Why I No Longer Consider Myself a Democrat

Thank you Tim Keller for blowing up my worldview yet again. From Ministries of Mercy: The call of the Jericho Road (affiliate link):

“While accomplishing this task [loving in word and deed], Francis Schaeffer said, Christians may at times be ‘cobelligerents’ with the Left or the Right, but never allies. ‘If there is social injustice, say there is social injustice. If we need order, say we need order … But do not align yourself as though you are in either of these camps: You are an ally of neither. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ is different from either — totally different.‘”

“The...

22 Ways to Use Twitter Fast Follow

Twitter’s introduction of the Fast Follow feature is a brilliant strategy for expanding the reach of Twitter to non-users. Fast Follow is a great tool for churches, ministries and businesses to add to their social media tool belt.

Here are 22 ways that I see these organizations adding Fast Follow to their social media strategy.

Church social media uses

Sending time-sensitive messages Sending service time or event reminders Notifying people of inclement weather service cancellations Promoting ministry-specific events Communicating prayer requests or member needs Sending daily devotionals Providing supplemental information (such as additional Bible verses to read) during services Communicating...

Twitter Introduces New “Fast Follow” Feature

Yesterday Twitter announce a new service that allows anyone in the US to subscribe to any user’s tweets via SMS. Accoding to Twitter’s blog:

Fast Follow. Anyone in the US can receive Tweets on their phone even if they haven’t signed up for Twitter. This is a simple way for people to get information they care about in real-time. For example, let’s say you want to get Tweets from New York City’s office of emergency management (@NotifyNYC). Just text ‘follow NotifyNYC’ to 40404 in the US.

Fast Follow functionality allows people to subscribe to an organization’s tweets via text messaging regardless if they have a Twitter account or not… effectively extending the reach of Twitter as a communication tool. Now churches and ministries can use Twitter...

Do Hard Things

If Satan’s chief purpose is to steal glory from God by encouraging idolatry and frustrating holiness it stands to reason that the things that we do that are the most difficult, the things that are so frustratingly hard that it seems like supernatural forces are conspired against us… those things, so long as they are good, are the things that have the most potential to glorify God and therefore are the things that are most worth doing.

Sin frustrates creation. Creation is meant to glorify God. The things that sin is going to stand in the way of are the things that will glorify God. When we labor in ways that God intended for us; when we do good, redemptive work, Satan takes notice. When we undertake any effort that will bring glory to God, Satan mobilizes armies to resist us. Comfort, luxury… Satan pays no attention to these things.

The things that are worth doing are...

Facebook, location-based services, and opportunities for local churches

During an interview at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that Facebook is working on adding location-based services to the popular social network. Soon users will be able to add a location to their status updates, communicating not only what they are doing but where they are doing it.

This is just another move in Facebook’s strategy to become the information currency system of the web – aggregating all the  information about you by connecting to your Facebook profile and then selling access to that information to marketers.

In addition to the demographic, social, opinion, and digital behavior data that Facebook gathers, adding information about a user’s...

Information Currency Systems and the Future of the Internet

In my post about the impact of Facebook’s Community Pages on churches, I referred to Facebook’s desire to be the information currency system of the entire web. Let me explain that a bit.

The next phase in the evolution of the Internet will be the “Semantic Web” where machines not only exchange data and information but are able to derive “meaning” from the information that is being shared. Because meaning is subjective and influenced by situational factors, information on the Web will need to be interpreted within the context of the people who are...

How Guatemala Welcomed Me

I’m in Guatemala (that sentence is for my benefit, I’ve been marveling at the fact that I am in Guatemala all day).

We flew in to Guatemala City Thursday evening, our plane touched down a little after 7 pm.

A little after “a little after 7 pm”, Mount Pacaya (one of Guatemala’s three active volcanoes) erupted.

Pacaya is 18 miles south of Guatemala City. The eruption threw a large amount of ash into the air and it began raining (along with the actual rain of that evening) down on the city.

We walked out of the airport to black volcano ash falling from the sky.

This isn’t what I’ve seen but apparently this is how Guatemala welcomed me: ——————————

I’m in Guatemala working with