the speed at which we travel

Hiatus

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-08-18T21:51:49-05:00

If you’ve checked at all lately, you’ll notice that the pace of my posting has slowed way down. Way down. Here’s the thing: In the process of finishing my project, I’ve decided to move toward another blog that is fully devoted to the topic of commercial media communication and the church. There’s a lot to look at and discuss in this arena, and I think I’m better off separating this from my lighter personal and tech fare. In addition, I’m finding less time available to post personal and tech writing—and I feel strongly about redirecting my writing energies (now that the academic project is near complete) toward a new, more focused site. That said, there is much to do in going to a new blog—and I’m hoping to up the ante by changing software platforms. That, in itself, may take a few months of work. In the mean time, the TSAWWT will stay live right here in case anyone is interested in archived posts, and I may post sporadically if needed—if anything to keep folks abreast of the progress toward the new site. As a parting shot that will be featured here for a few months, I will close out with a post on a concept that I think needs increased attention: Externality. I've had this in my head for a while, so it's nice to get it posted.

The commercial church and externality

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-08-18T21:36:12-05:00

I came to this idea last year in the midst of my grad-level organizational communication class.... The purpose of this post is to walk through this line of thinking more thoroughly. But first, I have to define the first phrase in this post’s title: “the commercial church.” This phrase was coined to identify churches that have embraced an advertising and marketing approach to their mediated, public communication. It helps to identify this specifically in order to avoid generalizing churches that fall into other descriptive categories because of size or organizational structure (for example, megachurches, mainline churches, etc.). In short, any church could be considered a commercial church if its mediated communication appeals to people as consumers and the message is centered on the church and/or God as a competing life solution for individuals in a crowded marketplace of commercial culture. Certain churches may be more prone to commercial communication methods than others, but this has more to do with the people communicating than it does size or affiliation. That brings us to the idea of “externality” as it pertains to the mediated, public communication of the church. To properly define this in the church context, the linked clip below provides the classic definition from Nobel laureate Milton Friedman. “An externality is the effect of a transaction between two individuals on a third party who has not consented to or played any role in the carrying out of that transaction.” ...At first blush, using this line of reasoning to evaluate church communication might seem like a stretch. But it’s appropriate to apply the concept of externality to the church because the very idea of embracing an advertising and marketing approach to evangelism and church growth is borrowed from the business world.... What is the externality of how the church is communicating? What are the externalities of commercial communication when the message is the Gospel and the communicators represent The Church? It’s all too easy to view all media as neutral conduits for our messages. But as has been posted here before, media are far from neutral conduits. Advertising in particular has a specific ideology that thoroughly contextualizes messages. ...Externality, in the sense I am using the word, is the effect of this type of communication on those whom don’t respond as customers/converts. Apart from the ones who are won over, who are the ones who are disillusioned, confused, offended, or driven further away? ...To take the business analogy a little further, the church tends to only report new sales, while it avoids dwelling too much on attrition and doesn’t even think to measure campaigns in terms of lost prospects. ...While we know not everyone will choose to believe the message of the Kingdom and become followers of Jesus, this truth is not a blanket exemption from being responsible for the externalities of how we choose to communicate. Exxon, for example, cannot morally ignore the tragic externality of environmental pollution after an oil spill like the Valdez just because it is achieving record profits for its shareholders. While the truth of scripture is eternal, how we choose to communicate can be fallible and corruptible (read: counterproductive). If commercial methods of communication serve to further pollute the social environment we inhabit, it is appropriate to consider whether we’ve moved two steps forward and three steps backward in advancing the Kingdom.

No surprise: Disappointed in Rick Warren’s politics forum

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-08-17T21:29:36-05:00

I had issues with this whole event in terms of the church context and politics. Those (major) issues aside, I was completely disappointed by the questions that Rick Warren asked Sunday. This Washington Post commentary by David Waters really sums that all up for me. Since TSAWWT is going on hiatus, I’ll depart from my usual policy of not doing political posts. Follow the link and read the piece to understand what follows: If David Waters’ set of questions seem to have a certain bias, congratulate yourself for recognizing the obvious. The fact is, both Warren’s and Waters’ questions reek of bias. But Warren’s claim to provide a fair and equal forum on faith issues ignores this reality.

So what's your story?

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-08-16T21:27:38-05:00

“…the way the gospel is known is by one person being for another person the story of Jesus.”

Waxing algorithmic

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-08-15T21:23:45-05:00

I left my Bible in the cloud

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-07-22T21:06:41-05:00

This post is a mea culpa of sorts. Since I posted rather critically about LifeChurch.tv’s virtual megachurch foray into Second Life (from a media ecology and cultural perspective), I thought a post was in order on something the same organization produced that I think is fantastic (my first impression). I downloaded the YouVersion Bible reader from the iTunes App Store for my iPod Touch 2.0 a week ago. And I used it in church this Sunday (upon discovering the WiFi reaches into the auditorium at WHC). All I can say is: I love it. And thank you. Check out the video for a tour. The text is beautiful and the page turning is smoothly touch-based. Several major translations are available, including three in Español. I’m just happy to know I have TNIV at my fingertips. Plus, there are all kinds of social networking features centered on the text. Check that out on their web site for more details. This is Web 2.0 ministry innovation that I can get excited about. Virtual reality megachurch campuses? Not so much. Did I mention it’s free? That’s the perfect price for the Bible.

Diagnosing the cost disease

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-07-22T21:02:31-05:00

I was tipped off to this article from the Strib that ran in the Saturday paper. It’s worth a critical read. More worth reading are the reader comments because they speak to some the "externalities" of the megachurch and the ministry marketing paradigm—something I’ll define in a future post. As for this post, I was following reporter Jeff Strickler along as he discovered all the effort and angst that goes into “one hour on a Sunday” at Eagle Brook Church in White Bear Lake and other venues (yeah, the one that installed the cupholders in their theater-style seats), when an innocent observation he made reached out and hit me on the head. He had done his homework and landed an interview with Scott Thumma, one of my research sources on megachurch stats. The conversation got into church giving trends and growth trends, and there it was: “Another myth about megachurches, according to researcher Thumma, is that they spend a lot of time begging for money. In fact, most take a rather relaxed approach. That includes Eagle Brook, despite an annual budget nearing $10 million. Like a big-box mega-store that holds down prices with volume, Eagle Brook's continuous growth means they don't have to lean on members to dig deep; an ever-increasing number of hands slip cash into offering baskets.” Strickler connected the dots—all the more remarkable because his article does not reflect any sort of critical or biased tone (In fact, I’m sure Eagle Brook would read this piece as good PR). As the excerpt above explains, Megachurches operate on an economy of scale financial model, whether they know it or not. The conclusions drawn by Mark Chaves in his 2006 article (I blogged about this well-researched article in March) are largely confirmed by the above observation. A major growth factor in megachurches during an era of flat growth in the church overall has to do with Baumol’s Cost Disease. (Baumol is pictured.)

This is my last post about how awful Windows Vista is…

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-07-22T20:45:31-05:00

In truth, I haven’t posted about the age-old question for quite some time. Part of that has been the resurgence of the Mac (now the number three computer company in the world), which has been widely covered elsewhere. If you’ve missed it, just google “Mac market share” and bone up on it through recent news articles. In many ways the question has been answered by most tech writers out there today.... I know of a few people that are perfectly happy on Vista (just a few) and they really don’t know what they are missing, or why Vista has such a bad rep. ...Use what works and don’t worry about it. But if you are interested in what all the fuss is about, this recent piece in the New York Times lays out the issues for Microsoft very well. If there is any empathy for a huge company like Microsoft, this may be the appropriate place for it. Getting to a version of Windows that is on par (under the hood) with Mac OS X will require enormous effort:

Show me the money

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-07-22T20:39:20-05:00

With my project focusing on film industry marketing to churches, I ran across this little info-gem last week and thought I would pass it along. It's an interactive timeline infographic that charts Hollywood films and their gross earnings from 1986 to 2008. The portion below includes Jerry McGuire, just for the sake of my clever headline. What makes this so cool is that the entire thing is interactive. If you click on a region of the graph, it pops-up a message with the movie’s gross receipts and a link to a synopsis. It represents both an elegant and engaging way to present numeric data, along with the hyperlinked power of the Web. This is one of the finest examples of useful interactive and linky web media I've ever seen. Check out some of your favorite movies over the past 20 years (requires flash 9 in your browser).

Commodify me, oh Lord, part 11

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-05-16T22:05:24-05:00

The starting point for my MA project has really been about viewing church congregations as advertising audiences (a thoroughly objectified state). From that perspective, one can begin to understand how the media industry is shifting its resources toward reaching such audiences (in the context of the church culture) in an era where their traditional mediums, such as television, are providing an increasingly less reliable audience commodity value.

What is happening, according to Shirky, is that this “cognitive surplus” value of television watching is slowly being redirected toward more meaningful activities—participatory Web media being a chief beneficiary. Fellow NYU colleague, Jay Rosen, offered a few summation points on Shirky’s presentation (the full post can be found here): “A cognitive surplus means the total amount of unoccupied free time available (think of it as “screen hours”) after the basic needs of society have been met. ...“[Shirky] figures it took 100 million hours of people around the world writing, checking, editing, gathering, and talking it over (and fighting!)... Therefore if 99 percent of the TV watching in the US remained as is, and we broke off just one percent for the information commons and other cool stuff we could have 100 Wikipedia-[sized] projects per year.” “[Shirky] thinks we can reverse the time sink for people once marooned on the receiving end of a one-way system that didn’t care what you thought or brought to it, since it couldn’t afford the costs of interacting with you."

Getting The Weepies on the road

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-05-16T21:50:14-05:00

I have a tradition of buying a new record when I go on a road trip. Provided I’m not engrossed in conversation with fellow travelers or competing with the squealing of my brood of children (3 under the age of 10 right now), traveling allows me to really immerse myself in the music—a rare pleasure these days.

Get your sell detector

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-05-16T21:37:01-05:00

WWDC 2008: A shiny new thing

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-05-16T21:21:51-05:00

I really have one prediction for this year’s WWDC Stevenote, and I may be very wrong. But I think I’m just may be right—even when Intel and others are trying to poo-poo any rumors to this effect.

Commodify me, oh Lord, part 10

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-05-06T20:53:20-05:00

Can I get a witness?

Serenity now!

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-05-04T21:06:47-05:00

I rented the movie, Serenity a few months ago, which is the feature film installment of the cancelled yet renowned TV show, Firefly. While I didn’t expect all that much going into it cold, I was starved for some sci-fi. As it turned out, I was pleasantly surprised. Serenity was different—way different. And different is good.

Donna Martin graduates!

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-05-04T21:00:54-05:00

And so will I. I’ve been staring down the barrel of a deadline this past month, which I hope explains why I haven’t posted. Every shred of writing time has been devoted to full drafts of my thesis chapters 1, 2 & 3. With that overblown deadline behind me, I’m pleased to announce I have been “approved to walk,” which is the graduate school lingo for being allowed to participate in commencement and receive my M.A. in Communication (actually, I receive an empty decorative folder—the diploma is issued once I complete and defend my thesis). Saturday, May 24, I get hooded like a proper master. And at some point after that, my family gets a full-time dad back. So grab picket sign and march, people! Donna Martin graduates!

Commodify me, oh Lord, part 9

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-03-28T21:51:32-05:00

While there may be some truth in both of those statements, the disease hypothesis is not original to me--and it is not meant to be pejorative. It was something I came across in my research yesterday that I think is worthy of some reflection. As far as I can google, it has only been blogged about one other place (here), so this post should almost double its exposure. ...of Religion) penned a cover story for Christian Century that plumbed the depths of the available quantitative and qualitative research to uncover the driving forces behind the rise of megachurches in America since 1970. ...For the past decade or more there has been an argument in evangelicalism—one I’ve participated in from my own small corner of limited influence. The argument has been over whether megachurches are successful (by the numbers of people attending them) because of their ability to attract the unchurched through innovative outreach methods involving marketing, a consumer experience orientation and large gatherings with the high production values of entertainment media. Critics have argued that overall church attendance in America is not growing, but has stagnated: “It sometimes is said that the secret to megachurch success is that megachurches have figured out how to attract the unchurched.... The only study I know of that compares very large churches with smaller churches concludes that there is no difference between the two in the percentage of new members who were not previously involved with a church. So the increasing concentration of people in the very largest churches is not a consequence of megachurches tapping into a previously uninvolved population. Increased concentration is occurring mainly because people are shifting from smaller to larger churches, not because people are shifting from uninvolvement to involvement in big churches.” So what is the impetus for all this megachurch growth—this concentration of more people into larger congregations—which has been accelerating since the 1970s?... informed by research, offers an increasingly plausible explanation: It’s the economy, stupid: “…the increased concentration of people in the very largest churches is caused in part by rising costs that make it more and more difficult to run a church at a customary level of programming and quality. ...The basic idea is simple: if there is increasing productivity and efficiency in some sectors of the economy, and if wages increase in those sectors, then wages also will increase in other sectors, or else talent will move to the sectors in which wages are increasing.” Professional church workers (pastors, staff) require ongoing wage and benefit increases to keep pace with life in the U.S. economy. ...“…churches face ever-rising real costs with no significant opportunities to reduce those costs by becoming more efficient. The only options in such a situation are to sacrifice quality or increase revenue.” It’s no coincidence that revenues (via giving) for churches have not kept pace since the 1970s, when the evangelical megachurch trend began. “…increases in donations are not often compared to the rate at which the costs of running a church have increased. Beginning in about 1970 the rate at which donations increased stopped keeping pace with the rate at which the costs of running a church increased.”

Commodify me, oh Lord, part 8

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-03-18T22:45:58-05:00

Continuing with my last post in the “Commodify me, oh Lord” series, I came across this quote from Noami Klein taken from an online interview for the 2004 PBS Frontline report, The Persuaders. She again mentions Disney’s Celebration community like she did in her No Logo documentary, but then adds this additional point: “It’s one of the ironies of our branded age, that unbranded space. Public space, or pseudo-public space, is now a luxury item that is only really available to the very rich. Once you move up the class hierarchy, things get a lot more tranquil and quiet, and you sort of pay not to be marketed to.... When rich people get together, they want to be protected from the brands that they got rich creating.” Consider what this implies: Given the means, people will pay a premium to avoid advertising. Aside from being further evidence that people prefer not to be constantly sold to, this is the reason that advertisers are looking for ways to fuse product pitches with entertainment. For my own graduate project, it’s one of the reasons the film industry is creating Christian teaching materials to get their promotional product (movies) messages into churches. It’s hard to avoid an ad when you don’t know it’s there. ...What propaganda has always wanted to do is not simply to suffuse the atmosphere, but to become the atmosphere.... It wants us not to be able to find a way outside of the world that it creates for us.” ...This is the hot strategy of today’s marketing strategists in terms of the multi-billion dollar evangelical Christian market. It is being played out every time a “faith and values” movie, Christian book or major label worship artist recording is released. The bottom line is that some pastors and church leaders are now looking to these media to co-create the culture of the church community. There is a complicit effort to incorporate these marking messages into church teaching and worship because they allow pastors to leverage the powerful narratives of popular culture, or provide appealing and popular music for worship leaders.... The audience/congregation pays the cost for these goodies by lending their attention to the subtle, hidden promotional message. ...But are we to the point where people may begin paying not to be marketed to in the church they attend? By paying, I mean going elsewhere, driving farther, giving up other perceived social and spiritual benefits, or quitting church altogether. I don’t think we are all the way there yet—although I personally arrived at this juncture two years ago. What is much more likely at the present is that the pervasive “sell” of today’s church culture has become a primary deterrent to reaching those who would otherwise be compelled by the radical, counter-cultural story of the Kingdom. While Klein makes the comment below based on her concerns about society and culture in general, let’s apply it directly to the context of the church. ...“…they've done our market research for us and proven that we actually really do want more than we're getting from our culture, which would mean that we have our marching orders. There are these desires that are being expressed in ways that they're not actually being met through shopping, and it's a challenge to try to meet them in other ways.” I submit that helping meet the deeper spiritual needs of people (in contrast to their felt social-consumer needs) cannot be done by creating and presenting a sanitized facsimile of consumer culture, or by employing an advertising and marketing paradigm to communicate and engage them. People will pay not to listen—in more ways than one.

Losing face on the mean streets of NYC

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-03-18T22:40:50-05:00

We tuned into Charlie Rose last night to get the Wall Street back story on the Bear Stearns bailout from NYT’s Andrew Ross Sorkin. (An extraordinary story, by the way. You may not realize how close the U.S. economy came to a depression-style bank run over the weekend.) Of course, we immediately noticed that Charlie had been assaulted by someone or something recently (see inset picture).

