Thu - October 27, 2005
Sarcasmagorical, meet Jollyblogger
I can't believe it, but I share a
headline with David Wayne (Jollyblogger) in the latest issue of
World
That subject line is the title of a new article in World Magazine. Imagine my
surprise as I was running through my RSS feeds today and saw Jollyblogger's post, stating that he and I
shared a headline. I am pretty blown away by this, as I was with the whole
GodBlogCon experience. I leapt at the chance to attend for two basic reasons -
I could hear the always enjoyable John
Mark Reynolds and even attend his breakout session, and I could meet
some cool bloggers. I figured I wouldn't even be a blip on the radar amongst
the bigger names there, but every single one of the larger bloggers there was
gracious, humble and not just willing, but anxious to meet smaller bloggers like
myself. Hugh Hewitt, not only a famous blogger but a major radio personality,
exemplified this best. He was incredibly approachable, and if you watched him
for more than two minutes it became crystal clear how much he enjoyed being
there with the bloggers. I have half of a blog post written up on the whole
experience of GodBlogCon I. I need to finish it soon (as well as my review of
Elizabethtown... stay tuned), and get some links
out to all of the great bloggers I met that
weekend.
In the meantime, if any people happened upon this site after reading Joe Carter's article in WorldMag and are asking the question he poses - "What is a blog?" - I'll shamelessly point you to my definitions of blog terminology. Or for those wondering what Sarcasmagorical actually means, here's one of my earliest posts explaining the term.
In the meantime, if any people happened upon this site after reading Joe Carter's article in WorldMag and are asking the question he poses - "What is a blog?" - I'll shamelessly point you to my definitions of blog terminology. Or for those wondering what Sarcasmagorical actually means, here's one of my earliest posts explaining the term.
Posted at 09:30 PM | | Read More | | |
Fri - October 14, 2005
Liveblogging - Hugh Hewitt Panel Discussion
Hugh Hughitt is headlining a panel
discussion tonight - liveblogging will ensue
[
Welcome Hughitt, LaShawn Barber, and Charmaine Yoest readers as well as my fellow
GodBlogCon
attendees. Feel free to stay a while and check out other posts, or check out my
podcast at JourneyToTheCenterOf.com - ed.
]
After foolishly not checking my schedule, and being totally ignorant of the Biola cafeteria's closing times, I somehow completely missed the whole dinner portion of the night. I guess they close the cafe at 6:30 on a Friday night, and I was too busy watching Hugh's show until 6 (even though I was supposed to be at dinner starting at 5) and then ended up in a great discussion with a number of other bloggers on how to make the convention more accessible to those who felt their views weren't represented. Oh well, so I will be mildly hungry during the panel discussion - no great tragedy.
On the good news front, I have both power and wireless connectivity so all of you out there should be able to follow along. I'll throw this up in anticipation of the event and check back in once it starts.
And we're back.... Matthew Anderson is currently introducing our panel, beginning with Hughitt.
Hugh is now opening us up. Apparently we will be back in August of next year. The format will be each will speak for 5 minutes as an opener and then they will have a discussion. How do you be a successful blogger?
1. You know one subject incredibly well, and yet cover a lot of subjects. That way people will come to your site whenever they have the question on that subject, and yet you have other stuff to attract them
2. Tone, tone, tone. Joe Carter's Evangelical Outpost post on beginning blogging is excellent on this.
3. Take on tough subjects. It's tough to talk about tough subjects and do it well, and it keeps people coming back.
Our three panelists are particularly good at doing all of these. They reflect a tradition of both deep academic knowledge, and yet real, frontline service. It's good that we have examples like them to hold up as we try and get more of Christendom
Tod Bolsinger - He didn't know anything about blogging 15 months ago; was a reluctant blogger.
Focus - he feels like sometimes he is overly focused. There are certain topics he is very good at, and there are a lot of subjects he doesn't focus on because he is simply an amateur in them. He feels that his sense of focus gives him a niche as well as a certain amount of uniqueness. As a model we can see the sermon on the mount as a guide - Christ is speaking particularly to his disciples, and yet He is also clearly aware that the crowds and the Pharisees are hearing the message as well.
Mark Roberts - He is thanking the people involved and thanking Biola for hosting the event. He got into blogging because Hugh forced him into it over dinner about 2 years ago - telling him the blogosphere needs voices like your voice. He began with just the idea of being a Christian voice out in the blogosphere. He did a post on The Davinci Code and received a lot of thanks and helpful comments and that really built momentum for him in the community. He did similar posts on The Passion of the Christ and on Time and Newsweek cover stories on the birth of Christ.
John Mark Reynolds - Thanks everyone for coming to the GBC. Wants to clarify that all Christians are welcome here at GBC, and hopes that we can spread the word that people will be treated nicely to come back in August. thanks Matt Anderson and his team (who have done an excellent job - this conference has run smoothly and been excellent - ed.) He blogs not to get hits, but to reveal his life. Often in apologetics people feel that Christians are hiding something. Blogging can open up and expose our lives in a way that shows openness. It also shows what it means to be a Christian in a fully-orbed way. One thing to remember is that in a Google world, blogging is somewhat forever - so be careful about blogging, because people will be able to google it and find out.
Hugh has seven questions for each of the bloggers.
Question 1 - You were all busy before you blogged. From where has the time come and has it been hard for you and your family?
John Mark Reynolds: He spent his first month really diving into the new media and blogged a lot and learned the trade. From that point on, he made a rule for himself that he would spend only 1 hour a day. He also made a rule that he would spell check, but not grammar check his blog posts. He decided to cut back on his football and his free time in order to not sacrifice other areas.
Mark Roberts: He gave up a lot of TV time-killing (local news, et al.) Sometimes he will get in a bit over his head, and his family will notice and let him know - which is a good thing. His family is very supportive. His wife doesn't like him calling his blog his hobby, because it is such a big part of his ministry.
Ted Bolsinger: The first couple of months were difficult, but now more and more his work as a blogger is integrated with his work as a pastor. He rarely writes anything in the blog that doesn't get reused in a sermon or a newsletter, etc. He thinks that his blog has been a good way for people in his congregation to get to know him a lot better.
Question 2 - What are the dangers of blogging? What scripture would you say most reminds you of that danger?
Mark Roberts: He's done his worst blogging when angry - his thoughts are right, but he'll write something far too caustic. If he had to choose one verse to glue on the screen it would be speaking the truth in love.
Tod Bolsinger: "Do not let the send button go down on your anger" There's something about having this forum where it holds onto your material, and its a painful revelation when you realize how people are out there and reading your stuff. He has written some great stuff by writing it, and then waiting 12 hours to edit it and post it to refine the thoughts and let them mellow.
John Mark Reynolds: He keeps the biblical story in mind of David being forced out of Jerusalem by his son Absalom, and there is a guy cursing at him. His followers suggest killing the man, and David says something to the effect that let's wait until we win to kill him, in case he is right. Your critics are your best friend - think long and hard first about in what ways they are right. We need to avoid the temptation that we can win an argument right this second
Question 3 - What do Christian bloggers have to learn about fame in the blogosphere?
Tod Bolsinger: Matthew 6:1, "Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them" We need to be careful that we are doing this as a service, while trusting God to take care of our audience. We should be mindful of our motivations in blogging and getting more fame.
John Mark Reynolds: It's hard to be humble and own your name as a domain, but what else can be done? In his profession (philosophy professor), blogging is actually counterproductive to his career, which keeps him in check. One can only do one's best (sounds like he is pushing Pecca Fortier, Sin Boldly, ed.)
Mark Roberts: He ran into strangers that had read his blog and really liked it, which he has never even happened to him with the books he's written. He thought at the time, wow, this could really be a head trip. The thing that keeps him centered is he sometimes gets really touching emails from people who were really struggling with an issue that he had the chance to help by one of his writings. It helps him focus on what its really about, which is making a difference in people's lives.
Question 4 - Give us the warning signs of a pastor or Christian who should not blog.
John Mark Reynolds: 1. You're absolutely convinced that you have something to say that everyone needs to hear. Beware of a "calling" that is really just a inflated sense of self.
2. A person who is uninterested in taking part of the dialectic. We've come across blogs that are so convinced that people on the other side are clueless and evil.
3. The person who can't make any strong statements about anything because they are so afraid of what people will think.
Mark Roberts: 1. You have hard and difficult and painful things from which blogging is an attempt to escape.
2. Your family right now really really needs your time. There may be a time later, but don't do it now.
3. You're a person that has a hard time dealing with anger
4. If you're a perfectionist, you'll simply kill yourself. Its too quick a medium.
5. Don't blog if you don't care about words, grammar, etc. There are some people who so butcher the language that its really not worth reading them. Blogs are about words and communication, so if you don't care at all about these, best pass it up.
