Feeling sick, Mike?
So I went to see Contagion last night with a friend. It scared him pretty good because apparently, he’s a little funny about germs and such. After the movie, he claimed he had a sore throat…
I thought he was joking when he said he was going to throw me under the bus on his daily noon news show. He wasn’t.
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A la carte: Preachers leaving, more beer, divorce & remarriage
Preachers leaving lately
Ed Stetzer wrote an article Should “Broader Interests” Preclude Preaching? It’s in response to Rob Bell’s announced departure from his Mars Hill Church. Bell started the church about 12 years ago and was the center of controversy this year with his book Love Wins which denies the biblical teaching on hell, seeking to replace it with a “God’s much nicer than that” theology.
But Bell isn’t the only one who has left his church recently for, well, no church. The list includes Francis Chan, N.T. Wright and Jim Belcher. While others have landed within the membership of a local church, other prominent pastors have simply opted out and pursued what looks like careers as authors, speakers and such. This has some calling “foul” (whether from theology or jealousy, I’m unsure).
The siren call is tantalizing. What would you do if you knew you could *easily* sustain your family as an author or speaker and not have to deal with the cyclical deep valleys and high peaks of church ministry?
More Beer
Image from Relevant Magazine
I wrote on John MacArthur’s post Beer, Bohemianism and True Christianity. Since then there’s been an outcry against his position. Most write in defense of drinking. Others have agreed wholeheartedly. One article in Relevant magazine has been forwarded to me several times. It’s entitled The Pleasures and Perils of Fermentation.
As I was reading it, I noted one paragraph:
Whether we abstain for our whole life or just in certain contexts, there is good news for us. We know the Jesus who turned water into wine. Jesus is the life of the party. He does not require wine to get a party going. He can work with anything. He does work with anything, or anyone. He will make us effervescent, bubbling over with life, a sign of the best news for the world, without a bit of fermentation required.
I love this portrayal of Jesus as LIFE. He is all that. “He can work with anything.” I affirm that, and I love the paragraph. Overall, the article is, well, bubbly. It’s well-written. And while it does inspire us about the person of Jesus, let’s not get overly intoxicated by the points it doesn’t make. As much as it paints a beautiful picture of a loving. partying Jesus, it doesn’t balance that portrayal with a Jesus that was crucified for our sin.
In short, the article just doesn’t contain the scriptural substance to back up its flow.
Truth and lies
There’s a funny series of background images for your phone here. Here’s one of my favorites:
Divorce & Remarriage
Recently I preached on the topic of divorce (podcast here). We’ve been in a study of the gospel of Luke since January 2010, and as much as it would have been more comfortable to avoid Luke 16:18, it wouldn’t have been more faithful or helpful. As I read and researched, Bethlehem Baptist Church’s position paper was one of the most balanced, gracious treatments of how a local church should minister to those in divorce and remarriage. Its loving tone and emphasis is a great model for others.
One of the reasons it’s significant is that BBC’s pastor John Piper has stronger convictions on the issue than other leaders in his church (glance at his own position paper here). I love it when leaders can come together and write a gracious, moderating piece of excellent theology.
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Facebookie
In Facebook… sigh and bye, I shared with you my rationale for reducing my Facebook account from a busy stream to a business card. Here are some thoughts I’ve had about how Facebook could have managed its transitions better:
- Give users options. Rather than forcing wholescale, confusing change on us all, why not roll out the features as clickable account options? Go into your user account and click “Timeline” or “Subscriptions.” Instead, these and other changes were shoved down our already full throats.
- Create user levels. Some of us just use Facebook for networking. Others use it for communicating. Others are more regular with status updates than a diet of bran and Exlax could create. Regardless, there are different kinds of users. Why not offer user levels in which some of the options above are possible?
- Paid services. Some of the things being rolled out right now are unwanted by a significant segment of Facebook. Others are reacting with great enthusiasm. So much enthusiasm, in fact, that I believe many would pay a small fee for the features. It’s been a long-held speculation that Facebook might charge in the future. This would be a painless way for Facebook to introduce a Premium fee structure.