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Touch the third great platform

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-03-18T22:38:23-05:00

Last week Apple introduced its SDK for the iPhone/iPod Touch. Whereas often Apple can be accused of over promising (or over hyping) and under delivering, this presentation was a case where they exceeded the conventional expectations of most tech heads. Yes, you’ll need to get the new goodies (starting in June) from the iTunes Appstore exclusively. But the announcement makes it clear that this is a mobile computing platform with the potential for a new kind of software application.

Commodify me, oh Lord, part 7

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-03-04T19:08:20-06:00

Most recently I watched Naomi Klein’s No Logo (2003), which focuses on the negative effects of brand globalization on culture and workers across the globe. There was one instance among many that really stood out to me—and it promises to be the primary example in my closing argument for a commercial free faith movement. Since I was able to obtain the No Logo transcript from the MEF, I’ll paste the specific quote from Klein about branding here, and follow it with comments on what her example means from my perspective:

Steampunk that Mac

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-03-04T18:49:57-06:00

For those unfamiliar with steampunk as a fantasy genre of literature, animation and film, see this wiki. Until yesterday, I had no idea this was also a genre of computer modding. Indeed, it elevates modding to an artistic craft.

The gospel according to George Michael

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-02-20T21:51:46-06:00

Commodify me, oh Lord, part 6

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-02-14T22:11:32-06:00

As I have commented on in the past, this is neo denominationalism in an age of non denominational mega-churches. But the point of this post is not to critique the practice of video venues or mega-church franchises.... My intention here is to demonstrate the advertising and marketing paradigm in the church and its prevailing economic metaphor. So let’s look at a specific quote from “franchise” pastor Eddie Johnson in the Out of Ur article: ...So what is it about a metaphor like this that should concern us as followers of Jesus?... Originators of metaphoric analysis and linguistic theorists, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, suggest that metaphors not only make ideas and concepts more vivid, but that they also structure one’s perceptions and understanding. Consider these excerpts from Lakoff and Johnson’s Metaphors We Live By, published in 1980: “…metaphor is typically viewed as characteristic of language alone, a matter of words rather than thought or action. … We have found, on the contrary, that metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action. ...What this means is that our perceptions and understanding of faith, the church, God, fellow humans and evangelism are unavoidably impacted by the words we use to describe them to ourselves and each other. “Our concepts structure what we perceive, how we get around in the world, and how we relate to other people. ...If we take Lakoff and Johnson’s idea seriously, then we have to look at the prevailing metaphors we use in terms of how they structure and define our relationships with God, other believers and everyone else. My argument, in this instance, is that a metaphor derived from an advertising and marketing paradigm causes us to relate to people as consumers, our church as a product, God as a vendor, pastors as salespeople, our worship as consumption, etc. If we speak in commercial language, then we will relate to others accordingly. ...I think most believers would agree that there is (or should be) a qualitative difference between a quid pro quo business relationship based on economic gain, and the Kingdom relationships described in so many passages of the New Testament, such as 1 John 3:16-18, based on selfless and sacrificial love. (“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for one another. If any one of you has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in you? ...In the comments section of the Out of Ur post, pastor Eddie Johnson invites readers to his blog where he attempts to defend his Chick-fil-A franchise “analogy” and then takes it a few steps further (his post was published on a new church blog as well). ..."...we as a church need to keep open and aggressive in looking for new, exciting and innovative methods to improve our environments and streamline our processes. ..."Excellence and attention to customer service will be our catalyst for getting people to come visit us again and again and again. Eventually they will 'buy in' with us. And hopefully, they will bring a friend the next time they come." ...We seek to do it by creating helpful, engaging and irresistible environments that help people take that 'next step' towards a small group. If that 'next step' isn’t an easy, obvious and strategic step…then we don’t take it. Meaning, our franchise/church is designed to sell 'chicken' (life change) and the best way we think we can do that is by getting you into a small group." ...If the mission is drawing people to a relationship, then a metaphor of selling is its antithesis. Honestly, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to eat a chicken filet sandwich without thinking about this.

Why I want my Apple TV

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-02-09T07:36:32-06:00

It's been a while in between tech posts. Finally, I have something really interesting (at least to me) to share. If you caught the news from MacWorld last month, you know Apple TV has been updated with a new interface (called Take 2) and movie rentals--even HD versions. Oh yeah, and they cut $70 dollars off the price.

Fake band versus real band

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-02-07T22:29:47-06:00

Can you tell which band is(was) real? Seriously, you just don't hear progressive rock like this these days. Darn those major labels!

Commodify me, oh Lord, part 5

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-02-05T22:31:57-06:00

A late-modern paraphrase of Mark 4:26-29: This is what the kingdom of God is like: A church scatters an advertisement across various media. Night and day, whether the church sleeps or wakes, the ad spreads and grows, though they do not know how. All by itself the ad produces interest—first a web site visit, then a phone call, then the full-fledge visit to a weekend worship experience. As soon as a seeker chooses to buy in to a regular weekend service, the church adds them to the headcount and registers a “conversion,” because the harvest has come.

Commodify me, oh Lord, part 4

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-02-04T17:35:41-06:00

What is clear from my own experience and research into church planting and megachurch models is the widespread adoption of an advertising and marketing paradigm. In short, success for a church is predicated on the attractional capabilities you bring to the crowded marketplace for consumer attention. Church leadership models have been transformed to mirror business structures, and the economic language of marketing has been adopted in the church right along with it. Over the past half century, this amounts to a paradigm shift in church ministry that has profoundly impacted the Church, leading to a rearrangement of congregations where larger churches with economic resources and compelling marketing have tended to get larger, and smaller churches have tended to get smaller or phase out. ...It is the advertising and marketing paradigm of evangelism that makes the entry of other commercial media into the sacred frame of the church possible—even attractive to pastors and church leaders. Taken together, these contribute to the critical theological issue behind marketing and advertising messages invading the church. Advertising has its own ideology, whether it be used to do outreach, or allowed into the church context in order to underwrite ministry. ...

Commodify me, oh Lord, part 3

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-01-31T20:32:46-06:00

Why sanctuary? When it comes to exploring how commercial media is entering the sacred frame of the church, the principle concern is the nature of our conscious attention. As followers of Jesus we should recognize that to what and how we pay attention shapes us (cited below). John 15 captures this life in the body as abiding “in” Jesus. When we gather together, in whatever expression we manifest, as the Church, we are attending to Jesus and to each other as vine and branches. Divided attentions lead to stunted growth, slow death. …in the image culture, the crisis of the human spirit is the crisis of knowing what things to pay attention to. In the United States alone, there are thousands of well-paid persons whose constant preoccupation is to orchestrate the attention of the populace. In clever and subtle ways, these voices can be heard whispering constantly, "Pay attention to this"; "Look, pay attention here"; "No! This other matter is the one most deserving your attention." In the face of such pressure-for-attention, religious persons are especially challenged, because religion itself is a way of paying attention to matters not fully perceptible, which is to say that religious attention is a specially heightened, focused attention. The ultimate attention, from a religious standpoint, is to the presence of God. Religious people recognize, perhaps instinctively, that what we pay attention to and how we pay attention is what shapes our hearts. - Michael Warren, author and professor - St. John's University, New York As The Church, if we cede the attentions of the body to the objectifying consumption of commercial media messages, we lessen the degree to which we can abide in the transformative life of the vine. Our very being is diminished. Rather than the pointless “fight fire with fire” approach of co-opting commercial media and marketing practices to achieve cultural relevance and attract consumers to our "services," I suggest we call out the spiritually hungry to the life of abiding in Christ alone—in a community that is intentionally kept free from the divided attentions that commercial media invite.

Music at a place called vertigo

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-01-31T20:26:08-06:00

Explain yourself

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-01-26T20:28:14-06:00

You may have noticed I took the month of January off from TSAWWT. Chalk it up to some serious family holiday time, thesis research and the intense preparation process for my comprehensive exams. With my comps behind me forever (knock on wood: I don’t yet know if I passed), I’m moving on with the project full on. Woo-hoo! While some of the enthusiasm has waned, I’m happy to report that I’m still geeking out about what I’m finding. There’s a certain amount of exhilaration to the notion that I’m truly looking at this issue (marketing and advertising targeting churches) from an unheard perspective. The more digging I do, the more this is clear to me. Anyhow, look for more snippets and excerpts from me on this as we push toward the April deadline for my graduation requirement: Three thesis chapters completed to “get hooded” as a Master of Communication.

The past crashes into the present

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-01-26T19:46:59-06:00

Over the past year Dawnshelle and I have been consuming the new Doctor Who series from the BBC via Netflix DVDs. This past week we completed season 3, which aired in early 2007. I’ve often shared with Dawnshelle my childhood affinity for the series, recalling the Doctors I watched growing up via PBS imports. Given the era in the show’s history, that means I was thoroughly immersed in the 1970s and 1980s iterations of the show, which mainly featured the fourth and fifth doctors.

Life-long learning anywhere, anytime

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-01-26T19:42:20-06:00

There are reasons why…

woldcreative@mac.com — 2008-01-26T19:40:10-06:00

Join the conspiracy

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-12-08T14:36:32-06:00

This is seriously a great idea (check out the linked page). As the Web site defines it, “Advent Conspiracy is an international movement restoring the scandal of Christmas by worshipping Jesus through compassion, not consumption.” One of my suspicions is that churches tend to address consumerism as an individual spiritual malady, without owning up the fact that it is a systemic problem in The Church in the U.S. To put it another way, they blame the audience, and think that a good admonition to curb conspicuous consumption now and then will put good Christians on the path to self sacrificial love and spiritual enlightenment. But many fail to recognize that what you convert them with, you also convert them to. That’s why addressing how churches worship is a key progression in thinking that I’m excited about.

Beacon shines far beyond Facebook

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-12-08T08:50:20-06:00

The flap over Facebook’s Beacon isn’t over yet. New research from CA’s Threat Research Group reported this week indicates that the service extends further than they initially let on.

Target’s Rounders outed

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-12-08T08:42:22-06:00

Related to my prior post, we’re now to the point that audiences can work a little harder to extract some perks from advertisers for helping market products to other audience members. Check out this little Facebook scandal from Target corp. The very existence of a marketing effort like Rounders is very telling as to just how far Smythe’s “audience commodity” has come in the Web 2.0 age.

Social media pokes at Smythe’s blindspot

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-12-08T08:37:30-06:00

I can’t resist saying I told you so (it may be a little too early for that), but the news about Facebook last week and this week should give social media users pause.

A post for my sports-loving readers

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-12-08T08:23:54-06:00

Kindle wants to burn a hole in your pocket

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-12-02T09:01:12-06:00

Services we don’t need, so people can charge us fees we can’t afford: That’s how I sum up the Amazon Kindle. Here’s what I mean. You may have seen this week’s Newsweek cover story on Amazon’s new Kindle book reader and platform. Okay, it won’t fit in your pocket, but excuse the metaphor in my headline. Besides being a downright fugly-looking machine, it seems Jeff Bezos can join the ranks of other CEOs that think consumers are just waiting to fork over more of their money given the right P.T.... He’s wrong.

Commodify me, oh Lord, part 2

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-12-01T23:51:04-06:00

According to the Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2006-2010 issued by global accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, worldwide advertising spending was $385 billion in 2006. ...Depending on whose research you believe, it’s something like 300 to 3,000 advertising messages per day. ...It boggles the mind to think that for every person on the planet, a total of $64 per year is spent just to advertise to them. But if you get more creative (and realistic) about the ad spend, its likely that at least 1/3 of that spend is targeted at the U.S. Doing the simple math (which is all I am competent to do), that works out to $426 of ad spend per citizen based on 300 million people. ...In terms of my own experience, I often compare the commercial onslaught of today’s culture with my formative years in the 70s. From this vantage point, the ramp up and expansion of commercial messages is staggering—infiltrating nearly every public space and media form in our culture.... The impetus for my project is too look at how these messages of commercialization are entering the sacred frame of our church communities, and evaluate specific commercial media that are targeting the church audience: movies, music, books and consumer products Far from advocating dropping out of the capitalist system we are a part of, I’m looking toward an emerging opportunity for communities of faith: Embracing the alien culture of the Kingdom of God as communities that offer people sanctuary from commercial media, rather than deepening the syncretism with commercial enterprise, and cooption of entertainment media to achieve cultural relevance in our mission. ...The enormous mass of advertisements and other mass media content which bombards the individual in the advanced capitalist state from all the mass media has the systemic effect of a barrage of noise which effectively exhausts the time and energies of the population. ...

Thank you Sara Groves

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-12-01T15:22:36-06:00

For another gift of beautiful songs. (This is worth seeing full size). Support artists like Sara.

Absolutely loving this record

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-12-01T14:58:02-06:00

I’m going to eat this book up

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-12-01T14:55:02-06:00

Hippies & Pomos: Thinking on Christian community a generation apart

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-11-21T13:19:46-06:00

My pal David had sent me a link a while back about the remastering and re-release of the original Phil Keaggy tour de force, The Master and The Musician from 1977. This wonderful landmark in instrumental music is available here. Do yourself a favor and get a copy.

Today’s news from tiny minds

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-11-21T12:55:39-06:00

Vinyl Christianity

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-11-21T12:51:25-06:00

I love a good metaphor. This one struck me while reading a piece in Wired on the resurgence of vinyl media for music

Where have you been?

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-11-11T21:19:08-06:00

Apologies. Keeping up with my posts has been more of a challenge in the past two weeks. I’ve been ratcheting up my thesis research—finding a bunch of new sources, along with an increase in overall busy-ness. Plus, I’ve been more prone to relax or sleep rather than post in my down time. You may see me post in more bursts, rather than a regular pace. Hope this is okay for the time being.

Getting more focused

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-10-27T11:05:51-05:00

Thoughts on thesis, part 7 Posts in a series of commentaries on my thesis project for the Master of Arts in Communication. I haven’t posted about my thesis in a while, so here is a summary proposal of what it looks like now. I will be meeting with my advisor, and this will likely get curtailed a bit—but I wanted to map out the possibilities on all the ground it could cover.

Commodify me, oh Lord, part 1

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-10-26T18:30:43-05:00

When giving my elevator speech on my thesis topic, I’m sure to get this question: What do you mean when you say audience commodification? So, I thought I’d post about it to answer the question and thereby help me get my thoughts together in cogent form. After all, from a communication theory standpoint, this is the crux of my project. The most common way this has been understood is by considering the Television audience. Television is an entertainment medium that is driven (largely) by commercials. Whether it be 30 second spots, product placement or infomercials, the audience is a product that content creators (TV networks) sell to product marketers. The value of this audience is measured by TV ratings and priced by what the market will bear. So, as a monitored and measured audience sitting in front of the boob tube for an average number of hours each day, we are transformed into a commodity sold in an economic transaction. We are the end product that networks sell. This idea translates to other mediums. Newspapers and magazines commodify their readers for advertisers, as well. As does radio with music.

Leopard leaps ahead

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-10-26T17:27:45-05:00

Ads in your face

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-10-26T17:20:31-05:00

Color me cynical, but I’ve never thought there was a long future in the walled garden social media approach of Facebook and Myspace. I’ve always been irked by visiting personal websites that require registration or membership to experience fully. This bias has kept me out of the game and out in the wilds of the Internet with my own site. At the same time, I totally get the excitement over what these platforms offer and how people use them. But the big business question has always been, how do you monetize it? This leads to a theory of mine about social media: The more you monetize it, the less people like it.

You can skype if you want to.

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-10-13T11:50:33-05:00

Stealing music from Jesus

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-10-12T22:59:35-05:00

The thought occurred to me after reading an excellent feature in BusinessWeek by Justin Bachman that the woes of the music industry haven’t necessarily been visited on the genre of Christian worship music.

Touching off the podcomputer revolution

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-10-09T20:48:57-05:00

The iPod moment. Sounds a little pretentious, I know. But bear with me. As a student of communication and journalism, this is a fascinating time for media. So pardon the commercial--because it's really more about what it is changing in media. I recently got my hands on my nephew’s new iPod Touch. Getting it functional required upgrading his long-in-the-tooth eMac running 10.3 to a current 10.4.10. Mission accomplished. This allowed me to spend some time with the Touch.

How do you do this live?

