Plenary Session 1 - Liveblogging
The first plenary session of our
conference is here - I'll be liveblogging it
I am currently in Calvary Chapel (not affiliated
with the non-denominational church) awaiting the start of our first plenary
session. Unfortunately, I missed the optional devotional this morning which I
was hoping to catch. A combination of traffic, my car not starting (I had to
strand my wife at home by taking her car), and my need of breakfast conspired to
keep me from the devotional. Thankfully, I'm here in plenty of time for the
plenary session and I'll be liveblogging it as soon as it starts. I'll throw
this up to test the wireless and then I'll be checking back in with
updates....
Dr. Todd Pickett the Dean of Humanities at Biola is currently speaking. Biola is an university that is dedicated to making Christians that impact the world. In that vein, it is very inline with Biola's goals to host an event like this, and they are excited to be the host and to welcome us here. Our culture has been described as a "tournament of narratives," our challenge is to faithfully add God's narrative to that tournament.
John Schroeder of Blogotional is our host for the plenary session - he will be leading a panel discussion. He is introducing, with some wonderfully bad jokes, each of our panel speakers. They are: Andy Jackson of SmartChristianBlog, Joe Carter of Evangelical Outpost, David Wayne of Jollyblogger.
The panel takes the stage....
First question - How did you get interested in blogging?
David Wayne: I am a pastor and I enjoyed reading and writing. Saw a post on Evangelical Outpost about Hugh's quote from In But Not Of and decided to start trying it.
Joe Carter: Had been a part of a newspaper that was shut down, and he really missed writing. Read Hugh's book, In But Not Of, and Hugh said something about impacting the culture through blogging, so he started to check
Andy Jackson: He's a teaching pastor and his primary role is teaching. He was asked a lot where students could find good resources online, so he really began the site as a part of teaching. He later added the blog.
Second Question - Has blogging effected your family life?
All three pretty much said there's a give and take. They have found a balance where blogging fits into their life because they did at one time have too much blogging going on.
Third Question - Has blogging effected your personal spiritual development?
Andy Jackson: "I really approach the blogosphere as a way to grow." He thinks that blogging has been a key addition to his spiritual development
Joe Carter: "Most of what I think, I don't really understand until I sit down and write them out." Helps him develop his thoughts. Said blogging can definitely be a "spiritual discipline"
David Wayne: Blogging is just another part of our life Coram Deo - before the face of God. We enter into blogging as any endeavor, in service to God. Blogging and the resultant discussion is a way of iron sharpening iron.
Fourth Question - Is blogging a new ministry or a continuation of other ministry?
Joe Carter: It's better to think of blogging as a service, rather than a ministry, Ministry carries to many connotations of full time or part time ministry.
David Wayne: It's an extension of his ministry. He is a pastor, and he reaches 7-8 times as many people on his blog as he does on a Sunday morning. There are also many people in his church that also read his blog and even someone who joined his church after having read his blog.
Andy Jackson: Blogging is an extension of the priesthood of all believers. He sees blogging as a natural extension of who we are, not just a task on our todo list. Our lives should be integrated, and blogging can be a part of that integration.
Fifth Question - Would you describe blogging as a hobby, vocation, or a call?
Joe Carter: Depends on the person. Some people will only do it as a hobby, for some it will be their primary ministry, and for some it will actually be a vocation.
Andy Jackson: Doesn't like the idea of blogging as a hobby. In the future there will be a distinction between people who are just journaling their lives (these are my cats, or I made cookies today), and those who are actually writing. Hopefully we as Christians will see it as a witness and extension of who we are, and we will do it well rather than simply throwing up stuff in our spare time.
David Wayne: Luther wanted to have a discussion when he tacked the 95 theses to the door, but he happened to tack into a major current in society. We need to be careful and intentional in our blogging, because we don't know the kind of splash it will make.
Sixth Question - Should bloggers be more devoted to the local church or the online community?
David Wayne: Shouldn't be an either/or. We are called to love all our brothers and sisters in Christ. If you have to have one take priority, our allegiance should be to our local church.
Joe Carter: It should be both. We are one body in Christ.
Andy Jackson: Our allegiance should be to the Kingdom of God. If the local church is allied to the Kingdom of God then our commitment is there, if not then it shouldn't be. But our allegiance first and foremost should be to the kingdom of God.
Seventh Question - Can our online communities replace the church?
Joe Carter: It's a false distinction to divide between the local church and the community online. We are all part of the one body of Christ. Are our missionaries any less a part of our local church, simply because we are only able to communicate with them via mail?
David Wayne: There are things given to the church that can't be done online - right preaching of the Word, administration of the Sacraments. God has given certain functions to the Church that can't be duplicated online.
