What are you looking for?

There was a time of little choice. Not long ago, the news you got was whatever the local paper decided to print and what the local TV and radio stations decided to broadcast. You didn't get to pick, and the only filter you had was your choice whether or not to read a given article. If you were lucky, your source of news was relatively objective.

Then cable TV happened. Then the Internet happened. And then we had plenty of choices. Not only could we choose sources that leaned more in our preferred direction on any topic or interest, we could effectively filter out anything we didn't want, whether it was a topic we didn't care about or an opposing view on a topic we did care about.

Then social media happened, and we could easily repost any article that affirmed the view we already had, or post the worst of the view we didn't like, with the comment, "See? See how wrong they are and how right I am?" Politics, religion, conference rivals, race, terrorism, vaccinations, and ... sadly ... dress colors.

It is not my concern here to encourage you to be fairminded and read a variety of views to be well-rounded, informed, and empathetic. Of course you should, but barking up that tree distracts from another tree I want to yelp up.

Posting only the best of your side and the worst of the other side, then crying out, "See?!?", is dishonest. It's unnecessarily polarizing in an environment already about to snap. It makes you feel better about what you already believe, and shuts off any maturation of your view. It reveals some level of insecurity about your own view, like snuggling up in bed with your blankie and teddy bear during a rainstorm rather than running outside and playing in the pooling waters with the neighbor kids.

We end up reading the news, looking for ways to say, "Gotcha!", rather than to learn about the world around us.

Most of all, it presents an inaccurate view of the Kingdom of God. It tells others that the king you serve is not a listener. It paints a picture of a fragile kingdom, threatened by complex views. Apparently, this kingdom is not into dialog, interaction, discovery, and mutual respect. It makes rigidity the king, rather than a King who is so secure that he fears no opinion or a King who delights in others more than in their opinons. It diverts eyes away from this King.

Disagree. In fact, be really good at disagreeing. Be really, really good while you disagree.

The Tech of Worship

Over the last several weeks, the Worship Teams has been investigating the use of a couple of different software packages for displaying the lyrics, announcements, and sermon notes. No software package is the best at everything, but one that suits many of our team's needs well is Proclaim, published by the people at Logos (http://proclaimonline.com and http://logos.com). In a lot of ways, this won't make much difference to the congregation - all proclaims display nicely. Most of the difference is in the ease of putting the presentations together in a team environment. However, there are a few features for the congregation that some may want to take advantage of.



First, you'll need a mobile device, such as an iPhone, iPad, or Android tablet. If you don't, then  you should be able to worship and takes notes as before. If you do, then go to the Logos website or the app store and download the Logos app for your device. This is a great app for Bible reading and a whole host of Bible study tools and Christian books. Many Bibles and books are free, but you can also purchase an amazing array of others. You will need to create a user ID and password for your Logos account. (Note, the support for Android phones is coming - the Logos app is there, but the Proclaim support is not yet functional.)

Then, when the worship service begins and the presentation software goes "on air," your app can detect that there is a presentation being shown. You can use the menu to hunt for a presentation, or you will soon get a pop up asking if you want to follow our presentation.

Then, whenever there is a slide on the screen with the following symbol in the lower righthand corner,



that means that there is a "signal" available. A signal can be a scripture reference, for example. Your app will ask you if you want to jump to that passage of the Bible. If you choose to, then your app will jump straight to the passage in the translation of your choice.

A signal can be a calendar event. For example, when the slide is being displayed for the ladies' tea, your app will pop up a notice that allows you to automatically add that event to your device's calendar. Just click, and it's on your calendar, with the right date and location.

A signal could be a website - click and your device will navigate to that website. There are a few other signals possible, but we likely won't be using them.

Logos is more than a mobile device app. There is a full program for both Windows and Mac with an extremely rich set of Bible study features. This program can also be downloaded from http://logos.com. This is the Bible software I use far more than any other, and I continue to build my digital library with commentaries, theology books, pastoral books, and so on.

