Wired Parish Blog

Metallica and Philosophy

KJ and I are doing a recording session with Dr. William Irwin, the Series Editor of Blackwell's 'Pop Culture and Philosophy.' We're talking about Metallica and Philosophy.

When I say we are 'doing a recording session,' I mean, like, right now. As we speak. I'm trying to type quietly.

The thing is that KJ and Bill and doing all the talking, and there's no room at the inn for the Jay. :)

For one of the first times in my life, I just don't have a thing to add. That, of course, means it's really good. They're doing a great job!

And I get to blog while I listen!

I Really Want to Tell You a Secret, But . . .

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned a super-secret, super-cool announcement we were going to make very soon. I'm dying to tell you, but we're waiting on one or two more small tech details before we can announce it. Mo, our primary programmer, is coding away feverishly trying to finish.

He would love your emails of support cheering him on as he finishes up Wired Parish 2.0. If you'll send me an email at jay at wiredparish.com, I'll pass it along. (I'm keeping him away from his own email until he finishes!!)

An Invitation to Join Me on My Bandwagon of Uncertainty

Taylor Mali with a word worth hearing. (Not to mention he's the only thoroughly Anglo dude doing slam poetry I've ever paid attention to!) Thanks to The (Other) Jay for the link.

Willow Creek Was Wrong . . . Sort Of

If you haven't seen this video from Greg Hawkins, the Executive Pastor at Willow Creek, you owe it to yourself to watch it. It's a short version of Reveal, a book-form of qualitative research results on the effectiveness of the Willow Creek ministry philosophy and approach.

I won't rehash the video here. You can watch it for yourself or read what lots of other bloggers are saying, but the basic message from Willow Creek is 'Oops. We were wrong.'

A couple of thoughts I've not seen elsewhere:

1. It appears their strategy works as people move from non-followers to young followers. It breaks down the longer someone is a Christian. That's unquestionably not a good thing, but it's not as if their strategy had not value. It simply looks like it didn't have the capacity to reliably move people beyond early growth stages as followers.

2. My bet is most ministry leaders who followed Willow Creek in the Dao of the Big Box will look to Willow Creek to chart the new course. I don't get the sense that WC is losing credibility in this--mainly because most people trust that they will actually work to correct the HUGE problem.

3. I'm EXTREMELY interested to see whether other Big Box churches own up to the findings of Reveal or pretend that the findings aren't true for their church. What 'Reveal,' um, reveals is that the problem is systemic. It's not particular to Willow Creek. So if you're a Big Box ministry leader, you need a pretty good argument as to why your church is exempt from the problems their research uncovered.

Bob Stoops and Leadership

From NewsOK.com:

What wisdom did Stoops pass on to Mark Mangino, who has Kansas off to a 5-0 start?

"I didn't pass on any wisdom to Mark. He's a smart guy who's worked hard. As much as anything, he had a good background, here as well as at Kansas State being, part of our building process.

"My only advice is always stick to what you believe in. I didn't have to tell Mark that. And he's done an excellent job of building a strong, fundamental team that plays the right way. They've done a great job.”

I love that Stoops deflects credit to other people--players and coaches--as much as possible. Obviously, as a highly visible D-I coach, he has plenty of opportunities to take credit for successes, and he virtually never takes those opportunities. Almost invariably, he passes the credit on to other people.

Great leadership.

Rumors of My Blogging Retirement Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

Can't believe how long it's been since I last blogged. For those of you who emailed saying some version of 'Where the heck are new blog posts? Get off your tail, you joker!', thanks! I appreciate the support!

I'm back!

Here are some bullet points for your blog-reading pleasure. More detailed stuff is forthcoming:

• Bought an iPhone, even though I said I'd wait. Picked one up about 4 hours after the price drop. Absolutely love it.
• We're just around the corner from rolling out WiredParish 2.0 - one of the main reasons for my blogging hiatus. It's off the hook. You'll dig it mucho. Have it available for interactive shennanigans in plenty of time for Thanksgiving. (Make a great early Christmas gift . . . hint, hint! :) )
• Grinding out my last few classes for my Phd coursework. Griiiiiinding it out. Couple this semester. Couple next.
• Tim Bednar over at Turtle Interactive and I are having an Instant Message/Email Arm Wrestling Match re: YouVersion.com. I think it's glorious. He's skeptical. I'm winning so far . . . ;)

More later, friends!