Tod Bolsinger: 1. Not all of us are called to a writing ministry. You need to be comfortable with writing if you're going to be a blogger - it will either be bad, or you'll spend all day doing it.
2. Blogging should not be a highly individualistic activity of yours, but you should be in a community - like everything else.
Question 5 - Ought pastors to do pure political advocacy?
Mark Roberts: He would caution a pastor from doing so, because you might alienate people in your congregation. He is a pastor first and foremost, and blogging should not harm that office. Talk it through your governing board and really think through it carefully, because you don't want to harm your ministry.
Tod Bolsinger: He doesn't blog as part of his church's website on purpose, because he doesn't want people to confuse his own thoughts with the message of the church. His blog can be kept separate from his preaching, so that he is able to work out ideas more that he wouldn't want to preach on. he echoes Mark's thoughts that first and foremost he is a pastor.
John Mark Reynolds: In his own faith tradition, there simply will not be any political bloggers. So some faiths have things that are more inappropriate than what other faiths would think about this. He maintains a distinction between what he says on his website, and what he would say on the Biola website. It is good for a congregation that is mature enough to handle it, to be able to see how their pastors live out their Christianity, and that plays out in how they live as citizen and how they would vote. They would need to make it clear, however, that there is
Question 6 - Have you encouraged a specific person to start blogging? If you could get someone to blog, who would it be? Who would you like NOT to blog?
Tod Bolsinger - Encouraged a former muslim, turned Christian and elder to blog. Particularly because he was left leaning. He started and did it for a while well, and then gave it up because it took too much time for him. In many ways where Tod disagrees with him, but feels he needs to hear his voice.
John Mark Reynolds: Matt Anderson and the crew of Mere Orthodoxy were ones that john Mark Reynolds encouraged to start blogging. Other than J.P. Moreland, whom Dr. Reynolds pesters publicly about blogging, he would like traditionalist muslims who hate the hijacking of islam by terrorists. He wishes that Orthodox people who misunderstand tradition as teaching anti-seimitism to not blog.
Mark Roberts: There have been some - he wrote an article about pastors blogging and got 50 something emails of pastors that did actually start blogs because of it. He really likes people Dr. Reynolds blogging - people with great ideas who are very well trained to whose ideas we don't normally get exposed. He'd also love to see Dennis Prager blog.
John Mark Reynolds offers to send Dennis Prager a student to ghost-blog for him, if Dennis is willing.
Question 7 - What 3 Christians, post discipleship era would you like to have seen blog?
John Mark Reynolds: C.S. Lewis doesn't count, because they always say it. Joan of ark, because she fascinates him and how she made Mark Twain write a good Christian novel. Charles Stewart (King Charles I) - a great man and an awful king. If he had godblogged, someone could have told him
Mark Roberts: Luther - he really already was a blogger with his tabletalks. He would have been excellent. Apostle Paul - He did with letters what we are doing with the blog. He definitely put the technology of his day to work for the Gospel of Christ. Calvin - first because Mark is a Presbyterian, btu mostly because Calvin's format is very long and difficult to read and it would be easier in blog sized snippets.
Tod Bolsinger: The puritans. They were doing stuff somewhat similar to blogging, and were very great at reflecting on ordinary life. Abraham Kuyper. Jürgen Moltmann (Wiki here) - he developed an in depth theology of the cross, and it would have been great to have watched him as it was developing.
Hugh has opened it up to the floor, and a few people are giving their responses. They are too fast for me to keep up with on here. One of the points was that we have a great panel and others who provide true servant leadership in the blogosphere.
Hugh asked female bloggers if they think that the blogosphere is male-dominated and harsh to women? Charmaine Yoest thinks not. Stacey Harp (also here) thinks that there are voices of women in the Godblogging community, and yet they aren't here. Why not? A lot of women who are Godbloggers are homeschoolers, and are unable to make it or have their own events. Just a woman blog - the blogosphere is incredibly welcome and encouraging to women bloggers because of the lack of female voices in the blogosphere.
There's some discussion on positive blogging. It's all too easy to tear down bad arguments, or give the negative case, and there is far too much out there like that already. We need to be building a positive case for holistic Christianity. If we do post something that takes down a view, or fisks an article, we should follow it with a post that gives our case.
Mark Roberts: Group blogs are good for a number of reasons. They build community more easily, and they advance the discussion further. They also allow us to post at a slower rate, and therefore not feel so pressured to post post post. so we can focus on quality.
Minute reflections from each panelist to close
John Mark Reynolds: He will say to us, what he says to his students. You are smart in a world where being smart is difficult.
Tod Bolsinger: Every wednesday he does a "half baked" study, where he lets his church in on where he is as he studies for the sermon. He loves being in the blogosphere because there is a great sense of sharpening each other, and honing our communication. We need to learn to work together to create a focused, public response in the blogosphere.
Mark Roberts: He has found a lot of success, like his examples tonight, in responding to things that are not good in a way that is constructive. It is a wonderful thing to experience having God use your blog to change someone's life. In the aftermath of Katrina, they found a sister church in New Orleans - a good example of how things can transcend locality and the blogosphere and make real concrete change. Its not a huge difference, but a lot of us, making small differences makes a big difference.
Mark closes us in prayer for tonight.
After foolishly not checking my schedule, and being totally ignorant of the Biola cafeteria's closing times, I somehow completely missed the whole dinner portion of the night. I guess they close the cafe at 6:30 on a Friday night, and I was too busy watching Hugh's show until 6 (even though I was supposed to be at dinner starting at 5) and then ended up in a great discussion with a number of other bloggers on how to make the convention more accessible to those who felt their views weren't represented. Oh well, so I will be mildly hungry during the panel discussion - no great tragedy.
On the good news front, I have both power and wireless connectivity so all of you out there should be able to follow along. I'll throw this up in anticipation of the event and check back in once it starts.
And we're back.... Matthew Anderson is currently introducing our panel, beginning with Hughitt.
Hugh is now opening us up. Apparently we will be back in August of next year. The format will be each will speak for 5 minutes as an opener and then they will have a discussion. How do you be a successful blogger?
1. You know one subject incredibly well, and yet cover a lot of subjects. That way people will come to your site whenever they have the question on that subject, and yet you have other stuff to attract them
2. Tone, tone, tone. Joe Carter's Evangelical Outpost post on beginning blogging is excellent on this.
3. Take on tough subjects. It's tough to talk about tough subjects and do it well, and it keeps people coming back.
Our three panelists are particularly good at doing all of these. They reflect a tradition of both deep academic knowledge, and yet real, frontline service. It's good that we have examples like them to hold up as we try and get more of Christendom
Tod Bolsinger - He didn't know anything about blogging 15 months ago; was a reluctant blogger.
Focus - he feels like sometimes he is overly focused. There are certain topics he is very good at, and there are a lot of subjects he doesn't focus on because he is simply an amateur in them. He feels that his sense of focus gives him a niche as well as a certain amount of uniqueness. As a model we can see the sermon on the mount as a guide - Christ is speaking particularly to his disciples, and yet He is also clearly aware that the crowds and the Pharisees are hearing the message as well.
Mark Roberts - He is thanking the people involved and thanking Biola for hosting the event. He got into blogging because Hugh forced him into it over dinner about 2 years ago - telling him the blogosphere needs voices like your voice. He began with just the idea of being a Christian voice out in the blogosphere. He did a post on The Davinci Code and received a lot of thanks and helpful comments and that really built momentum for him in the community. He did similar posts on The Passion of the Christ and on Time and Newsweek cover stories on the birth of Christ.
John Mark Reynolds - Thanks everyone for coming to the GBC. Wants to clarify that all Christians are welcome here at GBC, and hopes that we can spread the word that people will be treated nicely to come back in August. thanks Matt Anderson and his team (who have done an excellent job - this conference has run smoothly and been excellent - ed.) He blogs not to get hits, but to reveal his life. Often in apologetics people feel that Christians are hiding something. Blogging can open up and expose our lives in a way that shows openness. It also shows what it means to be a Christian in a fully-orbed way. One thing to remember is that in a Google world, blogging is somewhat forever - so be careful about blogging, because people will be able to google it and find out.
Hugh has seven questions for each of the bloggers.
Question 1 - You were all busy before you blogged. From where has the time come and has it been hard for you and your family?
John Mark Reynolds: He spent his first month really diving into the new media and blogged a lot and learned the trade. From that point on, he made a rule for himself that he would spend only 1 hour a day. He also made a rule that he would spell check, but not grammar check his blog posts. He decided to cut back on his football and his free time in order to not sacrifice other areas.
Mark Roberts: He gave up a lot of TV time-killing (local news, et al.) Sometimes he will get in a bit over his head, and his family will notice and let him know - which is a good thing. His family is very supportive. His wife doesn't like him calling his blog his hobby, because it is such a big part of his ministry.
