reyes-chow :: FAITH

Top three ways you know technology is killing your church

[image: kmevans]

Okay, the title of this post is slightly over the top.  Sorry, just trying to be provocative ;-)  Technology, while it may do some harm in the wrong hands, it will not KILL the church.  We also know that survival is not the main aim of the church or the foundation of our Christian faith.  We can argue about what that foundation is and how it is expressed*, but I think that most will agree that survival for the sake of survival is not it.  Still, it seems that so many of us want to find ways to "save" the church these days.  Not only are we worried about the pure decline in membership numbers  but then we hear of cultural changes such as reported this new study:

So many Americans claim no religion at all (15%, up from 8% in 1990), that this category now outranks every other major U.S. religious group except Catholics and Baptists. In a nation that has long been mostly Christian, "the challenge to Christianity … does not come from other religions but from a rejection of all forms of organized religion," the report concludes.

Ack, we are dying!  We are loosing people not just to other churches with "right doctrine," but they are leaving to join the church of "no religion."  It is no wonder we are struggling to find ways to stop the bleeding, increase membership and NOT die.  I understand, I really do, no one WANTS to die.  At this same time, when it comes to Christian communities, anything we do that is grounded primarily by a need to survive will ultimately lead to our death, physically and spiritually. 

So, naturally, we try to find ways to grow and be healthy.

One of the things that I have noticed in many conversations about the future of the church with folks is the focus and preoccupation with technology.  Perspectives range from mildly ambivalent to wildly receptive and comes from all demographics.  Some people simply will not be open to or acknowledge the importance of technology; and others, quite frankly do not wish to acknowledge the negatives that can come from an over emphasis on technology.  Now obviously I am one that has embraced the transformational impact that technology can have on communities of faith and their lives in the world, but I am also committed to the integration and use of technology that takes seriously the contexts in which we serve and provide leadership.

So while I would enthusiastically support and encourage any and all church folks to seek out and dive into those places where technology and faith converge, there are some dangers to jumping in without some filters.  With this in mind I have come up with three Tech Death Beliefs that we need to be aware of.  Now some of these are pretty basic and some of you may be offended that I would even think that YOU would think such a thing, but all of these come from experiences, conversations and pretty strong examples of technology gone bad.

Try these three on for size. 

TECH DEATH BELIEF #1 - "If we just increase the use of technology, young people will come to church and we will live again!"
This is insidious thought number one when it comes to technology and the church.  For some reason we are caught in this worldview that it we simple discover the right method, we can structure and build our way into new life and growth.  What this does not account for is the contextual realities and integrity that any community must have in order to be a compelling presence.  In short, the use of technology must at least resemble the technical realities of the communities we serve otherwise, we are putting up a false face to the world, sharing not "who we are", but "who we think you want us to be."  Not only does this contaminate the technology that used, but it boils folks down to one simplistic demographic, "likes technology" when in fact if a community is genuine in its use of technology, "likes authenticity" will be the drawing element.

TECH DEATH BELIEF #2  - "I would rather be plugged into Twitter and Facebook, than doing some of the pastoral care duties that the church expects me to do."
Whenever we pastor-types are unsettled in our call, avoiding conflict or otherwise trying trying to NOT engage in activities that we do not want to do, we find and justify ways to do something else.  For some that might be paying attention only to folks who like us, for others it is thinking up new projects to take time and yet for others, we plug in.  Don't get me wrong, I understand the excitement of engaging in new and creative ministries, but for folks in more traditionally populated churches, the only way our "new fangled myface , twitter world" will gain any traction with those who don't quite get it, is if they still know that, no matter what, their pastor's still put them first.

TECH DEATH BELIEF #3  - "I have never seen a widget I didn't like."
A few weeks ago I did a redesign of this blog because it was beginning to look like the widget trolls had vomited all over my design.  We have all seen them, heck, we have all probably helped to deign them.  You know what I mean, websites, blogs and profiles that are just a mess.   We add graphics galore, use twelve fonts, have no color scheme and some of us *gasp* have music that plays every time one visits.**  To take a quote from Spiderman, "With great power, comes great responsibility" or put another way, just because you have the power, it does not mean you have to use it.   Just as you would not welcome folks into your home in a disaster state, we should take the care and time to present a nice look and feel for those interacting with our online presence.  Now of course, while I am clearly being a tad bit judgmental , if the look of your community is joyfully chaotic, eclectic and otherwise wild, then your website/blog should certainly reflect that.  Do not lie about who you are as a community, but do not do anything that will scare folks off at the outset.  In this day in age, the care and thought you put into your only identity will tel folks a great deal about how you might care for them.

