Networking

I’m witnessing how it seems that our culture and our technology is and will continue to push us, the consumers of them, into hyper drive.
By the force of such a fast paced culture, the cultural business that we so easily become sucked into, in turn sucks us dry and empty. This is because it’s not just a culture that says things should be fast and instantaneous... but it is a culture that continually seeks to increase its speed, and so when do we stand up and say, ok I think that’s fast enough? Especially if the old saying holds true that time is money.
Not many more things grab the hearts of men than their paycheck.

And the other side of the coin is technology. Our fast pace culture and our continual absolute craving for new technology go hand in hand. These new tools and toys give us superhuman abilities to try and accumulate our normal pace human bodies and brains to a higher rate of movement... in which I’m not so sure we were designed for.

I believe in all of this there will be one particular thing that, as we see now as a huge leap into something great, will and is coming back to burn us all out.
- And that is our ability to Network.
Our networking abilities, now through our culture and technology, is in all sense of the word, awesome. Who would have thought just 100 years ago we would be where we are now. The fact is we can connect with pretty much anyone we want to across the world, practically in an instant. Well anyone within our social sphere that is, a sphere that is in actuality massive and continuing to grow.
We live in an age when every time we meet someone now, they are no longer simply a new friend, or new relationship, or just a person passing through our lives, they are now connected into part of our network... they are opportunity.
We ask questions like, “how can I influence this person toward my causes”, or “how can this person’s abilities be used for this purpose” ...

In the beginning stages, which in many ways we are just getting on our feet with this, there is a lot of good things that can be done in the world through such networking.
We’ve already accomplished a great deal in such a short amount of time because of it.

But I would also say we’ve probably caused a great deal of damage as-well.
Now, I will take a second to say that I am not against technology; I use these platforms almost as much as the next guy. But I’m coming to a realization that I don’t think we are necessarily “wired” in a way that we are supposed to be “connected” to so many outlets.

I’m finding that our to do lists and tasks are ever increasing with this new speed and these new platforms, while at the end of the day, our one mind and our two hands are still what is behind the wheel of these fast cars.
Eventually we will find ourselves driving at speeds we can no longer control, (if we haven’t already) and we’ll crash and burn.

Call me crazy, but I think we’re created to live this life for a singular community, for only a couple purposes at a time.
I think that’s when the Kingdom comes the most.

Transformational buildings or bust

Every time I’m at Blakemore there is always someone here. It’s a pretty funny sometimes because I’ll be in the office or something then hear doors opening and closing, you never know who will be popping in next.
Its actually pretty amazing, I’ve been around church buildings all my life, always in and around when no one else is ever there... which is pretty close to any time other than Sundays and Wednesday nights.

I’d say they’re onto something here. This building is used for... I don’t know how many random things.
I’ve thought for a long time that church buildings were mostly the biggest waste of space. And I still believe that if you are starting a church; do it without a building.

But the truth is there are tons of these old, and new, church buildings sitting around everywhere (at least in the southeast).
Church buildings seem to me to be good for nothing sometimes, but perhaps...
that’s the very reason they are good for a lot of things.

Perhaps now the only way many pastors and churches can redeem their buildings are by using them as platforms.
If we decided to stop thinking about this old rickety buildings as too holy to touch, and began to think about them more like community centers... maybe the kingdom could break into these walls and so into hearts for more than one day a week.
If we could make these places not so fragile, not so stiff, not so wifi-less... then really the possibilities for a lot of these buildings are massive.

I predict, (if America is headed the direction of Germany, which I definitely think it is) that in a good 30 to 40 years we will really begin to see a wave of church building abandonment. There’s been all this hoopla lately over this historic old church building in west Nashville. The congregation built a new building and they have been trying to sell their old one. Well they couldn’t sell it, and they can’t keep paying for it when they’re not using it. So they are finally tearing this pretty old church building down.
It’s like this whole news thing in the Tennessean.
Well, I think we should probably get used to it, because I believe it will probably be the first of others to follow around here.