Ted Bolsinger: The first couple of months were difficult, but now more and more his work as a blogger is integrated with his work as a pastor. He rarely writes anything in the blog that doesn't get reused in a sermon or a newsletter, etc. He thinks that his blog has been a good way for people in his congregation to get to know him a lot better.
Question 2 - What are the dangers of blogging? What scripture would you say most reminds you of that danger?
Mark Roberts: He's done his worst blogging when angry - his thoughts are right, but he'll write something far too caustic. If he had to choose one verse to glue on the screen it would be speaking the truth in love.
Tod Bolsinger: "Do not let the send button go down on your anger" There's something about having this forum where it holds onto your material, and its a painful revelation when you realize how people are out there and reading your stuff. He has written some great stuff by writing it, and then waiting 12 hours to edit it and post it to refine the thoughts and let them mellow.
John Mark Reynolds: He keeps the biblical story in mind of David being forced out of Jerusalem by his son Absalom, and there is a guy cursing at him. His followers suggest killing the man, and David says something to the effect that let's wait until we win to kill him, in case he is right. Your critics are your best friend - think long and hard first about in what ways they are right. We need to avoid the temptation that we can win an argument right this second
Question 3 - What do Christian bloggers have to learn about fame in the blogosphere?
Tod Bolsinger: Matthew 6:1, "Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them" We need to be careful that we are doing this as a service, while trusting God to take care of our audience. We should be mindful of our motivations in blogging and getting more fame.
John Mark Reynolds: It's hard to be humble and own your name as a domain, but what else can be done? In his profession (philosophy professor), blogging is actually counterproductive to his career, which keeps him in check. One can only do one's best (sounds like he is pushing Pecca Fortier, Sin Boldly, ed.)
Mark Roberts: He ran into strangers that had read his blog and really liked it, which he has never even happened to him with the books he's written. He thought at the time, wow, this could really be a head trip. The thing that keeps him centered is he sometimes gets really touching emails from people who were really struggling with an issue that he had the chance to help by one of his writings. It helps him focus on what its really about, which is making a difference in people's lives.
Question 4 - Give us the warning signs of a pastor or Christian who should not blog.
John Mark Reynolds: 1. You're absolutely convinced that you have something to say that everyone needs to hear. Beware of a "calling" that is really just a inflated sense of self.
2. A person who is uninterested in taking part of the dialectic. We've come across blogs that are so convinced that people on the other side are clueless and evil.
3. The person who can't make any strong statements about anything because they are so afraid of what people will think.
Mark Roberts: 1. You have hard and difficult and painful things from which blogging is an attempt to escape.
2. Your family right now really really needs your time. There may be a time later, but don't do it now.
3. You're a person that has a hard time dealing with anger
4. If you're a perfectionist, you'll simply kill yourself. Its too quick a medium.
5. Don't blog if you don't care about words, grammar, etc. There are some people who so butcher the language that its really not worth reading them. Blogs are about words and communication, so if you don't care at all about these, best pass it up.
Tod Bolsinger: 1. Not all of us are called to a writing ministry. You need to be comfortable with writing if you're going to be a blogger - it will either be bad, or you'll spend all day doing it.
2. Blogging should not be a highly individualistic activity of yours, but you should be in a community - like everything else.
Question 5 - Ought pastors to do pure political advocacy?
Mark Roberts: He would caution a pastor from doing so, because you might alienate people in your congregation. He is a pastor first and foremost, and blogging should not harm that office. Talk it through your governing board and really think through it carefully, because you don't want to harm your ministry.
Tod Bolsinger: He doesn't blog as part of his church's website on purpose, because he doesn't want people to confuse his own thoughts with the message of the church. His blog can be kept separate from his preaching, so that he is able to work out ideas more that he wouldn't want to preach on. he echoes Mark's thoughts that first and foremost he is a pastor.
John Mark Reynolds: In his own faith tradition, there simply will not be any political bloggers. So some faiths have things that are more inappropriate than what other faiths would think about this. He maintains a distinction between what he says on his website, and what he would say on the Biola website. It is good for a congregation that is mature enough to handle it, to be able to see how their pastors live out their Christianity, and that plays out in how they live as citizen and how they would vote. They would need to make it clear, however, that there is
Question 6 - Have you encouraged a specific person to start blogging? If you could get someone to blog, who would it be? Who would you like NOT to blog?
Tod Bolsinger - Encouraged a former muslim, turned Christian and elder to blog. Particularly because he was left leaning. He started and did it for a while well, and then gave it up because it took too much time for him. In many ways where Tod disagrees with him, but feels he needs to hear his voice.
John Mark Reynolds: Matt Anderson and the crew of Mere Orthodoxy were ones that john Mark Reynolds encouraged to start blogging. Other than J.P. Moreland, whom Dr. Reynolds pesters publicly about blogging, he would like traditionalist muslims who hate the hijacking of islam by terrorists. He wishes that Orthodox people who misunderstand tradition as teaching anti-seimitism to not blog.
Mark Roberts: There have been some - he wrote an article about pastors blogging and got 50 something emails of pastors that did actually start blogs because of it. He really likes people Dr. Reynolds blogging - people with great ideas who are very well trained to whose ideas we don't normally get exposed. He'd also love to see Dennis Prager blog.
John Mark Reynolds offers to send Dennis Prager a student to ghost-blog for him, if Dennis is willing.
Question 7 - What 3 Christians, post discipleship era would you like to have seen blog?
John Mark Reynolds: C.S. Lewis doesn't count, because they always say it. Joan of ark, because she fascinates him and how she made Mark Twain write a good Christian novel. Charles Stewart (King Charles I) - a great man and an awful king. If he had godblogged, someone could have told him
Mark Roberts: Luther - he really already was a blogger with his tabletalks. He would have been excellent. Apostle Paul - He did with letters what we are doing with the blog. He definitely put the technology of his day to work for the Gospel of Christ. Calvin - first because Mark is a Presbyterian, btu mostly because Calvin's format is very long and difficult to read and it would be easier in blog sized snippets.
Tod Bolsinger: The puritans. They were doing stuff somewhat similar to blogging, and were very great at reflecting on ordinary life. Abraham Kuyper. Jürgen Moltmann (Wiki here) - he developed an in depth theology of the cross, and it would have been great to have watched him as it was developing.
Hugh has opened it up to the floor, and a few people are giving their responses. They are too fast for me to keep up with on here. One of the points was that we have a great panel and others who provide true servant leadership in the blogosphere.
Hugh asked female bloggers if they think that the blogosphere is male-dominated and harsh to women? Charmaine Yoest thinks not. Stacey Harp (also here) thinks that there are voices of women in the Godblogging community, and yet they aren't here. Why not? A lot of women who are Godbloggers are homeschoolers, and are unable to make it or have their own events. Just a woman blog - the blogosphere is incredibly welcome and encouraging to women bloggers because of the lack of female voices in the blogosphere.
There's some discussion on positive blogging. It's all too easy to tear down bad arguments, or give the negative case, and there is far too much out there like that already. We need to be building a positive case for holistic Christianity. If we do post something that takes down a view, or fisks an article, we should follow it with a post that gives our case.
Mark Roberts: Group blogs are good for a number of reasons. They build community more easily, and they advance the discussion further. They also allow us to post at a slower rate, and therefore not feel so pressured to post post post. so we can focus on quality.
Minute reflections from each panelist to close
John Mark Reynolds: He will say to us, what he says to his students. You are smart in a world where being smart is difficult.
Tod Bolsinger: Every wednesday he does a "half baked" study, where he lets his church in on where he is as he studies for the sermon. He loves being in the blogosphere because there is a great sense of sharpening each other, and honing our communication. We need to learn to work together to create a focused, public response in the blogosphere.
Mark Roberts: He has found a lot of success, like his examples tonight, in responding to things that are not good in a way that is constructive. It is a wonderful thing to experience having God use your blog to change someone's life. In the aftermath of Katrina, they found a sister church in New Orleans - a good example of how things can transcend locality and the blogosphere and make real concrete change. Its not a huge difference, but a lot of us, making small differences makes a big difference.
Mark closes us in prayer for tonight.
Posted at 06:56 PM | | Read More | | |
Liveblogging Hughitt
I am watching Hugh do his show right
now live from Biola
I have the privilege right now of being able to
sit in on Hugh Hewitt's show. He is doing his show live here from Biola's
library to highlight GodBlogCon (as I mentioned in last night's liveblogging). It is packed in
here with bloggers anxious to see Hugh and hoping to possibly get some on air
mention.
With the JTTCO podcast a recent addition to my life, this is tremendously interesting to see a real live radio show take place. Hugh is currently debating Jonah Goldberg on air right now - two people who previously had pretty divergent opinions, but are currently engaging in a rather civil debate. So I'm not only learning the craft of the approach to radio, but also the congenial manner of their discourse. It is clear the two of them disagree, but they are allies in the larger cause of conservatism and are anxious to agree on the matter.