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-10-07T21:38:29-05:00

Okay, I've seen the video (which is amazing). But how do you pull this off live (although, I know it's not really live)? Mute Math on Jimmy Kimmel:

Songs of mass destruction found

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-10-07T21:21:58-05:00

I've missed Annie Lennox.

Feel free to flame me for what I said up there in para. 1. I totally deserve it.

What am I becoming?

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-09-29T08:14:09-05:00

Pulled this out of a recent post from Greg Boyd’s blog. It bears repeating, as I am continually coming to terms with what disciplines I need to embrace in my life, and why I need to embrace them: “…each act of violence we engage in, however small, dulls our capacity to experience and appreciate the sacredness of life, while each act of self-sacrificial love, however small, increases our capacity to experience and appreciate this sacredness. This, I believe, is the true meaning of ethics. It's not that we are tallying up an account of good deeds verses bad deeds, as though God were some sort of ethical ledger-keeper. Rather, the importance of ethics is that each one of our behaviors (which, remember, includes each of our thoughts) moves us forward in becoming a certain kind of person. God wants us to experience abundant life, and each act we engage in either increases, or diminishes, our capacity to do this.” Here’s the link to the post, which is really a movie review/reflection.

Why I quit the worship team part 2

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-09-29T08:05:50-05:00

We’ve been going through a four-part series on worship at our church that has really helped re-engage and reorient me on what worship is, corporately and individually. It’s been incredibly refreshing and liberating for me, as a refugee from the worship industry (highlight in the video I linked to a couple weeks ago). I’ve posted a bit about this before—about how my participation in the machinery of church worship music (where musical performance is treated as consumable product and marketing evangelism tool) led to my thorough disillusionment with it. As I left the mega-church consumer mentality outright, I also dropped out of “doing” worship music formally (as a church musician) and, instead, chose to redefine what worship is and means—its role in the life of a Christ follower and as part of His church.... But I also needed to strip off what I used to believe about it so that I could rediscover it authentically for myself. ...What the recent teaching series has solidified for me the most has been two powerful principles. One is the spiritual warfare element of all acts of worship (verbal, physical, musical, service, giving, etc.). This reaches back into my Pentecostal roots, but has been given a refreshing theological currency in my recent learning. Two is the importance of diversity in worship expression, and the triumph of creative beauty in all expressions of worship over consumerist and individualistic style preferences. I have learned to embrace “the other” in the body of Christ through sharing in their unique and creative ways of worshipping. Instead of indulging my musical taste and aesthetic preferences, I have traveled farther down the road of true worship. Subsequently, I don’t “consume” worship music like I do music entertainment.... I’m not saying that doing that is bad—just that I don’t want to do that right now. ...All this is to set up a few select quotes and a link to a lengthy article on this topic published on the Allelon site, written by Sally Morgenthaller, author of the book, Worship Evangelism. Her journey through the evangelical church worship landscape over the past two decades captures some of my issues with worship music in the church today. Morganthaller recounts a shift in her perspective that began when she met with a colleague and he mentioned issues he had with her book. He explained that churches had produced what he called a "worship-driven subculture” constituting “a sizeable part of the contemporary church that had just been waiting for an excuse not to do the hard work of real outreach. ...

You can do anything

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-09-29T08:00:43-05:00

I finally found the answer I've been looking for to all of life's questions. Please, just visit this web site. And help spread the word--don't keep something this amazing to yourself. You can do anything. The only limit is yourself.

Jesus on the D list

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-09-21T06:19:26-05:00

[UPDATED 9-21-07] So, Kathy Griffin wins an Emmy and promptly blasphemes the name of Jesus on national television. ...

Sound a Trumpet for OTR

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-09-16T21:44:04-05:00

The long awaited album from Over The Rhine has arrived: The Trumpet Child.

Damascus road vs. any road

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-09-16T20:10:12-05:00

Joe, from my MA Communication cohort, gave me permission to post this (and the portion below penned by his Wife). It has to do with youth that grow up in the church, and what we as adults, teachers, pastors, youth leaders, etc. tell them about their life "calling" in Christ.

She expressed to me her fears of never finding her calling, much as her dad has never found his.... I explained how many well-intentioned preachers and teachers had encouraged her dad to "feel called." He was not passionate about pastoral ministry but one day experienced an emotional "call to ministry."... I wondered out loud what would have happened if he had been encouraged to follow what he enjoyed and then let life take him where it took him.

...I told her to use the freedom she has been given in Christ and explore what might open up before her.

...Isn't our calling to be close to Christ and follow him with all our hearts, no matter what we do?

iShock and awe

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-09-07T18:53:56-05:00

If you were anywhere on planet earth this week, you already know about Apple's big iPod day Sept. 5. Equally notable was the massive price drop on the iPhone--by $200 bucks. Much has already been blogged about this, and how Apple's most faithful early adopters got screwed. Well, Steve Jobs extended an olive branch Thursday by offering all 8 Gb iPhone owners $100 store credit to make nice about it. I'm not going to comment, since I can see both ends of this--plus, I didn't happen to be an iPhone early adopter (thanks to my long-lived 2G iPod and a 2-year Verizon contract to wait out). However, Robert X Cringley's column has go to be some of the best insight into the possible thinking of Mr. Jobs on this--and he even throws in a bit from Mr. Gates' perspective. All that's left now is to decide which one of these babies I want for Christmas. There are Apple keynotes that are underwhelming. And then there are Apple keynotes that deliver on every rumor, and then some. Wednesday was the latter.

Mae in August this year

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-09-04T21:44:07-05:00

Why I quit the worship team

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-09-01T09:35:53-05:00

Okay, so that was a couple years ago now--not at the church I go to now. But this sums up why I just couldn't do it anymore. Sorry. I had to find another way. Brian McClaren on the Worship music industry and how it is affecting the church.

Post and response on LC.tv

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-08-31T08:04:09-05:00

The poster made a really good point that I am responding to at length in this post, instead of cramming it all into a comment post. ...The Comment: The amazing thing is, though, LifeChurch has seen dozens of salvations of Second Life that ARE real and have been followed up in Real Life. So I agree that missionaries should not jump on some kind of bandwagon, but at the same time churches and people that have the resources should definitely meet people where they are, even if it means creating an avatar to do so. The Response (which is more like a discussion): It's good to hear that the SL effort is being fruitful on the offline world for LC.tv.... I do still think we can raise and discuss questions about LC.tv’s approach. ...My contention is that building a virtual megachurch may not be the way to go in SL--that it may undermine real relationships in the long run because of the very underlying idea that makes SL successful as a social network. That's why I think other ideas like the confessional may be valid approaches to explore (although I have no research to back that up—obviously much more research is needed). ...This isn't really a question about whether LC.tv is doing something wrong--but rather, what is the best evangelistic approach to take given the context of masked people within what I would consider a new type of culture?... Looking at hard, ethical questions of missiology and cross-cultural communication in a web 2.0 world is a valid pursuit. I'm also advocating exploring approaches that seek to understand the epistemological and spiritual reality of a given medium and culture (in this case, the virtual reality world of SL), and respond accordingly. ...If we don't come to understand why this is the case, I think more marketing-oriented evangelism approaches may share the same fate. Now, I'm not fan of commercial marketing to advance evangelism--I'll be clear on this--I'm very biased. And, I want to admit to my bias that I’m not a fan of LC.tv’s offline ministry model.... Clearly, Paul's hyperbolic charge to "become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some." [1 Corinthians 9:22 TNIV] shouldn't be used as an excuse to justify anything and everything with no regard for a medium’s effects on the message. ...Here’s another question to consider: why “brand” the effort in SL with LC.tv? If Christianity is known for disunity and hypocrisy in the real world by it’s various “branded” identities, why not enter SL without all those labels?... We can’t just think about who is converted (praise God for these), but we have to think about those we may alienate.... I’m talking about resistance to unbiblical elements of church culture we may bring with us online. (When I say unbiblical, I don’t mean wrong—I only mean that these cultural elements aren’t rooted in the bible or Christ, they’re just cultural.) SL has its own unique culture(s), and have we considered the cross-cultural implications of our communication in that medium? ...No way, but neither should we avoid a discussion of the missiological questions that LC.tv in SL raises. So far, I’ve not read of these issues being thoroughly discussed in the blogosphere—but I must admit, I haven’t done a thorough search for it. So, as a student of communication, these posts are my effort to get this conversation into the foreground—moving beyond the easy publicity of being the first megachurch in SL. Plus, we can credit LC.tv for getting the whole idea of how to approach this type of evangelism on the table in the church.

Eisley's new sound combinations

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-08-24T11:39:18-05:00

Masks and web 2.0

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-08-18T09:26:35-05:00

My post about Lifechurch.tv’s mission endeavor to Second Life led me back to the ideas presented in TrueFaced, by Thrall, McNicol & Lynch. This led to a few more thoughts and questions to mull over: Second Life is all about living out an alternative you in an alternative world. ...In fact, we don’t really need Second Life to help us wear masks. ...“I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself,” replied Adam. ...

Amanpour on the Myth

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-08-16T20:52:59-05:00

Holy cow. A couple months ago I remember being told CNN was visiting Woodland Hills—talking to Greg Boyd about The Myth of Christian Nation and going against the grain of mainstream evangelicalism in America. Little did I know it was for a segment of God’s Warriors by Christiane Amanpour, to be aired August 21-23. If you have cable/sat TV, be sure to catch this fascinating three-night report, along with the extensive companion web site at CNN.com. As for Boyd, a diary version of his interview with Amanpour is available online, under the link to Christianity/Video Diary/Politics & Faith.

Spoon serves up robotic Grooves

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-08-16T20:48:56-05:00

I’m not all that well versed in this band (Spoon), but who am I to keep you from the latest viral video infection. Dance, Dance!

Let's play church

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-08-07T21:04:38-05:00

So, LifeChurch.tv set up a cyber-megachurch in Second Life, complete with a (fake) 16 acre campus. (More on it here.)

New fruit

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-08-07T20:51:49-05:00

Wii will get in shape

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-08-07T20:37:35-05:00

That’s what I keep saying to myself (since my great diet of 2000-2001). If anything has the potential to help me (or Mii) get in shape, it could be this. This new Wii controller and set of games/exercises should make it state-side next year. Although, I may decide to join the Y as a supplement to the Wii. That has a nice ring to it: Y & Wii. Hmmm.

Don't smoke

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-07-31T19:44:49-05:00

Why they call it the Jesus phone

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-07-28T15:40:41-05:00

Okay, I promise this will be my last iPhone-related post this month. But this cracked me up. David Pogue, technology columnist for the New York Times, does a send-up music video on the iPhone. Also added to the blogroll, The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs--a super popular blog by one known as "fake Steve Jobs." Also hilarious.

iPhone pwns your PC, you just don’t know it yet

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-07-27T08:46:34-05:00

Seeking Alpha, an investment industry trendspotter, recently published a story by Andrew Melcher that lines up with my longstanding podcomputing predictions—and generously dishes out some doom and gloom for Microsoft’s ability to compete. I would never go this far, but I must admit, reading this makes me a little giddy. As the computing paradigm begins to shift toward mobility—and make no mistake, it is shifting—the old Mac vs. Windows OS battle is back on. This time, Apple has the edge, because size matters, and smaller is better. “The smaller Apple OS has a critical advantage here.” Writes Melcher. “It will be at least another year before flash memory chips are big enough to power a standard Windows bloatware device. It seems that Windows will be stuck without next year's absolutely-must-have functionality - platform ubiquity.”

A reckless and necessary change of course

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-07-27T08:42:05-05:00

Thoughts on thesis, part 7 Posts in a series of commentaries on my thesis project for the Master of Arts in Communication. I’m taking steps now to change the focus of my thesis at this point. Proof positive that my blogging has helped me get in touch with what really matters most to me (and hopefully others), I’m moving away from the idea of doing a rhetorical analysis of church advertising and toward developing a project around commercial media in the church and the notion of sanctuary. This has been what has resonated the most in my review of literature and is what I consider the most important area for me to concentrate my studies. You get a good flavor for this from reading my June 2 post, entitled "clarity, at last." This means throwing out a good chunk of my prospectus which would have eventually made up the theoretical and methodological portions of my Thesis. But, I feel like this is the right decision—this is where my heart has been for some time. While church advertising is more of a tactical issue relating to the syncretism of consumer marketing and evangelism, commodification of the church itself as target market is more about the core of how we define the church and its role in advancing the kingdom. In addition, I’ve observed little reflection on this ethical dilemma in my research. I’ll keep you posted on where this goes.

Save the dates: June 30 to July 5

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-07-27T08:39:47-05:00

As I am expecting to graduate in May, 2008, I plan to go all out for C-stone in 2008. Boys, put in for your vacation days and bribe your wives with gifts now, cause we’re gonna be there. Oh yes, and Mr. Orvis, you may want to talk to Romantica about getting a booking on the Gallery stage—you’re definitely good enough, or better. Would love to see you there. You know we’ll feed the band with Doug’s famously ginormous burgers.

We were merely freshman

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-07-24T19:44:31-05:00

We can't be held responsible.

The aesthetic wisdom of crowds

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-07-21T10:57:23-05:00

My other life as a mediocre graphic designer has allowed me to be a part of many leading edge technology trends over the years. Consider: the Mac GUI, Pagemaker, the laser printer, Zip drives, Photoshop, digital cameras and photos, modems, the world wide web, etc. It’s been geek heaven. Yet, sometimes simple things I’ve stumbled upon as super gnarly for graphic design work, are also part of much larger technological, societal and business trends. That’s true of istockphoto.com.

Lamentation in absentia: Cornerstone 07

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-07-14T10:10:27-05:00

Click for Part 2 Click for Part 3

Wii love it

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-07-07T11:13:05-05:00

Dawnshelle and I decided to get Dad (that’s me) a Wii for my birthday (recently). Now, I know what you may be thinking: “You both decided to get it? Right, Todd. Nice way to justify it.” Well, we wanted to get the whole family into something more active and group oriented than sitting on the couch playing sedentary console games. That meant no Xbox 360 or PS3. Plus, the Wii fascinated both of us based in what we had been reading and seeing in the commercials. I must say, it’s been a lot of fun so far. Of course, my 8-year-old is asking me to play it with her every night (and I’m very conflicted about this because I have homework to do). But the great thing is being engaged together in a game like tennis or golf or bowling (all played standing up, swinging your arms). Now, you can trick the Wii and play this stuff sitting on your butt. But what for? Getting up and doing the real deal (in a video game sort of way) is half the fun—the other half is watching someone else do it. Downside: Wii doesn’t play DVD movies, so there isn’t an opportunity to replace a TV component. Pictured above is our family Mii’s (our personal Wii characters, players). We haven’t created a Mii for Everett, yet. And the Mii’s here are subject to change as we tweak them. For example, I added a hat last night to hide my sad, balding head. Last night, Dawni and I even snuck downstairs to bowl a couple games after the kids were in bed. I never thought I’d be playing video games with my wife—but there we were. Dad Mii bowled a 171 (six spares and two strikes). “Nice Throw!”

On a philosophy kick

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-07-06T11:19:23-05:00

I’ve been hitting the philosophy pretty hard lately, with my core MA curriculum reaching into the rhetorical traditions of ancient philosophers, and the modern/postmodern aspects of the thesis work. So, when someone mentioned this old Python sketch, I had to search YouTube to find it. And there it was. If you’re familiar with all or any of these philosophical athletes, you’ll get some giggles out of this classic soccer match. Those ancients can bring it!

Do you Digg me?

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-06-29T08:58:57-05:00

I do get a little carried away with adding new features to my blog. But remember, one of my goals is to learn how to do some of these things. So, I've added some social bookmarking links at the end of each post. Now, if you want to spread the word on a particularly notable, brilliant or, perhaps, insipid post on TSAWWT, you can "Digg" it (or whatever) by clicking your preferred bookmark link and logging in to spread the word. I'm interesting in the web proliferation factor of blog communication and the mechanisms that make that work. Instead of adding a whole bunch of them (there are many), I'm going just with Digg, del.icio.us and Technorati for now. Anyway, if you like something and think it is bookmark-worthy, click the links and give a shout out. And if you prefer one you don't see, let me know and I'll look for the code to add. Thanks.

More on the rise of the podcomputer: YouTube, Safari, Facebook and iPhone

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-06-23T16:48:04-05:00

Okay, so I get all psyched to write this post, and then Cringley basically steals my whole idea. ...For the rest of us, here’s a little insight on where we are, right this moment, in technology history. To put it briefly, there’s a lot of paradigm shifting and disruptive technology emerging this summer—more than anyone can afford to ignore, because it is likely to affect your future computing life. ...

