Look Left & Right
Every day as I walk from our offices to the cafe I get a great view of all the progress that is being made on our Chapel & Student Center here at Mariners. Construction is rolling along and we are starting to all get very excited about the things that will begin when these facilities are ready to occupy. The plan for the Student Center calls for a two level basketball court, amazing theaters for services, hang out areas, a recording studio and a skate park. I dare any kid to think that Mariners does not care about them! Our Chapel is going to be a quiet oasis on a busy campus. It will be surrounded by a lake and full of light. It is going to be an amazing space.
As I look at the progress I am reminded of how large our task in ministry is. The construction of a building has a beginning and an end, but we are in the business of building people to be more like Christ, and that is a goal that we are always striving to attain. When I pause to look at the construction I say a prayer for the workers, and thank God for Kenton and the leadership that is willing to stretch this congregation to do something that will really make a difference in the lives of people.
Web 2.1
I’m not sure if that really exists or not… but I feel like I have so many things web related in my brain right now that I need to let some of them out. So here are some random thoughts about the Fellowship One Dynamic Church Conference ‘08 (DC08).
- The team at Fellowship One is amazing… Jeff Hook was off the hook (sorry… couldn’t resist.) Seriously, his passion for the church and for effective ministry leaks out and it makes me want to go home and quadruple our use of the tools he has offered us. Nick, Tim & the rest of the Dev Team are equally passionate, but about things like UI & REST. I think I know a few things about tech until I am around guys like this for a while, then I realize how crucial these guys and their passion are! Curtis Harris talks about Fellowship One like a kid in a candy store. He is passionate about helping us understand all of the new things out there. And could I leave out Steve?? He is a rock star sales guy who cares more about the people whose lives will be changed, than by making a sale.
- I wish I could bottle a conference like this and go home and share it with people. It makes me sad to know that while I am here getting pumped up for all this tool can do… there are meetings taking place at home talking about all the things it cannot do. I am resolved to try and help people see the potential, not the limitations.
- We have a lot of new things to implement in the near future… our website and our data need to reflect who we are as a church. What once seemed like conversations for another day are suddenly becoming much more urgent. If clarity + simplicity = max. impact, then our website needs help. Lots of help.
- There has been lots of discussion in the past few days about social networking and how the church cannot stand idly by and pretend that it does not exist. We need to embrace it to leverage it. If we ignore it we will get left behind. The more we get left behind the further we have to go to catch up.
- The church is in the content creation business, but we allow it to be created and consumed once. We need to figure out how to leverage what we create for more than one use… open source, on demand and mashable all come to mind. What if people did not have to wait for the weekend to hear some teaching or get prayer.
- Huge kick in the butt… “Your website needs to reflect who your church really is… not just where your church is and what time you meet.” Thanks Terry… that one is going to keep me awake tonight.
- One more thing… i miss my girls. That is not really related to anything web 2.1ish… but i do. and this is my blog so I can say whatever I like.
