I love church planters and I love cutting edge, innovative ministry. I’m encouraged by the growth of a kind of Christianity that calls us back to the New Testament model of worship and ministry as we head into the turbulent waters of this next decade. But I’m concerned with what I perceive sometimes to be youthful arrogance, and this concern includes myself.
Social media. What in the world is it? Well, think about it. “Social” has to do with people who converse, gather, and relate to each other. “Media” is any platform for spreading any message. Mass media is speaking to the masses through radio, television, etc. Print media is magazines, newspapers, and other printed periodicals. Social media, then, is promoting a message through people, and the phrase is typically used in reference to online media outlets.
I’m a firm believer that the rise of social media is a revolutionary moment for the church’s ministry. We’ll either embrace it (as we did print media and mass media) or we’ll begin to fade (as perhaps we are already doing). John Saddington runs a couple of great blogs and wrote a pertinent article related to why churches don’t “get” social media.
Before you read it, know that I don’t always get it either. I’ve learned a few tough lessons recently, and find it hard to keep up at times, but I’m determined to be a student of a movement that absolutely must be embraced and studied by thinkers and leaders in the kingdom today.
Tonight is VISION NIGHT at Bethel. That simply means I’m sharing my vision for Bethel in the year 2009 – what I believe God has placed on my heart as the leader of the congregation for us to emphasize and accomplish in the next twelve months or so. (I will post the audio later.) What I’m sharing will be the overflow of a lot of what I’ve been reading, studying, and praying about lately and what I shared at the BMAA Missions Symposium. And this, which was written in 1953 by an Episcopal priest named Theolore Wedel…
I find that I often think about Christianity, church leadership, and church growth in terms that are a bit different than my own traditions and background. So does Ed Stetzer and so does Dave Putman. It’s rare that I’m able to really articulate well my own feelings about what it means to live a redemptive lifestyle in a fallen culture.
One great example of this is that I often feel just a bit guilty when people ask why we don’t have an organized visitation program or an evangelism training program along the lines of Evangelism Explosion or FAITH. I had to dog-ear Ed’s thoughts about this:
Wow, the media has really enjoyed this particular debacle. The gay rights movement is up in arms over Barack Obama’s choice of Rick Warren to pray the invocation at his inauguration in January. This results primarily from Rick’s endorsement of Proposition 8, which is essentially a protection of the definition of marriage as between one man and one woman for the state of California.
I don’t envy Rick for being thrown into such a firestorm. He’s been been accused of spreading hate and of being a homophobe. I see it as kind of a defining moment in American culture over the issues of homosexuality and tolerance. If any American Pastor has made an attempt to nurture fair and balanced discussion on social and political issues, it’s Rick Warren. Call him what you will, he desires to dialog with people on both sides of the aisle. He released this statement regarding the whole affair:
Brandon is first and foremost a follower of Jesus Christ. He's a husband to Angie and a Dad to Ella Grace and Samuel David. He's a Pastor to Bethel Baptist Church, Editor of Fuel Your Blogging and also a logo and web designer.
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