Classic rock like you’ve never heard it before

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-06-22T18:47:03-05:00

I don’t think I’ve laughed as hard at any time in the past few years as I did when I watched a few of these “Legion of Rock Stars” videos. And maybe it’s just me, but I can’t help myself. Here’s my favorite so far: Four others that had me ROTFLMAO: Journey, The Rolling Stones, Jim Croce and Tears for Fears. I know your probably asking, how’d they do that? To really appreciate this, you have to understand the process involved. A “super” group of barely passable musicians get together to play and record a classic rock song live. They accomplish this by each wearing noise-cancelling headphones that only pipe through the original version of the tune. So, each performer in the band can’t hear them self and can’t hear each other at all. They call the diabolically ingenious new recording process, "Pure Pleasure." I think you’ll agree, some of these songs have never sounded better. Here’s a YouTube link to a page full of these musical gems paired with the original band/artist videos. Thanks to Zack Lind of Finding Rhythm for unearthing this unique new art form.

Nikola Tesla in the home office

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-06-22T18:43:08-05:00

Coming clean on the t-shirt

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-06-19T20:48:36-05:00

There are a million t-shirt businesses on the internet these days. However, I did stumble upon one that had some designs that made me laugh recently. By popular demand, here is the link to One Horse Shy t-shirts to get your mitts on the "nobody cares about your blog" t-shirt I posted in May. There are other, more tasteless choices available, so I can't give these folks a full endorsement. But here are three more of my favorites.

Snappy new blog feature

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-06-17T20:06:10-05:00

I've added Snapshots code to my blog entries--after messing around with how to make it work for a few weeks. You may notice new pop-ups emanating from the links or a little bubble icon next to each link. Mousing over those will create a popup search engine preview of the linked page, if available. I hope this is helpful. I've liked it at a few sites I've seen it, and I'll try to keep the pertinent links to a minimum to avoid it becoming an reader annoyance. Also note, these are not a form of advertising. TSAWWT is an Ad free site (except for cool things I want to put an unpaid plug in for).

I'm so Romantica

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-06-16T14:45:57-05:00

How a mouse really works

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-06-16T14:43:35-05:00

Ever wonder? This picture should give you an idea of the analog technology underneath the digital marvel that is the PC mouse pointing device. If you're running Explorer on a PC, this link should take you to a working demo. Hilarious, yet coded without any thoughts for web standards, which ticks me off to no end. Sadly, you'll need a PC running Explorer to see this in action.

Clarity, at last

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-06-02T16:01:32-05:00

I plan to use much of this post for a formal speech in class next week.... He cites Tibor Scitovsky and Dallas Smythe on commodification and consumer culture, paralleling Barry Schwartz’s Paradox of Choice. ...Scitovsky observed in 1976 that as consumers, human satisfaction is derived from “novelty and stimulation” in consumption, which is made into a “homogenized experience” to serve capitalistic enterprise. The comforting experience derived from consumption is addictive, and like many addictions, provides diminishing levels of satisfaction as it ceases to be novel and stimulating. Adding to this, Smythe said that “mass media” produces audiences as commodities for sale to advertisers—and subsequently to product producers. ...When viewed from this perspective, both the church itself, and the church consumer are commodified. The church is a product, and the congregation is transformed into a product—a quantifiable audience that can be delivered to a marketer.

I love being right

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-06-02T15:53:43-05:00

It’s true. Who doesn’t? This week Apple announced two Apple TV enhancements that I predicted in January when the product hit the market. First, a much larger hard drive option—allowing people to go to from 40 to 160 Gb. Second, a software update in June that will bring the entire world of Google’s YouTube videos to Apple TV. Trek on over to the January, 2007 TSAWWT archive and read the post entitled Apple TV 1.0 reflections, to see my original prognostication or wish list.

That's no moon

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-06-02T15:51:11-05:00

That’s a space station! Or rather, it’s a convention center and hotel complex proposed for UAE, of all places. I guess it kind of makes sense if you think of OPEC as some Imperial Empire. Wired.com just published this fascinating real estate news item, but I’m sure the real, super secret plans have been hidden safely in the memory banks of some R2 unit hoping to find its way to the Rebel alliance. Sure, it’ll be a fun place to stay, until some farm kid in a rebel X-Wing fighter blows it to kingdom come.

Mutual admiration society

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-06-02T14:36:18-05:00

It's been a while since these two have done an interview together. In fact, they haven't appeared together in video form since the 1997 MacWorld when they buried the hatchet on the alleged Microsoft IP theft of MacOS for Windows and Microsoft helped save Apple with a $150 million infusion. So, here's a bit of Steve and Bill at the WSJ D:5 All Things Digital conference. Some great reminiscing and fascinating discussion.

Tunes on the side

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-05-23T21:20:22-05:00

I added an MP3 player to the sidebar, mainly because I wanted to see how hard or easy it could be. Pretty easy it turns out. I've turned off the autoplay so as to not offend visitors. If you want to hear some of what I'm listening to from time to time, give it whirl. It looks like this (and this one also works).

Repenting of religious illiteracy

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-05-21T20:23:12-05:00

Religion & Ethics Newsweekly (PBS) included a great segment this week on the sorry state of religious literacy among Americans, featuring Stephen Prothero, the chair of the religion department at Boston University. Prothero advocates adding classes in the Bible and world religions to required public school curriculums. There's also a video segment on the subject via the linked R&EN page.

Al Gore’s high electricity bills…

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-05-21T20:20:20-05:00

Farewell to Paris

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-05-18T11:54:57-05:00

At the risk of losing all credibility, I must confess something. I was a big fan of WB-then-CW show, The Gilmore Girls. I say was, because, as you may know, the series wrapped this last Tuesday. No more speed of light wit, lovably strange Stars Hollow characters or clueless estranged lovers. Luke finally figured it out. Sigh. Joy Press of Salon.com has a great retrospective on the show and what went awry in its most recent seasons. And While I mostly agree that the show changed when Rory went to college, I also think this was when Paris Geller, Rory Gilmore's best friend twice removed, kicked it up a notch. Nobody did ADD, insane genius and charming OCD like Paris. Who could forget her stint as editor of the Yale Daily News as she devolved from tyrannical Ivy League newspaper boss to shell-shocked, shanty dweller heating up a can of pork and beans on a hot plate. She will be missed. We'll be looking for Liza Weil in future films and TV shows. A spin off would be too much to ask--but I would watch it. Here's Paris at her best: Of course, I now get an hour of my life back each week for more important things--like lawn care and vacuuming.

True

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-05-18T11:46:40-05:00

This made me laugh (and cry a little on the inside).

Beyond your own personal Jesus

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-05-10T22:05:32-05:00

Thoughts on thesis, part 5 Posts in a series of commentaries on my thesis project for the Master of Arts in Communication. My brain has been pretty focused on my Thesis topic as I’m neck deep in research and writing for my prospectus assignment, so please read this post with that in mind. Scott McKnight has contributed a superb article for Out of Ur called Getting the Gospel Right. He posits that many of the church’s problems stem from a core spiritual problem of how we define the Gospel. McKnight notes the operational definition he found prevalent among youth raised in Christian homes: “Jesus came to die for my sins so I could go to heaven.” In short, it’s all about me. The Gospel is about a personal transaction in a divine economy that revolves around individuals.

What ice cap?

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-05-04T09:21:32-05:00

Well, for anyone still convinced that global warming is a sham, you now have a definitive deadline to look forward to. The arctic ocean, the one at the top of the world, could be free or nearly free of summer ice by 2020. According to the linked article, a new analysis of satellite imagery pegs this much earlier than the computer models had predicted, and holds some ominous consequences for planet Earth. SPF 60 anyone? I, for one, am very excited that Santa’s super secret north pole village will be exposed for all to see.

Getting scrappy

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-05-04T09:11:25-05:00

Wes Thomsen, former bassist for Pegtop and documentary filmmaker, has a wonderful film on the street (I know this post is really late, as this movie came out last year). “Scrapped” is Thomsen’s personal foray into the female-dominated world of scrapbooking. If you have a loved one (like I do) that does the scrapbook thing, and you’re a man, then this film should be required viewing. It’s funny, but very respectful of the hobby at the same time. Check out the trailer:

Free your mind

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-05-04T08:56:25-05:00

We want your soul

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-04-25T22:21:34-05:00

Thoughts on thesis, part 4 Posts in a series of commentaries on my thesis project for the Master of Arts in Communication. I was pointed to this clip by a poster on a recent Out of Ur interview with Shane Hipps. I'm using it for my prospectus presentation to set up the cultural backdrop for my study, which will be centered on competition, consumerism and commodification in church advertising and marketing. I highly recommend the Out of Ur post and a trip through the comments by readers. I'm not sure if anyone has seen this video before (it dates to 2003), but I thought it was a great illustration. At this point, I'm planning to look at examples of advertising and marketing materials from churches and apply a media-centered critical methodology rooted in McLuhan's media ecology and Innis' communication bias. In short, advertising is a non neutral medium, despite the prevailing assumptions of those who use it to promote churches. Here's one excerpt from my draft prospectus: According to Vincent Miller, author of Consuming Religion, “religion is as susceptible to abstraction and reification as other aspects of culture” (2005, p. 105). There is no neutral ground in mediated communication if Innis, McLuhan and others are taken seriously. The forces of consumerism in contemporary culture endanger the message of the church by reducing it to “abstracted, virtual sentiments that function solely to give flavor to the already established forms of everyday life or to provide compensation for its shortcomings” (p. 105-106). Looking back at the video, is the church allowing itself to become just another consumer option vying for brand awareness and patronage?

J-bro returns

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-04-25T22:17:34-05:00

I’m a quantitative research methods survivor

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-04-19T07:48:01-05:00

More on the choice paradox

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-04-14T13:30:25-05:00

Here's a 20 minute talk by Barry Schwartz about the central themes of his book, The Paradox of Choice. There's so much here to think about. Like the example he gives on the inverse relationship between more choice and participation. Does turning church into another consumer decision induce spiritual paralysis in the long run? Does ostensible church growth via sheer population increase and megachurch methods mask an underlying reality that the truly unchurched in society are actually immobilized by being confronted by more decisions? I see an impact on existing Christians, as well, with large churches offering increasing levels of choice for spiritual growth opportunities and Christian service. How much is too much?

The new paradox of church choice

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-04-14T07:26:26-05:00

Recently ran across a book and an article about the problem of too much choice. The hypothesis put forth is that consumer satisfaction degrades when presented with increasing numbers of choices. While Americans have become a society obsessed with consumer-driven choices (many of us believing more options are always better), the “piling on” of decisions is resulting in growing levels of fatigue and buyer’s remorse.

Discover the woeful inadequacy of my education

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-04-14T07:23:19-05:00

Ignore this if you’re sick of my Mac apologist rantings

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-04-14T07:13:40-05:00

For those that may be interested, another edition—even when I said I’d not be doing too much of this in the future. I lied.

Apple and EMI walk the talk

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-04-02T20:19:44-05:00

Sorry for the number of posts concerning Apple. Today was a big day: the beginning of the end for DRM-laden digital music. Apple and EMI announced DRM-free music via iTunes, plus higher bit-rates for higher quality playback. A good thing has just begun. I neglected to post when Steve Jobs posted an open letter on Apple.com February 9 calling for record labels to do away with DRM as bad for music and music fans. After a first quarter with falling CD sales, EMI is ready to differentiate itself from the pack with this bold move. Bravo! Video from CNBC below:

Apple TV's disruptive technology

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-04-01T13:04:50-05:00

I have to admit that I didn't expect the Apple TV to get as much attention as it has been getting since it began shipping a couple of weeks ago. But, then again, I didn't think much of the iPod's impact when I first beheld it at an Apple store five years ago. Why could something so simple and pretty limited in scope create a fundamental disruption the TV marketplace? Carl Howe, writing for investment site Seeking Alpha, offers some compelling reasons for your consideration:

The PoMo and the bait & switch

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-04-01T11:32:45-05:00

Thoughts on thesis, part 3 Posts in a series of commentaries on my thesis project for the Master of Arts in Communication. There are two lines of thought emerging from the review of literature at this point. One is the point of departure for postmodern advertising from modern, pre 1990s advertising. Where modernism created a consumer culture by harnessing image and textual advertising to stimulate and cultivate desire and felt needs for products, postmodernism is an evolved consumer culture where advertising transcends product by presenting a hyperreality where self becomes defined by consumption and brand images become iconic—disassociated from the products they represent. The second is a recognition of the aware consumer of the postmodern era with a highly evolved sensibility when it comes to advertising that is perceived to be deceptive or misleading. The “bait-and-switch” of some ad messages creates and increasingly guarded and skeptical consumer, the effects of which can even bleed over into other brands and products. It’s a break in the sacred (or profane) bond between consumer and producer where consumers are aware and accept they are being sold to, and in exchange for receiving a sales pitch, expect to be given honest, albeit hyped, information. In the case of the former line, church growth advertising fails to recognize the impact of the postmodern shift as it pertains to advertising messages. Many church marketers make the faulty assumption that modernist approaches in creating advertising messages will reach postmodern-minded people. The truth is that both modern and postmodern consumer messages are problematic at best when applied to fulfilling Christian evangelistic aims. Product marketing approaches targeting consumers often repackage the enterprise (institutional services) of a church rather than present a gospel message. Or, the Gospel itself is productized as a turn-key consumer product, making conversion purely transactional rather than transformational. Theologically both productizing the church and elevating Christianity or the church to image-driven brand status is troubling. There is much to explore here.

Vista security flaw curses the cursor

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-04-01T11:25:08-05:00

On message with the Kingdom revolution

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-03-23T23:48:02-05:00

I don’t spend time reading political blogs or news sites, but I recently caught this link from another blogger. The article by Zack Exley published Alternet.org is a fascinating look at the kingdom revolution underway through the eyes of progressive liberals. Overall, I think the piece is a pretty good outside interpretation of what is going on. Quotes and references include Rob Bell, Greg Boyd, Jim Wallace, and others. ...the Revolution is not primarily a reaction to Republican attempts to politicize the church. What sets it apart from mainstream evangelicalism is not a liberal rejection of Republican politics, but rather a more radical rejection of conservatism and liberalism, and anything else that is not the "kingdom of God." To the Revolutionaries, what seems righteous or commonsensical to humans does not matter; all that matters is what God wants. Boyd writes in Myth of a Christian Nation: "To the extent that an individual or group looks like Jesus -- dying for those who crucified him and praying for their forgiveness in the process -- to that degree they can be said to manifest the kingdom of God. To the degree that they do not look like this, they do not manifest God's kingdom." And if you can stomach some rants, the comments also worth a read (in some cases) to get an insight on how people outside the church perceive this movement (for lack of a better term). The article also describes this ‘whole deal’ as a sort of convergence of the emerging church, evangelical progressives and kingdom revolutionaries. Sign me up!

The future of 80s music is here

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-03-23T23:01:53-05:00

It's all been done

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-03-17T14:21:03-05:00

Thoughts on thesis, part 2 Posts in a series of commentaries on my thesis project for the Master of Arts in Communication. Even when you think you are approaching a topic or research question with relatively little written about it, some earnest research for your literature review turns up enough published sources to prove you wrong—at least partly. And so it is with my project this week. I made a trip to the library to retrieve my first batch of books for review and possible inclusion in my prospectus. Here’s a list of nine titles I need to get through in short order:

Everything starts where I say it does

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-03-10T19:12:25-06:00

Just landed my copy of Lovedrug's latest, Everything Starts Where It Ends. I must give it my full recommendation right here and now. Music heavy posting this month. Deal with it. Enjoy the fresh vid.

All that, and a bag of chips on my shoulder

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-03-10T18:48:22-06:00

Thoughts on thesis, part 1 All that, and a bag of chips on my shoulder Posts in a series of commentaries on my thesis project for the Master of Arts in Communication. I’ve had recent misgivings about what is emerging as my MA Comm thesis topic, mainly because there is en element of negativity that I can seem to shake. Part of this comes from a place of disillusionment with modern Evangelicalism in America. My experience both in attempting a church plant (as a team member) and serving in a mega-church wannabe congregation have contributed to an enormous drive to open the books on consumer marketing trends prevalent in the church that I hypothesize to be counterproductive to the mission of the kingdom.

