Wired Parish Blog

Richard Roberts Hears God, Resigns - The Onion Report

This report from the Onion has some colorful language, but it's a telling commentary on outside perceptions of the church and church leaders.

Stephen Colbert for Pastor of Worship Arts

Todd Rhoades at Monday Morning Insight rocks the house by pointing to this video of Stephen Colbert throwing out a little liturgical dance. Forget Colbert for President. Somebody needs to hire this guy as Pastor of Worship Arts.

Woody Allen and Billy Graham

The Internet Monk points to these videos of Woody Allen interviewing Billy Graham.

First words that come to mind after watching them: Gracious. Funny. Rich.

This is prime time stuff. Actually, this is not unlike conversations amongst theists and atheists in my philosophy department. Although, most of those conversations are interspersed with a great deal of language that couldn't make it onto TV!

This Guy's Gonna Be Famous

Check out Brennin Hunt. Dude's music is ridiculous. Eagles. Maybe a touch of Gavin DeGraw on some of the tracks. Definitely Don Henley sans the Eagles as well.

Metallica- A Reflection on Mortality

Watching Metallica play 'Enter Sandman' from Live Earth. (God bless TiVo.)

Please understand: This was my FAAAAVORITE band as an early teen. Listening to 'Creeping Death' or 'Trapped under Ice' still brings a tear to my eye. And let's not even talk about 'The Four Horsemen.'

The good news is they are still going at it like crazy. Great performance. Loved it.

The bad news is that somewhere along the way THEY GOT OLD!

Lars Ulrich's hairline is in heavy reverse. Kirk Hammett's isn't far behind. James Hetfield's beard is white! WHITE!

But wait! If they're old . . . and I've been a huge fan since they were young . . . does that mean . . . I'm . . . getting . . . old?

I'm now scrambling to find 'Welcome Home (Sanitarium)' in iTunes to drown out the reality of my impending battle against grey and disappearing hair.

(Note: Metallica's first album was 'Kill 'Em All.' Anyone know who the original guitarist and bassist were on that album? ANNNND does anyone know what Metallica WANTED to call the first album?)

Top 10 Podcasting Mistakes (Part 7)

7. Over-Produced and Too 'Slick'

I'm going to pick on one particular cast in mistake 7. I recently wandered upon the William Lane Craig podcast--The Reasonable Faith Podcast.

Craig is a philosopher and Christian apologist and does some really good work.

The podcast is well-done from a sound quality and production standpoint. Great work there. Love it. The content is laid out well, and by and large, it's a really good cast. I'm subscribed to it and enjoy listening. Loved the episode on the Fine Tuning Argument.

But the co-host wears me out in one major area: He's way, way, way too polished.

He has a brilliant radio voice. I'm definitely envious. Very polished. Toooo polished. When he asks questions of Craig, they're obviously scripted. Scripted is fine. Obviously scripted is not. The questions just don't feel natural. They're not conversational. They're produced. Worse, at times he asks questions or makes comments with a voice that says, 'Now, Bill, you and I both know this, but how about you break this down for the listeners?' Those are bad things.

I can't capture the feel of this in text; so you'd do well to download some episodes to get a sense of what I'm talking about. My guess is that he has this approach because he's worked in radio and his audience has been the 40 and up demographic.

But podcasting is . . . well . . . different. Younger audience. MUCH more conversational feel.

Here's the rule of thumb for co-hosts: You're asking questions for the rest of us. That means you present yourself as a fellow learner along with us--the listeners.

The co-host is a bridge between the host and the listeners. The best way to accomplish this is to be a learner alongside the listeners--not a guy who already has the answers along with the host. Definitely not a guy with a scripted list of questions that SOUNDS like it's a scripted list of questions.

YouVersion.com: I'm Sold

I posted yesterday about YouVersion.com. Had lunch today w/ Bobby Gruenewald who blogged about it yesterday on the Life Church blog. I was really interested to get more detail on the project.

(I was also interested in trying the fried green beans he ordered, but he didn't offer, and I didn't want to risk a fork in my hand by reaching across the table to grab one.)

Short version: What I thought it was going to be and what it's actually going to be were miles apart. I thought it would be really cool. Um, it's not. It's aaaamazing. Incredibly ambitious. Freakish.

