2012

social media

Six ways to set a positive blog tone

There is something common about negativity in social media platforms. No matter if the topic is politics, playoffs, or puppies people can default to negative comments as a defense.

I had an epiphany regarding my Albany Times Union blog and the tone of negativity in the comment section. In the interest of freedom, openness, and free speech I had unknowingly allowed my blog to become a swamp of negativity. I could receive anywhere between 30-100 comments on a post. I allowed just about any comment through my standard comment moderation process, as long as it wasn’t threatening or contained foul language.

The tone of the comments kept coming back to negative personal hang ups with other people. I was providing a platform for people to carry out their personal gripes. I realized that people can do that type of online attack anywhere: Twitter, Facebook, or even YouTube. Unfortunately, the same 4-6 people bickered, constantly. Other people stopped commenting on my blog because a few bad apples were ruining the bunch. Comments constantly got off topic. I had to change things.

Blogging is a challenge and maintaining your cool is key. By following a few simple tips, you can keep readers coming back and generate more interaction:
Continue Reading…

anger, Leadership

The day I was cursed at in church

In ministry, one day is always different from the next. Sometimes, there are wonderful and rewarding experiences. Other times, there are difficult experiences.

I’ll never forget the day I was cursed at in church. Samuel L. Jackson style.

I was in my office working on the bulletin for the upcoming Sunday worship service. My office manager was not in so I was alone on the first floor of the church. I heard a commotion outside my office. I heard someone yelling at the top of their lungs. I couldn’t make out what they were saying. I stood up to get a better look through my window to the common area outside of our church offices. There I saw a women who started into a profanity laced speech:

“What the f**k is going on? Who’s in charge here? Someone has to help me with this sh*t”

Ignoring her cursing, I immediately greeted her, told her I was the pastor, and ask how I could be of assistance.

“How you going to fking going to solve my problem. You don’t fking understand!” She said. And directed her anger, misplaced as it was, at me. I was floored. I never met this woman and had no clue what was going on to produce such craziness.

Leadership

Replacement referees in the church

“Oh my gosh! Did you see that play? Green Bay should have won the game!”

Just about everyone was shocked watching the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks game finish on Monday night.

The reactions were swift and critical. Angry fans believe the replacement NFL referees got the final play wrong. For weeks now, sports writers and fans alike have lamented the replacement referees and their seemingly obtuse penalty calling… or lack there of. It seems these replacement refs don’t get the job done. Or do they?

http://youtu.be/n5L7O3PWICs

There certainly has been a lot of hyper criticism revolving around these refs from day one. Since the strike of the regular NFL refs, the replacement referees have been placed under a microscope. Every call, play, or touchdown has been meticulously examined, digested, and judged in the court of public opinion. Referees blow calls all the time, but we usually forget about those plays. Not for replacement referees. We’ll remember those.

In reality, the standard of expectation has been set unfairly high. Many fans are waiting for these refs to make a mistake. And when they do, the fans and sport writers are like a pack of wolves ready to devour them with criticism. Truly, most fans do not lie in wait for a ref to make a mistake, but that’s what America’s football watchers have been doing.

Jesus

Round up of Jesus’ wife controversy comments

Here’s a round up of thoughts on the scrap of pyprus that refered to Jesus’ wife:

Stephen Prothero, Boston University religion scholar and author, CNN Belief Blog:

What we do know is that we live in a country besotted with Jesus and in an age obsessed with marriage and sexuality and the body, which is why this tiny papyrus is making such big waves. As for me, I don’t much care what Jesus thought about marriage, or whether he engaged in it. I think we as a society tend to collapse religion far too readily into bedroom questions, as if Jesus came into the world to tell us with whom we should be having sex, and how. I’m more interested in what Jesus has to say about wealth and poverty, the rich and the poor. And there is plenty in the available record to read and heed, “if only we have ears to hear.”

