Social Media and the Church

So I’m back on Youtube again…this time around discussing some Twitter discussions that occurred earlier this week around Social Media and the church…interesting stuff.

Now this twitter feed that I am now following and discuss in the video is Church Social Media…or @chsocm on Twitter.  They’ve got a blog here http://churchsocmed.blogspot.com

And now here’s the link to the video in question. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmK2c9zltro&feature=g-upl

Beer With Jesus…and beyond

So today I heard a song that got me thinking…always a dangerous thing…but rather than type it all out here…I decided to record it…yet again.

See the video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6firJjvui0o&feature=plcp

 

And if you’re curious about the song in question…AKA Beer With Jesus…see (or at least hear) it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73-bUIyt9bk

Leave your thoughts…Otherwise I feel like I’m talking to a wall.

Freedom In Christ…Now What Do We Do?

Greetings everyone. Obviously I’ve been absent for a good long while. My apologies.

Recently I’ve been taking advantage of a new Iphone to start recording short videos of my thoughts…micro vlogs if you will.

Today I hit one that came out of thoughts I’m pondering on for class. View the link here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRdGq1Jwd2k&feature=g-upl

Leave your thoughts…I’m interested in feedback.

Love From and For Kevin Smith

First and foremost, let me apologize to any readers that might still be out there. It has been 6 months since I posted. Obviously the daily lectionary reflection has gone out the window.

But that’s neither here nor there.

Perhaps you’ve heard the name Kevin Smith. Perhaps you haven’t.

Kevin Smith is, first and foremost (in my humble opinion) a movie maker. But he’s also a writer, blogger, podcaster, etc etc etc.  Yet one more thing that he is, is a Twitter-junkie (find him at @ThatKevinSmith on Twitter). Kevin got his start in the movie business by making his first film completely independently…an interesting little black and white film called Clerks where two convenience store clerks basically sit around complaining about their existence all day.

His career has grown from there.

Self professed, Smith is going out of the movie business but now has his fingers into many different business ventures in the Entertainment industry. A big one is podcasting…see his stuff, or moreso hear it at Smodcast. There are many different podcasts that you can check out. Some are current, some aren’t. While I have a couple of my favorites to listen to regularly, I’m also checking out some of the other content as well. Be warned, Kevin and his cohorts don’t have much a filter. Language and content can get pretty “adult” at times.

That being said, I just listened to a new one for the first time. It’s called Film School Fridays…see it here. Specifically, I listened to episode 4 from the Los Angeles Film school. Kevin sits down with 4 film school students for a bit of Q&A as well as reminiscing of his early days.

There was one brief section in this podcast that I really appreciated. Kevin talked about engaging with fans…or what he calls the audience and how important it is to him. I won’t go into detail, but what he said really resonated with me. He talked about how much of a privilege it is to have the audience talk back. As a pastor, I can relate. I always appreciate when my sermons spark conversation.

That being said, this was significant for me for another reason. Kevin talked about Twitter and how active he is, engaging with people. In the last week, he did so with me. I tweeted him asking whether or not another one of his podcasts would ever feature a dramatic reading of the 3rd issue of his Batman Comicbook line (3rd of 3, as they’ve already featured the first 2). After about 6 hours I got a notification that Kevin had marked my tweet as a favorite. He acknowledged what I had said. Now the geek in me jumped for joy, but in retrospect, having heard him talk about going back and trying to read everything that comes his way…that meant a lot…that he cares enough to engage with people…even on this minute level.

Think what you will of him and his work. I appreciate his candor and honesty…and I appreciate his conviction to engage with the people that put food on his table.

Paul’s Conversion

My apologies for the long absence from posting. As I mentioned briefly last week, I was gone on vacation after Christmas and last week I was busy with sermon preparation and so admittedly my lectionary reflections were lacking. But I’m back on the horse today.

Today’s lectionary reading is found in Acts 22:2-16. In this interesting passage we see Paul discuss two different aspects of his life. First he talks about his upbringing, and we catch a glimpse of his childhood. Then he switches gears and gives us his personal account of his conversion on the Damascus road.

