Kingdom Strategist

“God’s networked kingdom finds expression as people cluster together, centered in Christ, living in the way of Jesus.” –Dwight Friesen

Thy Kingdom Connected by Dwight Friesen

[<Disclosure> I received this book to review through my participation in The Ooze's Viral Blogger program. I have not been compensated financially in any way for reading or reviewing this book. </Disclosure>]

Thy Kingdom Connected is written by Dwight Friesen, associate professor of practical theology at Mars Hill Graduate School in Seattle. In it Friesen uses Network Theory to describe various theological implications, perspectives and applications pertaining to the kingdom of God. Friesen’s goal in writing the book is to shine light upon the inter-connectivity of creation and prepare readers for “living into the image of God” and “incarnating the mission of God.”

I Like This Book, But…

I was very excited when I learned about this book. Judging it by its cover (what? you don’t judge books by their covers?) it appeared to be about things that I am passionate about: the kingdom of God, advancing the Church, and social networking. All topics that I discuss regularly on this blog.

And I discovered upon reading the book that Friesen does address these things, more or less. But a better tagline would have been “What Theologians can learn from Network Theory“, because in my opinion, this book is more a theological exposition built upon the concept of networks than a discussion of practical applications of insights from social media.

That being said, the book is interesting and important for Christians today. Network Theory is an interesting field that has helped to advance the thinking in many fields. By applying this type of critical thinking to the different aspects of Christian faith can yield numerous benefits and help shape how individuals seek to live out their faith… which is Friesen’s goal for the book.

To achieve his goal, Friesen goes through a number of different implications of network thinking applied to areas like leadership, Christian community, missional strategy, and spiritual formation. For example, in the chapter on missional strategy, Friesen makes that case that if we understand the fact that we are meant to be connected to others and that God intends the establishing of connections to ultimately bring people into relationship with Him through Jesus Christ, we will intentionally seek to be relationships and practice hospitality so as to establish and strengthen such links connecting people to Him. Makes sense to me.

What to expect from the book

The book is 178 pages long but I must warn you: Friesen writes like a college professor. He makes his points through effective but burdensome use of specialist language and complex thought processes. I found myself reading and re-reading passages just to make sure I was understanding what he was saying. The book is conceptual and the little narrative that Friesen includes is only used to introduce concepts. As I was reading, I imagined I was sitting in a lecture hall… do with that what you want. Me, I enjoyed being a student.

Implications for a Kingdom Strategist

At it’s core, this book explores very important truths about the kingdom of God. It offers a different perspective and in the process highlights key implications that will shape the way you think about how to strategical advance the mission of Christian organizations. Network Theory focuses on visually depicting the relationships between elements of a system, as you think strategically about how to achieve the goals of your organization or church it is helpful to visualize how the different people involved are related. Not only that but it is valuable to incorporate relational elements into those kingdom goals.

Overall, Thy Kingdom Connected is a good book. The premise is interesting and the discourse is valuable. The readability is lacking and thus it requires commitment to draw the value out of the book. But in the end, the investment of your time and attention is worthwhile.

To purchase the book from Amazon.com, click here.

…Just so you know, all the book links are affliiate links. So if you click them and purchase the book, I’ll get paid… like $0.04.

I haven’t fully gotten into the blogging groove yet. I’ve been at it for just over a year now but I’m only recently starting to feel like I’m picking up momentum. But I enjoy blogging and I’m especially enjoying all the new people I’ve met and interacted with this year. I know that my blog doesn’t have much to do with these relationships forming but it’s part of it none the less.
Well someone forgot to send me the memo letting me know that bloggers have to do two things at the end of the year.

1. Write a really awesome retrospective post.
2. Write a post highlighting your top content from the past year.

Check and check. (continue reading…)

Barrington Gifts is a Business as Mission company that manufactures luxury gifts. The company is based out of Dallas, TX and operates a manufacturing facility in Xiamen, China. I’ve written about Barrington before and am a big fan of what they do.

I received an email this morning sharing a video which tells the story of Shirley Huang, a Xiamen local who found both employment and a new life in Jesus through Barrington.

Shirley, a local resident of Xiamen, has found a new home in our factory. When we heard about her, she was lonely and seeking a job. Upon interviewing and offering her a position, she eagerly agreed. Although she was nervous and intimidated, her courage and her colleagues’ friendliness helped to overcome these initial feelings.

Enjoy this three minute video telling Shirley’s story and be sure to check out Barrington at http://barringtongifts.com/ to learn more about this great company.

The video can also be found here. Thanks to Ben Briggs for sending this to me.

Holy crap. Jon Acuff and the Stuff Christians Like blog community totally hijacked my day. Here’s the recap:

• Jon Acuff of StuffChristiansLike.net is inspired by his 6 year old daughter’s sense of injustice that there are hungry children around the world;
• Jon, still reeling from how many people have come to enjoy and support SCL gets an idea: leverage the power of the community to do something big for a charity;
• Jon reaches out to the community for inspiration as to what charity to work with;
• Jon settles on Samaritan’s Purse and works with them to coordinate the building of a kindergarten in rural Vietnam… all Jon needs is to raise $30,000.

Which brings us to today. This morning Jon shares his idea, asks the readers to support the project and raise the $30,000. Jon sets a goal of raising the funds by December 31 of this year.

Throughout the day, we watched as the donations came pouring in. No one expected to raise this much money so quickly.