Andy Jackson: Most Christians are not experiencing biblical community. The blogosphere is attractive because people are trying to provide the kind of connections and community that we are lacking. That's what he likes about this conference - not so much the great presentations, but to be able to meet face to face and really fellowship with other saints. We face "a crisis of community in our churches."
Eighth Question - What are appropriate limits on our blogging? If part of our community is revealing something about ourselves, what do we reveal?
Andy Jackson: Blogging is not the only means of communication of the blogosphere. Blogging may be the public beginning, but then people connect via email, skype, etc. Blogging is not the place to air out real, personal issues.
Ninth Question - (mostly for David and Andy, our two blogging pastors on the panel) As pastors do you have problems with people in the congregation thinking your blog takes too much of your time?
David Wayne: A lot of people still don't really understand what blogging is or what the value of it is. He has had to explain more than a few times. Much like when the internet first came on the scene, people didn't understand it and didn't embrace it. But as it grew and started to gain acceptance in society, the church began to embrace it more to the point where almost all churches have websites.
Andy Jackson: Hasn't had any problems really, but behind his site is a resource site. He thinks this that we should be incorporating blogging and all of the internet into our churches and into our education and discipleship of our congregations.
Tenth Question - What are some good strategies for getting good blog posts into your congregation?
Joe Carter: Find out what people are into in your church, and then plug them into blogs that have that focus. If they like apologetics, for instance, point them to STR's blog.
Andy Jackson: Agrees with Joe, thinks that a good idea. We need to take practical steps to integrate blogs and online media into our education programs in our church. If we don't do that, we may not really be able to bring blogs into our church.
David Wayne: "Dittos on all that" He tried to start a project a while back to start a blog for a small group resource center. If you are a small church, as Andy said, there are a lot of resources online that you can use to aide your ministry.
Andy Jackson: Pastors have to get over the idea that they are the monopoly on biblical information. They should embrace their congregates becoming more well-learned and more fed, and that doesn't mean it all has to come from them.
Eleventh Question - Do your think blogging will reform the church? If so how? What will that look like?
Andy Jackson: "God, I hope so" Blogging is simply a piece of the change. God is right now reforming the church, but He is using blogs as a part of that. He believes we are entering a change right now because of the time in which we live. Blogging shouldn't be seen as the cause of that, but it is a tool that God is using to reform His Church.
Joe Carter: Can blogging reform the Church? no. Can Christian bloggers reform the church? Absolutely. It is part of a movement to bring about reformation in the Church.
Twelfth Question - Is blogging the technology reforming culture, theology, etc.?
Joe Carter: As John Mark Reynolds talked about last night, it is going to make our theology less systematic and more conversational.
Andy Jackson: Doesn't think we know yet what is happening. We are in the middle of what's happening, and we can't discern what the ultimate outcome will be. We need to start thinking of how we can harness and focus the Christian blogosphere for greater impact.
Thirteenth Question - Is there a theology of blogging?
Joe Carter: We need a cultural hermeneutic? We rightly ask what is the bible teaching us, but we also need to be able to ask what is culture saying to us. We need to determine how blogging fits into culture and what it can and cannot do to reform our culture. We need leadership from our theologians about what exactly blogging should be.
David Wayne: He was unsure at first what Joe meant when they talked about this. Blogging is the application of scripture to life.
Fourteenth Question - There's a lot of labels in Christian blogging. Are those labels useful, and how?
Joe Carter: Labels are useful in that they show what gifting people have. An apologetics blog means that the blogger has a gift for making a defense of Christianity. We need to understand the limitations of labels, so that they don't divide us or drive us to view a person as only gifted in one area.
Andy Jackson: There is a definite need for specialized blogs, but we need to make sure that they aren't left as an island. We also can't get so enamored of our one pet issue that we see the kingdom of God as only that issue.
Fifteenth Question - (from the floor) How do we know if a person is credible or not if we read something on their blog?
Andy Jackson: His pet peeve is people who don't use their real name when blogging. How do we know if we should trust you if you won't simply tell us who you are.
David Wayne: Every blogging package has an about me page - use it [ed: I probably need to do this, even though my name is prominently displayed] Also, one of the virtues of the blogosphere is you can look at a post by someone and see what others are saying about it. When someone posts something in error, other blogs jump on it, and so regulate each other and verify things.
SIxteenth Question - How do we encourage excellence in blogging? Do we even know what that is?
David Wayne: In any endeavor, the cream rises to the top. As we interact with each other, our thoughts are refined and we will get better at this. Every Christian has to remember that their calling is to do all that they do to the glory of God.
Joe Carter: Ebert reviews movies based on what they are trying to do. We should judge blogs based on what their focus or goal is. There are definitely some that are better - we don't believe in moral relativism, neither should we believe in aesthetic relativism.
