Wrigley, Snickers, and Buffett... a Winning Combination

Oh, and a World Series win.

Have You Heard?

Here's the 'piece de resistance' of my typical week. It's 'Ask Anything Saturday'... at the Unleavened Bread Cafe...



Special hat-tip to this segment's producer...



Ellen Spencer, Graphics & Design. Ellen was one of our completers of Crossroads Bible College's "New Media for Urban Change" course -- learning to implement today's tools to help transform lives & communities in the name of Jesus Christ.

The 'Ask Anything Saturday' internet-training program is just one of the weekly activities at the cafe, which is a multicultural ministry serving their neighborhood (truly) in the heart of Indy's inner city. At 10am each week several volunteers come have breakfast with cafe neighbors, and get to know them as they interact, asking many questions about the internet. And we tend to learn from each other along the way.

It's a lot of fun as you can see from the video. In this particular case, while we're waiting a few weeks for construction in the community room to finish, we were test-driving a new little camcorder and taking turns with it -- could you tell? LOL. Lots to be learned from this first venture with it, huh? *smile*

These volunteers have become known fondly as the 'Indy Christian Geeks', deploying the 'Each One Teach One' methodology... and thus neighbors now are showing other neighbors how to surf, email, and even publish online using the AskAnythingSaturday.com wiki.

Catch the vision: If you look across the citywide 'Church @ Indianapolis' and see the digital divide, the multicultural divide, and God's eternal divide... all starting to close... you might be seeing just a little of the impact of this little cafe in the heart of Indy.

[Stay tuned... it will also soon be felt on the eastside, as two new community computing centers are joining in... Victory Village Shoppe and the Kingdom Cafe.]

And it's (nearly) all for free. While you have to pay a little for the best pancakes in town, the cafe offers free hugs, free smiles and free wifi. And the training is also free. Oops, I mean $1 million... unless you train someone else. And anyone can help. Or Ask. Any Saturday.

"How To PAY ATTENTION... in an Information Explosion"

[click to the slideshow] [or the video]

Thanks to Scott Wilder creating video-clips from today's BarCamp Indy 2008... thus making this post possible...

My presentation was deliberately scheduled to the be last one of the day, hoping that we'd be able to consider all the new technologies we learned today -- and it was a ton -- yet still be able to be able to distill it all down to the 'useful few' that can truly help us prioritize our daily actions.

At least that was the goal. *smile*

In an interesting twist of 'fate' (providence), my friend Alex Conner presented immediately before me... on virtually the same topic... called "Simplifying Your Life... In Spite of Technology". Alex took the exact opposite approach that I took... LOL... primarily running his daily activities through his MS Outlook. So, you'll see, as the video starts, we're kidding about starting the "First Annual BarFight Indy". LOL.

Enjoy the video (no slides).

Enjoy the slideshow.

[Subsequent note: We cover this topic in "New Media for Urban Change" course, and have now inserted another academic video there which you'll very likely want to see, as well as some emerging articles on the topic.]

Comments anyone?

It's finally here... 'BarCamp Indy 2008' !!!

'BarCamp Indy 2008' is finally here!

Welcome. It's an 'unconference'. It's unconventional. It's unexpensive. We ARE the presenters. We make our own rules. And we pay ourselves -- ie, it's FREE!

And it's all about LEARNING from each other... about TECHNOLOGIES. We have short presentations, each followed by intense fast-paced discussion.

And it's about trying something different -- practicing our flexibility, to enhance our ability to 'innovate'.

You can see more in the wiki today. And stay tuned at BarCampIndy.org.

You'll see there, for instance, that we're STREAMING LIVE TODAY... and we plan to archive videos from today's presentations.

And everyone who's blogging, photo-blogging, video'ing, etc.... is tagging their items as 'BARCAMPINDY'. Check out who's doing what!

*****************

Me personally? I'm blogging & tagging things a number of places.... but actually taking notes in our 'Ask Anything Saturday' wiki as SHOW-NOTES for today's internet-tv broadcast.

Jesus said it first: "Tweet Others...."

[Lord forgive me... but surely you knew it was coming....]

"Tweet others... as you would have them tweet you."

Ok, I've been following some of my innovative friends who are major advocates for Twitter. It's not merely my 'monkey-see-monkey-do' mentality -- sometimes I just don't understand things right off, but I greatly respect the person strongly recommending it. [You ever do that?]

So I signed up at Twitter.com (as 'indychristian' -- what else?). And I've toyed with it from time to time, not really catching on just yet. And frankly, I'm STILL not positive I know how the Lord would want me to use it in my own personal information strategy. But again, it's because I so highly respect these guys ahead of me. So sometimes I somewhat blindly stand on their shoulders. 'Faith', huh? But not BLIND FAITH... they have a reputation of coming-through for me. [Got any friends like that?]