Reach out and touch your data

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-03-04T09:29:53-06:00

last summer some buzz was being generated on the blogosphere about a paradigm shifting design for the iMac by fan and designer Adam Benton. In case you didn't see them, I include a couple shots here. What makes this particular design idea interesting is the forthcoming Apple iPhone's multitouch interface and the rumor from this past week that Apple is prepping new Mac displays that include multitouch capabilities. While the iMac design shown here may not be exactly what future Macs look like, it makes it easier to imagine a touchscreen and clear/glass-like interface--something a little like the translucent, touch-your-data computer interface showcased in Steven Spielberg's Minority Report in 2002. With Apple's multitouch patents and innovative computer design chops, I fully expect more human interfacing in the future, birthed on the Mac platform.

Qwest finally gives it away

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-03-01T19:58:46-06:00

Ich bin Anberlin(er)

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-03-01T19:38:44-06:00

While I was in the newborn fog (and still am), Anberlin released "Cities." To celebrate, enjoy this vid trailer about the record. Definitely their best yet, from what I hear. Downloading it right now. Producer Aaron Sprinkle does it again. Seems like all my favorite music has something to do with him lately.

Hallelujah

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-03-01T19:32:30-06:00

As I sit here keying this in, I'm reflecting on the 15 inches of snow I've shoveled--three times in the past 12 hours. And I guess I'm in for the night, waiting to see what cruel joke the plow leaves for us in the morning. Blizzard 2007. This is it, folks. It's been a while since I've seen this much so fast. October 31, 1990 maybe. To brighten mood, and help look upon this snow with the wonder my 8-year-old does, here's a little gem of a vid I found on YouTube: Over The Rhine covering Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah.

In the newborn fog

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-02-14T22:08:27-06:00

What happened? TSAWWT is humming along with its regular brand of brilliant wit and/or boring content, and then--nothing. Is this a blog fast? What gives?

Amusing ourselves to death for one hour each Sunday

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-01-27T20:26:08-06:00

Most recently I completed my Advanced Media course for my MA in Communication. One of the required readings was Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death.

David Brent on Microsoft Values

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-01-25T14:11:00-06:00

I can't help but think that Microsoft UK has more going for it than the HQ in Redmond after seeing this video. It's nice to have some more David Brent after such a long absence. Nobody understands the business world better than Brent. Genius.

Cutest baby since Emma and Ethan

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-01-12T20:37:22-06:00

Kid 3 arrives: Everett James Wold, born 1-11-07 at 1:55 p.m. Mommy and baby are doing great. Daddy has a cough. I may be behind in updating for a few days, but this should hold everyone.

Wold baby watch 2007

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-01-10T19:55:15-06:00

Watch this space. News and information updates to follow....

Apple TV 1.0 reflections

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-01-10T19:54:28-06:00

Just wanted to post about what I would like to see in the Apple TV that hasn’t been announced in the just-released version 1.0. By now I think we can begin to understand the Apple TV box will serve to connect people with their Macs' and iTunes', paid-for content, rather than act as a TiVo/DVR device.

Wake up and smell the kingdom

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-01-10T19:52:57-06:00

“But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ's triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task? Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God.” 2 Corinthians 2:14-17 TNIV I looked at this passage in a couple of other translations. I was intrigued by the notion of a for-profit Gospel, and how Paul slices through it with a higher, kingdom calling. But as I re-read it, I began to think more about the metaphor of aroma that Paul uses to describe our evangelistic role as believers.

The Apple iPhone and the rise of the podcomputer

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-01-09T22:09:07-06:00

For all of you wondering about my reaction to today’s Macworld "Steve"-note speech, I’d like to draw your attention to a post from a while back—8/29/05. That’s when I predicted (or dreamed up) the idea that the hand-held (an iPod) could become all you needed for a mobile PC. And I didn’t mean like a Treo or Palm or Windows CE. I meant a fully functional image of your computer that you could just port-in to a PC setup (CPU, keyboard, monitor) and use. With OSX on board, software and data storage, the device would allow you to take your full computer world (digital life) with you anywhere. Fast forward to Apple’s announcement today. How close am I? Well, it's definitely not exactly what I was thinking, but it's darn close (it does have WiFi, after all). Plus, we can expect this to evolve much like the iPod and the Mac have evolved. You really need to follow this link and check this thing out to understand it. Lev Grossman of TIME magazine had this to say: "Apple's new iPhone could do to the cell phone market what the iPod did to the portable music player market: crush it pitilessly beneath the weight of its own superiority. This is unfortunate for anybody else who makes cell phones, but it's good news for those of us who use them." The rest of this article is outstanding. Yes, today was a good day to be a Apple addict. Dawni has frozen our joint account.

Impossibly successful parody

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-01-09T22:01:58-06:00

I always thought that Michael Cera, who played George-Michael Bluth, the hapless son of Arrested Development’s Michael Bluth, had an uncommon comic talent. Now that the show has been cancelled, many have been wondering what has become of some of the shows cast members. The embedded video is a first rate send-up of the Aleksey Vayner personal resume video that was virally circulated in 2006. It seems Michael is busy keeping his comic new media chops in top shape. Enjoy “Impossible is the opposite of possible.”

Arresting development

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-01-09T21:52:01-06:00

Clone bowl

woldcreative@mac.com — 2007-01-02T21:44:08-06:00

Emergent thought in early America

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-12-30T08:18:27-06:00

Some have criticized the emerging church for eschewing a definitive statement of faith. I realize this is kind of late to this discussion and dated information, but I ran across this text recently which provides a strong rationale for not attempting to create a doctrinal statement for something as dynamic and conversation-driven as the emerging church. The excerpt was included in Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death (required reading for my advanced media course), and is taken from the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Within that work Franklin quotes Michael Welfare, one of the founders of a noncreedalist religious sect in that day known as The Brethren or The Dunkers (see this wiki for background). When Franklin suggested Welfare publish a doctrinal statement to help abate misinformation about the group that was spreading in society, Welfare responded with this incredibly modest and cogent statement: When we were first drawn together as a society, it had pleased God to enlighten our minds so far as to see that some doctrines, which we once esteemed truths, were errors, and that others, which we had esteemed errors, were real truths. From time to time He has been pleased to afford us farther light, and our principles have been improving, and our errors diminishing. Now we are not sure we have arrived at the end of the progression, and at the perfection of spiritual or theological knowledge; and we fear that, if we should feel ourselves as if bound and confined by it, and perhaps be unwilling to receive further improvement, and our successors still more so, as conceiving what we their elders and founders had done, to be something sacred, never to be departed from.

All the Macs I have known

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-12-16T11:25:29-06:00

As promised, here is my Macintosh owner's anthology, spanning 15 years. All of these machines were used for my graphic design business at one point or another. This only includes Macs or Apples I have purchased. Going back to college use, we can include: Apple II, Apple IIe, Mac Plus, Mac Classic, Mac IIci, Mac Centris and Mac Quadra machines. Okay, I am a total geek, but I hope the personal history is fun for everyone: Macintosh LC III CPU: Motorola 68040 25 Mhz 80 Mb HD Owned circa 1992-1995 [Sold to a friend] Status: Unknown, presumed running Mac OS 7.2 Power Macintosh 7100/66 CPU: Motorola/IBM PowerPC 601 66 Mhz 250 Mb HD Owned circa 1995-1999 [sold to brother-in-law for college] Status: Donated to school, presumed running Mac OS 9.1 Fun fact: This was the most expensive Mac I have ever purchased iMac 333 "Blueberry" CPU: Motorola PowerPC G3 333 Mhz 6 Gb HD Owned circa 1999-2002, 2005 to present [sold to parents, then reclaimed after their Mac mini upgrade] Status: Running Mac OS X 10.2.9 "Jaguar" on home network PowerBook G4 Titanium CPU: Motorola PowerPC G4 550 Mhz 20 Gb HD Owned circa 2002 to present Status: Running Mac OS X 10.3.9 "Panther" on home network via airport wireless eMac G4 CPU: Motorola PowerPC G4 800 Mhz 80 Gb HD Owned circa 2004 to present Status: Running Mac OS X 10.4.8 "Tiger" on home network via ethernet

Requiem for a TI-99/4A

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-12-12T19:43:55-06:00

Recently I mentally traced my fascination with computer technology back to its source. The photo and link will tell you all you need to know about my first, real computer.

Poppins for terror

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-12-12T19:41:06-06:00

This is brilliant. I’d like to see the entire move re cut in this format.

Studio 60’s alternate reality

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-12-08T09:01:51-06:00

Let me start this post by saying that I really enjoy this show. The characters are interesting and the pace of the dialogue is fantastic, and often, thanks to Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford, comic. But I want to return to an earlier idea that began when I posted about the program in October. In the most recent Christmas episode we find the fictional NBS TV network pinned down under an FCC fine for indecency due to an expletive uttered during a live news interview in Iraq when an RPG exploded near the news crew and a soldier. The situation for NBS (a proxy for NBC/CBS/ABC/FOX) was so grave that the lawyers were advising executives that the network could lose its broadcast license if they refused to pay up and move on. This got me thinking: Is this a realistic scenario? ...

Xmas in Cupertino moved to January

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-12-08T08:43:33-06:00

January’s MacWorld is shaping up to be the mother of all rumored product launches. Here is quick list (in no particular order) of what could be announced:

Merry Christmas from Ohio, USA

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-12-08T08:39:46-06:00

Over The Rhine is releasing a full-length Christmas project called Snow Angels. If you are an OTR fan, you’ll understand how fitting that title is. I didn’t stumble onto this until recently, but now realize that this is the Christmas album I’ve been waiting for all my life. Check on this info page linked here for a complete track list and a couple of free MP3s. Sweet!

A disturbing ONE

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-12-02T17:07:59-06:00

Okay. I work for a large corporation. I admit to performing music (a cover song) at a corporate meeting--rewriting the lyrics and everything (a funny version of YMCA). But nothing compares to the current viral video for U2's "One" covered at a corporate meeting by a Bank of America sales guy.

Speed: A new reason to think different

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-12-02T16:40:16-06:00

It’s kind of a strange new world now that we have Macs and Windows PCs running on the same Intel chips. It leads to new questions about operating system performance that deserve some exploration: All chips being equal, what would be the performance difference between running the same applications in Windows Vista or MacOS X on the same hardware configuration? Why would anyone switch from Windows to Mac to run Adobe Creative Suite, for example? Why would anyone care?

Note to self: Don’t get too smug

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-11-27T18:09:24-06:00

My friend recently posted a comment which politely told me to lighten up and let it go when it comes to my Mac/Apple evangelism. I had recently posted that the inventor of the internet uses a Mac.

Signs of insanity

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-11-15T19:01:27-06:00

Okay, so I don’t always get turned on to some internet goodness when it first hits. But thanks to my university pal, Sally K., I’ve got this one to share with you.

Newsweek covers the cross and politics

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-11-09T20:22:10-06:00

Don’t miss this rather lengthy exploration of the emergence of political evangelicalism in America.

Inventor of the Web uses a Mac

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-11-09T20:08:16-06:00

Just a little pro Mac propaganda (it’s been a while). Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientist who is credited with creating the world wide web--the internet as we know it, uses a MacBook Pro. (Sorry, it’s not Al Gore after all.) Picture and link provide some nice proof.

Wake up to postmodernism

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-11-09T19:44:30-06:00

It's real. Get used to it. Tune in and turn on your brain. Knightopia has posted a link to some great free audio programs from Brian McLaren speaking at Wake Forest University Divinity School recently. Go grab some excellent talks on postmodernism, empire and the Kingdom. As Steve Knight says, if you have never heard him give his series on postmodern thought, this is an excellent source.

Celebrate political Ad freedom day

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-11-06T18:57:43-06:00

You may have heard of "Tax Freedom Day" where we celebrate the point in the year when the money we make is now lining our own pockets instead of Uncle Sam’s (also a date that seems to slip later and later into the each year).

Your bod in a ‘pod

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-11-06T18:50:47-06:00

For the past several years I have been scoffed at because of my idea to dress up my beloved children as iPods for Halloween. To put it bluntly, it hasn’t happened.

Numbers that should haunt us

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-11-02T19:40:30-06:00

The associated press reported on Halloween that political parties and campaigns have exposed voters nationwide to nearly $160 million in ads attacking congressional candidates so far this campaign season. Let that number sink in. Consider the following relative value of $160 million (divided into $3 million per week), when compared with what a weekly United Way donation can buy. In 2006, weekly donations of: > $1 (the cost of a lottery ticket)—provides work clothes for someone to interview and start a job. > $2.50 (the cost of an express bus ride to downtown)—teaches two students from abusive backgrounds violence prevention so they can break the pattern of abuse. > $3 (the cost of a latte)—helps four victims of domestic violence get counseling and legal advice. > $8 (the cost of a fast food meal)—pays for a family of five to have a hot meal a day for one month. > $10.50 (the cost of a dozen bagels)—provides one year of in-home meals, allowing an elderly person to continue living in his/her home. ...$20 (the cost of a manicure)—helps 83 new immigrants learn English and moves them toward U.S. citizenship. ...$50 (the cost of a floral delivery)—helps stabilize families in crisis with short-term shelter, food, and/or childcare assistance. In capitalism, advertising serves to help sell products which support businesses and individuals with profit and income, and ultimately become living wages. Capitalism is by no means always honorable, fair and equitable, but at least it functions in the fabric of daily commerce. Negative political advertising supports no wages (other than the windfall advertising agencies and TV stations receive). It is zero sum spending—money to create messages to counteract or cancel out the messages of another candidate. There is very little, if any, redeeming value to this—and a whole lot of negative ethical value.

Boyd now blogging

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-11-02T19:30:19-06:00

I’m very pleased to point out that pastor Greg Boyd has taken up blogging from his newly renovated personal web site. Here’s my favorite excerpt so far (thanks Derek), as he reflects on what he should say in a CBS News interview: Anyway, I've thought and prayed a lot about how I should use this precious 90 seconds and I got a very clear revelation from God: “Hi Greg. Explain to America how ‘will’ and ‘will not’ are not ‘logical contradictories’ but are, instead, ‘logical contraries,’ which of course means they don’t exhaust the alternatives of future tensed propositions. Explain to them how ‘will’ and ‘will not’ cannot be simultaneously true, but they can both be simultaneously false -- just in case ‘might’ (the real contradictory of ‘will not’) and ‘might not’ (the real contradictory of ‘will’) are both simultaneously true.” I said, “Lord, are you sure? I’m thinking this could take a little more than 90 seconds.” And God, being a good Open Theist, said: “Okay, I change my mind (see Ex.32: 10-14). Why don’t you just show them my beauty and tell people to stop dragging me into their ugly secular politics.” I said, “THAT sounds a bit more feasible. Thanks Lord.” You gotta love that kind of humor. The site hasn’t enabled any sort of blog tools like commenting for permalinks, which I hope they add later, but it’s nice to get some more of this beautiful mind out here in the blogosphere. Check Greg out. He’s now linked in my blog roll. No anti open theism flames, please. Peace to you.

Johnny can read

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-11-02T19:11:05-06:00

I’m pleased that the assigned reading for my interpersonal communication class has become more interesting than I first anticipated.

Mowing the Astroturf

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-10-29T08:23:27-06:00

There are good, solid practitioners of Public Relations. And then there are the ethical equivalent of used care salesmen (some of whom would be offended I made this reference equating them with PR hacks). Last week Wal-mart received some more negative press when it was discovered that a couple of pro-Wal-mart blogs, ostensibly by independent citizens, turned out to be run and written by PR professionals from Wal-mart’s PR firm.

A strong case for power under versus power over

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-10-25T19:48:20-05:00

I’ve got a few personal reasons for not saying too much about the LWCC/Bachmann mis-endorsement incident and fallout on my blog, starting with my intention that I don’t blog to be conversant on politics (not that there is anything wrong with that). But I do want to post a link to this op-ed article from Sunday’s StarTribune, because I think it is a fantastic witness to The Kingdom and its proper relation to human politics. I am sure some will disagree, but I am just as sure that the perspective given in this article is underrepresented in public discourse. And I want to raise awareness in whatever small way this blog can.

News Flash: New Mexico has WMDs

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-10-25T19:35:49-05:00

This is why I love reading Engadget. This techno blog covers all manner of super cool electronic gadgetry. Aside from their misguided affection for the Zune, they pretty much keep me up to speed on everything electronic going on out there. Today they published a story about two "New Mexican" inventors who recently filed a patent for a “high-power microwave system employing a phase-locked array of inexpensive commercial magnetrons.” More on this alarming news from Engadget:

I heart iPod

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-10-25T19:33:01-05:00

This week the Apple iPod turned 5 years old.