One day we’re going to look up and see all these old fossils, cold and lifeless, empty. And we won’t know what to do with any of them but tear them down or let them sit and rot.
They’ll be like tombstones of some former foreign world when things used to be a lot more structured in our faith.
Maybe, maybe not.

Point is, now there is still a window of opportunity for people to begin using these buildings as platforms for community. If they want to keep their buildings so bad, then they’re going to have to stop worrying about how pretty they are, about if kids run in them, about if there is food in the ‘sanctuary’ (and personally I believe if Jesus was hanging out in one of these buildings, He’d have food in the sanctuary every time He walked in, it’d just be like one big fellowship hall).
These buildings have some opportunity still, sure. But even if they all take advantage of this, they still won’t all be around in a several years... at least that’s my 2 cents.

I’ve always been frustrated by there not really being any good places you can go to read or just hangout that you don’t have to pay. If you go anywhere from a coffee shop to McDonalds you always have to buy something.
I remember when I lived in Germany and had no money at all. I always wanted to just get out of the house and go somewhere and study, or read, or just hang out. But I never had any money to do it. And believe me you don’t always want to be outside..
I just recently found out that the community center down the street that we go to sometimes is about to start charging three dollars to even go in... how stupid.
It’s official now there is nowhere to go for the poor man.

Why can’t the church building be that place. Open door policy. A nice and fun place to hang out, no strings attached. Sure we’ve got coffee and stuff, heck you don’t have to buy it though to hang out here... actually we just might give it to you.
It could be a beautiful thing.
Almost makes me want to have a church building, almost, but not quite ;)

And props to those few congregations out there that are doing that with their facilities in some form or fashion. Just like anything else worth doing, don't find yourself doing it half-way.
The church already has too many things we "produce" that are not-so-amazing quality.


Now, I will take a moment and say that I’m not against having sacred space. I believe we must all have those places that are sacred, set apart, holy, for us to go and meet with our God.
I just believe that if we are going there to meet with the God of Scripture, the God who died on the cross to pay for our sins, we shouldn’t always expect that our encounters with this God will be such a nice and tidy experience.. it’s not a nice and tidy gospel, He’s not a “nice and tidy” God.

He’s the God who calls Himself “Jahweh” “I will be whoever I will be.”

Fake potatoes, ice cream, and real people

So, I'm doing something right now that I never do. That my wife may consider as sin.
I'm sitting in a McDonald's. And not just sitting here, I've got a small fry and a chocolate sundae. Scandalous right?

Honestly, I get tired always trying to find inspiration in coffee shops. It's not always the environment either. But it seems that every coffee shop I walk into these days, (well almost anyway) is full of a bunch of people who are too much like me.
Young, mostly white, American people who are out to seek knowledge or try to do something good in the world, people who are at least dreaming about transforming lives.

I figure if we're all sitting around in the same places whose hanging out with the people whose lives we want to change?
At least that will be my excuse today for McDonalds.

It is definitely true though that McDonald's is full of a lot more colorful and different people than a coffee shop. Around me are people of all different races and ages... I avoid feeding these corporations so much that I forget people still come to these places and it gives me some kind of minor culture shock.

On a side note I'm debating seeing if the french fry effect (ya know how everyone says that McyD's fries never change no matter how long they sit around) will apply to my McDonald's ice cream... actually it's not really melting so far. hmmm..

And I definitely like the music so far... we got some linkin park, the fray, and some other old school bands...
and now that they're all going toward the McCafe look, it's actually pretty nice... with flat screens with CNN on, and little bar lights and bar stools. Nice shades of green.

Are all McDonald's like this now?

What happened to the bright red and yellow of my childhood with the huge plastic play places?

Ok, my ice cream melting now. That's probably a good sign.

Maybe this just goes to show. Don't get so caught up in dreaming good dreams, that you are too good to hang out with the real people and get some fries sometimes.