Hugh is about to come back from his second break and continue the discussion with Jonah Goldberg. It's a very interesting debate, as I find myself somewhere in the middle on this debate. I'll try and liveblog a little bit more on this segment.
Hugh: Does her age (61, meaning she won't serve for as long as someone who is 50) bother you?
Jonah: Personally, it was never a big issue with me. It's a good secondary argument, but its not the heart of his concerns. If she turns out to trend liberal, it might actually be an argument in her favor.
Hugh: Next time around - what do you want in a nominee?
Jonah: He wants a nominee with a written record as a judge/writer/professor who can show their conservative credentials. We need to have a record where we can put our trust that they won't change once on the bench.
Well, I'm almost out of battery and I don't see any power outlets. I'll have to check back in when I can find some more power.
With the JTTCO podcast a recent addition to my life, this is tremendously interesting to see a real live radio show take place. Hugh is currently debating Jonah Goldberg on air right now - two people who previously had pretty divergent opinions, but are currently engaging in a rather civil debate. So I'm not only learning the craft of the approach to radio, but also the congenial manner of their discourse. It is clear the two of them disagree, but they are allies in the larger cause of conservatism and are anxious to agree on the matter.
Hugh is about to come back from his second break and continue the discussion with Jonah Goldberg. It's a very interesting debate, as I find myself somewhere in the middle on this debate. I'll try and liveblog a little bit more on this segment.
Hugh: Does her age (61, meaning she won't serve for as long as someone who is 50) bother you?
Jonah: Personally, it was never a big issue with me. It's a good secondary argument, but its not the heart of his concerns. If she turns out to trend liberal, it might actually be an argument in her favor.
Hugh: Next time around - what do you want in a nominee?
Jonah: He wants a nominee with a written record as a judge/writer/professor who can show their conservative credentials. We need to have a record where we can put our trust that they won't change once on the bench.
Well, I'm almost out of battery and I don't see any power outlets. I'll have to check back in when I can find some more power.
Posted at 03:50 PM | | Read More | | |
Plenary Session 2 - Liveblogging
I'll give another attempt at
liveblogging the next plenary session
I'm once again in the Calvary Chapel, awaiting
the start of our second plenary session. I'm going to put this up and then
begin liveblogging when it
starts.....
John Schroeder opens us up for this session. He quotes my post where I described his jokes as "wonderfully bad," saying that instead he was going for "horribly bad"
Question 1 - Can Christian blogging effect culture, if so how?
Joe Carter: Blogging effects the way in which we encounter culture. Too often Christians don't take culture and make it our own, we simply take what culture gives us and Jesus-ify it - i.e. we put Jesus lyrics over Rock n Roll 20 years later.
Andy Jackson: Blogging by itself will not impact culture unless we are interpreting culture properly. If we don't know the trends and issues in our culture, we can't speak to them. The gospel is all about impacting our culture - it impacts our entire life, not just an individual conversion.
David Wayne: The gospel becomes our framework for interpreting our culture
Joe Carter: Jesus did not just redeem man. The Gospel means that He has redeemed all of creation.
Question 2 - How are we going to transform culture? How are Christian bloggers any different from other bloggers?
Joe Carter: We have to come together as a Church if we want to impact culture. We need to form our own community, come together, before we will be able to be effective at anything. "We can't just slap a WWJD sticker on something and make it Christian" but we should rather have a more holistic view that the Gospel transform everything in our lives.
Andy Jackson: We ought to be blogging from a holistic worldview. We can't be over focused on issues as though each was an island, but rather we should be blogging on individual issues from the connectedness of our worldview.
David Wayne: One of the things we want to avoid is having too narrow of a definition of evangelism. We've taken the approach in our evangelical culture that conversion is an event. We need to expand our definition of evangelism to incorporate the whole life - and that also means just as much that we are not trying to turn people into Republicans.
There have been more than a few questions from the floor. They're happening too fast for me to keep track of them all or get who was asking. One was a question as to why there are no female bloggers on the panel, especially when LaShawn Barber is sitting in the audience and gets more traffic than all of the other bloggers on stage? This generated some discussion back and forth, but didn't generate much resolution.
I'm having power issues... struggling to keep up here while trying to plug in.....
There is a good discussion going on now about impacting culture. The main theme is that we shouldn't see ourselves simply as individuals each blogging for ourselves. We need to think of ourselves as a group and cooperate.
Joe Carter: How many of you have individual blogs out there? How many of you have an individual church out there? This is why when he was asked to be involved with WorldMagBlog he brought in all these people to make spin off blogs in specific areas (2bHuman, Theologica, etc). Each of those spin off blogs are group blogs with a dedicated group of people who are gifted and interested in that specific area. Being a Christian is about being in community.
Question 3 - Should a Christian blog, if it was not labeled, be easily distinguish as a Christian blog?
Joe Carter: We should separate blogs from bloggers in our discussion. Blogs are static even if they are updated constantly. Bloggers will be judged by the culture in how we interact with others.
David Wayne: For some people, conversion is a point (Apostle Paul, for instance). For others, it is a process. We may not give a full description of the Gospel in a specific post, but we trust that God will take those little pieces of the Gospel as we apply them to different areas of life to work in the life of our readers. He doesn't look for a silver bullet in each post that is going to make someone pray a sinner's prayer, but he does feel the obligation to let the Gospel bleed through in everything he does.
Question 4 - Is politics an effective way to redeem culture? Is it part of the package, or is it a distraction?
Andy Jackson: I think it is how we define politics. If we understand that the Gospel has outworking implications in how we live as a people, then politics plays a part. Government is part of culture, but we need to keep in mind that is is ONLY a part, and not the whole. "Partisan politics should not drive public policy, as Christians... what should drive our public policy is Biblical truth" We should certainly be involved in political issues, but it should be driven by extending the Gospel into our politics. But we need to be careful that we are Christians first, and not party hacks.
Joe Carter: Politics is way too much of our culture right now. Songs, movies, etc are going to play a big role in culture.
David Wayne: quoting C.S. Lewis - our two main errors in dealing with the devil are ignoring him, or overemphasizing him. We do this with politics as well. We have to bring the Gospel to bear on our politics, but we can't make politics the Gospel.
Question 5 - Are inter-nicene squabbles helpful or harmful?
David Wayne: Gave the example of when he first heard the Emergent Church, he wanted to squash it (being a good Presbyterian). But in talking with some of the emergent church, he was able to really learn some stuff and gain from their criticisms. We shouldn't fear these debates inside the Church, but should make sure to keep them cordial.
This session has had a lot of questions from the floor and things have been moving very quickly, so I've been having some trouble blogging all of the different conversations. So for those of you who didn't make it this year and who are trying to follow along - I guess you'll just have to attend GBC II in person. Either that or check out the GBC Blog and find some other great bloggers who are no doubt covering this a lot better than myself.
One interesting thing our host John Schroeder brought up is to pray for the bloggers that we read. This is something that I really haven't thought about, but its something I need to do. Especially for the higher profile blogs out there, who need protection. On top of that, dropping an email or leaving a comment is also a way of encouraging people to continue. Joe Carter suggested we really need to support those smaller blogs out there who are the people who really need encouragement. LaShawn Barber commented that the larger bloggers also need to highlight some of the smaller bloggers out there - she does a roundup post every now and then and links to some of the less heard of bloggers.
John Schroeder opens us up for this session. He quotes my post where I described his jokes as "wonderfully bad," saying that instead he was going for "horribly bad"
Question 1 - Can Christian blogging effect culture, if so how?
Joe Carter: Blogging effects the way in which we encounter culture. Too often Christians don't take culture and make it our own, we simply take what culture gives us and Jesus-ify it - i.e. we put Jesus lyrics over Rock n Roll 20 years later.
Andy Jackson: Blogging by itself will not impact culture unless we are interpreting culture properly. If we don't know the trends and issues in our culture, we can't speak to them. The gospel is all about impacting our culture - it impacts our entire life, not just an individual conversion.
David Wayne: The gospel becomes our framework for interpreting our culture
Joe Carter: Jesus did not just redeem man. The Gospel means that He has redeemed all of creation.
Question 2 - How are we going to transform culture? How are Christian bloggers any different from other bloggers?
Joe Carter: We have to come together as a Church if we want to impact culture. We need to form our own community, come together, before we will be able to be effective at anything. "We can't just slap a WWJD sticker on something and make it Christian" but we should rather have a more holistic view that the Gospel transform everything in our lives.
Andy Jackson: We ought to be blogging from a holistic worldview. We can't be over focused on issues as though each was an island, but rather we should be blogging on individual issues from the connectedness of our worldview.