Now obviously none of these things exists in pure form or is embraced with malice, but what is so often missing is one crucial understanding of the use of technology: like any other tool for ministry and communication it is only as powerful as the level in which folks use and embrace it.  Context matters as they say.  If the technology is not part of who you or your community is, it will not be effective in helping to create an atmosphere of health and growth.  But . . . if you find that convergence where the technological air that you and those around you breath meet, there you have moments of grace and growth.

Now if you'll excuse me, I must go and twitter this ;-0

*If you want my statement of faith in 140 characters or less, see my Twitter of Faith.

** Unless you are a musical artists or your website is something like musicwillstartnow.com, please, please, please take off any automatic music playing.

MacWorld Revew: meh

"Meh" pretty much sums up MacWorld this year.

Where to start.  I wish I could say it was exciting and all that, but it simply was not.  Whether it was the lack of any new announcement or THE announcement about Apple pulling out of MacWorld after 2009, the feel was simply not what is has been in the past.

I am not sure I would call it boring, but unless you were looking for some new case for something, seemed like there was very little to experience.  I am sure that is not the case, but with the huge number of case booths the tech energy seemed lacking.

But . . . lucky me I was looking for two cases.

I found a new iPhone cover from iFrogz (pictured above) that I absolute love.  It's sleek look, satin finish and burnt orange color finally sold me among the flood of possibilities.  It still has some grip and I can take it in and out of my pocket with much more ease than my previous silicon wrap. 

The other item I was in search of what a hard case for my Macbook Air.  I was pretty disappointed with the selection overall.  I suppose folks think if you have the Air, you wouldn't want to add anything to it, fair enough.  Still, compared to the iPhone and iPod case selection, not good at all.  I was teased by Speck when I saw that they had a see-through satin finished case, but of couse, not for the Air.  I finally settled on the basic clear case, which after a few days, I really like.  It gives me a little more confidence in handling the Air without fear of dropping or scracthing my dainty techno toy.

While I will still attend MAcWorld because it is in my backyard, I suppose there are folsk for whome the annual trek to mecca is coming to a painful end.  Should be interesting.

Tech Gone Wild

Oh if only . . . ;-)

[Courtesy of Reverendfun.com and h/t: Dwayne Smith]

It's not just us getting hit by the shifts

Now many of you know that I believe that the cultural, social and technological shifts that are happening in the world are the most pressing issues facing the church.  We'll of course it is not just us.  Thanks to Troy Bronsik for pointing me to this great article, Social Media vs. Knowledge Management: A Generational War, on how the generations are finding tension in the technological world as the Millennials moves into places of power.

Venkat using the metaphor of "war" to express what is happening between the movements of Boomers, X'ers and Millennials in the technological communities of "Knowledge Management" folks and those engaged in "Social Media."  First, he posits the following traits from Generation Blend and then He then goes on to explain how these realities, if you buy them, may go on to effect the future.

