There is a pretty good post over at Make Magazine on how to make your own portable studio. It has some very good tips for the beginner. It got me thinking and I plan to do some articles on some more technical sides of worship later.
Give it a spin if you have always wanted to know how to record on the go.
I was thinking about discipleship and how most people just think differently about it. Actually, this was after an interview with a church where I was asked to explain what I meant by it. It is such a different concept for most churches unfortunately. Most people equate discipleship with small groups or Bible studies, which really are just twentieth century church forms of discipleship. I am reading a lot now and mostly it is fantasy. John Eldredge would call it the desire for the mythic or epic in my life. What ever the case, I really like stories about knights and heroes.
I began thinking about the journey to knighthood. In most stories, a knight has to go through rigorous training to become a knight. He also usually has o have the right lineage (highborn) or have a knight take him on as a squire to teach him the ways of the knight. There is a formal passage from serving as a squire being knighted. One is only knighted, btw, he can’t make himself a knight. This is very much like discipleship.
A disciple has to have the right lineage, just like a knight. He has to be highborn. His father really needs to be a king, duke, baron or lord of some lands. Hence the need to protect them by knighthood.
A disciple needs to go through a time of preparation for what they are called to do. They help the knight, groom his horse, arm him, sharpen swords, etc. and in doing so they get to learn from the knight how to joust, ride, fight, etc.
Imagine someone reading stories about knights and an instructional manual on how to fight in a tournament against knights and then trying to actually go do it. It would be disastrous. They would probably die a horrible death. yet that is much like we treat discipleship in the church. We tell them stories from the Bible, we give them some education in scriptures and then expect them to fight.
Basically, we insure their failure.
If we are in a battle, and the Bible says we are, then how are we training people to survive it? Disciples need hands on practice with a sword. They need to learn to use a shield. They need to understand their lineage and what they are to protect. It has to be more than just meeting with some other people and telling our secrets and learning about faith. To win the war, we must use our faith.
We are going to face fiery arrows. The biggest is the lies that are flung at us about our own defeat. How better to meet those than with truth. Truth beats lies - always. And what better way to block those arrows than to actually believe those truths with faith. Ephesians 6 is written there for a reason.
So there is a small part of what I see as how discipleship needs to happen. It also shows some areas the church needs to consider if they are going to be successful in preparing teens to fight the good fight.
That’s my battlecry.
I wish I had a place to talk about this more, but the web will have to suffice for this one. The other day the whole family was outside working on the house. Our younger daughter was in a mood and had one of her favorite things to help her with said mood - her pacifier. This is like valium to her and sometimes we all need it for Elizabeth. So the story continues. We are all doing our thing, as you can see. Elizabeth is fairly content. Then she notices that there is another pacifier at hand and I see the wheels start to turn. If one is good, two must be twice as good. So here is the documented process.
First, think about how this will work. This step is very important and should take as long as needed.
Then, after considerable contemplation, shove both pacifiers in as fast as possible. Only ninjas could be faster.
Next, smile at your success while holding both pacifiers in your mouth. If possible, look REALLY cute.
Finally, enjoy your new found delight to the enjoyment of onlookers. This is also very important when someone has a camera nearby.
This girl enjoys life to the max. I hope she never tries anything addictive.
Well, this quiz proves my role in my marriage and probably family.
Cathy was a twenty something.
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I just read this article over at Creating Passionate Users. The article makes a great case for building a community that is more dynamic and has faster integration that most communities. Sounds like some good tips for ministry.
In the explanation for how communities work, they give some ways to speed up the process, but also ask two questions.
“Most user communities take a typical path–the newbies ask questions, and a select group of more advanced users answer them. But that’s a slow path to building the community, and it leaves a huge gaping hole in the middle where most users drop out. If we want to keep beginning and intermediate users more engaged (and increase the pool of question answerers), we need them to shift from asker to answerer much earlier in their learning curve. But that leaves two big questions… 1) How do we motivate them? 2) How do we keep them from giving lame answers?”
Looking at what they say about users forcing noobs to ask better questions, I think the church has that one down. To get new users to ask better questions, the church shuns questions or just makes it hard to get a straight answer. I thought of a list of questions to think on for user integration.
How can the church be safe to new users?
How can we answer questions better?
How can we reasonably admit when we don’t have the answers?
I would love to hear from some of you readers if this resonates with you.
You’re all about energy, fun, and not really caring or even thinking about the future. Basically, you’re seven years old.
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