Time To Change... For Economic Sake?

Governor Daniels is calling for anecdotal feedback about economic reasoning to support one position or the other, regarding the proposed time-change.

Perhaps it's time for the Church to weigh in. Hmmm. How MIGHT we land on the issue of changing our clocks twice a year?

Fundamentalists:
"No mention of DST in the Bible = No. "

Presbyterians:
"Que sera, sera. "

Mainline:
"We already have some pastors up on charges of change."

Baptists:
"We referred the matter to our 'No Change' Committee."

Pentecostals:
"We voted by a show of hands. Both sides won. "


But are there ECONOMIC reasons for taking a position?

Absolutely!

Just do the math: 6.2 million residents of Indiana x appx 60% who normally attend church in any given week = 3.72 million people... times the high percentage of those who would use it as an easy "Oh-my-gosh-the-clocks-changed" excuse twice a year to miss church. Now multiply that by how much money such people would have put into the offering plate... and we quickly see that the churches in Indiana would lose a grand total of.... about $2 a year.


Seriously, Governor...

How about the OBVIOUS reasons, economically, to change time?

Whether or not we're personally supportive of changing our clocks or not, is there anyone among us who believes that Indiana will not eventually... maybe not this time but eventually... enact Daylight Savings Time into law? Anyone? Please, step up. Anyone?

Seeing none, we can quickly start projecting the costs involved with state senators & representatives, governors, and all the rest of us who spend time debating it.... times minimum wage $rate... for X number of years (til it finally gets passed anyway) ...

...adds up to a ton of wasted money by a state that can little afford it.

So let's stop wasting precious time and money debating the inevitable, pass it into law, and do what every other state has done... learned to live with it... and get on with our REAL job here.

Changents...


[Here's a significant step in the progress of the Christian Scorecard approach to helping ministry leaders accomplish their mission... by measuring their mission... and its prioritized working components.]

As we're preparing for Saturday's "Building Blocks for Church Growth" seminar, we had to finally lock down our 'collaborative identity'... and this is it. What do you think? Still better than "The Three Magi", wouldn't you say? LOL.

The 3 founders of "Changents" are Jim Peters (Peterspective), Jeff Hancock (Affinity Portals) and myself. .. all Christians... all change-agents geared to accelerating ministry.

This first seminar should be fun. Now let's see just how much help the American church believes it needs, when it comes to changing into what Jesus called us to be in our 21st-Century culture.

Click, Clack, Moo... Cows That Type...

My wife had this children's book out yesterday and it caught my (kindergarten-level, LOL) attention. It'll someday be considered a classic among new-paradigm children... subtly but humorously learning about the power of publishing.

Here's the same theme, "The Blogging Phenomenon: Who? How? Why?"... expressed by the Digital Divide Network. [hat-tip, Bill Bean, "The Unnecessary Pastor"]

And finally, from the monied perspective... here's Fortune magazine's "Why You Can't Ignore Bloggers".

Now, for those of you who might be urban pastors & leaders -- I'm offering private help, over a cup of coffee, to help you start a personal or ministry website such as these articles describe that will be free & easy to post to... without having to rely on your webmaster. The suggested donation of $25 will go toward urban technology. It's win-win. Call 317-490-1255 or email for an appt.

"Click, Clack, Amen -- Pastors That Type".

Rudy Carrasco, our good friend at UrbanOnramps.com (Harambee Center, L.A.) has been pressed into service for Christianity Today magazine, to run their new Tsunami Blog.

[hat-tip to EmergencyBlog.com]

Internet Blog Quiz....

Take this short quiz to help us with the upcoming January 17th "Innovation Forum" on blogging & RSS feeds.

Net proceeds from the special forum on MLK holiday will specially benefit urban technology. What pastors/leaders take home that day may start benefitting their ministry for years to come.

So thank in advance for your help. And if you send other surfers our way, so much the better.

Blogging Bandwagon...

Admittedly because of year-end reflections here and elsewhere around the internet, I've recently devoted an extra (did I admit to excessive?) attention to 'blogging'. So the following may seem like 'piling-on'... but here goes anyway...