- Respect our privacy. This has been a constant offense, Facebook. Fool us once, shame on us. Fool us… four times and counting, and shame on Facebook. Every new feature rollout puts our identities, information, images and ideas on the sacrificial altar of Facebook’s wanton pursuit of digital dominion.
- Ask us. I know it’s crazy, but we might respond in ways that you don’t like. If we do, don’t pretend that your product is like making a kid eat green beans. You’re not “good for us.”
- A choice to upgrade. Think software. I still use Macromedia’s Freehand instead of Adobe Illustrator, even though Freehand is defunct. (Adobe bought out Macromedia and then killed Freehand.) Why? Because I feel like it’s superior to what Illustrator offers for why I use it. I also knowFreehand, well.In addition, I enjoy the option of not upgrading at times – whether because I don’t want to spend the money, or because a new iteration of the software is actually worse than the previous version. This actually happened when Apple released iMovie 2008 in its iLife ’08 suite. It was a major rewrite of the popular video production software, but… everyone hated it. Many Mac users deleted it, and soon Apple provided the prior version for download on its site.
- Say you’re sorry. Coca Cola introduced “New Coke” in 1985, and it flopped. Rather quickly (77 days), the company announced the return of the original formula in “Coke Classic.” They acknowledged their mistake. And there’s interesting things to be learned from that fiasco/conspiracy.
Consider these observations from the Wikipedia article about the New Coke episode:
Coke spent a considerable amount of time trying to figure out where it had made a mistake, ultimately concluding that it had underestimated the public impact of the portion of the customer base that would be alienated by the switch.
In the end, Coke wound up with a larger market share than it had when it introduced New Coke. Some speculated that Coke executives knew all along that the fervor was actually good for sales.
Allowing itself to be portrayed as a somewhat clueless large corporation forced to back off a big change by overwhelming public pressure flattered customers.
These people felt like Coke had listened to them. In fact, it did. Coke CEO Donald Keough went on TV to say:
Once we realized that we had made a mistake, I went on television and simply said that we don’t own this brand, you do. You’ve made it clear that you want the original formula back, and you’re getting it back. (Source)
Finally
A little humility goes a long way. Forbes reported this month that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg edged out Google cofounders Sergey Brin and Larry Page as the 14th richest person in America. His estimated worth? $17.5 billion dollars.
Am I appreciative that Facebook is a free service? Yes. But it’s free to me only in our checkbooks. We had no idea how much we’re worth, did we? Mark did, and he’s making a killing off our faces, places, images and ideas.
Maybe with the new changes, the site should be renamed Facebookie.
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Facebook… sigh and bye
Last May, Christian author and head of Lifeway Research Ed Stetzer deleted his personal Facebook account. (Read his entry here.) It was in response to Facebook’s seemingly intentional thumbed-nose to its users’ desires for privacy. I was also frustrated with Facebook’s haughty attitude, but I thought, “I really can’t complain. It’s a free service.”
Also in May 2010, when Stetzer wrote his rant, he linked an article Facebook’s Gone Rogue; It’s Time for an Open Alternative by Ryan Singel of Wired.com. Reading that article today makes me feel like Ryan is a prophet.
This week, Facebook rolled out a ton of changes and probably what they deem as improvements. Some are helpful; most are radically intrusive; and others are outright copies of new-kid-on-the-social-media-block Google+. The net is buzzing with opinions. I’m one of those that literally hates the new changes and the directions Facebook has announced that it’s heading in.
Yes, I’m complaining today – with thousands of others. Here’s a sampling of articles today found after Googling “Facebook changes.”
- Changes creeping out some customers
- 7 drastic Facebook changes you will probably hate
- Does Facebook really care about you?
Ultimately, they don’t trust Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg and are suspicious of his every move. By contrast, Apple founder Steve Jobs took away his customers’ hard drives, Flash movies, keyboards and Firewire ports — and yet consumers put up with the inconvenience and discomfort every step of the way because they believed that Steve knew best, and trusted that he was taking them somewhere better.
Apple users pay handsomely for the privilege of putting themselves in the company’s hands. Facebook does not enjoy this same level of trust with its nonpaying subscribers.
That’s because on Facebook we’re not the customers. We are the product.
I didn’t delete my Facebook account last year. I doubt that I will delete it in 2011. However, the way I use Facebook changes today. I will no longer feed the machine. I will use it.