You can also access your Logos library through a web browser at http://biblia.com. It's not as feature-rich as the full program, but it's great to be able to get to your books even if you're away from your computer.

The program, the app, and the website all stay in sync - leave off reading in John 3 in the program, and then later go to the website, and after you log in, you'll go straight to John 3. Plus, your entire library is available on all three platforms (for the most part - some book licenses are only valid in the program version).

Many of you use YouVersion (http://youversion.com) on your mobile device. That's good software, too. But we can't sync it with the presentation on the screen. Currently, we are using YouVersion to allow you to follow the sermon and take notes. We are still testing that - some of you like it, some of you don't. We're trying to find a more usable system for notetaking on your devices in a way that connects directly to our sermons somehow.

If you have any questions on getting set up with this, please just let us know!

A Little Nerd Fun ... and Perhaps a Good Tool

As you noticed in last week's bulletin, we have added a couple of "QR codes." QR codes are simply textual information encoded in a graphic form that certain devices, like smartphones, can use to decode back into the original textual information. For example, the following code can be read by smartphones to navigate the phone's browser to our church website:

We added two codes last week. The first is the one above, pointing to the church website. This is on the back of the bulletin and is mainly intended for visitors to be able to quickly get to our website to find out more about us.

The second code we added was to an online version of the sermon notes. That makes it possible to follow along with the sermon points and passages on your mobile phone, if you so choose. This will not become our only way of having notes - we will always have the insert for handwritten notes.

With the growing popularity of tablet computers, these notes could become even more useful than on smartphones.

These notes can also be used to follow along if listening to the sermon online sometime after the sermon was originally given. That helps those who couldn't attend a particular Sunday, people who live away from the area, or those who want to go over the sermon a second time.

We are still experimenting with the format of these notes, and we could use your feedback. Please let me know how the notes could be formatted better to assist (rather than distract from) the teaching.

At present, we don't have any way to take personal notes along with the given notes. We could get there technologically, but they would be quite difficult to manage with the small keyboards on smartphones. Tablets, however, might make it worth the effort. Again, we need your feedback on how to make these notes the most useful.

OK, so it's a little bit of geek fun, but there is real potential to use the technology in a positive way to enhance how we learn and apply God's Word.

I am Second

If you haven't already seen it, you'll see it soon.

Just launched in Kansas City is the "I am Second" campaign (http://iamsecond.com). The movement started in Dallas as a local outreach, but quickly caught on across the nation and around the world, so they are now launching campaigns in various markets, and the KC market has just begun. "I am Second" is a phrase that comes from putting Christ first. (For those "I am third" fans from years ago, I think there's plenty of common ground here to not get tripped up by the differences.)

The idea behind IaS is simple: draw people to the website, which is then intended to draw people into the Church (not just a church building, but the Church, the body of believers). It's a very media-savvy approach, using billboards, TV, radio, and the Internet to pique the interest. I've seen at least three billboards already in KC - a black background, with someone's face, and the words "I am Second: iamsecond.com." That's it.

On the website, there are dozens of testimonies from both famous and non-famous people. All they do is tell their faith stories - the story of what God has done in their lives. Some stories are dramatic, some less so, but all are stories of what God has done. They also have a few videos from KC-based people to go along with the KC launch. The Benders and I attended the launch at Union Station a few weeks ago, and several of those featured on the site were there to share in person.

The testimonies are intended to draw people to find out more, and eventually get connected with a church, or even a specific small group within a church, that has registered with I am Second (we are registered as church). They are not competing with the local churches - they are very clearly trying to aid the local churches.

The power of their approach is very simply the power of story, which is far more effective to the current generation than the previous (who are more impacted by propositional truth).

The organization offers training and support for believers to join in the effort. One of their main goals is to encourage all of us share our stories as a way to help others want to know more about what it really means to be a follower of Christ.

We see the website in action on Sunday morning and talk more about the power of story. I recommend checking out the website, and thinking about how you might recommend it to others.