Andy Jackson: Blogs provide a good amount of accountability because they allow the views that were normally drowned out by the elite to be voiced. We need to use this voice to hold elite agencies to accountability. We can't let the mainstream media hold up one insane Christian voice and broad brush the entire Christian community by it.
John Schroeder notes that we are out of time, and so we are about to head to our breakout sessions.
Dr. Todd Pickett the Dean of Humanities at Biola is currently speaking. Biola is an university that is dedicated to making Christians that impact the world. In that vein, it is very inline with Biola's goals to host an event like this, and they are excited to be the host and to welcome us here. Our culture has been described as a "tournament of narratives," our challenge is to faithfully add God's narrative to that tournament.
John Schroeder of Blogotional is our host for the plenary session - he will be leading a panel discussion. He is introducing, with some wonderfully bad jokes, each of our panel speakers. They are: Andy Jackson of SmartChristianBlog, Joe Carter of Evangelical Outpost, David Wayne of Jollyblogger.
The panel takes the stage....
First question - How did you get interested in blogging?
David Wayne: I am a pastor and I enjoyed reading and writing. Saw a post on Evangelical Outpost about Hugh's quote from In But Not Of and decided to start trying it.
Joe Carter: Had been a part of a newspaper that was shut down, and he really missed writing. Read Hugh's book, In But Not Of, and Hugh said something about impacting the culture through blogging, so he started to check
Andy Jackson: He's a teaching pastor and his primary role is teaching. He was asked a lot where students could find good resources online, so he really began the site as a part of teaching. He later added the blog.
Second Question - Has blogging effected your family life?
All three pretty much said there's a give and take. They have found a balance where blogging fits into their life because they did at one time have too much blogging going on.
Third Question - Has blogging effected your personal spiritual development?
Andy Jackson: "I really approach the blogosphere as a way to grow." He thinks that blogging has been a key addition to his spiritual development
Joe Carter: "Most of what I think, I don't really understand until I sit down and write them out." Helps him develop his thoughts. Said blogging can definitely be a "spiritual discipline"
David Wayne: Blogging is just another part of our life Coram Deo - before the face of God. We enter into blogging as any endeavor, in service to God. Blogging and the resultant discussion is a way of iron sharpening iron.
Fourth Question - Is blogging a new ministry or a continuation of other ministry?
Joe Carter: It's better to think of blogging as a service, rather than a ministry, Ministry carries to many connotations of full time or part time ministry.
David Wayne: It's an extension of his ministry. He is a pastor, and he reaches 7-8 times as many people on his blog as he does on a Sunday morning. There are also many people in his church that also read his blog and even someone who joined his church after having read his blog.
Andy Jackson: Blogging is an extension of the priesthood of all believers. He sees blogging as a natural extension of who we are, not just a task on our todo list. Our lives should be integrated, and blogging can be a part of that integration.
Fifth Question - Would you describe blogging as a hobby, vocation, or a call?
Joe Carter: Depends on the person. Some people will only do it as a hobby, for some it will be their primary ministry, and for some it will actually be a vocation.
Andy Jackson: Doesn't like the idea of blogging as a hobby. In the future there will be a distinction between people who are just journaling their lives (these are my cats, or I made cookies today), and those who are actually writing. Hopefully we as Christians will see it as a witness and extension of who we are, and we will do it well rather than simply throwing up stuff in our spare time.
David Wayne: Luther wanted to have a discussion when he tacked the 95 theses to the door, but he happened to tack into a major current in society. We need to be careful and intentional in our blogging, because we don't know the kind of splash it will make.
Sixth Question - Should bloggers be more devoted to the local church or the online community?
David Wayne: Shouldn't be an either/or. We are called to love all our brothers and sisters in Christ. If you have to have one take priority, our allegiance should be to our local church.
Joe Carter: It should be both. We are one body in Christ.
Andy Jackson: Our allegiance should be to the Kingdom of God. If the local church is allied to the Kingdom of God then our commitment is there, if not then it shouldn't be. But our allegiance first and foremost should be to the kingdom of God.
Seventh Question - Can our online communities replace the church?
Joe Carter: It's a false distinction to divide between the local church and the community online. We are all part of the one body of Christ. Are our missionaries any less a part of our local church, simply because we are only able to communicate with them via mail?
David Wayne: There are things given to the church that can't be done online - right preaching of the Word, administration of the Sacraments. God has given certain functions to the Church that can't be duplicated online.
Andy Jackson: Most Christians are not experiencing biblical community. The blogosphere is attractive because people are trying to provide the kind of connections and community that we are lacking. That's what he likes about this conference - not so much the great presentations, but to be able to meet face to face and really fellowship with other saints. We face "a crisis of community in our churches."
Eighth Question - What are appropriate limits on our blogging? If part of our community is revealing something about ourselves, what do we reveal?