David Wayne: One of the things we want to avoid is having too narrow of a definition of evangelism. We've taken the approach in our evangelical culture that conversion is an event. We need to expand our definition of evangelism to incorporate the whole life - and that also means just as much that we are not trying to turn people into Republicans.
There have been more than a few questions from the floor. They're happening too fast for me to keep track of them all or get who was asking. One was a question as to why there are no female bloggers on the panel, especially when LaShawn Barber is sitting in the audience and gets more traffic than all of the other bloggers on stage? This generated some discussion back and forth, but didn't generate much resolution.
I'm having power issues... struggling to keep up here while trying to plug in.....
There is a good discussion going on now about impacting culture. The main theme is that we shouldn't see ourselves simply as individuals each blogging for ourselves. We need to think of ourselves as a group and cooperate.
Joe Carter: How many of you have individual blogs out there? How many of you have an individual church out there? This is why when he was asked to be involved with WorldMagBlog he brought in all these people to make spin off blogs in specific areas (2bHuman, Theologica, etc). Each of those spin off blogs are group blogs with a dedicated group of people who are gifted and interested in that specific area. Being a Christian is about being in community.
Question 3 - Should a Christian blog, if it was not labeled, be easily distinguish as a Christian blog?
Joe Carter: We should separate blogs from bloggers in our discussion. Blogs are static even if they are updated constantly. Bloggers will be judged by the culture in how we interact with others.
David Wayne: For some people, conversion is a point (Apostle Paul, for instance). For others, it is a process. We may not give a full description of the Gospel in a specific post, but we trust that God will take those little pieces of the Gospel as we apply them to different areas of life to work in the life of our readers. He doesn't look for a silver bullet in each post that is going to make someone pray a sinner's prayer, but he does feel the obligation to let the Gospel bleed through in everything he does.
Question 4 - Is politics an effective way to redeem culture? Is it part of the package, or is it a distraction?
Andy Jackson: I think it is how we define politics. If we understand that the Gospel has outworking implications in how we live as a people, then politics plays a part. Government is part of culture, but we need to keep in mind that is is ONLY a part, and not the whole. "Partisan politics should not drive public policy, as Christians... what should drive our public policy is Biblical truth" We should certainly be involved in political issues, but it should be driven by extending the Gospel into our politics. But we need to be careful that we are Christians first, and not party hacks.
Joe Carter: Politics is way too much of our culture right now. Songs, movies, etc are going to play a big role in culture.
David Wayne: quoting C.S. Lewis - our two main errors in dealing with the devil are ignoring him, or overemphasizing him. We do this with politics as well. We have to bring the Gospel to bear on our politics, but we can't make politics the Gospel.
Question 5 - Are inter-nicene squabbles helpful or harmful?
David Wayne: Gave the example of when he first heard the Emergent Church, he wanted to squash it (being a good Presbyterian). But in talking with some of the emergent church, he was able to really learn some stuff and gain from their criticisms. We shouldn't fear these debates inside the Church, but should make sure to keep them cordial.
This session has had a lot of questions from the floor and things have been moving very quickly, so I've been having some trouble blogging all of the different conversations. So for those of you who didn't make it this year and who are trying to follow along - I guess you'll just have to attend GBC II in person. Either that or check out the GBC Blog and find some other great bloggers who are no doubt covering this a lot better than myself.
One interesting thing our host John Schroeder brought up is to pray for the bloggers that we read. This is something that I really haven't thought about, but its something I need to do. Especially for the higher profile blogs out there, who need protection. On top of that, dropping an email or leaving a comment is also a way of encouraging people to continue. Joe Carter suggested we really need to support those smaller blogs out there who are the people who really need encouragement. LaShawn Barber commented that the larger bloggers also need to highlight some of the smaller bloggers out there - she does a roundup post every now and then and links to some of the less heard of bloggers.
Posted at 01:34 PM | | Read More | | |
Breakout Session 1 - Blogging Christian Philosophy - Dr. John Mark Reynolds
I'm attending the Blogging Christian
philosophy breakout session - I'll try to liveblog
Sitting next to Mark Olson of Pseudo-Polymath. Waiting for our session to
start. John Mark Reynolds is opening us with a prayer, and explaining that this
really should be a discussion and not a lecture. We'll be exchanging ideas,
starting with some of the things Dr. Reynolds said last
night.
Dr. Reynolds - The best professional philosopher blogging today is Brian Leiter at Leiter Reports. Leiter changed professional philosophy and he did it essentially through his website. He blogs in a model way for those of us Christian bloggers who aspire to engage the marketplace of ideas.
----
OK, so I must admit that's about as far as I got with liveblogging this one. Not much of a liveblog. I was more interested in joining the discussion than in trying to capture so much of it. I will post a few thoughts that came out of our discussion. Dr. Reynolds' main question for us is how can we blog effectively in order to transform culture?
One of the first observations is that we cannot transform culture merely through blogs. As much as we've heard about the power of the blogosphere and the new printing press and all of that (which is true to a point), we have to remember that this is not the be-all end-all technology that will form a Christian culture simply because we typed up a few posts. Along those same lines, I think it is imperative that we see blogging as a piece of our life - my calling as a husband and father supersede my calling to be a good blogger. What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world in traffic, but loses his family? Our kids can't spend 18 years growing up in non-Christian homes and be "fixed" by blogs right before they go to college.
Of course, we wouldn't be here at a GodBlogCon if we didn't think that blogging was at least effective to a point. So what are some practical ways we can blog effectively? Here are some thoughts that came out of the discussion:
1. Embrace discussion. We are after Truth, Beauty and Goodness and if that is our aim, then we should welcome any chance to sharpen that understanding. When people engage us in discussion and disagree with us, it is an opportunity for us to better understand. Do they have a criticism that is valid, or is there any way in which we offended unnecessarily? We ought to be anxious to grant points, because when this is done in sincerity, people will see that we are truly interested in discerning Truth, Beauty and Goodness.
2. Maintain civility. As we embrace discussion with others, we stand out from the landscape if we engage in civil, cordial conversation. The blogosphere can be very harsh, and our political climate is filled with invective. We should stand against this in our graciousness with those who disagree.
3. Boldly go (since its Dr. Reynolds, I have to throw in a Star Trek reference). One of the beauties of the blogosphere is that we can determine where the discussion will lead. We don't have to simply react to what the elite culture says as far as the topics of concern, but we can actually open new discussions. Topics that are taboo in culture or inappropriate in some settings, can be tackled with reckless abandon online.
4. Safely investigate. Along those same lines, we can read the best arguments from the top thinkers of the other side, without having to get into a debate head on with them. I would get crushed if I entered into a debate with some well known atheist faculty of an ivy league institution, but his students will blog his thoughts and I can read them. I don't have to worry about having my ego crushed in front of people, or sully the name of Christ with intemperate remarks in a debate, yet I can still find out what their best thoughts are and rebut them when I have done enough thought and study on the matter.
Dr. Reynolds - The best professional philosopher blogging today is Brian Leiter at Leiter Reports. Leiter changed professional philosophy and he did it essentially through his website. He blogs in a model way for those of us Christian bloggers who aspire to engage the marketplace of ideas.
----
OK, so I must admit that's about as far as I got with liveblogging this one. Not much of a liveblog. I was more interested in joining the discussion than in trying to capture so much of it. I will post a few thoughts that came out of our discussion. Dr. Reynolds' main question for us is how can we blog effectively in order to transform culture?
One of the first observations is that we cannot transform culture merely through blogs. As much as we've heard about the power of the blogosphere and the new printing press and all of that (which is true to a point), we have to remember that this is not the be-all end-all technology that will form a Christian culture simply because we typed up a few posts. Along those same lines, I think it is imperative that we see blogging as a piece of our life - my calling as a husband and father supersede my calling to be a good blogger. What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world in traffic, but loses his family? Our kids can't spend 18 years growing up in non-Christian homes and be "fixed" by blogs right before they go to college.
Of course, we wouldn't be here at a GodBlogCon if we didn't think that blogging was at least effective to a point. So what are some practical ways we can blog effectively? Here are some thoughts that came out of the discussion:
1. Embrace discussion. We are after Truth, Beauty and Goodness and if that is our aim, then we should welcome any chance to sharpen that understanding. When people engage us in discussion and disagree with us, it is an opportunity for us to better understand. Do they have a criticism that is valid, or is there any way in which we offended unnecessarily? We ought to be anxious to grant points, because when this is done in sincerity, people will see that we are truly interested in discerning Truth, Beauty and Goodness.
2. Maintain civility. As we embrace discussion with others, we stand out from the landscape if we engage in civil, cordial conversation. The blogosphere can be very harsh, and our political climate is filled with invective. We should stand against this in our graciousness with those who disagree.