And btw, in the past, that's usually worked out really really well. Choose your friends wisely, my parents always told me. When I've done that, it's worked well. When I haven't, it hasn't.

Ok, so Twitter is incredibly simple. Too simple even, for me to catch onto very quickly as to why it could POSSIBLY be so valuable. If you go there and sign up, you'll see it pretty much allows you to make a one-line message available to anyone who 'follows' you... ie, your group of friends. Think of it perhaps as a status-update. "I'm headed to http://UBcafe.com", for instance. Or... "We just went live at http://AskAnythingSaturday.TV." These 'tweets' can even go through to my friends' cell-phones, if they've set it up to do so.

Seems innocuous enough. Nobody has to 'follow' you if they don't want to. So really, it's only for those who really MIGHT, for who knows what reason, WANT to 'follow' me. Funny thing though -- innovators LIKE to follow others, to see what's fresh, new and should be tried. After all, the speed of life has accelerated -- and the only good way to stay up on important matters is to collaborate with others who prioritize similarly... and share their lives with you.

Hmmm. There's bound to be a Bible lesson here somewhere.

Anyway... today perhaps I understand a little more about the value of Twitter as a quick communication tool among social-connected innovative types. I realized that it MIGHT be a great tool for quickly spreading an important message, and helping it to then spread virally further. I'll tweet a short message and cite a particular site to go to. And whoever believes it's important enough to pass it on, does so.... and adds their link at the bottom of the page being tweeted.

Example: Today I tweeted... "Tweet Others... http://cityreaching.pbwiki.com/Community+TV"... alerting them to the Community TV concept that just went LIVE... [and it's using national collaborative wiki so we could work TOGETHER on it.] If anyone cares, they can likewise pass it on, and add their link at the bottom, effectively endorsing the concept. AND... it's an indication of who are our most 'collaborative' types who like working together to reach our cities for Christ.

In fact... visit "TweetOthers.com" to follow the crowd to whatever site might be spreading virally at the moment. [You'd like to help?]

Oh, oh oh oh oh.... here's a Bible lesson...

"Jesus, thank you for taking the weight of my sins and letting me stand on your shoulders as the only way I could ever hope to reach heaven. May I someday learn and be able to emulate your self-sacrificial nature. Amen.

Video: "Christmas at the Coxes"

Humor: "Facebook For Old Folks"... Feb. 27, 2008

[I wish I could take credit for this, but I can't. Hat-tip to Chris Forbes.
Click to visit the site and read some of the hilarious entries there.]



******************

Those of you who know me know that I have a special affinity for helping train our senior citizens. After all, I AMMMM one according to AARP -- but unfortunately not per my favorite restaurant or the IRS.

So I've been asked to do an internet presentation for our friends at the Mid-North Shepherd Center, February 27th. Come join us. But you'd better bring your ID -- They card! *wink*

Personal Internet Coaching Available...

If you're reading this page, chances are good that you already know my heart for helping 'driven Christians' learn & leverage the power of this new ministry tool we call the internet.


Neil Cox, Founder, IndyChristian.com
Blews.Network, and CityReaching.org

If you recognize a need for getting your skills sharpened, perhaps a $50 house-call could help you get a jump-start toward one or more of these proficiencies...

• email efficiency.
• wireless at home or ministry.
  
• getting your ministry site seen.
• or your sermons heard.
• obtain an online 'spokesperson' for your site.
  
• understand 'why' Facebook... and help you get started.
  
• save & share 'tags' with your ministry staff or even with your church members.
  
• starting your own blog, podcast or video-cast.

In fact, here's a quick win...

• We'll develop an RSS feed for your ministry TODAY...
  to help people automatically stay abreast of new articles, announcements, sermons, photos & videos at your site.
  

[Guarantee: How far we can get in any one coaching session varies person-by-person. But satisfaction is guaranteed for any session -- we're trying to create a situation where there's virtually no way for you to lose.]

Group training rates available.

And we have a ton of other technologists available depending on your needs.

So just call... 317-490-1255 (cell me anytime)

"The Audience Is Up To Something."

Definitions shift. Or perhaps more to the point, people shift. And technologies shift. We tend to lump it all together and tritely call it the 'paradigm-shift'. Or we lean on the current buzzword, 'new media'. It somehow distinguished itself from 'old media' or mainstream media.

Or at least, it used to.





Also read... "The Audience Is Up To Something"... at The Long Tail.