Andy Jackson: Blogging is not the only means of communication of the blogosphere. Blogging may be the public beginning, but then people connect via email, skype, etc. Blogging is not the place to air out real, personal issues.
Ninth Question - (mostly for David and Andy, our two blogging pastors on the panel) As pastors do you have problems with people in the congregation thinking your blog takes too much of your time?
David Wayne: A lot of people still don't really understand what blogging is or what the value of it is. He has had to explain more than a few times. Much like when the internet first came on the scene, people didn't understand it and didn't embrace it. But as it grew and started to gain acceptance in society, the church began to embrace it more to the point where almost all churches have websites.
Andy Jackson: Hasn't had any problems really, but behind his site is a resource site. He thinks this that we should be incorporating blogging and all of the internet into our churches and into our education and discipleship of our congregations.
Tenth Question - What are some good strategies for getting good blog posts into your congregation?
Joe Carter: Find out what people are into in your church, and then plug them into blogs that have that focus. If they like apologetics, for instance, point them to STR's blog.
Andy Jackson: Agrees with Joe, thinks that a good idea. We need to take practical steps to integrate blogs and online media into our education programs in our church. If we don't do that, we may not really be able to bring blogs into our church.
David Wayne: "Dittos on all that" He tried to start a project a while back to start a blog for a small group resource center. If you are a small church, as Andy said, there are a lot of resources online that you can use to aide your ministry.
Andy Jackson: Pastors have to get over the idea that they are the monopoly on biblical information. They should embrace their congregates becoming more well-learned and more fed, and that doesn't mean it all has to come from them.
Eleventh Question - Do your think blogging will reform the church? If so how? What will that look like?
Andy Jackson: "God, I hope so" Blogging is simply a piece of the change. God is right now reforming the church, but He is using blogs as a part of that. He believes we are entering a change right now because of the time in which we live. Blogging shouldn't be seen as the cause of that, but it is a tool that God is using to reform His Church.
Joe Carter: Can blogging reform the Church? no. Can Christian bloggers reform the church? Absolutely. It is part of a movement to bring about reformation in the Church.
Twelfth Question - Is blogging the technology reforming culture, theology, etc.?
Joe Carter: As John Mark Reynolds talked about last night, it is going to make our theology less systematic and more conversational.
Andy Jackson: Doesn't think we know yet what is happening. We are in the middle of what's happening, and we can't discern what the ultimate outcome will be. We need to start thinking of how we can harness and focus the Christian blogosphere for greater impact.
Thirteenth Question - Is there a theology of blogging?
Joe Carter: We need a cultural hermeneutic? We rightly ask what is the bible teaching us, but we also need to be able to ask what is culture saying to us. We need to determine how blogging fits into culture and what it can and cannot do to reform our culture. We need leadership from our theologians about what exactly blogging should be.
David Wayne: He was unsure at first what Joe meant when they talked about this. Blogging is the application of scripture to life.
Fourteenth Question - There's a lot of labels in Christian blogging. Are those labels useful, and how?
Joe Carter: Labels are useful in that they show what gifting people have. An apologetics blog means that the blogger has a gift for making a defense of Christianity. We need to understand the limitations of labels, so that they don't divide us or drive us to view a person as only gifted in one area.
Andy Jackson: There is a definite need for specialized blogs, but we need to make sure that they aren't left as an island. We also can't get so enamored of our one pet issue that we see the kingdom of God as only that issue.
Fifteenth Question - (from the floor) How do we know if a person is credible or not if we read something on their blog?
Andy Jackson: His pet peeve is people who don't use their real name when blogging. How do we know if we should trust you if you won't simply tell us who you are.
David Wayne: Every blogging package has an about me page - use it [ed: I probably need to do this, even though my name is prominently displayed] Also, one of the virtues of the blogosphere is you can look at a post by someone and see what others are saying about it. When someone posts something in error, other blogs jump on it, and so regulate each other and verify things.
SIxteenth Question - How do we encourage excellence in blogging? Do we even know what that is?
David Wayne: In any endeavor, the cream rises to the top. As we interact with each other, our thoughts are refined and we will get better at this. Every Christian has to remember that their calling is to do all that they do to the glory of God.
Joe Carter: Ebert reviews movies based on what they are trying to do. We should judge blogs based on what their focus or goal is. There are definitely some that are better - we don't believe in moral relativism, neither should we believe in aesthetic relativism.
Andy Jackson: Blogs provide a good amount of accountability because they allow the views that were normally drowned out by the elite to be voiced. We need to use this voice to hold elite agencies to accountability. We can't let the mainstream media hold up one insane Christian voice and broad brush the entire Christian community by it.
John Schroeder notes that we are out of time, and so we are about to head to our breakout sessions.
Posted: Fri - October 14, 2005 at 09:06 AM | | | | | | |
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