A pretty good weekend for the Vikes

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-10-22T19:29:44-05:00

A few weeks ago my nephew, Cameron, broke his femur (into 5 pieces) in a football game. Needless to say, this local football hero saw a promising 2006 season end far too soon. He made it through an 8-hour surgery to put the bones back in place and attach a metal plate and several screws. The kid's been through a lot.

Your best life is just a game

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-10-22T19:25:00-05:00

This not parody. This is a real product created by real people.

On warfare and the real enemy

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-10-18T20:31:18-05:00

Two years ago I had the opportunity to sit in on a series of talks with Brian McLaren concerning the topic of modernity, postmodernity, etc. One of the things that I couldn’t reconcile at the time was his suggestion that The Church ease up on the metaphors of warfare in its discourse. He advocated this idea not because it was such terms were incorrect, but because they had, perhaps, become counterproductive to our message and mission—a distraction to those that would equate our message of the gospel with extremist religious groups.

Narcissism, alive and well in NYC

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-10-17T19:36:07-05:00

Have you met the latest motivational sensation, Aleksey Vayner? Remember, success is all in your head.

A protest of beauty

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-10-14T17:26:50-05:00

Last week Dawni and I enjoyed an evening of great music by Sara Groves. Her most recent recording, Add to the Beauty, was voted CCM Magazine’s Album of the Year—a well deserved accolade. I did a little plug for this outstanding record back in November, 2005. It’s a pity that the hometown girl can’t sell out a hometown show (at Bethel University’s outstanding concert hall). Perhaps it was poorly promoted, or perhaps her songwriting challenges today’s consumer Christian music fan a little too much. Their loss. It was fantastic.

Is this for real?

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-10-14T11:07:01-05:00

Not sure what to make of this, but a few weeks will tell us whether this is a load of bull or the real deal.

The Body politic

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-10-13T20:03:18-05:00

Short notice, but the Bethel University Student Association is sponsoring a "Faith and Politics" dialogue between Jim Wallis and Greg Boyd October 23.

Finally, a URL you can remember

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-10-08T18:19:05-05:00

It’s official. This blog now has the simplified domain of http://www.toddwold.com.

Beam me up, DA

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-10-08T18:16:21-05:00

The news broke recently that Dutch scientists recently conducted successful quantum teleportation experiments.

You say goodbye, I say Helio

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-10-08T18:10:40-05:00

I’ve run across the “so hot right now” device that gets close to what I’m looking for in the wished-for WiFi iPod or MS Zune. The Helio is a socially networked mobile device/cell phone. It integrates voice, text, camera, video, music, web, IM (AIM, iChat or Yahoo), games and the clincher—myspace features. Interact with MySpace mail, view pages, post comments and photos, and add new friends.

Anything but blue about this music

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-10-04T22:04:26-05:00

Rediscovering the lost art of evangelism episode 10, the last

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-10-03T22:10:24-05:00

This is part 10 of a series of posts that interact with Guy Kawasaki's 10 principles of "evangelism." ...Be nice to the people on the way up because one is likely to see them again on the way down. ...We should all please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: 'The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.' For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope. May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. ...Chapter 12:14-16 is a very direct confirmation of what Kawasaki is saying in his last point of the 10. Romans 15 points this idea in a very specific missional direction, to “please our neighbors for their good, to build them up.”

Studio 60 stereotypes redux

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-09-28T22:34:35-05:00

I don’t want to give this small critique too much emphasis, but I think it is worth a post and maybe a discussion. I watched episode 2 this last Monday and was able to get the “Crazy Christian” plotline a little more figured out. All in, I think it’s a valid (although oft-repeated) commentary on certain evangelical groups’ (yeah, I’m talking ‘bout you, Focus On The Family) tendency to get up and arms about TV programming that they deem offensive (or expect to be offensive, in this case). Par for the course. But American evangelical Christianity is an enormously complex subculture. In order to critique aspects of it dramatically, you have to go deep to be credible and believable. Accuracy, even in fiction, matters.

Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-09-27T20:49:57-05:00

Ever wonder about those holographic, 2-D intergalactic communication devices you’ve seen in the Star Wars movies? First, it was a recording of that memorable and desperate message from princess Leia stored in R2-D2: “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi; you’re my only hope.” Then, in later movies, it seemed to be the video phone of choice a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

Zune shares like a bad virus

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-09-27T20:42:26-05:00

I had high hopes for the WiFi capabilities of the Microsoft Zune. Sadly, I think my hopes were misplaced. Why am I not surprised? Oh yeah. Microsoft built this thing. Actually, it’s built by OEM Toshiba and MS just slapped their name (and maybe software) on it.

God is my DJ

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-09-23T09:35:28-05:00

Check out this WSJ article (a freebie) concerning the iPod Shuffle’s claim on random play, and the mathematical debate involved in being truly random (hint: it isn’t). The article goes all the way into quantum physics and chaos theory. It’s a good read, even if you hate iPods.

Finally, I can sleep at night

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-09-23T09:31:43-05:00

This is the App you can’t live without that you have been living without all your life. For all you with Mac OS X Tiger running, this little widget is the answer to your non-apple software version upgrade/update manager dreams.

Studio 60 stereotypes born again, for the first time

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-09-20T06:58:18-05:00

I really like this new show: NBC’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Based on the premier episode I think it’s going to be a fun and interesting ride. That said, there were two flaws that became more and more obvious as the episode played on.

Apple of your Ive

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-09-15T20:08:22-05:00

I’m not sure that most people are aware of all the fantastic product designs that have originated from Apple VP of Design, Jonathan Ive.

High-def communication

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-09-15T20:00:29-05:00

My first paper for COM600 (Intro to Communication Theory) was to create my own definition of communication. Here it is: “The dynamic, contextual and coded interchange of meaning between or within interactively capable beings.”

It's Christmas day

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-09-12T21:45:50-05:00

The calendar says September 12, 2006, but it's Christmas day in San Francisco. Steve Jobs unwrapped a bevy of new iPod and movie-related goodies in a special media event held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco. Check out the event playback on Apple's site.

Rediscovering the lost art of evangelism episode 9

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-09-12T21:17:03-05:00

This is part 9 of a series of posts that interact with Guy Kawasaki's 10 principles of "evangelism." ...In the quest to grow churches, we often end up become product evangelists for our church organizations rather than Jesus and his kingdom. In doing so, we can end up creating a proxy for the kingdom designed with a wide variety of ministry and life solutions. ...Recently one person was “selling” my sister-in-law (a believer) on their brand of church by talking about their exciting new family church program. ...

No school like the old school

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-09-06T21:37:06-05:00

I have something new in common with my 7-year-old daughter. We both started school this week—second grade for her and the M A in Communication for me (is that seventeenth grade?). I think she likes the idea of a kind-of shared experience for us. She keeps asking me if I’m going to school yet. Well, it’s official. I’m a student of Bethel University Graduate School.

Agassi: the good sport

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-09-06T21:36:11-05:00

This says it all....

I'm definitely not a genius

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-09-06T21:09:24-05:00

The past few days those of you using Microsoft Internet Explorer (MS IE) for Windows XP to get around the internet may have noticed a display glitch on my page. All my posts are being shuffled far down the page. I’m hoping that by the time you see this post the problem has been corrected. It seems that amid the hubris of tricking out my sidebar with new features, some tiny detail in the code created this issue on the Win XP platform (much to my chagrin).

The trivial nature of eschatology...

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-09-02T22:59:22-05:00

...really lends itself to some kickin' video game development. The book of Revelation is a gold mine of gaming scenarios and visual ideas, once you get past the King James English. Left Behind Games, the geniuses behind the upcoming computer/video game, “Left Behind: Eternal Forces,” have been working overtime lately claiming to correct misinformation in the blogosphere and defend their dubious endeavor. [actual screen shot] But I think it is totally unnecessary to tear into this thing. Just go to their web site and learn more about it, look at the screen shots, see how they pitch it, read the marketing hype and get the story straight from the horse's mouth. If you can come away without any kind of uncomfortable or soiled feeling (like maybe some spiritual discernment kicking in), then by all means, buy this game as soon as possible. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it as much as the other kids who were left behind—in school. But if you can't take the time right now, just read this quote from the CEO of Left Behind Games and think about if for a while (reported by Skye Jethani in Out of Ur): "Troy Lyndon...says the game will probably appeal to the same audience that was undisturbed by the violence and gore in 'The Passion of the Christ.' Lyndon says he anticipates those on the liberal left will criticize Left Behind: Eternal Forces, 'but megachurches are very likely to embrace this game.' And they will be the main marketing outlets for the product."

I believe in evolution

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-09-02T10:41:48-05:00

Now that I've got your attention, you may be noticing some evolution taking place with TSAWWT. I’ve discovered and implemented a few features that I’ve been wanting on the page for a long time.

Kingdom transparency

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-09-01T19:56:46-05:00

There has been a great deal of press on The Myth of Christian Nation since the New York Times article broke July 30, 2006. The topic of God and politics aside, I ran across something in reviewing the recent media coverage that I feel compelled to share. I have rarely read someone giving such a transparent, heart-felt mea culpa related to something they had written. I think we all have things we regret we said or wrote in the past. I have not (yet) published a book to have to worry about this on a large scale, although this blog and my verbal rants likely have seen some low moments that will become more apparent to me as I grow. Hindsight is 20/20, but it’s blind if you never turn around to take a look. As a persuasive writer, doing a complete one-eighty on something you wrote is excruciating stuff. So I share this quote from author and speaker Dave Burchett from His Crosswalk blog post about Greg Boyd and The Myth of Christian Nation. I pray that I will have the maturity to recognize and repent of any of my former mistakes in such an open manner—even for something like political opinions. I don’t know much about Burchett, but I like him already. “I have been roundly criticized for supporting George Bush in my first book, When Bad Christians Happen to Good People. I regret the political references I made in that book. I wish I could remove them because I found out that political remarks polarize and deflect the message of the Cross. I tried to make it clear that Christians were making a mistake by trying to change our culture through politics instead of by changing hearts for Jesus. That book was written during 9/11 and after I had been personally convicted of my sin toward President Bill Clinton. I did not pray for Bill Clinton. I did not respect him as the authority my sovereign God allowed to be in power. I regret the impression that I gave to some readers that I believed the Republican party was the official party of Christianity. I do not believe that at all. And yes, I expect to see Democrats in heaven. And Libertarians. A few Republicans will be there too. But the common link will not be political ideology. The link that will bring us there will be Jesus. Period.”

Podfather III

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-09-01T08:09:15-05:00

Fans of the Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and comedy enigma Karl Pilkington, will be pleased that Season 3 of the Ricky Gervais Show is off and running with Episode 1.

Hollywood looking for the cluetrain

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-08-25T21:41:19-05:00

I just added a link to Robert X Cringley on my links list sidebar. It’s about time. Check out this insightful quote from Friday’s column about what has Hollywood loosing sleep: “Something is wrong with the movie business. Its core market of boys and young men have stopped going to the movies and are, instead, surfing, texting, SMS-ing, gaming, and making and watching these stupid videos [on YouTube, etc.]. Time and money previously spent at the multiplex is being spent at home and online and Hollywood is hurting as a result -- hurting not just because of revenue and profit shortfalls, but because the industry no longer has confidence that it knows for sure what its core market wants to see on-screen.”

Windows Vista: the Devil you don't know

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-08-25T21:25:34-05:00

I haven’t posted a smug rant about Microsoft Windows for a few months now, so I’m due. I apologize in advance for any offense this may cause. There are three things every devoted Windows user should know about the forthcoming (and oft delayed) Windows Vista upgrade:

Quantum theology

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-08-22T21:47:11-05:00

In the category of truly sidetracking my one-track mind, I stumbled upon this fascinating information in a news release from an author positing an interesting hypothesis behind the Salem witch trial hysteria. Not to pitch this book or its specific hypothesis, I was more fascinated by the little-known quantum physics experiment that gave rise to it. I did a little more research on it to verify what I was reading. (How did I get sidetracked? A new RSS feed from PR Web's religion category.)

Suspicious minds

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-08-21T19:58:33-05:00

We're back from our ten day western odyssey through 5 states (Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota). I now need a vacation from my vacation. I happened upon an interview today while combing through the comments on an Out of Ur story, and thought I would share a link and a pertinent quote.

Lost in transmission

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-08-08T21:17:25-05:00

Something to noodle on while I am out of pocket on TSAWWT blog posts for the next week or so. ...Much of the modern evangelical church is a step behind huge sociological and communication shifts. Most notably is the transformation from consumerism to producerism—from cool spectator-driven to warm participation-driven media and communication. In a recent PRSA presentation I downloaded from Andrew Lark, a communications consultant, he describes human communication in terms of major eras we have been moving through over time driven by our communication media.... The Transmission Era 2) The Triangulation Era (Web 1.0) 3) The Participatory Era (Web 2.0) The modern church still fits squarely in the Transmission Era in many ways, whether the media is print, preaching driven, radio, film or TV. But The Church didn’t used to be this way. In the absence of any prevailing communication method aside from verbal (literacy and written communication was quite limited, the impact of epistles notwithstanding), the early church was much more participatory. It had to be. Today, in the postmodern era, communication media is increasingly characterized by participation. Of all the potential or pitfalls of postmodernism, this is the most exciting and encouraging aspect to me—an opportunity to bring us back to a more of a New Testament church ethos, albeit in new, and even digital, wineskins. And the church communities that will thrive (regardless of old or new, high or low, large or small) will be the ones that emphasize participation rather than passive, one-way transmission of consumerism. And this isn't just about blogs and wikis. It's about how you do everything. A few of quotes to provoke thought and comment: “We are entering one era in which the technological infrastructure is creating a different context for how we tell our stories and how we communicate with each other” - Andrew Nachison, Director, Media Center “One of my new laws for communicators is 'the more you participate, the more transparent the dialog becomes'" - Andy Lark “Whether the existing church likes it or not, we are giving birth to a generation of people who view themselves as participants. … Our elders, the Baby Boomers, learned how to communicate to consumers, but to find success in the future, a new generation will need to learn how to speak to a new breed of producers who have been radically transformed by using the Internet.... Emboldened by this participatory movement and empowered by easy-to-use technology, we are starting to expect different things from our churches, pastors and denominations. We look forward to something more profound from our churches than vision casting, finding our spiritual gifts, mall-like facilities, coffee bars and candles. We expect to participate; we expect to co-create the church. As bloggers, we take an active role in our personal spiritual formation.”

Meet an internet celebrity

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-08-05T16:51:45-05:00

Making The Church safe for democracy

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-08-05T16:34:54-05:00

Get that guy some sun block

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-08-04T18:54:31-05:00

The infamous Pat Robertson has now done a 180 on global warming, claiming in a 700 Club broadcast that the recent heat wave is “the most convincing evidence I've seen on global warming in a long time.” He continues, “We really need to address the burning of fossil fuels. It is getting hotter, and the icecaps are melting and there is a buildup of carbon dioxide in the air.” (We’re running out of oil, too, Pat! In case you didn’t notice paying $3.20 a gallon today.)

Okay Pat, which is it: God’s righteous judgment or fossil fuels and carbon emissions that have been contributing to the rise in natural disasters (tsunamis, hurricanes, heat, drought)? When you claim to hear from the Lord on these matters at one turn, and then flip-flop on what you said at another (in this case, even coming to some sense on the topic), don’t you realize you are discrediting yourself and your message? Again, as I said in my January 6 post, you don’t speak for me or the Lord. My recommendation to the rest of us? If you happen to be near a TV set and the 700 Club comes on, walk right up to that TV screen and wipe some SPF 40 sun block right on Pat’s face. Sure, it sounds crazy and will make a mess of your set, but he’s gonna need some for sure.

Three degrees of separation

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-08-04T18:48:46-05:00

Really Simple Stupification

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-08-04T18:43:26-05:00

Well, for anyone who cares, I finally figured out why my RSS feeds and summaries have been a little loopy. (Does anyone even subscribe to my TSAWWT feed?) MS Word and other programs have long had this great feature called smart quotes and apostrophes, which automatically replace the keyed character (the vertical kind) with a curved or “smart” character—in this case, an apostrophe that curves open to the left for contractions and possessives.