Pew Internet & American Life Project reports :
"By the end of 2004 blogs had established themselves as a key part of online culture. Two surveys by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in November established new contours for the blogosphere: 8 million American adults say they have created blogs; blog readership jumped 58% in 2004 and now stands at 27% of internet users; 5% of internet users say they use RSS aggregators or XML readers to get the news and other information delivered from blogs and content-rich Web sites as it is posted online; and 12% of internet users have posted comments or other material on blogs. Still, 62% of internet users do not know what a blog is."


...thus supporting my belief that it's important to hold TWO symposium/training session for pastors, leaders and other 'driven Christians' on coping/excelling in the new paradigm... January 15th, "Change, Risk, Availability: Building Blocks for Growth"... and the January 17, Innovation Forum specifically re: Blogs/RSS

Websites of Clay...

Paul described us as 'jars of clay'. Perhaps the analogy carries over to our Christian websites as well.

In the new paradigm, our critics now believe they can generalize about our hearts by reviewing our websites:

"Christian right's compassion deficit:
More than 100,000 dead in south Asia,
but it's business as usual at the web sites of America's
Christian right organizations." (Berkowitz)

Obviously Berkowitz has overlooked 'the elephant in the room'. Nonetheless, Christians... after we get done being among the first & most effective on the tsunami scene, and most generous from our pocketbooks, let's learn what we can from his criticism and take another look at our web capabilities... so as to more adequately 'preach what we practice'.

Perhaps we could at least start with a world-wide call to Christian webmasters everywhere to include a simple display-capability into (all?) their webpages -- a clickable dynamic-alert-gif, say like this one...


Normally it would simply be an invisible 'pixel.gif' (coming from a centralized site, say at CEN)... until replaced during an emergency with an informational warning image like the one above.

Or for that matter, perhaps we should implement a thin, standardized (invisible) top-bar as a potential emergency dashboard, complete with clickable Christian & governmental warning lights & RSS-fed announcements, 'soundable' at both national and community levels.

These clickable icons could readily focus our web-attention toward coordinating information and relief efforts.

[Btw, also see related CEN article at CCNews.org.]

And let's also continue working together locally -- community by community -- to build-out something like the

WhenYouNeedSomeone.com
localized needs-driven Christian resource network system... with life's most valuable resource always only a click away.

Admittedly, these sites are immature at best, but with the Christian blogosphere growing daily, and with the buzz regarding the coming of a special "Internet Evangelism Day" -- drawing attention to how Christians can and should use this new God-given tool -- the standardized alert-bar concept could easily start asap, and be somewhat perfected by IE Day, April 24, 2005.

Btw, here in Indy on the campus of Crossroads Bible College, a special Innovation Forum on MLK holiday (Jan.17, 2005) will be devoted to helping pastors & leaders cope (and excel) in the new (blog/RSS) communication world we live in. Then, April 1st & 2nd, Liberty University is hosting a special Internet Conference, leading toward IE Day. Any or all of these gatherings could be useful in prospering such a concept.


And as always, remember to pray for your communities regularly. If you're fortunate enough to have the government **smile** sound a 'Community Prayer Siren' each week, so much the better. Btw, this might not be a bad idea for a test mechanism of the system proposed above... And frankly, it may also help many of us remember to pray regularly for our communities, neighbors, leaders & other heroes.

Please leave your thoughts here as comments, or email me.

Tsunami Blog...
As I attempt to journal significant developments of the paradigm-change, surely this may be one such development. Much as the Iraqi war bloggers brought us first-hand compelling updates & stories that moved us, now the tsunami disaster has initiated a number of ground-zero blogs to aid in information exchange to expedite disaster relief, this is a major one.

[See Christian network of distaster-resources listed at TransformIndiana.org.]

[hat-tip, Bill Bean Blog: "The Unnecessary Pastor"]

Earthquake/Tsunami Relief...

Wish you knew how best to provide urgent relief in this situation? The 'Transform Indiana' network offers this wise counsel.

Top 5 blog-posts of 2004...

[Hat-tip to InternetforChristians.org]

Bob Carlton (The Corner) is collecting Top-5's around the blogosphere. Makes for best-in-class reading here at year-end.

