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Thoughts on Facebook…

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I’ve had people nagging me for some time to join Facebook. For me personally, it is time consuming enough simply to get posts on a blog and I find my blog helpful in helping me catalog helpful things I’ve found online. It also makes it easy to recommend a site to someone to have them visit my site, where I’ve linked to it.

Facebook is more than these things, though. A recent report said the average user of Facebook spends 3 days messing with it over the course of a year. Couple this with a recent report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, which says that their can be some positives in new media.

Here’s the rub for me: the Bible commends the local church as the community in which life is to function. People will, for instance, get on Facebook and communicate for everyone what their struggles are or what’s happening in their lives, but not even communicate those things in a small group or with the Elders or people in the local church (unless those people are “friends on Facebook”). I don’t think this should be. Maybe I need to get on Facebook and become friends with all the people in the church that are on it (so I can effectively shepherd). I don’t know. It just seems to be a disconnect. Sure Paul wrote letters to communicate with churches and we do have amazing gifts in technology. But there is still something unique about practicing the one anothers with, well, one another. How can these be balanced?

Elder’s Meeting Help

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Jim Elliff writes an excellent post on Elder’s Meeting That Do Something. His tips:
1. Plan for meeting together more often and for a longer period of time.
2. Challenge each other spiritually.
3. Discuss the state of the flock.
4. Have an agenda.
5. Actually pray for individuals and issues being faced.
6. Study together toward a unified position on difficult issues.
7. Make these meetings non-optional.

Are You Rocking Or Rowing the Boat?

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From Ed Stetzer:

In church life, the people that are rocking the boat are hardly ever the ones rowing it.

I think this has generally been my experience, although we can even get insight and learn from those who are doing the rocking. A godly view of Biblical criticism is a must for church life.

Recap – Will of God

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Today’s sermon from Colossians 1:10 entitled “Walking in the Will of God” is up and online. Continuing the thought he began in 1:9, Paul elaborates and unpacks what walking in God’s will looks like. This morning, specifically, the characteristics of those walking in God’s will are:
1) They live to please the Lord
2) They are blossoming in good deeds
3) They are growing in their knowledge of God

I thought these principles can be applied in many ways…

These are great things to pray for another believer.
They are great characteristics to pursue.
We can have confidence that, as we practice them, we are “walking in God’s will.”

Any thoughts?

Help For Young Families…

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I also found this post by Zach Nielsen helpful…

He’s asked by a young married guy with kids how he organizes his life.
The summary:

1. As you do, I have a rockstar, off the chart, amazing wife.

2. We don’t watch much T.V.

3. We are very intentional about doing things WITH the kids.

4. One of the things we have learned from another family is the idea of “special dates” with the kids individually.

5. Your stage is really hard. Having a toddler and a new baby is very physically demanding.

6. As our kids get older, I’m sure we’ll limit their activities.

7. In the end, I think you just sort of get used to the chaos.

8. There certainly are times when we feel like we are losing it.

9. I think your feelings of “insanity” are somewhat relative (which isn’t to dismiss them).

Read the entire post for elaboration.

Must Work for Pastors

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I recently was skimming through an old book on pastoral ministry that alluded to an article by Tim Keller and David Powlison entitled “The Pastor’s Self-Evaluation Questionnaire“. One of my peeves about typical pastors (and a frustrating thing for myself) is that there aren’t too many people who open themselves up for, let’s call it, constructive criticism. Sure we have critics, but often they want to lob a complaint and not help you be a better pastor down the road. The frustrating thing for myself is that people are almost too kind. I need feedback to see my weaknesses clearly. The Bible has pretty tall standards for ministers. Far too many conduct ministry as if they are in a different social strata than the people to whom they have been called. I worked through this tool yesterday and thought it to be a very helpful exercise. We are going to discuss it at next Elder’s Meeting. Also, I plan to work through it again, this time not allowing my mind to wonder about who I know that these things apply to and focus more on myself. Enjoy.