As I mentioned, I was at the Alban Institute yesterday for a one day Faith and Technology Conversation.
Anne Van Dusen did a wonderful job of organizing this event. There were about 25 of us: the Alban and Congregational Resource Guide staff and about 20 visitors. Two thirds of the visitors were from out of town. There were about the same number of men and women and the ages ranged from about 30 to 60. There were journalist/writers, priest/minister/pastors, technology professionals and researchers. The group felt diverse but there was no racial diversity – it was 100% white. I’m sure this was a ramification of who was there rather than there being any attempt to avoid racial diversity. But it would have added an interesting element had we not all been white.
Most of the people there were associated with mainline denominational forms of Christianity. Some as a personal vocation; some as writers/technology professionals/researchers whose work involves them with it. Andrea, the journalist taking notes to produce the guide based on yesterday is a former Christian who has converted to Islam, but I only knew that because someone mentioned it to me one on one on Monday evening. (And because she did mention ‘in my Mosque’ once) In one of the breaks I told Andrea I’d just heard Ingrid Mattson and was very impressed.
There were two evangelicals there:
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I’m in Virginia today for a one day Technology and Faith Conversation at the Alban Institute.
About twenty people are here to participate in the conversation, mostly from out of town. Looking at the participant list, some are pastors, some work with online content related to religion/faith communities (bloggers, editors) and some are web 2.0 developers. Some were already known to the Alban Institute. Others were invited based on referrals. At least one was invited because their site came up in a Google search (me :)).
The day will be part presentation, part group discussion. A guide for faith communities will be produced based on it, to help faith communities use web 2.0 more effectively. I think it will be online on the Congregational Resource Guide site (CRG is part of the Alban Institute).
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If you’re looking for some awesome design work (print or web) and want to help someone in need at the same time, here’s a great way to do it.
Josh Brown is offering a new clients a 20% discount and what they pay for his design work will go into the Indian Taxi fund account he’s set up. The fund money will be lent to Josh’s friend Amit so he can buy his own taxi.
Amit is an indigenous church planter in India who will be able to raise his own support by giving taxi rides if he has a taxi. When Amit repays the loan Josh’s clients will get their money back. This process will be similar to kiva except that you get design work as well as helping someone in need with a loan.
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Check out Eddy’s list of Ten Reasons Why Men Should Not Be Ordained For Ministry
Here’s one of them:
Posted in General Conversation | 8 Comments »Men can still be involved in church activities, even without being ordained. They can sweep sidewalks, repair the church roof, and perhaps even lead the song service on Father’s Day. By confining themselves to such traditional male roles, they can still be vitally important in the life of the church.
I guest posted Christians, Compassion and Interfaith Meetings on Bill’s blog Friendly Christian today. It’s about the Seattle Seeds of Compassion Dalai Lama meetings which I’ve already posted about here.
I’ve been intrigued seeing some Christian bloggers criticize Rob Bell and Doug Pagitt for participating in the Interfaith panel discussions. The focus of this event was compassion. It seems to me that anyone who agrees to participate is saying “Yes, I agree that compassion is important” and anyone who declines is saying “No, I do not share the rest of the panel’s belief that compassion is important”.
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After attending Brian McLaren’s Everything Must Change tour at the beginning of April I wrote the following article for the Wednesday Journal (the local newspaper that my dialog with Rev Lueking is in).
Small Steps in the Right Direction
In recent weeks some new questions have pervaded my thinking as I’ve gone about my everyday activities. “Could I use less water to do this? Do I really need to buy this much food-will I use it all?”
It all started when I attended Brian McLaren’s “Everything Must Change” conference in early April. For a day and a half, 300 people gathered at First United Church of Oak Park to hear Brian speak about global crises and reflect on how we can help. Many of the attendees had traveled from other Midwest states to be there.
Brian contends Christians have contributed to and perpetuate global crises partly because of wrong beliefs. He says they have put Jesus in the wrong “framing story.” That story says God authorizes rich, powerful Christians to hold onto wealth and power, ruling and controlling others for their own good. (Which looks the same as ruling and controlling others for selfish reasons, but, of course, Christians wouldn’t behave that way!) Brian believes the framing story Jesus role-modeled and intended his followers to live is one of humility, service, kindness and generosity.
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I thought this was interesting (h/t Hemant): My Argument with God by Ricky Gervais.
I liked his description of what he believed about Jesus, as a child
I loved Jesus. He was my hero. More than pop stars. More than footballers. More than God. God was by definition omnipotent and perfect. Jesus was a man. He had to work at it. He had temptation but defeated sin. He had integrity and courage. But He was my hero because He was kind. And He was kind to everyone. He didn’t bow to peer pressure or tyranny or cruelty. He didn’t care who you were. He loved you. What a guy. I wanted to be just like Him.
I especially liked “He was my hero because He was kind.”
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Note: I’m going to avoid discussing important features of the plot for those who haven’t read this yet and want to.
Pam kindly gave me a copy of The Shack last week when I was in Seattle. She had just met with and interviewed the author. I was intrigued, having heard about the book a few weeks earlier from Randy, who was recommending it highly. It’s selling extremely well – it’s clearly a popular book.
Here are some other mentions of it on our blogs/by OTM friends: Randy brings it up briefly here). Also, Carmen and April mentioned it recently. Benjamin received a copy from Pam too last week and just posted a very interesting, detailed review on his blog.
It turned out to be perfect plane reading for someone with a longish flight (4 hours) and not much sleep the night before (also 4 hours).
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There was an earthquake here Friday morning. It woke me up but I didn’t know what it was until I asked my husband. Pretty neat (since I haven’t heard it caused any serious damage to any communities, here or nearer the epicenter). I wrote a bit about it on my personal site.
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