MyChurch.org – community site for churches (and people)

While looking for more stuff online about the Rick Klau talk I mentioned earlier, I came across this post that mentioned MyChurch.org and it’s beta launch next week.  Immediately I went to visit the site.  It let me sign up for an account, even though the site refers to it being in private beta and the beta period starting next week.  Give it a try.

It allows both individuals and churches to set up profiles there.  It also appears that churches will be able to blog, podcast, and maybe even do video podcasts there.  Individuals can identify the church they belong to and join that church community.  I looked for Bethel Lutheran and they are not listed yet.  It also allows individual members to submit the information for a church (if it’s not already found) so the church can have a profile set up.

A very interesting idea, and one that I might not have given a second thought to if I hadn’t just listened to Rick Klau’s talk about reaching out using the internet.

Review: Sufjan Stevens

Recently a friend of mine asked if I’d heard of Sufjan Stevens. His daughters were fans, and he was trying some of his music. He had a particular track off of a particular CD that he recommended. I replied I had heard of him somewhere (later recalling it was reading about him in an issue of Relevant Magazine), and that the youth director at my church had mentioned him several times as one of her favorite artists. I borrowed the CD from the church youth director and gave it a try.

Preaching to the Wired

Via this post at ChurchMarketingSucks.com:

Rick Klau is the Vice President of Business Development for Feedburner. He recently spoke at the ELCA Communicator’s Conference in Chicago on August 4, 2006. His topic was “Preaching to the Wired” – about how churches can and should use modern communication mechanisms to communicate and reach out. The total lengh is approximately 75 minutes, but it is well worth it. I’ve listened to it completely once, listened to parts of it several times, and I’ll probably listen to it several more times to make sure I absorb all he has to say. The link to the RealAudio streaming file can be found here. It is listed under August 4.

These are some of the quick notes I made during my first pass at listening to it while writing code at work:

Points to frame the discussion:

If you’re on the internet, and you’re not on MySpace, you’re not on the Internet.

If your evangelizing, and you’re not evangelizing through the use of blogs, podcasts, video blogs, or Second Life, then you aren’t fully evangelizing.

—

Not just about communicating to young people – The fastest growing demographic of people with internet access is retirees. They are often consuming the most amount of information online due to the amount of free time they have during the day. This is not just “how to reach the young people”.

For anyone under the age of 20, more than 2/3 of the messages they send or receive are via IM.

Weblogs are just websites that are arranged chronologically in reverse chronological order. Weblogs are Google’s “drug of choice”.

Typical church website:
Service hours
Map of location
Driving directions
List of staff

How likely are people to link to that? Not very likely. Must have original, relevant content to be linked to.

Smokin’!

I read on the Dallas Observer Blog Unfair Park about a website called Smokin’ a Phattie. No, it’s not about what you think, and it’s completely work safe. It’s like a MySpace for people that like to grill. Wow.

A kick in the behind

So during my morning quiet time I’ve been reading Hebrews. Today was chapter 6. Verses 1-3 were a real kick in the behind (quoted from The Message version):

So come on, let’s leave the preschool fingerpainting exercises on Christ and get on with the grand work of art. Grow up in Christ. The basic foundational truths are in place: turning your back on “salvation by self-help” and turning in trust toward God; baptismal instructions; laying on of hands; resurrection of the dead; eternal judgment. God helping us, we’ll stay true to all that. But there’s so much more. Let’s get on with it!

I assist (and sometimes annoy) the youth director at my church with various high school youth group stuff. Tonight our weekly youth group (Word on Wednesday, a.k.a. WoW) starts back up after a summer break. What a Godincidence it is that I read that passage today. And I read it in the Message Bible that they gave me about a hear and a half ago for Christmas.

It finally pays off to live in the city of Dallas

My coworkers hate me. I live in the city of Dallas, in Lake Highlands – neighborhood was built in the late 1950s. We have very large trees everywhere. My house gets lots of shade. Even though our electric bill is much higher than years past, it isn’t nearly as high as some of my coworkers that live in the new suburbs without any trees. They hate me.

Also, I get to water every day outside of the hours of 10:00 am – 6:00 pm. They are all restricted on hours AND the day of the week. Their lawns are dead. Mine is green. They hate me.

Then they try to get back at me by pointing out the Dallas Independant School District.  I reply that I’m in the part of Dallas that’s in the Richardson Independent School District.  HA!

Then they point out the city council and the mayor.  Touche.

Final score: 3-1 in my favor.

Pipe-cleaner dancer

This was amusing for a good 5-10 minutes.  Make the pipe-cleaner man dance.