3. Boldly go (since its Dr. Reynolds, I have to throw in a Star Trek reference). One of the beauties of the blogosphere is that we can determine where the discussion will lead. We don't have to simply react to what the elite culture says as far as the topics of concern, but we can actually open new discussions. Topics that are taboo in culture or inappropriate in some settings, can be tackled with reckless abandon online.
4. Safely investigate. Along those same lines, we can read the best arguments from the top thinkers of the other side, without having to get into a debate head on with them. I would get crushed if I entered into a debate with some well known atheist faculty of an ivy league institution, but his students will blog his thoughts and I can read them. I don't have to worry about having my ego crushed in front of people, or sully the name of Christ with intemperate remarks in a debate, yet I can still find out what their best thoughts are and rebut them when I have done enough thought and study on the matter.
Posted at 12:04 PM | | Read More | | |
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 at 09:06 AM | | Read More | | |
Thu - October 13, 2005
Liveblogging GodBlogCon - First night - Thursday
I am liveblogging the GBC, check back
often for the latest updates
Got here a bit late, but still in time to get my
registration packet and get into the room before the
introduction.
Away we go.....
5:05 - Matthew Anderson opened us with a word of prayer and began the introduction. He's currently going over the background of GodBlogCon. Basic intro type stuff - who to thank, where to find info, etc. Speaking of thanks - The DeMoss Group, Crossway Bibles, Grace Hill Media, Multnomah Books, and The Biola Bookstore.
I'm going to try posting this and see if the wireless network is up and running... it is!
Matthew is done speaking, Seth Cutter is now on stage. He is going to tell us what's in the packet and has some good news and bad news. Going over schedules right now... Tim Ruchti was unable to make it, so Breakout Session 3 that he was teaching (Pro-Life Blogging) is cancelled. Thats the bad news. Good news is that Hugh Hewitt will be here broadcasting live from Biola from the GodBlogCon! It will be from 3-6pm tomorrow (Hugh's normal show time slot). Those are the only two announcements he has for us.
Hugh broadcasting is good news, should help really publicize the conference. They are going to be tapping some of us to actually speak on the air! Hopefully I can get on there and plug the blog and JTTCO if I can.
Going over questions now.
What about next year? "you're pre-empting our announcement" They will have some news for us later
One attendee encourages writing your blog name on your name tag. Good idea, I'll have to do that.
Someone is asking about Biola's wireless network and the wired network. Apparently wireless access is just about everywhere - definitely is working here as all of you can read.
If you write a post about your time at GodBlogCon, they are collecting all of the posts about the conference and will be highlighting from the GodBlogCon Blog. They won't be editing them at all, someone jokingly asked "How do you spell Anderson?" (the speaker's last name). So we're done with the intro, and we're off to dinner. I'll check back in afterwards.
6:00 - Dinner was good - Biola cafeteria food is definitely a cut above almost all other colleges. Even back when Nat was here (and of course, he and Josh SHOULD be here this weekend, but sadly, are not), I remember him bragging about their food. Our cafeteria at dear old Cal Poly Pomona was effective at feeding us, but it hardly compares.
I had the pleasure of eating dinner with a few fellow bloggers -
Travis Fell of Austin Voice
Joe Carter of The Evangelical Outpost
Matthew Eppinette of 2bHuman
John Karmelich of BibleStudyEmail.com
6:50 - I'm currently sitting in Mayer's Auditorium with Travis Fell, grabbing some power for the laptop and awaiting John Mark Reynolds' talk at 7:15. Currently I'm also wrestling with the Biola wireless network, so hopefully I'll succeed in that and be able to throw this up in a few.
7:05 - Just struck up a conversation with Steve Cox of North To Alaska. He's a recent addition to the blogosphere, who's been blogging just for the last two months. He's from here in CA, but up in the Sacramento area. It's very interesting to meet all these different bloggers here at the GBC and especially to see the different takes people have on their blog - some are political blogs, some are devotional, some are local, etc. I'm looking forward to trading links and making some friendships while I'm here. My RSS feed is definitely going to be gaining quite a few new sources.
7:30 - Just went back and added some times to this post to give you some more context as to when some of these things were happening. John Mark Reynolds is about to speak... Matthew Anderson is introducing him - and giving us the bad news.... the wireless is not working here in Mayer's Auditorium. so this may not make it up for a bit. John Mark Reynolds
John Mark Reynolds is speaking. They will be announcing a followup conference to GBC - Biola (wireless notwithstanding) is a great host for this conference. He is self-deprecatingly joking about his being a philosopher speaking on blogging - "the difference between a philosopher and a pizza is a pizza can feed a family of four." His topic will be a playful amusement on blogging. "When we talk about blogging, we need to be careful that we really mean new media - things like podcasting" and vlogging, etc. "In philosophy, blogging takes part in the long running tension between Live versus Preserved Performance" There are good things about live concerts, which you can't replicate and yet there is also many good qualities of being able to listen to music on your iPod. "Blogging is going to right an imbalance between live and preserved performance," and this is what we need to be excited about when it comes to blogging. He quotes Socrates, quoted by Plato in Phaedrus. There is something lost in the preservation of a performance. This also means
Blogging can be seen this way - "Great! The culture that makes the Da Vinci Code a best seller now can produce more stuff!" In other words, blogging is a great way of making a ton of junk easily and forever accessible.
Possible Limitations to Preserved Discourse
- "Performance is 'frozen'": There is no such thing as a perfect performance. It will always have subtle differences depending on the performers, the audience, etc. As a listener to a performance, we have no way of interacting with the performer - they can't see the audience's reaction.
- "No way to monitor access to information that may be harmful.": Sometimes we have a responsibility to monitor. We have to acknowledge that some of our blogging would definitely be inappropriate for a specific audience. Sometimes we will write something that will hurt someone because we have no way of knowing who is in our audience.
- "Text or Performance cannot defend itself": Michaelangelo's David recently had a chunk of it chopped off because some insane man decided to attack it and David is not able to defend himself.
Advantages to Preserved Performance
"Permanent: allows an argument or community to 'build' over time.": We can watch a film for decades, and our children can watch it, and it carries the argument forth into the future.
"Allows original argument to be extended": Due to the fact we can read Plato, C.S. Lewis, etc. we can stand on their shoulders as the arguments have been refined over time.
"Allows a community of 'experts' to create amazing works (films or newspapers) that are greater (potentially) that the sum of their parts.": One single talent by himself cannot create a great work - Gene Roddenberry by himself is not Star Trek. Preserved Performance allows for an accumulated structure to develop.
For most of history, there was a balance between Preserved and Live performance. The printing press and other technology has tipped the vastly in favor of preserved performance.
Implications in the rise of preserved performance
- "Rise in power of the university or seminary over the parish priest": The priest's live performance (sermon) cannot compete with the power of preserved performance by the University or seminary professor. He told an excellent story about an old lady in the church - unfortunately I can't do it justice trying to recreate it here.
- Rise in power of an aristocracy of information and performance. The local community theater could not compete with Hollywood. The local paper could not easily compete with the national news service. Though we definitely believe in the free market, something was lost and thats not necessarily good. We just don't think we need government to stop this - "otherwise we get French film"
- Rise in mass "orthodoxies"
- There was a splendid growth in those areas best served by "preserved discourse" (science, high arts), but at a cost to those areas best preserved by "live" discourse ("human" things, folk culture).
Christians have a stake in both Live and Preserved performance
- We are a community of believers. The living body of Christ cannot be captured, only experienced. This reminded me of something in the Basement Tapes - we tend to think so abstract in our theology that we miss truth. We think "God has a strong right arm" is imprecise and anthropomorphic, rather than the inspired word of God.
- We are people of the Book (and of Creed, centuries of literature, art and music)
- Because of this balance, Christian "orthodoxy" cannot survive without the life of the Spirit. It dies. What made possible the easy spread of "orthodox" teachings (at first a seeming advantage) also made difficult any life within them. John Mark Reynolds' grandpa, "Some people are so straight, they lean a little."
- While part of a heirarchical faith (Trinity, Apostles), we also accept the importance of each individual human created in the Image of God.
- By and large, those parts of the Church that are "live" have suffered (attendance at MAss) whiole "preserved things" (theology) at first prospered.
- However, our commitments to both "live" and "preserved" culture made it hard for the Church to thrive in a culture that came to be about a "preserved" discourse. We either became dry as dirt, or emotionally insane.
Oddly, New technology may moderate the trend to preserved speech
- Expected decline in the "religious left" and the rise of the "religious right" (of a sort) as blogs begin to reflect the folk. Blogging opens up the floodgates to the normal people actually being able to join in the conversation. For too long bishops who didn't believe the creeds could voice opinion and the folk who largely disagreed were powerless to speak. But woe to the bishop who tries to hide something now (think Dan Rather)
- Blogging is a "preserved" discourse more like a Platonic dialogue than an Aristotelian thesis. Blogs are constantly linking to each other in a progressive discussion which can't really be preserved.