The multi megas, coming soon to a theater near you

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-08-03T21:58:30-05:00

I’ve been linking around the ‘net looking at various blogs—especially some that have sprouted more recently dedicated to church marketing. Obviously in the age of the mega church, consumer marketing has become an important endeavor for some of these congregation.... On the one hand marketing can be fun—100 times more interesting than other ecclesial concerns. I’m a creative, so the temptation to make marketing, branding, advertising and PR into tools of The Church appeals to me on a professional and missional level. On the other hand, I have an enormous amount of discomfort with tactics that seek to grow individual churches on the back of the consumer marketing strategies.... What can be very successful tactics for selling fashion wear, iPods and dishwashers, just doesn’t do a good job really connecting lost people with Jesus. The “conversions” in this sense can become conversions to a specific brand of church, rather than into a transformative relationship with Jesus as His Bride. Often all this marketing does a much better job of selling one church versus the competition to existing customers (read: Christians).... Usually it’s the 100-year-old church down the street that just plods along doing what it can to serve the Kingdom. ...

Busted!

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-08-02T21:24:01-05:00

Looks like Derek and Becky have been outed attending a "liberal" church. Cool! This is a screen grab from the video on the New York Times web site, "Politics and the Pulpit," that featured our church and pastor Greg Boyd. As I was watching I caught a glimpse of someone familiar and had to rewind and look again. Sure enough, there was Derek and a partially obstructed view of Becky. So, I guess this means about a million people have seen him in the past couple of days. See my July 30 post for background on this whole deal.

Dot Mac scoring a dot bomb

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-08-02T20:59:31-05:00

I’ve been a .Mac user for three years or so, using it for web hosting (this Blog), Email, iDisk file sharing and several other useful features. I’ve noticed on occasion that there are minor network outages that affect Email, iDisk or web sites, etc. On the wild Web, this is par for the course.

Free lunch, for a limited time only

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-08-01T20:58:47-05:00

I recently saw Rupert Murdoch on Charlie Rose discussing the News Corp. purchase of MySpace last year. The discussion with this venerable tycoon of media was fascinating, to say the least. One thing that struck me, however, was how much of a risk this $580 million purchase really is (although a far cheaper price than it would likely fetch today). Murdoch stated that now he had to find a way to “monetize” MySpace—make the endeavor profitable. For all the fun and games people are having with social networking technologies, aside from pure ad plays, not many people know how or if it will make money.

A new liturgy of repentance, baptism

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-08-01T20:57:23-05:00

I’ve missed attending services at Woodland Hills for the past four weeks now—chalk it up to travel and family matters. It’s been delightful to catch up via podcast. I listened to the 7/16 message last week, which ended with the recitation of a home grown liturgy on baptism. Being new to liturgy, I’m not sure what those with liturgical backgrounds would make of this. Upon hearing it recited I felt compelled to key it in and share it more widely via blog. The declarations really relate to the topic of my most recent post on The Lost Art of Evangelism (Episode 8)—so this had special relevance to me. Renouncing Satan, His Works and His Pomp By the grace of God and the empowering of the Holy Spirit, we who are called to be part of the Kingdom Revolution pledge our lives wholly to our Lord Jesus Christ We renounce Satan, all his works and all his pomp. We pledge to acquire all our life, worth, and security from Jesus Christ alone. We renounce all idolatrous ways of getting life, worth and security. We pledge to living in Christ-like love for all people, at all times, in all circumstances, including those who might regard themselves as our “enemies.” We renounce all tribalism, all racism, all sectarianism, all hatred and all violence. We pledge to living as a bridge between people and God and between people with one another. We renounce the sinful walls that separate people from God and divide people along ethnic, national, political, generational and economic lines. By the grace of God and the empowering of the Holy Spirit, we pledge our lives wholly to Jesus Christ, We renounce Satan, all his works and all his pomp.

It's about time

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-07-30T14:53:21-05:00

Way too Zune to say

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-07-26T17:40:26-05:00

There's a lot of posting out there in the pro-Apple blogosphere about Microsoft's upcoming Zune device. It’s rumored to have a WiFi capability—something I've been looking for in the iPod. This fall will bring the first salvos in a new battle in the digital media marketing war: A new iPod (with unknown new features and design) vs. the Zune from MS.

Bareback rider

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-07-24T21:17:46-05:00

Every once and a while you run into an old photograph that just leaves you in awe. This is Dawnshelle's uncle Doug as a teen atop a pony. It's clear by the pained equine expression that the poor animal is no match for the stature of the rider. Still, there's just something amazing about this image. You really can't stage something this authentic. The peg leg pants. The socks. The penny loafers. The lack of a saddle. I think his feet are only inches from the ground. Quintessential Suburban Cowboy. Someday soon I will learn the true story of this photograph. And I will publish it here for all to read. Consider this a teaser.

Rediscovering the lost art of evangelism episode 8

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-07-23T14:39:56-05:00

With so many characters—most if not all exhibiting some form of prejudice, stereotyping or racism—it was too easy to find something of myself on the screen. ...Col 3:11 TNIV “Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.” Gal 3:28 TNIV “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” ...While there are those extreme examples in the film (the kind that make you say, “I could never do or say that—that’s terrible!”), it’s the subtle behaviors that are the most disturbing—the well-hidden, barely noticed, but subversive feelings of insecurity and fear that tend to push us to our worst moments. ...This kind of fear is behind my own thoughts and words when I descend to anything less than love for my fellow humans. ...But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.” (Sidebar: Often Christians have defined “filthy language” in this passage as expletives, etc. I think this should be applied more broadly. “Filth,” as I choose to define it, must be any words or thoughts that degrade and devalue our fellow humans, even if we do it with G-rated or even biblical language. ...Romans 8:12-16 TNIV “If you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.... There is that wonderful idea that we are God’s children—His offspring, each one with the complete and total worth He ascribes to us. This terrified old man of sin inside of me—the one that resists leaving my secure suburban bubble, avoids certain parts of the city, resists interacting with other races and mutters shameful stereotypes in my mind—must be daily put to death. I’ve posted about fear and evangelism before in this series (episode 5), but I think it is very central to the question of racial reconciliation on an individual level. ...As difficult as it may be to believe at times, this societal fear we are immersed in is connected to the sin that enslaves all of humanity. ...This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. ...How do I live in love and drive out fear every moment of every day? I need to step out and go to where I can break through this enemy stronghold and tear down the prison walls.... I need to put myself in a position to act in love and for love’s cause. ...Often people undergoing psychotherapy to cure a phobia work towards a point where they confront and experience the thing that they are most afraid of: flying in a plane, riding in an elevator, listening to David Hasselhoff music—whatever it may be. ...I can act in love with great confidence knowing that I participate in dealing the death blow to the real enemy in the spiritual war to overcome the divisive evil that enslaves humanity. ...James 2:1-10 TNIV "My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose someone comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor person in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the one wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the one who is poor, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? ...But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.

Freedom isn't free (but it can be tacky)

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-07-18T20:08:34-05:00

A few short months ago I posted a plug for a great new book by Greg Boyd—The Myth of a Christian Nation. The book cover depicts a redone photo of the statue of liberty holding a cross instead of a torch. Lest anyone think that such a depiction is merely an isolated visual commentary, one congregation has gone and actually spent a quarter of a million dollars to revise Lady Liberty in just such a fashion: Our Lord’s Lady Liberty–The Statue of Liberation Through Christ. I don’t think they would be fans of Boyd’s work. They have an elaborate web site with Q&A document to help justify their artistic and evangelistic endeavor. Of course, one could argue with many of their points. However, I was disappointed by not being able to find this question or a response: Don’t you think something this completely cheesy devalues both American patriotism and your gospel message? Well, we live in the land of the free, indeed—but that doesn’t guarantee us freedom from tacky (and wasteful) Christian artifacts. Thanks to Zach Lind http://www.findingrhythm.com/blog/ for blogging this item. I like your blog a lot. Lind is the Drummer for Jimmy Eat World.

Van Halen was right

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-07-18T19:47:16-05:00

Blurbs don't make the man

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-07-17T19:34:39-05:00

You can run, but you can't hide

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-07-17T19:28:44-05:00

A few years ago an organization ran a billboard ad campaign that featured simple messages from God. The stark white text on black signs were often clever attention getters amid the drive time tangle so many people endure. Later, individual church signs would often copy or adopt these messages for their marquees—adding to the repertoire of church sign gospel that informs or pollutes towns large and small (depending on your point of view and/or the quality of the messages). In any case, the God Speaks billboards now add to an already fascinating history of church signs dating as far back as the lighted marquee itself.

Church rotates on its axis

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-07-15T10:01:15-05:00

It's only Fair

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-07-15T10:00:33-05:00

Why I shouldn't even be doing this

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-07-14T09:57:20-05:00

The seduction of meaningless information

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-07-14T09:55:39-05:00

Here’s a great quote I ran across about using research studies to gain publicity or notoriety. This phrase may not be original to her or new to you, but I’ve never heard it before—and I like it:

Trolling for WiFi and a good piece of strawberry pie

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-07-11T19:46:58-05:00

As our tech lives continue to evolve, it occurred to me this year that Web access at Cornerstone (or during Cornerstone) was becoming harder to live without. My fellow camper, Doug Glynn, had the good sense to bring his wireless laptop with, which we both made good use of. I think I would have blogged a bit had I been able to use my own machine and software setup (the downside of software-based blogging).

New math and the art of making noise

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-07-11T19:35:33-05:00

Photo by Brian Behm Hands down, the best performance of Cornerstone 2006 was MuteMath. With a new full length album added to their lexicon, these guys are truly music and noise artists. While influences abound, I don’t think anyone can say these guys are anything but original and visionary. Pray that they settle their label dispute soon in order to get their music to a wider audience. I finally was able to pick up their disc on site (for a paltry $10 bucks). You can only get it here otherwise.

Dust, tents and sanctified rock-n-roll

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-07-10T19:12:16-05:00

Amanda boom or bust

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-07-07T18:38:42-05:00

Careful little mouths what you say

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-06-28T21:09:03-05:00

I grabbed a news clipping from Monday’s Chicago Tribune and was interested to read that the United Pentecostal Church in Harvey, IL is paying people $25 to attend their church services—a novel new evangelism approach. ...I’m not going to jump all over it with an opinion on the merits of this idea.... I believe I may have half-heartedly suggested this idea a few years back to my own congregation at the time. But there are two specific statements made by Christians in the article that I do wish to comment about because I think there is something to be learned for pastors and lay ministers alike: In the article a pastor commented on the evangelism campaign saying, “It doesn't matter how we get them in the door as long as we get them here.” Later in the piece, another church member is quoted saying, “We’re told to spread the gospel by any means.”

Job opening at Microsoft

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-06-27T21:06:23-05:00

Cash of the Titans

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-06-27T21:03:14-05:00

Sunday the second richest man in the world (Warren Buffet) put his charitable funds in the hands of the number one richest man (Bill Gates), thereby endowing the world’s most formidable private charity with twice as much annual outflow. This will mean in excess of $3 billion each year toward the chief causes targeted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Rediscovering the lost art of evangelism episode 7

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-06-24T09:38:53-05:00

For example, the safe first step to recruit an evangelist for the environment is not requiring that she chain herself to a tree; it’s to ask her to start recycling and taking shorter showers." ...For a long time now many evangelicals have embraced this concept of providing “a safe first step” by redesigning the Sunday worship service experience. ...We’ve invested loads of money in buildings, lighting, comfy seats, multimedia, cup holders, etc. We’ve redesigned the weekly service to be experientially satisfying for modern consumers, including current and individualistic pop worship music, dynamic video production, drama and comedy, and a life-practical sermon (often in a culturally relevant serial format) all presented within a carefully timed, one-hour package. ...He often challenged the status quo in society, and his closest allies, the 12 disciples, must have certainly felt nervous about their own safety from time to time. ...So instead of defining a relationship with Jesus in terms of risk, think in terms of what a safe first step towards His Kingdom would be. ...He would demonstrate the open border of the kingdom of God by hosting or participating in parties where even the most notorious outcasts and sinners were welcome.” Jesus’ first act of ministry (and sign of the kingdom) was making sure a wedding host didn’t make a major social mistake by running out of wine at his own wedding party.... (John 2:4 TNIV) A quiet act of kindness and grace: Jesus’ generous and kind spirit was the embodiment of His Kingdom message. ...Rather than set up a central venue or regular event (even though people gathered to listen to him teach in droves) in Jerusalem, he was perpetually on tour. ...I honestly believe these instructions were intended to help the Disciples learn how to conduct themselves in relating to people as much as they were to facilitate the logistics of their mission work. ...McLaren continues, “By accepting and welcoming people into his presence, just as they were, with all their problems and imperfections, Jesus was exposing them to His example and to His secret message. In this way He could challenge them to think—and think again—and consider becoming part of the kingdom of God so they could experience and participate in the transformation that flows from being in interactive relationship with God and others.” So what is the safe first step that The Church can provide for people in today’s world.... It is possible to over invest in something—and I think we may have over invested our Kingdom resources in this single form for the past two decades (and likely longer).... Instead, we need to take a step toward those on the borders of the kingdom (to steal another metaphor from McLaren). What if all the money (read: tithes) spent on venues, sound systems, talent and media was funneled back through the congregation and spent on throwing extravagant and generous parties for our neighbors.... What if 80 percent of the church budget was directly spent on connecting individuals with the safest first step of all: transformative friendships? ...I served briefly on a mega-aspiring church’s marketing committee just a couple years ago. The ad hoc group was tasked with developing marketing messages and tactics to promote the weekly services or sermon series. While this can be a fun exercise for a PR and marketing professional, I began confusing people when I suggested that we take the church outreach (read: marketing) budget and look for ways to rain love and generosity on people in the community. Instead of a 4-color postcard mailer for the DaVinci Code sermon series, let’s develop local teams within our congregations that can create and give gift baskets to their immediate neighbors (with yummy home-baked goodies, free transit passes, or a new tree or plant, etc.). ...They have since sent out two DVDs in mass mailings featuring their new worship center and worship team music at a cost I can only imagine. My questions are these: Are we more interested in growing weekly church services or expanding the borders of the kingdom? Have we capitulated Christ’s calling to pursue transformative relationships (safer for the seeker) in favor of leveraging our event-based marketing strategies (safer for us)? ...Jesus is calling us out of the safety of our buildings and on to the borders of the Kingdom to extend welcome to the world-weary immigrants who seek safe passage. If we want to provide a safe first step, we need to step out and get our sandals good and worn out.

Cool is the enemy

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-06-23T21:36:50-05:00

The road ahead less traveled

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-06-23T21:21:05-05:00

I haven’t posted on tech for a while, but two pieces of news make it high time I did. The first, Bill Gates has announced he is stepping down at Microsoft. While I don’t want to minimize the stated reasons for his departure (focusing on his charity foundation full time), you can’t deny that this is the end of the road for him as a tech mogul (or the end of The Road Ahead, as it were). Windows Vista in beta form is getting poor reviews, and the lateness of the release continues to astound just about everyone. I don’t need to pour salt in the wounds of MS. I think the epic technology and business battle between Gates and Jobs has come to a close. Tech pundits like Robert X Cringley see a looming exit for Steve Ballmer, as well.... For me, MS is like a presidential administration that you’ve lost all respect for. When the next election rolls around and a new regime is voted into power, you feel like democracy can get a fresh start (if your candidate wins, that is). I think with different leadership I could respect MS again. It will, once again, be interesting to see where they take the company from here.

The Holy in the common place

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-06-22T22:09:59-05:00

Weeds

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-06-17T10:28:21-05:00

Peace and stillness at 1,110 miles per minute

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-06-12T19:11:34-05:00

I’ve added something to the header of my blog: the number 1,110. This is quite literally the speed the earth travels (1,110 miles per minute, or 18.5 miles per second) as it orbits the sun. You could say it is the speed at which we travel.

On a nonfiction (fender) bender

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-06-11T14:52:40-05:00

Summer reading list 2006 Summer is upon us, and it’s time for my annual list of light summer reading (which is ushered in by my birthday as I generally receive a few books to get me started). Some are new and some are a little less new:

Live action d’oh

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-06-09T21:43:20-05:00

I’m with stupid

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-06-08T20:33:51-05:00

I posted a couple weeks ago about a C.S. Lewis quote and its applicability to the current mega-church and mega-aspiring church proclivity toward entertainment media in their worship services—to the point of making the Sunday event their primary evangelism approach. I riffed on Marchall McLuhan a bit in that piece, and was fascinated to read that my application of his medium and message theories to church practices was not at all unique. The EmergentYS imprint of Zondervan has recently published a book by Shane Hipps, Lead Pastor of Trinity Mennonite Church in Phoenix, Arizona: The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture: How Media Shapes Faith, the Gospel, and Church.