Essentially, this means that I’ll be systematically deleting material from my Facebook account, and that what I post there will esssentially result in an online business card residing on Facebook for people that need to know how to contact me.
Facebook is already a distraction. Yet, Facebook is also very helpful for communicating with a generation of social media users that disdain or don’t return email. I will continue to use Facebook for communication purposes, but I will encourage those who want to dialogue to use email.
I simply don’t want Facebook archiving my life. Rushkoff hit the nail on the head with me. I find it difficult to trust Mark Zuckerburg. He makes me nervous. He has led Facebook to become a monolithic, amoral, juggernaut.
I’ll be retreating to my blog and websites that I control. My social media preference will continue to be focused on Twitter and I’ll begin trying Google+ on for size.
When Stetzer left Facebook last year, I thought it was a bad decision to simply bail. There were an estimated 500 million users on Facebook last May. Today, Facebook claims 800 million users! That’s a lot of people that one can influence positively… or negatively. As much as I hate the directions Facebook is heading (and it may be purely preferential), I am not willing to delete my account or say goodbye to the network of friendships that I’ve cultivated, initiated and renewed there. I am grateful for Facebook 1.0 – 2.0, after all.
However, I keep having this nagging tech nightmare that we’ll wake up in 1984. In Orwell’s futuristic cautionary tale, the world is manipulated by Big Brother who accomplishes constant citizen surveillance, inflicts mind control and subordinates the populace for the supposed greater good.
My fear is that Facebook indeed wants to rule our minds. Unlike.
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Will the missional church fail?
Mike Breen, one of the leaders of 3DM, has a compelling article titled Why the Missional Movement Will Fail. In it, Breen explains that the reason is that emphasizes doing over being, mission over discipleship.
I don’t know if it’s a fair evaluation. To level the charge that churches with the label of missional do not embrace discipleship is arbitrary. I know of traditional, contemporary, liturgical, emergent and more churches that do not prize the making of disciples. And of course, there are churches in all those categories that do.
However, I totally agree with Breen’s ultimate assessment that a church that misses the mark on making disciples can’t claim to be on mission with Jesus.
The missional movement will fail because, by-and-large, we are having a discussion about mission devoid of discipleship. Unless we start having more discussion about discipleship and how we make missionaries out of disciples, this movement will stall and fade. Any discussion about mission must begin with discipleship.
What are your thoughts?
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The wrapping pastor
After attending the the Sending Church conference near Nashville, I found this upon my return to Blacksburg:
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Wrong worship
Jeremy Hart called my attention to this video. It’s a humorous look at self-centered worship – at least at first. By the end of the video, I was grimacing, because I fear that too often my own worship is remarkably similar. Thoughts?
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Favorite professor: Dr. Bill Downs
Yesterday we were supposed to write about our favorite professor in this year’s OBU BlogAbout. In last year’s post called “Ode to OBU,” I said:
After my freshman year, I changed my major from a pre-med focus to communications and got cussed out for doing so by one of my science professors. I still remember the reception I received from Dr. Downs in the communications department that week. With a twinkle in his eye and what looked like a shrunken head on his desk, he informed me that his department was going to be demand my very best work (typo left in intentionally). He was and remains one of my very favorite professors of all time. If he told me to jump today, I would nod and ask “how high†without hesitation.
It was in the communications department during my sophomore year that Mitch and I developed a deep friendship. Mitch was annointed editor-to-be of the Ouachitonian yearbook, and when the department purchased a bunch of Macintosh computers, we were challenged to produce a “camera-ready†yearbook. As we sat down behind MacPluses with their little monochrome screens, it was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with Apple products.
Dr. Bill Downs has always been one of my heroes. I don’t know if that was because he looks like Johnny Carson or not. He has a way of insulting you and inspiring you all at the same time. I remember him telling me about one of my humor columns, “This is one of the most creative poorly written pieces I’ve ever read.” I remember I said, “Thanks!” with great eagerness before realizing his compliment’s implications.