- Blogging is permanent, sort of. The best blogs are sometimes worth keeping, but only if one kept the best of all the other blogs to which they respond. A blog is a living book - like a book, but so much quicker in the exchange of ideas.
- New technology will allow for living film (theater as film), art and music
- Since some human things are more interesting live, these areas will fall to the blogosphere. Now that the cost for participating is mostly nil, it is so easy to participate in the discussion. Video games that are networked are kicking Hollywood's butt right now.
- Other areas (sciences, technology) will be improved by blogging mostly in the areas where humanity impacts the practice. (Ethics and the temptation of hierarchies to suppress information). The big elites will mostly be disincentivized to speak falsehoods from the podium they own.
- Wide spread Oxbridge style education. Questions are important, and will now be raised.
- More power to the masses and less to the elites. (There will always be an elite - which is actually a good thing)
- Rise of a new elite that learns to lead in community and with their "whole soul" Dante is our model. (All the creation is our field and all our interests should be integrated). Christian Republicans used to be defined by the five people old media lets on TV - and all of them are insane. Not so in the new media, where new voices can rise up based on their acceptance by the community. We need to be Christians first, but live an integrated life like Dante (astronomy, politics, poetry, etc)
- Decline in "orthodoxies" and a rise in orthodoxy (living doctrine)
Because Christians must by nature embrace Living and Orthodox faith, they are uniquely placed to benefit. We are heart and head people, we are live and preserved media people, we are living yet orthodox people - and this makes us unique. Blogging forces us to do both, if we do it well. Both the Old Right and the Secular Left are overly propositionally focused - preserved media.
What Should Be Done?
- Community, Community, Community: a religion of the incarnation cannot stop at blogging. Blogging is not false community, but it cannot substitute for face to face meetings.
- John Paul the Great put it best: "Be not afraid!" Times are changing, but we shouldn't fear.
- Err on the side of liberty and embrace dialogue. (Allow "closed" communities, but also move outside those groups to broader communities)
- Don't be afraid of propositions and preserved discourse. You cannot escape questions, embrace them.
- Refuse to choose! (We need an elite and mass culture. We need theologians and pastors). Dr. Reynolds is thankful both for his PhD and his grandma.
Dr. Reynolds is done, and Elizabethtown is starting very soon. Gotta run.
Away we go.....
5:05 - Matthew Anderson opened us with a word of prayer and began the introduction. He's currently going over the background of GodBlogCon. Basic intro type stuff - who to thank, where to find info, etc. Speaking of thanks - The DeMoss Group, Crossway Bibles, Grace Hill Media, Multnomah Books, and The Biola Bookstore.
I'm going to try posting this and see if the wireless network is up and running... it is!
Matthew is done speaking, Seth Cutter is now on stage. He is going to tell us what's in the packet and has some good news and bad news. Going over schedules right now... Tim Ruchti was unable to make it, so Breakout Session 3 that he was teaching (Pro-Life Blogging) is cancelled. Thats the bad news. Good news is that Hugh Hewitt will be here broadcasting live from Biola from the GodBlogCon! It will be from 3-6pm tomorrow (Hugh's normal show time slot). Those are the only two announcements he has for us.
Hugh broadcasting is good news, should help really publicize the conference. They are going to be tapping some of us to actually speak on the air! Hopefully I can get on there and plug the blog and JTTCO if I can.
Going over questions now.
What about next year? "you're pre-empting our announcement" They will have some news for us later
One attendee encourages writing your blog name on your name tag. Good idea, I'll have to do that.
Someone is asking about Biola's wireless network and the wired network. Apparently wireless access is just about everywhere - definitely is working here as all of you can read.
If you write a post about your time at GodBlogCon, they are collecting all of the posts about the conference and will be highlighting from the GodBlogCon Blog. They won't be editing them at all, someone jokingly asked "How do you spell Anderson?" (the speaker's last name). So we're done with the intro, and we're off to dinner. I'll check back in afterwards.
6:00 - Dinner was good - Biola cafeteria food is definitely a cut above almost all other colleges. Even back when Nat was here (and of course, he and Josh SHOULD be here this weekend, but sadly, are not), I remember him bragging about their food. Our cafeteria at dear old Cal Poly Pomona was effective at feeding us, but it hardly compares.
I had the pleasure of eating dinner with a few fellow bloggers -
Travis Fell of Austin Voice
Joe Carter of The Evangelical Outpost
Matthew Eppinette of 2bHuman
John Karmelich of BibleStudyEmail.com
6:50 - I'm currently sitting in Mayer's Auditorium with Travis Fell, grabbing some power for the laptop and awaiting John Mark Reynolds' talk at 7:15. Currently I'm also wrestling with the Biola wireless network, so hopefully I'll succeed in that and be able to throw this up in a few.
7:05 - Just struck up a conversation with Steve Cox of North To Alaska. He's a recent addition to the blogosphere, who's been blogging just for the last two months. He's from here in CA, but up in the Sacramento area. It's very interesting to meet all these different bloggers here at the GBC and especially to see the different takes people have on their blog - some are political blogs, some are devotional, some are local, etc. I'm looking forward to trading links and making some friendships while I'm here. My RSS feed is definitely going to be gaining quite a few new sources.
7:30 - Just went back and added some times to this post to give you some more context as to when some of these things were happening. John Mark Reynolds is about to speak... Matthew Anderson is introducing him - and giving us the bad news.... the wireless is not working here in Mayer's Auditorium. so this may not make it up for a bit. John Mark Reynolds
John Mark Reynolds is speaking. They will be announcing a followup conference to GBC - Biola (wireless notwithstanding) is a great host for this conference. He is self-deprecatingly joking about his being a philosopher speaking on blogging - "the difference between a philosopher and a pizza is a pizza can feed a family of four." His topic will be a playful amusement on blogging. "When we talk about blogging, we need to be careful that we really mean new media - things like podcasting" and vlogging, etc. "In philosophy, blogging takes part in the long running tension between Live versus Preserved Performance" There are good things about live concerts, which you can't replicate and yet there is also many good qualities of being able to listen to music on your iPod. "Blogging is going to right an imbalance between live and preserved performance," and this is what we need to be excited about when it comes to blogging. He quotes Socrates, quoted by Plato in Phaedrus. There is something lost in the preservation of a performance. This also means
Blogging can be seen this way - "Great! The culture that makes the Da Vinci Code a best seller now can produce more stuff!" In other words, blogging is a great way of making a ton of junk easily and forever accessible.
Possible Limitations to Preserved Discourse
- "Performance is 'frozen'": There is no such thing as a perfect performance. It will always have subtle differences depending on the performers, the audience, etc. As a listener to a performance, we have no way of interacting with the performer - they can't see the audience's reaction.
- "No way to monitor access to information that may be harmful.": Sometimes we have a responsibility to monitor. We have to acknowledge that some of our blogging would definitely be inappropriate for a specific audience. Sometimes we will write something that will hurt someone because we have no way of knowing who is in our audience.
- "Text or Performance cannot defend itself": Michaelangelo's David recently had a chunk of it chopped off because some insane man decided to attack it and David is not able to defend himself.
Advantages to Preserved Performance
"Permanent: allows an argument or community to 'build' over time.": We can watch a film for decades, and our children can watch it, and it carries the argument forth into the future.
"Allows original argument to be extended": Due to the fact we can read Plato, C.S. Lewis, etc. we can stand on their shoulders as the arguments have been refined over time.
"Allows a community of 'experts' to create amazing works (films or newspapers) that are greater (potentially) that the sum of their parts.": One single talent by himself cannot create a great work - Gene Roddenberry by himself is not Star Trek. Preserved Performance allows for an accumulated structure to develop.
For most of history, there was a balance between Preserved and Live performance. The printing press and other technology has tipped the vastly in favor of preserved performance.
Implications in the rise of preserved performance
- "Rise in power of the university or seminary over the parish priest": The priest's live performance (sermon) cannot compete with the power of preserved performance by the University or seminary professor. He told an excellent story about an old lady in the church - unfortunately I can't do it justice trying to recreate it here.
- Rise in power of an aristocracy of information and performance. The local community theater could not compete with Hollywood. The local paper could not easily compete with the national news service. Though we definitely believe in the free market, something was lost and thats not necessarily good. We just don't think we need government to stop this - "otherwise we get French film"
- Rise in mass "orthodoxies"
- There was a splendid growth in those areas best served by "preserved discourse" (science, high arts), but at a cost to those areas best preserved by "live" discourse ("human" things, folk culture).
Christians have a stake in both Live and Preserved performance
- We are a community of believers. The living body of Christ cannot be captured, only experienced. This reminded me of something in the Basement Tapes - we tend to think so abstract in our theology that we miss truth. We think "God has a strong right arm" is imprecise and anthropomorphic, rather than the inspired word of God.