1. Gen X is Currently Neutral: Crucially — and this is why I am a neutral — neither movement reflects or overtly conflicts with, the values of Gen X (born: 1963 - 1980). I was born in 1974, which should explain why I claim neutral status. This neutrality of Gen X is crucial: they were the foot-soldiers of the top-down KM movement, and are today the leaders and mentors of the bottom-up SM movement, as they move into middle and senior management. Neither set of ideas is due to X’ers in any significant degree. Due to its small size (in the US, there are 78 million Boomers, about 51 million Gen X’ers and about 80 million Millenials) and its fundamentally pragmatic, as opposed to visionary/world-changing mindset, Gen X is the crucial swing vote in this culture war — we don’t have either the personalities or the numbers to dictate how the world should be run, but we are smart enough and numerous enough to make a difference by picking a side. So far, we’ve been neutral. Which way we eventually swing will be the most important element of this war.
2. KM is about ideology, SM is about the fun of building: Salkowitz notes that the Millenials are the first generation since the “Greatest” (WW II veterans, born 1901 - 25) generation that likes to build (social institutions that is). Building for the sheer pleasure of building, and because the possibilities exist. Nothing describes the motivation behind the creation of Facebook better than “because it was possible.” KM on the other hand, arose from a generation that cut its teeth on disestablishmentarianism. The Boomers objected to the world built by the “Greatests” and their kids the “Silents,” (b. 1925 - 45) on moral grounds, and tried to reinvent the world. So they reluctantly “sold out,” went all establishment, and when they finally got those Vice-President titles and a chance to set the agenda, they revived the ideology of their counter-cultural youth and made it corporate policy. KM came from that ethos, and is still more idea than reality. SM, on the other hand, is mostly cool stuff without any grand ideological design behind it (which explains in part why it is so hard to define).
3. The Boomers don’t really get or like engineering and organizational complexity: This is a provocative statement, to be sure, but I stand by it. Yes, some of the most brilliant conceptual advances in information technology came from Boomers. They built the early prototypes behind most of the computing infrastructure of the world (the PARC personal computing pioneers were Boomers for instance). But it was Gen X that actually scaled-up and built-out the complex production-standard IT infrastructure of the world (and thereby learned about complexity by creating it). The Millenials learned to understand complexity even better than us X’ers, by being born into it. By contrast, not only do Boomers not get complexity, they are suspicious of it, thanks to their early cultural training which deifies simplicity. The result of this difference is that Boomer management models rely too much on simplistic ideological-vision-driven ideas. Consider, for instance, the classic Boomer idea of creating “communities of practice” with defined “Charters” and devoted to identifying “Best Practices.” No Gen X’er or Millenial would dare to reduce the complexity of real-world social engineering to a fixed “charter” or presume to nominate any work process as “best.” At best, X’ers and Millenials might create the first iteration target of a Scrum-style sprint and let the charter just evolve. I suspect, as Gen X’ers and Millennial take over, that the idea of vision and mission statements will be quietly retired in favor of more dynamic corporate navigation constructs.
4. The Millennials don’t really try to understand the world: If us X’ers share with the Millenials an appreciation for complexity that the Boomers lack, we share with the Boomers a taste for big-picture synthesis that simply doesn’t seem to attract the Millenials (perhaps they are just too young at the moment). This is a subtle point, so let me try to explain it. The Boomers liked the idea of world views, and tried to frame both what they were for, as well as what they were against (think Star Wars) in monolithic ways. Mental models of the world that a single person could get. James Michener’s The Drifters represents one articulation of such a world view.  Here’s the thing: Millenials fundamentally cannot think this way because of the deeply collaborative nature of their cultural DNA. They seem happy understanding and working with their piece of the puzzle, trusting that the larger body politic will be manifesting and working according to a reasonable understanding of the world. Gen X, in this sense, manages a curious compromise. We like world-views, but as anti-visionaries, we don’t like to just make them up arbitrarily (and definitely not in the form of a novel or the lyrics to a song). Our world view is a pragmatic one that accommodates complexity by trying to make it a very rich, data-driven one. Wikipedia (founded by Gen X’ers, Jimmy Wales, b. 1966, and Larry Sanger, b. 1968) is a classic Gen X-led attempt to understand the world. It has none of the incomprehensible complexity of Facebook-as-implicit-model-of-the-world, but neither does it have the doctrinaire vacuity of typical Boomer manifestos that try to dictate how the world should be, with no real attempt to figure out how it is.
5. Boomers speak with words, X’ers with numbers, Millennials with actions: If you are wondering how a significant corporate cultural war can be in progress without making headlines, it is because the three generations involved process the world with different primary cognitive stances. The Boomers attempt to understand the world with words, and the best they can do is talk to themselves. The Gen X’ers try to avoid conflict by seeking solace in data and a relentless focus on reality. The Millenials are blissfully unaware of larger dynamics and just go ahead and create.

Once you get behind the jargon, this is a fascinating article and one more bit of evidence that the shifts that are happening are not just a phase but a radical movement in the world that we all better begin to understand.

He ends the article with these words that to THIS X'er are potent, when talking about how the war will end.

And it won’t be just a victory of fashion. It will be a fundamental victory of the better idea. SM is an organic, protean, creative and energetic force. KM is a brittle, mechanical, anxiety and fear-ridden structure. It is telling that the biggest KM concern is the potential loss of Boomer knowledge, a backward-looking preservation/archival concern, while the biggest current SM concern is probably the heart-stopping excitement around the possibilities of mobile devices and the potential Web-top-enabling Google Chrome.

Let me end with a personal note that hints at how I was won over by the Millenial creation of Social Media. Back in 2002 or so, in a fit of enthusiasm, I created a virtual community for an organization I was part of, using the rather KM-style early SaaS offering, CommunityZero. When a young, Millenial colleague first enthusiastically told me about wikis, I actually resisted briefly, in a sort of passive-aggressive way, because I didn’t believe such a disorganized approach could work. I was wrong (obviously), and converted.

The tragedy of Gen X is that we will not be remembered as a big-idea generation. We will likely be remembered, via a footnote (much like the Silents), as the generation which made the fateful decision to trust the creativity of the generation following it over the values of the generation that came before.

Take a read of the entire article.  Good stuff.

Advice on creating video

Okay techno playa's . . . as part of my other job I am hoping to be a little creative in the use of video feeds, webcasting, etc. over the time of my term.  I'll be using ustream.tv, gotomeeting.com and skype as much as possible to appear at events, talk with groups, etc. but not everyone is able to set up a live feed.  With this in mind,  I have also offered to do some pre-recorded video for some celebration and events that I can't attend in person -- why folks want me there in a whole other issue, but stay with me here -- but want to lend the support and visiablity of the moderator's office.  I am able to do that right now with a variety of means, but thought I would see if there are some other great/easy ways to record, edit and publish that I have not thought of.