This story is part of a larger discourse in which Paul is defending himself after being arrested. The larger story gives us more insight into Paul’s background. He’s born a Roman citizen, as well as a Jew. He’s highly educated. He is zealous for God. He had formerly persecuted Christians. All of this we know. It raises the question as to if he’s trying to appeal to the Jewish crowd at this point. He’s been arrested, but before that happened he’d been seized by the Jews in Jerusalem. He’d been beaten before being arrested, and the Jews want him killed. In this first section (verses 3-5), Paul seems to be laying out his Jewish credentials. If we were to stop at this point, it would almost seem as if he’s saying “I’m one of you now leave me alone.”

However, Paul doesn’t stop there. After establishing who he is, listing his zealous background, Paul then launches into the story of his conversion (verses 6-15). Its a well known story. Paul is traveling to Damascus when he is blinded in an encounter with Jesus himself. Jesus announces himself to Paul and asks why Paul is persecuting those that follow him. After three days of blindness, God send Ananias to Paul. Now Ananias certainly seems to be a believer in Christ, but interestingly enough, we don’t know that for sure. We hear that he’s a devout man according to the Law and that the Jews in the area speak highly of him (verse 12). This raises the question as to if Ananias was a believer, or if God chose an unbelieving Jewish man to go to Paul. Regardless of just who Ananias is, we know that God has given him the correct message. “You have been chosen to know his will, to see the Righteous One and hear his own voice.” That has already happened at this point, but then he goes on to deliver the rest of the message. “You will be his witness to all the world.” Its interesting to note that this seems to be the first point (for Paul) that he is directed to go into the whole world, but as we know that was certainly the mission that he took on.

Finally, Paul ends this portion of his discourse with a bit of an alter call. “Get up, be baptized and have your sins washes away calling on His name.” Paul seems like a bit of a baptist here, but its not unexpected. His mission was to proclaim Christ and to let those that heard his words know that they could have the free gift of Christ as well.

An Absense

Hello to anyone out there that might be reading.

I’ve obviously been absent for awhile now. Admittedly, I slacked off between Christmas and New Years. I was off from work and gone from home, so I just let it slide and took a vacation. I’m back again, but this week will likely be hit or miss as I’m also preaching this weekend, so a great deal of my time will be spent in sermon prep.  Look for things to pick back up again next week.

Paul Sounds Like John

Today’s lectionary reading comes from Romans 13:11-14. In this short passage, Paul speaks about changing our behavior, and he discusses timing…mainly utilizing the visual of night and day.  On a personal note, I’ve been spending a lot of time in John’s gospel the past week or so in preparation for a possible theme for Lent (which is only a couple months away if you can believe that). One of the strongest themes of John is light in the darkness…namely that Jesus is the light in the darkness. This short little passage in Romans definitely reminds me of the same thing…but then Paul does that. I recall preaching a sermon last spring in one of my classes that came out of one of Paul’s letters (can’t recall which one off the top of my head though) and in this letter, he sounded exactly like John…I think I even made that statement in the sermon. But enough of these side notes, onto the real stuff.

Interestingly enough, this passage talks about day/night more in terms of sleeping. Paul will talk about this from time to time, and in many ways it reminds me of some of the things that Jesus himself would say from time to time. Here, Paul talks about the night passing and day approaching. We need to wake up and act in a way that is proper for the day. With the passage of the night, our deeds are visible. We can be seen and so we should act in a way that reveals the truth of what we believe. Based on this notion, it would seem that Paul is discussing the example that we set, or the witness that our actions provide.  That certainly seems to be the case in verses 13 and 14.

I find it interesting to think about the process of sanctification. While this passage doesn’t necessary talk about sanctification, it certainly places me in that mind set. When Christ begins to rule our lives, we are changed and as we continue to live our lives with Christ our lives begin to reflect that change. We become more like Christ. I appreciate Paul’s words in verse 14 when he says to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, as if Christ was a set o clothes. That being said, I reference back to verse 12 when Paul says to put on the armor of light. Well here’s an example of Paul sounding like John. Think of John 1, Jesus is the light in the darkness. What else could be the “armor of light” than Christ himself.

I also appreciate the words that Paul uses when he says “let us lay aside the works of darkness. Now, as I’ve said before, we do nothing to obtain our salvation. But we are called to change in response to it. I believe that’s what Paul is telling us here. One faith comes upon you…once you have received the free gift of grace in Christ, start to clean things up. Perhaps it is the Spirit within us that helps us recognize when these so-called works of darkness are present. In short, we might not recognize them right away…but when we do, we are called to respond. Again, it’s not a case of earning our way into salvation or even maintaining it by our works…Our works/actions are a response of gratefulness to the gift we receive.