And importantly, some of us discuss it in the setting called 'The Church'... ie, the body of Christ-followers.

The stereotypical discussion has gone like this... Pastors holding the Sunday microphone are being drowned out by blogging members who are often cynical of that highly-controlled institutional voice... and its staid consequences: mediocrity and ineffectiveness in the (real) mission at hand... the Whole Commission.

Seven days a week, these bloggers comprise 'the long tail' of The Church... and some even foretell of a coming 'revolution'... a day of reckoning... when the (not really) 'local' church will become more accountable to the scriptural model we read about in the New Testament. They describe an 'interactive' model of The Church. One where multiple inputs and spiritual gifts are valued.... and made available to each other throughout the congregation. You know, like the Bible describes.

Remarkably, to their credit some pastors have readily embraced this new user-level tool. They've created blogs themselves. And some have become very popular -- their digital voice now reaching many times more listeners than their church microphone.

But allow me to ask for your discernment about the heart and hinge of this very matter...

Question: At what point does a 'blog' become just another controlled institutional voice?

That is, when does it become just another ONE-WAY mechanism? (albeit cleverly leveraging this low-cost, hi-speed tool-of-choice of the common man)

I suggest this may well occur when its sound becomes as finely tuned as their microphone, such that no feedback enters the sound-system. It's a pure stream. The signal-to-noise ratio is superb. And the blog-er is elated.

But is the Church? And is the mission well served?

This week, a USA Today article [ht:MondayMorningInsights] references SBC President Frank Page -- who soared to power on the wings of the blogosphere... but now has "soured on the blogs' incendiary approach to issues of church governance and religious expressions."

Page: "For Christ's sake, stop."

Sure, Frank. Now that blogging has served your purposes. You're now atop the SBC leadership hill. Let's turn off the comments.

Not dissimilarly, popular reformed blogger Adrian Warnock reports... "It is now almost a week since I made the decision to stop comments here on the blog. In the next few days I will also be deleting all the old ones. I have to say that, so far, I have not missed them."

And he goes on to make the stereotypical case of 'the guy who buys ink by the barrel', or the pastor who preaches from a one-way microphone. He's busy. He can't be bothered by the masses who follow him.

Adrian says II Timothy 2:22-26 has encouraged him in this approach. Interesting... What about this portion of it...

"And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness."

Ok, we all realize 'comments' can be troublesome at times. [translation: time-consuming]. But likewise emails. And phone calls. And children. And hospital visits. [...not to mention that thing of the past called 'home visits'.]

So where is wisdom here? Perhaps the same place it's always been...

"Be quick to listen. Slow to speak. And slow to become angry."

Listen to this perhaps... 96% of American adults have spoken. They don't hold to a biblical worldview. [Barna Research]

Given 200 years of 'the American experiment', the traditional church model has become at best, 4% effective. And our cities look like it. Something has to change. And that something is us... the Church.

So I ask you, pastors.... Have you been deploying the best possible learning mechanisms in your church or blog? Research has consistently shown that 'lectures' produce very little 'learning'. Even using the best of technologies, one-way communication is seldom particularly effective. Apparently the best learning styles include 'interactive' participation.

And if that takes more time and energy... well? No, let me instead pose the issue this way...

Pastors... while you're preaching to tens or hundreds or maybe even thousands... what is to be learned from the millions of young people on your back rows (or not in church at all), who are all the while 'texting' each other? Who is the REAL leader? And what is REAL 'leadership'?

Something has to change. And that something is us. The Church. And the way we (ALL, TOGETHER) 'do Church'... 7 days a week...

...connected... and interactive !

Lamentations...

Lam. 1:1 "How deserted lies the city, once so full of people! How like a widow is she, who once was great among the nations! She who was queen among the provinces has now become a slave. Bitterly she weeps..."

The Wiki Encyclopedia of City Reaching

Ok, it's official now -- CityReaching.org has now grown into the "Wiki Encyclopedia of City Reaching".

Make sure you contribute what YOU know about YOUR CITY... as respects the Great Commission there. The goal is to accelerate the mission by being better connected & knowledgeable about what's going on in our cities & neighborhoods.

Vacation: Sail Away

**********************

Photos from the Chesapeake and Baltimore's Inner Harbor

No words are enough.

[Journaling in the wake of the news today that D. James Kennedy has now passed into eternity...]



Twenty years ago my Illinois pastor coerced encouraged me to accompany him to Ft. Lauderdale to a week-long 'evangelism seminar'. When I got there and realized we'd actually be going out into the streets, talking with people about Jesus... I was mortified. But then seeing lives changed in front of my very eyes... my life changed. I came home different. And my life path that week took a hard-right turn... (admittedly with uphills, downhills, and S-curves). What I do today & everyday now is a result of EE helping me learn to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.




