogs I frequent on a regular basis or ones that are recommended by some of my many friends in ministry on Twitter. Over the last few weeks I have encountered a number of misleading blog post titles. While some creativity is essential in crafting titles, it should not extend so far that the title has no real link to the topic(s) addressed. So What? As a result of my recent Read More …
Review of A House for Hope (#0368)
Meet the Authors Rebecca Ann Parker is an ordained United Methodist minister in dual fellowship with the Unitarian Universalist Association who currently serves as president of and professor of theology at Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley, CA. She is the co-author with Rita Nakashima Brock of Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What Saves Us (2001) and Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Read More …
Members as Social Media Advocates (#0367)
Matt Carlisle is a self-described "evangelist for web and social media" who previously served as the executive designer, producer and editor of UMC.org, the official website of The United Methodist Church. He founded Big Heart Design, a web and social media strategy consulting firm, and recently wrote about the importance of local congregations training members to become "your greatest social media advocates." Specifically, he suggests churches would benefit from offering Read More …
Giving Less (#0366)
The Barna Group's latest research suggests that the current economic crisis continues to impact how much Christians contribute to their local congregations. In short: In the immediate aftermath of the economic crisis in late 2008, two out of 10 Americans (20%) had reduced their giving to a church or religious center; three out of 10 (31%) had downsized their giving to other nonprofits. Then, 14 months later, in January of 2010, both measures had increased: three in 10 adults had reduced Read More …
New Ways of Being Church (#0365)
One of many signs of the increasing awareness of the importance of technology for ministry was The Clergy Journal's April/May 2011 edition's theme: Technology and Community: Building Community. Keith Howard, past executive director of the Emerging Spirit initiative of the United Church of Canada, and Aaron McCarroll Gallegos, executive producer of wondercafe.ca, contributed an article entitled "Technology and Community Building," which includes these challenging words: Social media Read More …
It’s Not About . . . (#0364)
Carlos Whittaker describes himself as "an artist, pastor, thinker, experience architect, and Web 2.0 junkie." After serving in local church ministry as Pastor of Worship and Creative Arts at Sandals Church in Riverside California and as Director of Service Programming at Buckhead Church (a campus of North Point Community Church), he signed with Integrity Music and launched a full-time career in the recording industry. Recently he blogged about what the life of faith is not and Read More …