- We are people of the Book (and of Creed, centuries of literature, art and music)
- Because of this balance, Christian "orthodoxy" cannot survive without the life of the Spirit. It dies. What made possible the easy spread of "orthodox" teachings (at first a seeming advantage) also made difficult any life within them. John Mark Reynolds' grandpa, "Some people are so straight, they lean a little."
- While part of a heirarchical faith (Trinity, Apostles), we also accept the importance of each individual human created in the Image of God.
- By and large, those parts of the Church that are "live" have suffered (attendance at MAss) whiole "preserved things" (theology) at first prospered.
- However, our commitments to both "live" and "preserved" culture made it hard for the Church to thrive in a culture that came to be about a "preserved" discourse. We either became dry as dirt, or emotionally insane.
Oddly, New technology may moderate the trend to preserved speech
- Expected decline in the "religious left" and the rise of the "religious right" (of a sort) as blogs begin to reflect the folk. Blogging opens up the floodgates to the normal people actually being able to join in the conversation. For too long bishops who didn't believe the creeds could voice opinion and the folk who largely disagreed were powerless to speak. But woe to the bishop who tries to hide something now (think Dan Rather)
- Blogging is a "preserved" discourse more like a Platonic dialogue than an Aristotelian thesis. Blogs are constantly linking to each other in a progressive discussion which can't really be preserved.
- Blogging is permanent, sort of. The best blogs are sometimes worth keeping, but only if one kept the best of all the other blogs to which they respond. A blog is a living book - like a book, but so much quicker in the exchange of ideas.
- New technology will allow for living film (theater as film), art and music
- Since some human things are more interesting live, these areas will fall to the blogosphere. Now that the cost for participating is mostly nil, it is so easy to participate in the discussion. Video games that are networked are kicking Hollywood's butt right now.
- Other areas (sciences, technology) will be improved by blogging mostly in the areas where humanity impacts the practice. (Ethics and the temptation of hierarchies to suppress information). The big elites will mostly be disincentivized to speak falsehoods from the podium they own.
- Wide spread Oxbridge style education. Questions are important, and will now be raised.
- More power to the masses and less to the elites. (There will always be an elite - which is actually a good thing)
- Rise of a new elite that learns to lead in community and with their "whole soul" Dante is our model. (All the creation is our field and all our interests should be integrated). Christian Republicans used to be defined by the five people old media lets on TV - and all of them are insane. Not so in the new media, where new voices can rise up based on their acceptance by the community. We need to be Christians first, but live an integrated life like Dante (astronomy, politics, poetry, etc)
- Decline in "orthodoxies" and a rise in orthodoxy (living doctrine)
Because Christians must by nature embrace Living and Orthodox faith, they are uniquely placed to benefit. We are heart and head people, we are live and preserved media people, we are living yet orthodox people - and this makes us unique. Blogging forces us to do both, if we do it well. Both the Old Right and the Secular Left are overly propositionally focused - preserved media.
What Should Be Done?
- Community, Community, Community: a religion of the incarnation cannot stop at blogging. Blogging is not false community, but it cannot substitute for face to face meetings.
- John Paul the Great put it best: "Be not afraid!" Times are changing, but we shouldn't fear.
- Err on the side of liberty and embrace dialogue. (Allow "closed" communities, but also move outside those groups to broader communities)
- Don't be afraid of propositions and preserved discourse. You cannot escape questions, embrace them.
- Refuse to choose! (We need an elite and mass culture. We need theologians and pastors). Dr. Reynolds is thankful both for his PhD and his grandma.
Dr. Reynolds is done, and Elizabethtown is starting very soon. Gotta run.
Posted at 05:15 PM | | Read More | | |
GodBlogCon is here! (almost)
A reminder that I'll be liveblogging
GodBlogCon starting tonight - check back for updates
It seems like so long ago that I signed up for
GodBlogCon (March 2nd to be exact), but the opening night is almost here. As I
said before, I'll be liveblogging as much of the conference as I possibly can -
hopefully I'll be somewhere near a power supply and I'm hoping that they figured
out a way to give us non-Biola students access to their wireless network.
Previously at Biola, I semi-liveblogged Speaker's Corner; there was a
wireless network there, but no access for non-Biolans, so I had to wait until I
got home to actually post it. Even if I have no connection, I'll still type it
all up and throw it up on the server when I get home tonight. Either way, check the main page for
updates.
Which brings me to the next piece of cool news, all the GBC attendees are going to be treated to a preview screening of Elizabethtown, courtesy of Grace Hill Media. Looks like a pretty cool film - I'll try to put up a review later.
And our last piece of news comes from Fox News - looks like the press is interested in GodBlogCon as well (h/t on all this to the official GBC Blog).
Which brings me to the next piece of cool news, all the GBC attendees are going to be treated to a preview screening of Elizabethtown, courtesy of Grace Hill Media. Looks like a pretty cool film - I'll try to put up a review later.
And our last piece of news comes from Fox News - looks like the press is interested in GodBlogCon as well (h/t on all this to the official GBC Blog).
Posted at 08:51 AM | | Read More | | |
Fri - October 7, 2005
Liveblogging GodBlogCon
I am attending GodBlogCon, and will be
liveblogging
Hughitt posted a few livebloggers of Piper's conference that is
occurring right now in Minnesota - One of my friends is actually attending it as
we speak (err...blog). I thought I would take this opportunity as a jumping of
platform to shamelessly plug the fact that I'm planning on liveblogging the
GodBlogCon
conference
(previously mentioned here). There is still
space available, so if you're a Christian blogger, think about
attending. (Hint hint - Josh? Nat?)
Stay tuned....
Stay tuned....
Posted at 08:30 AM | | Read More | | |
Thu - April 21, 2005
GodBlogCon - now accepting reservations
GodBlogCon is now accepting
reservations. I signed up today
I'm very pleased to announce that GodBlogCon
(previously mentioned
on this blog) is now accepting registrations. (h/t Dr. Reynolds) If you are a Christian blogger,
then you should seriously consider signing
up now. There are only 300 spots available, so I already threw my
info into the mix and will be confirming my order as soon as they call me back.
I'm excited that an event that could be a major catalyst is going to be taking
place so close by that I'll be able to attend without traveling anywhere. I
pray that this event would be a great chance for the Church to really examine
this new media, and find the best way possible to use it to glorify Christ and
proclaim the Gospel.
One possible set back would be the price - at $100 it seems a bit steep, and it may have derailed one of my friends. However, with only 300 spots available, breakout sessions, and a pretty impressive list of bloggers that I admire, I figure that it will allow for a lot of interaction with the speakers and with fellow bloggers. I plan on liveblogging at least some of the event, which means I'll get a bunch of good content. And then they do give me four meals for that $100, so I guess its worth it. Now if I can just convince some of my friends who blog to attend with me....
One possible set back would be the price - at $100 it seems a bit steep, and it may have derailed one of my friends. However, with only 300 spots available, breakout sessions, and a pretty impressive list of bloggers that I admire, I figure that it will allow for a lot of interaction with the speakers and with fellow bloggers. I plan on liveblogging at least some of the event, which means I'll get a bunch of good content. And then they do give me four meals for that $100, so I guess its worth it. Now if I can just convince some of my friends who blog to attend with me....
Posted at 08:50 PM | | Read More | | |
Wed - March 2, 2005
GodBlogCon2005 is on!
GodBlogCon2005 will be held at Biola
here in CA. Everyone help get the word out and I hope to see you
there
GodBlogCon 2005 is officially
on!
I was very excited to see this on Jollyblogger, and even more excited to see that it will be at Biola. Biola is right here in So Cal, which means I can actually attend. Not only that, but John Mark Reynolds and Hugh Hewitt will be there leading some of the sessions. If you are a Christian blogger, this is shaping up to be a must attend event. And if you are simply a Christian, and not yet a blogger, this might be the type of event to push you into joining the blogosphere.
So spread the word, and I'll see you there.
I was very excited to see this on Jollyblogger, and even more excited to see that it will be at Biola. Biola is right here in So Cal, which means I can actually attend. Not only that, but John Mark Reynolds and Hugh Hewitt will be there leading some of the sessions. If you are a Christian blogger, this is shaping up to be a must attend event. And if you are simply a Christian, and not yet a blogger, this might be the type of event to push you into joining the blogosphere.
So spread the word, and I'll see you there.
Posted at 05:54 PM | | Read More | | |
Quick Links
Calendar
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
Categories
Archives
XML/RSS Feed
Highlighted posts
Statistics
Total entries in this blog:
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Nov 29, 2005 07:46 AM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Nov 29, 2005 07:46 AM
Search
The Tip Jar
Counter provided by
Brought to you by