[Visit DJamesKennedy.org]

http://DoYouKnowForSure.com

Facebook... Not just a site... It's a PLATFORM

I realize it's perhaps more obvious to some, than to others. But Facebook.com is not just a destination website... it's the Windows of Tomorrow. Web3.0, if you will.



[more later... stay tuned... but not here -- go to Facebook and ADD me as a friend.]

My Church On Trial... The jury's in.

Wondering why I've been so quiet here lately? I've been over trial-blogging at MyChurch.org -- beta-testing it to see if I'd want to recommend throughout our various networks. After all, MyChurch.org is one of the new web2.0 social networking sites specifically for Christians... exactly the sort of new tool which will be helpful in reconnecting the 'Church' here in the 21st Century.



Well.... THE JURY IS IN !!!
It's EVERYTHING I expected and MORE.

Here are the high-level answers why...

• Why social networking for churches will work.
• Why MyChurch for my particular church will work.
  

And here's why I just plain LIKE MyChurch.org...

• You can't help but love the folks that run it. Joe Suh and the whole gang are personable, authentic and truly innovative Christ-followers anxious to make a difference in the way we 'do church'.
  
• It's totally web2.0... and thus the functionality improves as web functionality in general, improves.
• Unlike MySpace, you don't have to put up with a ton of garbage. Or even lots of ads. A number of MyChurch folks also have MySpace sites to be 'salt & light' out there; but much of their real blogging takes place at MyChurch.
  
• And unlike MySpace, you're not just an individual blogger there... you can easily attach your blog to a particular Church of bloggers. [Visit my church's start-up site there, for instance.]
• And they use community-mapping features to identify churches (and the bloggers associated with them) here in your own community. This is more important than most people realize, even!
  
• It's really really easy to blog there.... personally... and also add your post to your church's collaborative set of blogs for the day.
• And because of using RSS feeds, I can also automatically pull in my IndyChristian.com's posts into my blog-posts at MyChurch. Fantastic flexibility!
  

Bottom line...

MyChurch.org is...

"MySpace On A Mission".

Be careful opening items from missionaries !

A missionary friend of ours sent us an email with this in it...



It's now trapped in my LCD screen and I can't get it out !

Help.

*******************
[Nancy... I'm gonna get you for this. LOL. That is, once I figure out how to get it out of there.]

Take a chance. Help me understand... 'random'.

Is 'random' anything like 'magic'?



Somebody please help me understand... 'random'.

I looked it up at Wikipedia...



"The word random is used to express lack of purpose, cause, order, or predictability in non-scientific parlance. A random process is a repeating process whose outcomes follow no describable deterministic pattern, but follow a probability distribution.

The term randomness is often used in statistics to signify well defined statistical properties, such as lack of bias or correlation."

'Random' lacks a cause?

Show me something... ANYTHING.... anything at all in the whole universe that you can absolutely say with confident certainty... "There is NO 'cause' for such & such."

So if I click Wikipedia's 'Random Article' link in the margin... it will somehow generate a page... for which there is no cause or predictability as to the outcome?

Whoa. Dude! Amazing! Presto chango... Page X !!!

How many of you believe that? [I have a little piece of ground in Florida I'd like to interest you in. Email me.]

Might we meet the creator of such a program? Would he agree that there absolutely is no cause nor predictability involved?

A 'random-numbers generator' has a creator. And he knows the cause (and pattern).

There are three possible camps of people who DON'T know the cause or pattern:

• Those who cling to their belief that there absolutely is 'no cause'.
• Those who admit to simply being ignorant of the cause, and don't care to find out.
• And the inquisitive, who see it all as a riddle, and look diligently for the answer.

Oh... and there's one more thing that troubles me...

What does that other thing mean there at the Wikipedia entry...

"Randomness has an important place in science, philosophy and religion." ?

***********************

Author's Notes...

[Much of this sort of thing has driven me to start writing out my own personal 'Science Apologetics' thought-train. That is, document out loud what I believe in this realm, and why. It's been an interesting endeavor -- one I'd advocate. Try writing a cogent apologetic yourself, and let me know what you learn along the way.]

[Subsequent Note: R.C. Sproul has apparently written on this very topic in his little book called "Not A Chance". Click to read the first chapter online. Maybe even watch this video-clip as Sproul interviews Ben Stein. Ht: Tony Kummer, Said At Southern]

What were YOU THINKING !