Dr. Downs reigned over the communications department with regal wit and exacting demands for excellence. He didn’t just challenge me to write better or to think deeper, but he led me into a love affair with creativity. His classes were both militant and picturesque. I never wanted to miss one. With a wry grin that would quickly transmogrify into a studied frown, Dr. Downs would verbally rip a student’s paper to shreds in front of an entire class. No one felt sorry for the poor soul because we all knew our pitiful attempt would be the next under fire. The strange thing was that even after enduring the magnifying glass of a Downsian diatribe, every student would leave emboldened toward excellence rather than downtrodden.
One of the things I loved about OBU was the amount of laughter in our classrooms. Such spontaneous jocularity revealed genuine relationships between students and professors. And no prof could laugh better than Dr. Downs. He would tilt his head back, take a deep breath, and well, just guffaw. He dropped witticisms and zingers with complete devastation, but he graciously received all of our sophomoric attempts at sarcastic retribution.
One such day still shines in my memory. It was Nita Kay Dalrymple’s honor to leave Dr. Downs speechless. He had been lecturing with gusto, striding back and forth in front of the class waving his pen like a light saber, when she raised her hand for a question.
He ignored her for several moments, lost in grand eloquence, until Nita Kay interrupted with her twangy drawl, “Doctur Dah-owns!” (she easily transformed one syllable words into two)
He was quite perturbed at the distraction, which only made the exchange more memorable.
“What, Nita Kay?!” he roared.
“I just wanted to tell you that your barn door is wide open,” she stated without batting an eye. It was delivered perfectly.
The silence that followed was delicious. Each of our pea-brains processed the import of her statement in milliseconds. The eruption of laughter was simultaneous with the rush of blood to Dr. Downs’ cheeks. He stood there for what seemed several minutes without response. And without a word, he turned and strode from the class, presumably to close his barn door.
After several minutes had passed, I was sent as an emissary to discover if he’d left for good, only to meet him striding purposely back towards our classroom from the direction of the bathroom. With a grin, he barked, “Noble, get back in there!”
I grinned back, and dutifully returned to my desk.
Upon his return, he claimed his pen off the desk and picked up where he’d left off in his lecture.
Mitch Bettis and I started a business of graphic design during our junior years, and I have always been grateful for Dr. Downs’ support and encouragement during that time. He had to have been skeptical of how our entrepreneurial investment would impact our commitment to our studies and to the department’s publications (Mitch was yearbook editor). His demand for our best never let up, and his shadow of expected excellence hovered over our business as well. I worked diligently and tirelessly, in part, because I simply could not let him down.
In our infrequent encounters over the years, he has always been full of gracious encouragement and praise. Dr. Downs has a zest for life that is contagious. I love the man dearly. It was a great privilege for me to be present at his retirement dinner in May of 2007.
This blog is in part a tribute to the love for writing that he fanned into flame in my life. To a teacher that has inspired me to go further than I could ever have imagined, I echo the students of John Keating in the immortal scene in the 1989 delight Dead Poets’ Society:
“Oh Captain, my Captain!”
And Dr. Downs, to keep your ego in place, please remember to keep your barn door closed.
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Football throwdown
After the basketball showdown, Sam and I also went head to head throwing footballs at a deer target (nice touch of Blacksburg and Arkansas in one game). Here’s the results…
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Basketball showdown
Sam and I went out and played basketball for a while Saturday afternoon, and after several games of 21 and horse, we finally resorted to trick shots. We gave each other 5 attempts each. Here are the results…
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About
Notes from the Trail
The Personal Blog of Jeff Noble
Info: From the misty hills of Virginia, "Notes from the Trail" seeks to encourage you on your journey. Written by a graphic designer-pastor, this blog is a blend of humor, insight, and faith discovery.
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RT @churchplant123: If you want to be a successful new church planter, shave your head. It's the Samson principle. [journeyguy]
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For a brief second, I had just over 500 followers. After blocking spammers and businesses, I'm back under. Do you filter your followers? [journeyguy]
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New blog post: Review: Sticky Teams: Larry Osborne is pastor of North Coast Church, a megachurch, by anyone’s de... http://t.co/KKL4zZFs [journeyguy]
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A blog from the past: "The need for church planting" http://t.co/iwlT5jOh [journeyguy]
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RT @funnyoneliners: I keep a well-stocked pantry in case friends drop by. I could hide in there for days. [journeyguy]
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