Jinx! Buy me a Coke

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-06-07T21:23:05-05:00

Staring into the MirrorMask

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-06-07T21:05:58-05:00

Perspectives on authenticity

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-05-31T22:47:00-05:00

I almost feel this post should be incorporated into my Lost Art of Evangelism series because it fits so well. There are some great evangelistic principles that come from the Public Relations world—and I don’t mean new ways to market, create hype or generate publicity. Rather, if you strip down PR to its most idealistic, essential truths (and get rid of the shrill publicity hounding), it can be about being Christlike with your words in many ways. The life of Christ—his service and storytelling—is, at times, like a master class in PR. Of course, this is not a perfect simile, but I’ve gained a lot of insight from thinking about The Church, Christianity and my own career from this perspective.

How to dismantle your BF

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-05-29T21:22:00-05:00

This is too funny to pass up. If you think you might have a medical condition recently identified as Bono Fatigue (or BF), you’ll want to take advantages of this web site for support. Although I’ve been a raving U2 fan since the age of 13 (with some time off in the 90s), I don’t think I’ve quite succumbed to this disorder (denial?). Although please warn me if you think otherwise. I might require an intervention.

A shiny Nickel

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-05-28T21:24:00-05:00

Some friends got us in to see Nickel Creek at private Bethel College show this past Saturday night (5/20/06). And yes, we did feel like some of the oldest folks in the joint. That notwithstanding, it was well worth the pittance we spent for the tickets. Huge thanks to Chris & Ro! This show was downright amazing. (Photo credit: Nickel Creek web site/Adam Brimer) Aside from NC’s always fantastic original music, the cover tunes stole the show: From the uproarious rendition of Randy Newman’s “Short People” (Sara and Sean Watkins are short indeed), to Radiohead’s “Nice Dream,” to an over the top version of Britanny Spears’ “Toxic” complete with a computer-generated drum solo. NC just kept it coming with extended jams of their signature tunes—for more than two solid hours. Sara kept shredding her bow and belting out her vox. And watching Chris Thile throw down on mandolin was a moment of ecstasy for this fan of stringed instruments. Gifted is an understatement of the highest order. Oh yes, and there was even tap dancing involved. They concluded with a six song encore set that included a round of solo tunes for each one of them, with Sara doing Tom Waits’ “Pony,” Sean doing one of his own tunes, and Chris doing a Bach fugue (think Nigel Tufnel sans the foot-played guitar). I’m now on an earnest hunt to find them on DVD—nothing in video was for sale at the show. It was a great way to kick off the 2006 summer music season. The bar is set pretty high, but I’m sure my next live music binge at C-stone won’t disappoint.

Rediscovering the lost art of evangelism episode 6

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-05-18T22:40:00-05:00

This is part 6 of a series of posts that interact with Guy Kawasaki's 10 principles of "evangelism." ...If a person cannot give a demo that quickens the pulse of everyone in the audience, he should stay in sales or in marketing." ...Merely giving a demonstration, in the case of evangelizing the Gospel, is more akin to doing and saying the right things to show what a Christian is like, and what a Christian does outwardly.... As one gets to know us more, who we are on the inside eventually becomes more important that the motions we are going through. ...My placement in this program was due to my landing in the advanced placement British literature course—part of the class was being a tutor. It was a gig I didn’t mind because the rest of my class was mostly made up of women. Yet, a grammarian and a tutor was definitely not “who I was” on the inside. I would feebly help students edit their writing assignments, and then proceed to make the same mistakes in my own writing later on. One read through this blog will testify that this remains true of me today. (A reader recently brought my attention to an egregious error on one of my pages that must have been there for months.) I was passably successful pretending to be a tutor since I had an arsenal of quick reference books at my disposal (the Cliff Notes of grammar), and was really good at seeing errors in someone else’s work. ...I may be doing evangelism by having all the resources at my disposal and by judging the life of the one I am evangelizing. Therefore, I can give a demo of the Christian life by acting accordingly. But being a follower of Jesus—being the personal demonstration of that reality—is something more. 2 Co 5:17-20 TNIV “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.... We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.” Being the demo is a matter of a true inward transformation—with the “new creation” unconcealed. 2 Co 3:17-18 TNIV “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” I think this demarcation of doing and being is missed in the way many people view The Church’s role in evangelism. For The Church, giving a demo today often means inordinately striving to create an experience of God or The Gospel, whereas being the demo unveils the transformative image of the Lord upon His Bride in everything she does.... What’s more, I would argue that the tactical aspects of evangelism will take care of themselves if we operate out of an unveiled state of “being” continually transformed into His image—living “as though God were making his appeal through us.” I will never truly be a grammar tutor, although I continue to pose as one from time to time. I am most assuredly a new creation in Christ, and I need to trust and live in this reality more and more often—thereby becoming the best possible demonstration. I realize this is all horribly abstract, begging the question, “how do we live in such a way?” May I recommend TrueFaced, by Bill Thrall, John Lynch, and Bruce McNicol as a fine exposition of a 2 Co 3:17-18 reality.

Learning to dance

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-05-12T21:48:00-05:00

He has a different take on it, which you can look at here.... However, in the context of what many evangelical mega-aspiring churches are doing with their Sunday services, I also find this quote to be an extremely current and appropriate critique. (Funny how you can sometimes accept the truth of two seemingly competing perspectives on the same thing.) In this post I’m focusing more on Lewis’ perspective on the drive to create novelty and entertainment within the church services, rather than Pagitt’s angle on experimental approaches to how the community interacts with God and each other. ...They go to use the service, or, if you prefer, to enact it. Every service is a structure of acts and words through which we receive a sacrament, or repent, or supplicate, or adore. And it enables us to do these things best--if you like, it works best--when, through long familiarity, we don't have to think about it. As long as you notice, and have to count the steps, you are not yet dancing but only learning to dance.... Good reading becomes possible when you need not consciously think about eyes, or light, or print, or spelling. The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been only on God.... It fixes our attention on the service itself; and thinking about worship is a different thing from worshipping.... Novelty may fix our attention not even on the service but on the celebrant [worship leader].... There is really some excuse for the man who said, ‘I wish they’d remember that the charge to Peter was ‘Feed my sheep,’ not ‘Try experiments on my rats,’ or even, ‘Teach my performing dog new tricks.’” I’ve posted about the “feeding my sheep” fixation of some believers—a red herring for many who are shopping for a church (asking "where can I get fed solid food," etc.). For the record, I do think this quote goes overboard in terms of making the service far too staid.... But what I think we need to take from him today is the notion that a worship service is not some open invitation for creative evangelism techniques—at least not at the expense of other important elements. Again last week I saw the phrase, “…we strive to craft worship experiences…” in a church’s communication materials referring to their worship services. ...The worship service should not be a spectacle, but that is where many evangelical churches have arrived. And spectators are what many of them now have sitting in the pews. ...And baby boomers, who grew up under the cool blue glow of cathode ray tubes, now direct the lion share of evangelical Christian resources in the American church. They have largely succeeded in merging the appeal of TV and nightclub entertainment with the Sunday service event, but at what cost? If Marshall McLuhan is to be believed, it has been largely at the expense of the message. It is The Gospel within an entertainment context, rather than the context of the community.

Appledobe

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-05-07T08:38:00-05:00

Then, check out Cringley’s column this past week for a possible peek at Apple’s applications strategy. Together with last week’s prognostication, a potential seismic shift is building underneath the PC software world.

The best of all possible worlds

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-05-07T08:17:00-05:00

Holy podcasts, Batman!

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-05-06T09:39:00-05:00

Some kind of wonderful

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-05-05T20:55:00-05:00

Dowsing the flame

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-05-04T20:51:00-05:00

What happened to April?

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-05-02T21:51:00-05:00

I have been remiss in posting. Most of this has been due to about two weeks of 12 hour days. I have some some posts drafted. Just need to get them out there. For those that think I've met some cruel fate, the news about my death has been greatly exaggerated. Look for more posts in May. Happy May day one day late.

Rediscovering the lost art of evangelism episode 5

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-04-19T21:20:00-05:00

This is part 5 of a series of posts that interact with Guy Kawasaki's 10 principles of "evangelism." ...Try our product, take it home, download it, and then decide if it’s right for you.” ...I’m going to focus on one aspect of this principle here because I plan to touch on the rest of it in the next two episodes (those two principles seem highly related to each other and to this one). I don’t want this nugget of insight to get lost in the shuffle. ...I don’t know how often I’ve discerned the subtle ways in which we marginalize the intelligence of the lost—in my own language, in sermons, in Christian media, web posts, or even cheesy Christian radio morning show DJs. There can be a smug judgmentalism that creeps into our discourse. And when you listen to it with the ears of an outsider (and perhaps the ears of Jesus), it can be down right offensive. Yet, we Christians can’t even agree on the details of the Gospel truth ourselves (unless you think some 33,000-plus U.S. denominations divided over theological lines something The Bride of Christ can be proud of). Let me state the obvious: Faith does not signify superior intelligence, any more than superior intelligence produces faith. ...Yes, it’s hard to see why this isn’t obvious to everyone. From personal experience, it can be a tad bit frustrating to see people who are undoubtedly smarter than I am reject this truth. ...Are we worried that moving up the ladder of intelligence will produce the same result with us? I think for some, this is an underlying fear. All of our posturing about the greater truth we’ve found amounts to nothing more than a defense mechanism for our self esteem and transforms our walk of faith into the crutch so many outsiders judge us by. ...How this insecurity makes us act—what it makes us say, likewise, is not of His Kingdom. I John 4:17-18 TNIV “This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.... The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” While I had this passage in my mind while writing this post, I didn’t remember what preceded it in this chapter until I looked it up. The writer spends the earlier portion discussing how to respond to those that reject Christ, or distort the truth—and what to conclude by it. It’s rather telling that he then moves on to talk about loving without fear. ...In our striving to ascribe worth to others (see prior posts), let us include a generous assumption of human, God-given intelligence as an act of love. This becomes a kind of golden rule of evangelism—which really should be modus operandi for The Church in all of its dialogue with the world. You may even want to apply the aphorism my mother told me once in an effort to keep me from becoming too smug when I excelled at something in school: “Just remember, no matter how high your grades are, there’s always someone smarter.” (This was always preceded by a generous amount of praise and encouragement, of course.) ...Thomas Aquinas prayed, “Lord, in my zeal for the love of truth, let me not forget the truth about love.”

Why Windows will run better on a Mac

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-04-17T21:35:00-05:00

Apple has received a boatload of media attention since releasing Boot Camp Beta, in what can only be seen now as a stroke of marketing genius in the wake of the Microsoft push back of Window’s Vista. Perhaps the best analysis of this I’ve found thus far is from Daring Fireball. Most PC pundits are expecting support for Boot Camp to be integrated into Mac OS X 10.5 harnessing Intel’s on-chip virtualization capabilities which will allow simultaneous running of Mac OS X, Windows, Linux and Unix varieties—with a shared clipboard between systems. That’s just gnarly. But that’s not the half of it. PBS columnist Robert X. Cringley has a fascinating take on it in his latest column. He posits that Macs provide perhaps the best Windows experience sheerly by making it run insulated within the protection of OS X (and making a clean erase and reinstall of Windows an easy process--something MS suggests should be done often, but is too painful for most people to contemplate). I’m not sure if I buy all of it, but it sure makes you think. When looked back on in a few years, this will either be seen as a non event, or the defining moment of Apple’s business strategy to topple the competition in spite of the OS they offer. Time will tell all. Michael Dell must be worried.

Blogging in the clouds

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-04-17T21:31:00-05:00

I’ve added another experimental feature to this site for the right sidebar, something I’ve been wanting to add for a while: a Tag Cloud (see the linked wikipedia entry for the definition). This one is provided by ZoomClouds, and is based on my Blog’s RSS feed. When you visit, you can check it out to see Tags associated with my most recent posts. More yummy RSS goodness. Now I’m looking for a way to list my latest comments in the sidebar.

Rediscovering the lost art of evangelism episode 4

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-04-05T18:49:00-05:00

This is part 4 of a series of posts that interact with Guy Kawasaki's 10 principles of "evangelism." ...No matter how revolutionary your product, don't describe it using lofty, flowery terms like “revolutionary,” “paradigm shifting,” and “curve jumping.” Macintosh wasn't positioned as the third paradigm in personal computing; instead, it increased the productivity and creativity of one person with one computer. ...I don’t know if I’m just more sensitive to it or what, but there seems to be a lot of marketing hype being used in The Church today. You see it the most in the advertisements that fill the pages of Christian magazines (which seem to be growing in number every day). Ads for ministry/evangelism tours (a showcase of several different preachers or teachers), various conferences (youth, worship, marriage, women, men, etc.) and other products in the Christian market. Without passing judgment on specific ministries (or businesses), what they all seem to have in common is an extraordinary amount of marketing hype—the kind of lofty, inspiring language described above. ...They want to get their message out—and they want to cut through the clutter to get people to attend their outreach events. Attendance makes the endeavor both profitable and means that “people” are being reached with the message (which, at face value, would be the Gospel). But what if all that hype, while successful in corralling the sheep that have already been tagged as part of the flock, was actually an inhibition to others that really need to hear this message? Now, before I go too far here, I’m willing to grant that there are new converts reached by many of these ministries—and that some hype has its place. What I’m talking about is evangelism, and the process by which you either attract people, or maybe put them off, or confuse them about the Gospel altogether. If we take Kawasaki seriously, and consider his experience in “converting” people to become deeply loyal customers, then I think this particular principle has something important to tell us: Effective evangelism also is about people’s pain. All the hype and marketing spin in the world can’t connect with this core reality. What Kawasaki is saying is that people don’t necessarily look to buy into the grand and glorious messages of The Church or religion.... And if we are to connect them with the saving message of the Gospel, we need to understand this—and seek to understand their pain. ...While there were times Jesus was not all that easy to understand, I would never consider his words to be filled with hype.... His message of the Kingdom and his acts of compassion were about healing and deliverance—the “signs” of the Kingdom. ...We are charged with advancing this Kingdom of healing and light against the kingdom of pain and darkness. So instead of spending so much effort on how to hype the message in an advert for maximum marketing impact, perhaps we should spend the bulk of our energy on getting to know people’s pain—and why the Good News of this advancing Kingdom is the Rx they are looking for. Don’t interpret this to mean that we can promise people a pain free life in this war-torn world. But we have the ultimate answer—and this we can promise, through flickerings of the Kingdom life on earth today, to its final and culminating establishment over all the earth tomorrow. ...God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.... There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Just browsing

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-04-05T18:42:00-05:00

Hell freezes over…again

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-04-05T17:42:00-05:00

You may recall a few short years ago when Apple released iTunes for Windows—an announcement Steve Jobs heralded by saying, “Hell freezes over.” And while the tantalizing possibility of running Windows XP on a Macintosh began to pick up considerable momentum when Apple moved to Intel chips, I guess I never thought I’d see this day. At least not this quickly. But it has happened. And it’s for real. This is no April fool’s. Macs on Intel can now download new Boot Camp software from Apple, and run Windows XP right on the Mac at native speed (bye, bye Virtual PC).

The unpopular politics of the Kingdom

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-04-01T12:56:00-06:00

Greg Boyd has finally put his provocative “Cross and the Sword” sermon series in book form with the upcoming Zondervan release of The Myth of a Christian Nation.

Missional impossible

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-03-23T18:29:00-06:00

A shameless plug for the Cinecast Podcast

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-03-23T18:25:00-06:00

Windows Vista merely broken glass

woldcreative@mac.com — 2006-03-23T18:19:00-06:00

The release of MS Windows Vista to consumers has now been pushed back to January, 2007, much to the dismay of the computing world. Even for Microsoft, this is a pretty amazing setback. They will completely miss selling Vista to consumers for the Fall 2006 back-to-school season and the holiday season. Here’s is a compilation of tech reporters reacting to the news, provided by MDN. Even better, check out Daniel Lyons in Forbes.com. I can’t make this stuff up. Windows XP was released in October of 2001. More than half a decade later, a serious upgrade will finally be delivered. Even if you count service pack updates, there were only two released (SP1 and SP2) in that time—and those added no real new consumer-level functionality. Contrast that with the release of Mac OS X in 2000, and the subsequent release of four full scale versions since then, each one adding new features and refinements (like zero-config. networking, iChat AV, Expose, iLife apps, Spotlight and Widgets, to name a handful over the course of six years). My prediction is that Apples Mac OS X v10.5 “Leopard” will pounce before Vista is truly released. Leopard’s release is planned for early 2007 as well. What should have been a foregone conclusion (Vista releasing in 2006) is now much more interesting to keep an eye on. Apple has yet another golden opportunity to gain back some market share.