Here is what I have to work with:

• MacBook Pro w/built in camera
• Snowball Mic
• Headset/Mic Combo
• Flip Camera
• All basic Mac software

Here is what I want to do:

• Sit down
• Record Video
• Edit/Format
• Send to event
• Publish

So for you who are truly tech-heads, what would you do? 
Other advice and/or ideas?

Thanks in advance!

Advice for me and my 3G?

Yes, I am taking one more step deeper into the cult that is Mac.  If all goes well with some phone account gymnastics, there is a pretty good chance that in the next few days I will be in possession of a new 3G iPhone.  I know that there are some image/status issues going on here, so sue me, I like my mac and have fully gone over to the Jobs darkside.   I will not bore you with my justifications, it is what it is.  Google and Mac kinda own my organizational life.

The thing that makes me really nervous about the whole iPhone thing is that I have never really been a "phone guy" before.  I text some, but for the most part all of my online interaction has been via my lap top.  I wonder if I will be online more now and via what interface.  I so do like my MacBook Pro, so we'll see how fast I make the transition to using my phone more often.  Whereas before I could simply close my computer and exit bloglandia, now I will have to be even more disciplined about not interacting every single dingle second of the day.  Yeah, good luck with that.

But on we go.  So to help me get off on the right foot, I turn to those of you who have already learned the art of the iPhone.  Please feel free to offer your insights:

• What apps should I download?
• What usage or software advice do you have for using the iPhone most productively?
• What accessories, gadgets or add-ons have you found useful?
• Anything else you wish you knew when you first got yours?

I have a friend who blogged about the experience of his wife getting her iPhone, The iPhone 3G experience, so if you have other links and or stories to share, please do.

Thanks in advance my geekyfantastic friends!

Now I know I have made it

I guess this is the ultimate test of whether or not I really trust the whole Open Source thing as I just made Wikipedia.  Trip.  I can't wait to see what, if anything, is done to it.  I also wonder who started this listing.  I swear it twas not I.  Edit away my friends, edit away!

MacSpeech Dictate Review

You are in trouble now.

I am writing this blog using my new software MacSpeech Dictate. I remember back in the day we used to use Dragon. That was about as clunky as you can get. During my MacWorld visit I purchased a MacSpeech Dictate and am very satisfied. If any of you have wanted to use a voice recognition software this one works great with my Mac .  Two thumbs up. And it doesn't even pick up my eldest child and her friend mocking me from the other room. ;-)

As far as accuracy, it is excellent. Very little setup time and all the commands actually make sense.  If you get it, it also comes with a great headset, though I did learn that the input on my MacBook is a line-in and not a microphone jack, so the USB adapter must be used.

I will probably use it most as I thinking sermons, speeches and other stuff that i am doing to gear up for the last few months of the Moderator journey.

All-in-all good times!

Two tips for dealing with Facebook Apps

I heard someone recently talk about the MySpaceazation of Facebook when dealing with all the apps that are on some people's profiles.  Now I am not one to talk, but really people, it should not look like the Application Elves puked all over my screen when I visit your profile. I am just saying.

So here are two things you can do . . .

View applications with "Clean Profile" - This is a great application which allows you to do two things: one, it allows folks to view your profile without all the schwag that you have added AND, two, you can view other people's profiles without all the schwag they have added.  This is particularly helpful when you can even find a person's freaking Wall.  Grrrrrr.

Dealing with Application Invitations . . . Ever wonder why you keep getting invitations to the same darn application over and over again?  Well, it is probably because you keep ignoring them.  Go ahead and add away to stop the onslaught of app invitations.  Here is one way to handle these invitations other than flat our ignoring or blocking them.   If you REALLY don't want to participate, but still want access, be sure to check/uncheck the correct boxes when you add the app.  When I get an app invitation, I usually check everything except the ones that will clutter up a profile.  The "Place a link in my left-hand navigation bar" is important to keep if you ever plan on using or adjusting the settings for this app.

Like so . . .

That's all for now.  For those of you who really do like to add every app under the sun, please at last make your Wall - yes, the normal, original boring one - easily findable.  The Wall posts are central to the whole FB experience, so make it easy on us.

One good Flip

"Flip"  has been used in many ways in talking about people from the Philippines* **.  In this case, however, I am talking about my newest tech toy, the Flip Video.  With Comp USA going out of business, I picked up this little gem a few weeks back for 25% off.  You simple shoot the video and plug it into your computer ready to upload to wherever. 

Yes, video is THAT easy. 

It comes in a 30 and 60 minute version and is about as big as fat deck of cards.  If you saw the video from my last post, it handles the job just fine!

* Also known as Pinoy/Pinay, Pilipino and Filipino over the years, for more info see the Urban Dictionary's entry for Flip.
** No matter your take on the term, if you are not Filipino, you are not allowed the use the term, just FYI.