Bobby will say much more about it in the coming weeks, and I won't attempt to steal any thunder. My take? It's the most creative and broadly useful Scripture-based web tool I've ever seen.

Consider this: The iPod wasn't new technology. But the iPod reshaped existing technology and pushed the envelope of the MP3 market in a profound way. The iPhone appears to do the same thing with cell phones.

Looks like YouVersion is doing the same thing. No new technology per se, but it is using existing technologies in a way that will dramatically re-form how Scripture-centric projects utilize the web.

He answered the questions I raised in my blog post very clearly, and I was thrilled to hear the level of thought that's going into the process. In particular, I was curious how it compared to eBible.com, and as we'll see in the coming months, it's just not the same sort of thing.

But our conversation raised a more serious concern--that I'll spend an inordinate amount of time on the site.

As I re-read this, I realize I sound like a total fanboy. Hey, the LifeChurch.tv name still drives me nuts. :) But I gotta tell ya . . . They're hitting the ball out of the stadium on this one.

Bottom line: I'm completely sold.

In The Ears

Olive  - 'Extra Virgin' (unbelievably good electronica/trance; has a Zero 7 vibe)

Pink Floyd - 'Momentary Lapse of Reason' (apparently I nearly ran my insurance agent off the road this week while listening to 'Dogs of War.' it happens.)

Harry Connick, Jr. - Lots of Stuff

DJ Tiesto - Panma (I wish I knew how to quit him. Wow, he's good.)

YouVersion.com: A New eBible?

Life Church announced the upcoming launch of YouVersion.com today. From visiting the site and reading the blog post, it appears that it will be similar to eBible.com with more substantial community features (the ability to upload digital files, for instance).

I'm interested in this for several reasons:

1. Virtually everything Life Church does is done really, really well. I expect this to be no different. I'm sure it will be a blowout service.

2. Launching any kind of social network is intensely difficult from the standpoint of generating a sufficient user base to get real traction. Life Church has a significant built-in potential user base simply because of the size of their church. I'm sure that will go a long way to getting traction--not to mention other ministry leaders who pay close attention to what Life Church does.

I have no doubt of their capacity to make it happen, but I'm sure they recognize the enormity of the task.

3. Given the parallels with eBible and the fact that eBible has an open API, I'm curious as to why they didn't simply piggyback on what eBible has already built. I'm sure there are good reasons. I'm just curious as to what they are.

4. This sort of project raises some incredibly interesting questions about the intersection of church and business.

Consider this: Suppose YouVersion has 100,000 users within a year or so. That's not just a cool service. That's a pretty valuable asset.

Of course, churches have owned assets for years in the way of real estate. But if a church owns real estate, it doesn't necessarily have to do anything for that asset to appreciate. Not so with a web property. Software upgrades, maintenance, etc. are all labor intensive--they require expenditure of financial and human resources.

But this is a service--a real ministry. Nothing wrong with devoting time and money to development and upkeep. A huge percentage of the user base will likely not give anything back to Life Church.

Unless it sells.

Of course, I have no idea whether or not Life Church would ever have any desire to sell YouVersion if it exploded and had massive traffic. Knowing their strong disposition toward giving stuff away, I would be surprised if they did.

But suppose it did sell (or suppose it was monetized through ads or sponsorships). Shareholders wouldn't benefit because there are none. But stakeholders would. Additional staff could be added. New facilities could be built. New web properties could be developed. Heck, it could fund Life Church Labs--a division of the church staff devoted to building new web properties. (I like the sound of Life Church Labs, by the way. That's catchy.)

Here's my takewaway: This feels like a business embedded in a church. Even if that's a million miles from the intentions of Life Church, it's a VERY short putt for other churches to get there.

The implications range from 'that just feels weird' to 'will the IRS be okay with that?'

Am I being overly sensitive? Am I out to lunch? I have mixed feelings--great idea; scary idea. Can anybody help me see this more clearly?

In the Ears

Natalie Merchant - 'Tigerlilly'

Colin Hay - 'Going Somewhere' (former lead singer of Men at Work; lots of his stuff floating around on 'Scrubs')

Zero 7 - Pretty much all of it. What a great band!

Aqualung - 'Strange and Beautiful'

Anthony Hamilton - 'Comin' From Where I'm From' (Smooth, smooth, smoooooth)

Maroon 5 - 'It Won't Be Soon Before Long'