And maybe it's a good exercise for all of us -- whether it's a family newsletter at Christmas or blog-posts -- what were some of this year's items worth reconsidering?

Given it was an election year, not surprisingly several of my 'Top 5' here at LovingChange.com were reflections on cultural issues in an election year:

#5 "Most Pro-Gay Presidential Candidate Ever"
His campaign's words, not mine.

#4 "Who Are His Wise-Counselors Anyway?"
Are Muslims going to heaven? Bush: "Yes".

#3 "Intolerant Indy"
Blog challenges Indianapolis Star glaring omission... and implication.

#2 "What More Could A (White) Evangelical Ask For?"
Post-election call for a clear-cut choice for ALL Bible-believing Christ-followers.

#1 "We Can Do Something About All This."
The Bible's clear prescription for change.

President Bush Encourages Cross-hating Group?

(WorldNetDaily.com)
Oops!
Interesting article; we'll no doubt hear more from this episode. Stay tuned.

"Decoding Da Kid"... A Parent's Guide To Internet Lingo

(click pic)
Sounds great! Maybe Stephen & Sybil will be at our Innovation Forum, Jan. 17 ???

[Sybil & Stephen carry on several ministries to our area, including Heart Communications and FishersWorship.com, to name a few.]

[Hat-tip, IndyStar.com]

"City Impact"...

Perfect gift to your city for Christmas!

[I'll try to soon update this with a much more adequate review of the book, but I'm half way through it and can't keep it quiet -- Buy one for your favorite pastor in your favorite city.]

Transform Indiana takes networking up a notch...

...by adding a team of "Blue Heelers Bloggers".

Building Blocks For Growth...


Here's a seminar I've been asked to help with... for pastors, administrators and board-members. It should be interesting... grappling with the issues of how to implement 'change' and still do things in a 'fitting & orderly manner'.

IBM to send PCs packing...

For those of you who thought yesterday's runaway word ('blog') was hard...

Today try "Vic20, Trash-80, Commodore, Kaypro, 2e, Wang or Visicalc". Were those easier? If so, you're probably as sad to see 'Charlie' go, as I am.

But Forbes has it pegged.

The Runaway Word of the Year is....



"Blog".

Having discovered 'blogs' in the new dictionary this morning, Bill Gates announced blog software for MSN, instead calling them "Spaces", and will be re-inventing RSS feeds by his name... "Gleams". The concepts are being beta-tested at his home this morning, and are due to roll out to the marketplace... approximately... well... um... before Google moves on to their next winning venture. [Google purchased Blogger.com in 2003 -- prior to its IPO on Wall Street.]

Patches for Spaces & Gleams are already downloadable at Microsoft.com... and are called 'NewImprovedTide'.

Forbes Magazine intimates that the software giant may be a bit tardy to the blog banquet.

_________

In late breaking news, Microsoft announces a hasty move of their corporate headquarters to Indianapolis purportedly to accelerate their R&D learning-curve. Unreliable sources report that board chairman Gates has registered (under the alias 'Rev. William Gates', First Church version1.03) for the upcoming "Innovation Forum" there on January 17th.

"Internet Evangelism for the 21st Century"...

The "Internet Evangelism for the 21st Century" conference will be held at Liberty University Apiril 1-2, 2005. This conference expects to draw attendees from the 8,000 member residential student body as well as pastors and leaders from Central Virginia and beyond. LU's state of the art wireless campus is an ideal venue for IE-21st Century. For more information visit http://ie-21stCentury.com and/or email Professor Daniel Henrich at mediastrategy@readmail.biz.

Journal Note: The "B-word"...

CNN.com carried a story last week. The Indianapolis Star carried a story the week before. And this morning my pastor actually said it from the pulpit...

...the B-word .

There's no retreating. Life as we know it, will never be the same.

[Mark your calendar for January 17. We're going to help pastors and leaders here in Indy learn to cope with it. Stay tuned.]

Internet E-Day...

Patricia's Story... pretty much says it all. So I've marked my calendar for April 24, 2005. See you online.