Did you know you’re a theologian? I did. So am I.
That’s not as special and rare as it sounds. The reality is that everyone is a theologian. Everyone has a belief about God. Continue reading “Everyone is a Theologian”
Everyone is a Theologian
Values – In Church
Every week, I lead a small group of teenagers at a bible study. Every week I start with the same questions. Keep that in mind, we’ll come back.
Years ago
I was a part of a small group of college students. From that small group, a church grew up. One of the first things we did was talk about what we wanted to see out of this group and then search through Continue reading “Values – In Church”
Ending Throwback Thursdays
That’s right. I’m closing the door on Throwback Thursdays for now. No, I’ll still write on Thursdays. I’m just changing the scope of writing to line up with the rest of this site. I’ll probably Continue reading “Ending Throwback Thursdays”
If God is a hacker, He likes to upgrade
I have a friend, John. John does some really cool things, he’s super smart, and he’s been very helpful in terms of thinking through technology. He wrote a book that you should read. I’m telling you this, because historically I haven’t thought about technology as broad as I do now. What I mean is that, by John’s definition, anything that was created by cultivating something else is defined as technology. This draws a point about grace when you think through the biblical narrative in Genesis. Continue reading “If God is a hacker, He likes to upgrade”
Life Without Cell Phones
Ah yes, life before cell phones. I remember that time.
My Freshman year of college I drove several hours to visit a friend and had to call them from a pay phone to get directions to their house. Continue reading “Life Without Cell Phones”
Who will you cheat?
Andy Stanley has said “You’re going to cheat someone. The question is who?” In fact, he wrote a book on it. You may, or may not, have noticed that the blog has been dead for about a week. There’s a reason. Last week we had a difficult family situation and Continue reading “Who will you cheat?”
10X
What are you doing at 10X? I’ll explain.
A long time ago, I liked knowing everything. I liked being the go to guy. I’d always try to learn as much as I could about anything, so that I could be the guy with all the answers. I still like learning, but for very different reasons now. Continue reading “10X”
How’s your first impression?
I skipped church this past Sunday. As a staff member, this isn’t normal for me. I was giving my wife a weekend off and took my kids to their grandparents house. On Sunday morning, over breakfast, I had a conversation with my mom and dad about greeting on Sundays (They have been in ministry for over 30 years). Continue reading “How’s your first impression?”
Kriss Kross Makes You Jump Jump
Oh yes, that’s right. Kriss Kross. They made you want to Jump Jump. I know you wore your overalls backwards ’cause you wanted to be just like them. Then you figured out how unwise that was the first time you need to go to the bathroom. Continue reading “Kriss Kross Makes You Jump Jump”
Why are we so easily satisfied?
At my heart, I’m a geek. No, not a geek. A hacker. Some of you are hackers and don’t know it. According to Wikipedia’s 3rd definition a hacker is someone “who combines excellence, playfulness, cleverness and exploration in performed activities”. [Tweet That]
You can check it out here. So, I do work with computers and web technology a lot. Mainly because the ecosystem makes the barrier for entry cheaper. Really though, I’ve also worked on cars, houses, and I work in the church. I can apply the definition above to all of these areas. I tend to do that. Looking at things and asking “how can these things get better?” You may say you want that, but trust me, it’s a double-edged sword. I’ll come back to that, let’s talk about design.
I ran across two articles on design a while back. First one here and then here. These were excellent articles regarding user interaction. Especially considering we live in a world where everyone thinks that a world viewed through glass is amazing. We think it’s so amazing we’re addicted to it.[Tweet That]
If it was up to us, the keypads on our SUV’s would be a screen that we swipe to unlock (a bad idea given the context). So let’s change context and talk about church.
If church were an interface, what would you change? Depending on the church I’d change some things. Picture a split in the screen of your mind and imagine yourself as a guest visiting A) a church for the first time and B) a Starbucks for the first time. What differences do you see? In a Starbucks if the barista asks you if you’re a 1st time visitor, then announces it and everyone claps and cheers my guess is that you’d never go back. Why do some of us think this is OK at a church?
So what’s the point of this? With church, with iPhones and iPads? For me the question comes back to “Why are we so easily satisfied?” This is true for life in general. Not just User Interfaces or Experiences. This is true of your spiritual journey.
C.S. Lewis stated it this way:
[quote]It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.[/quote]
The challenge for me is to hack. Hack my technology, my house, my church, my spiritual journey. To improve upon my improvements. To continue iterating through each improvement with the question “How can this get better?” I want to leave this world better than I found it. I want to participate with God in His creative acts by taking up His challenge to cultivate (make better) the garden (world around us).[Tweet That]
Will you join me in this journey? What will you hack today?