Ann Coulter


Us.

Podcast: "Why Urban Blogging for Change?"

[Jeremy is a neat young influential pastor in the heart of New York City. Perfectly on-target with TechMission things we're doing in our various cities & locations, to help accelerate communications, and in the end... hopefully... CHANGE.]



Listen in this morning, as Jeremy podcasts a presentation that he & I did with other CCDA folks in Indy, to present/discuss technologies to help change the urban world in the name of Christ

[click to see his site and listen/learn] [Comments anyone?]

Christian Scorecard... 'Scoring For Change'

Ok, Indy... we won the Super Bowl... But what's the score in the LARGER contest?

The Baseball Box Score... innovated... sharpened... and helped baseball rapidly develop into the 'national sport'. Key statistics continue to sharpen the sport... In fact, they have now driven the innovation we call "Fantasy Baseball"... ie, fictional teams, games, and whole seasons of fun enjoyed by millions of baseball enthusiasts across the country.

Henry Chadwick, often called the Father of Baseball, innovated the sport and helped it blossom by the use of statistics... the Batting Average, Earned Run Average... and the publishing of the little 'Box Score' that quickly summarized the game.

What's to be learned about this innovation... and how we might deploy the wisdom contained therein?

Or how similar is it, to Jesus telling the parables of the 10 Talents, the 10 Cities, or the 10 Minas? Wasn't his point, that our goal is to be found being faithful stewards of what we've been given -- ie, EVERYTHING we've been given; not just money, not just physical capabilities, but everything -- and thus maximizing our 'return'... ie, productivity/ROI? On what basis will we expect to stand in front of Him and hear "Well Done, Good & Faithful Servant"... especially if we're getting beat 96-4.

Btw, simply building some statistics is not the most important part of Chadwick's innovation... The real genius of his box score was WHICH STATISTICS... ie, he went on to invent the Batting Average, the Earned Run average, etc. That is, he knew which things would become the real key indicators that would ultimately drive success.

And isn't that our goal here? Find what keys work well, to drive godly change in lives & communities? E.g... Bible, Prayer, Worship, Gifts, Humility, Harmony, Loving Action, Justice, Service, Witnessing, Fellowship, Leadership, etc.

The 'Christian Scorecard' is a scoring model to beg the big questions and help drive accomplishment of an organization's (or individual's) mission. Anyone could adapt it to their situation... in business or ministry.

"You get what you measure... and little else." It's an ageless axiom not unlike "Inspect what you expect."

Pastor/Author Rick Warren says... "You must be able to look at your purpose statement and evaluate whether your church is doing it or not. Will you be able to prove you've accomplished it at the end of each year? You cannot judge the effectiveness of your church unless your mission is measurable. A great purpose statement will provide a specific standard by which you can review, revise, and improve everything your church does. If you can't evaluate your church by your purpose statement, go back to the drawing board. Make it measurable. Otherwise your purpose statement is just a public relations piece."

Or conversely stated... I say... "Show me what your ministry is measuring... and I'll show you what its REAL mission is."

The uniqueness of the 'Christian Scorecard' is the division into 4 Quadrants (perspectives)...

Q1 God's Perspective... The all-important perspective... What is our mission... ie, the mission of the Church? The Church @ Your City, perhaps? How will we know if we really are accomplishing it? What objective statistic(s) might symbolize progress toward our ongoing mission?

• Example: Biblical Worldview... held by less than 4% of American adults. What about our city? Our neighborhood?

Q2 Neighbors' Perspective... If we carry out God's mission in our lives and ministries, will it transform people around us too? Our community? What objective measurements might validate if that's true in our communities or not?

Q3 Internal Process Perspective... What value-chain processes should we excel at, in order to best accomplish God's mission? How will we know we're making progress in sharpening our processes? What could we measure along the way?

Q4 Change Perspective... How can we change... individually & corporately... to accelerate our capabilities to carry out God's mission for the Church? What metric might symbolize our improving ability to CHANGE? After all, isn't sanctification a synonym for 'change'? And isn't it the promise of God that He will sanctify His own... over time?

The Christian Scorecard deployed as part of any Strategic Plan needs to demonstrate the status of your plan succinctly at any month-end or year-end. That is, "What's the score now?"

Here's one application of the Christian Scorecard... as we're developing the "State of the Church at Indianapolis" Report. It has helped as we started talking about the 'Indy 400'... and the fact that here at the beginning as we start, we're getting soundly beaten... 96-4.

So how can we sharpen this concept to be even more helpful in driving CHANGE in our city or community?

*****************

[Subsequent interesting link -- Kirby Anderson Commentary]