This evening, sometime around 10:30 pm Eastern timezone, the total donations given in support of this project surpassed $30,000.

The Stuff Christians Like blog community raised over $30,000 for charity in 18 hours.

The StuffChristiansLike.net online community raises over $30,000 for charity in one day!

I’m am so excited to process this, synthesize what happened and share any insights. But for right now, I’m just going to sit back and enjoy the power of what Christ has done and how God has been and will continue to be glorified through it.

[Update:] We’re not done. The tremendous momentum built up yesterday can’t be just cut off, so Jon and Samaritan’s Purse are asking everyone to continue their support and raise another $30,000! That’s right, the goal is now to build two kindergartens for the people of Vietnam. Let’s do it!

Read the updated post here: http://stuffchristianslike.net/2009/11/lets-build-a-2nd-kindergarten/

Click here to donate: https://www.firstgiving.com/scl

And be sure to follow the #SCLVIETNAM conversations on Twitter.

I’ve often thought that if you compare Christian culture to a high school, then the Christian blogosphere is the hallways of that high school. It’s where you congregate with your friends. You get to see who likes who. People goof off, talk about inane things. The jocks beat up on the nerds. The nerds talk in secret about how when Jesus comes back those jocks will get theirs.

For me, high school was the first time I ever witnessed a fight. I’d seen fights on TV and in movies but in high school I actually experienced a number of fights close up. I remember vividly how I felt every time I witnessed a fight. I felt scared. I felt kind of sick. I’ve talked before how violence is unnatural and it affects us profoundly whenever we are exposed to it. That is what I experienced those times I was around when a fight would break out.

I say all this because in the past week, I’ve witnessed in the Christian blogosphere a number of “fights,” examples of Christians trash-talking other Christians. And just like in high school, the commenters on those blogs crowd around yelling (in essence) “Fight! Fight! Fight!” I’m not going to link to any examples because I don’t want to perpetuate these fights. But if you read Christian blogs you know what I’m talking about.

What I witnessed this week left me with that same sick feeling I felt in high school. I honestly thought to myself, “How can you write such things and still proclaim to love Jesus?” I know deep down that all Christians are flawed and left to our own devices our sinful nature will inevitably screw everything up, even the profound blessing that God’s Kingdom. But still…

So this morning when I read about the kindergarten project on Stuff Christians Like my spirit was immediately lifted. “Yes! This is what it means to be a Christian!” I thought (mental fist pumping and everything). So I immediately blogged about it, added my support via the comments (made a few jokes as well; it’s a satire blog after all.) and have been tracking the status of the fundraising all day.

As of the time this post is published, the Stuff Christians Like community has raised $18,486.79 dollars to build a kindergarten in Vietnam. $18,486.79 dollars!!!Now you have to realize something, this has only been going on for six or so hours. That’s $3,081 per hour!!! We’re already at over 60 percent of our goal! On the first day!

This is what it means to be a Christian!

This is the immeasurable, incomprehensible, incomparable power of Jesus Christ at work redeeming this world.

If you haven’t already (I say as if I have readers), please please PLEASE go to the donation page and help. Be encouraged by your Christian brothers and sisters actually loving others and not just talking about loving others. This is a chance to love and serve the poor, to bless the children of Vietnam and to proclaim the glory of God before the nations. Please be a part!

The link for the donation page is here: http://www.firstgiving.com/SCL

The project on Stuff Christians Like is here: http://stuffchristianslike.net/2009/11/this-cant-be-real/

And some additional details of the project can be found here: http://twentytwowords.com/2009/11/09/22-questions-to-jon-acuff-about-raising-30k-to-build-a-school-in-vietnam/

Go!

Cynthia Ware and Drew Goodmanson hosted a Webinar today reviewing findings from an exploratory survey we did on Church and Christian Social Networks. The slides from the presentation can be found here. Some key findings:

1. Facebook was the most used Church Web Media strategy.
2. Of the Christian Social Networking sites reviewed 82% of respondents had no awareness that they existed.

Number 1 is interesting given that Twitter has surpassed Facebook as the top social networking tool for business marketers. Especially because Twitter posted 76 percent growth (in unique visitors) last month compared to Facebook’s 23 percent. (Source: Compete)

Check out Twitter’s growth velocity compared to Facebook’s:

Just as valuable as the findings discussed in the Webinar was Cynthia’s introduction where she highlighted many of the characteristics of social media that have a significant impact on how the church can serve in this world. One thing that stands out to me when I look at those key findings is the overwhelming awareness in the church market of Facebook yet very little brand awareness of comparable tools designed specifically for churches. You might chalk this disconnect up to ineffective marketing strategies but I believe it points to a more crucial issue which is: churches aren’t approaching social media strategically.

(continue reading…)

Facebook is popular.

Seems rather inane to state it like that, but a lot of people don’t know what to make of Facebook. Some don’t even know what Facebook is. Facebook’s incredible growth over the past year has far reaching implications not only for how people spend time online, but also how people interact in their daily lives. And this, in turn, affects the way we as the church operate. So the question is: how does a church make heads or tails of this bellwether of social media?

Since this article is long (1860 words, at last count), let me tell you where I’m going to go with this.

• First, we’ll try to understand the magnitude of growth that Facebook is experiencing.
• Then we’ll look at the factors that have contributed to this growth.
• I’ll present an interpretation of why Facebook is popular that should change the way churches approach it.
• We’ll conclude with a discussion of major implications for churches and their social media strategy.

(continue reading…)