Steven R. Harmon, professor Gardner-Webb University School of Divinity and author, Associate Baptist Press News Blog:

The celibacy of Jesus is not essential to Christology, just as Jesus’ maleness is not essential to Christology… The particularities of Jesus’ historical existence are representative of the totality of human experience, from birth through death and resurrection, even if they do not reflect the particularities of every human being’s experiences… Theologically, for Jesus to have been married would not require us to re-think historic Christological doctrine. But historically, there is not sufficient evidence to suppose that he was–even if the best interpretation of this fragment is that Jesus therein is referring to a woman named Mary as his “wife” in the usual sense of that word.

Stephen Colbert, The Daily Show, via LA Times:

mega church, megachurch, worship

Study: Megachurches can trigger false spiritual highs

“God’s love becomes … such a drug that you can’t wait to come get your next hit. … You can’t wait to get involved to get the high from God.” Reported a megachurch worshiper in a new study on the affects of spiritual highs in megachurches.

The lights, the swaying induced music, the large crowd, and that celebrity pastor preaching to you. Ahh… the spiritual high.

According to a new study, that “spiritual high” could be a result of a chemical process in the brain. The estimated 10% of American Protestants, about 6 million worshipers, who regularly attend one of 1,600 mega churches could experience this chemical process. At an annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in Denver a team of researcher found that:

The upbeat modern music, cameras that scan the audience and project smiling, dancing, singing, or crying worshippers on large screens, and an extremely charismatic leader whose sermons touch individuals on an emotional level … serve to create these strong positive emotional experiences. We see this experience of unalloyed joy over and over again in megachurches. That’s why we say it’s like a drug.

The study showed that worshipers at megachurches experience a greater release of oxytocin, thought to add to a sense of euphoria. That would lead us to believe that these types of megachurch worship experiences can trigger a false sense of a spiritual high.

Adding to this sense of spiritual high, one of the study’s researcher said,

Culture, Jesus

Did Jesus really have a wife?

What you are looking at above is a 1,600 year-old piece of papyrus that was written in Coptic. A New York Times’ article on it set off speculation on whether or not Jesus was married:

A historian of early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School has identified a scrap of papyrus that she says was written in Coptic in the fourth century and contains a phrase never seen in any piece of Scripture: “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife …’”The faded papyrus fragment is smaller than a business card, with eight lines on one side, in black ink legible under a magnifying glass. Just below the line about Jesus having a wife, the papyrus includes a second provocative clause that purportedly says, “she will be able to be my disciple.”

Hold on there all you Dan Brown fans, don’t get too excited. There’s more to the story.

The Smithsonian Magazine has a lengthy back story on the papyrus and the scholar who discovered it. I highly suggest you read it when you have the time. The papyrus looks to be authentic, meaning that it is not a modern forgery. And, the Smithsonian Channel will premiere a special documentary about the discovery on September 30 at 8 p.m. ET

So the question remains, could have Jesus been married? Sure. Is it likely he was married?

Culture, social media

Kate Middleton and social media voyeurism

The Royal Family is up in arms over Kate Middleton’s topless photos. Apparently, Prince William and Kate Middleton were enjoying some private time and Kate decided to well… lose some clothes. This is the latest embarrassing news story involving a royal and their nude pictures… Price Harry.

The problem is people eat this stuff up. They want to buy the magazine or log on to that website that has these nude pictures. Publishers pay hundreds of thousands (sometimes millions) of dollars for these photos. TMZ loves this it and it makes them money and social media sites.

Right now, the search “Kate Middleton nude pictures” has over a million searches on Google. People to go crazy over such news. Social media allows people to read, react, and share such juicy information. This pushes us deeper into what I call social media voyeurism.

What is social media voyeurism?

Church Leadership, church staff, Leadership

What really sinks organizational staff

sinking_boat_1_xlarge I once worked on a church staff with a person who was very educated and talented, but the staff member was undermining the entire organization. This staff member would never say anything publicly that would criticize anyone. The staff member had a very subtle way of letting everyone know of personal hangups. These hangups were affecting the staff and thus the performance of the organization.

Within organizations, this situation plays out the same way. One person groaning, criticizing, and vocalizing their personal problems with others. Often, these behaviors come from a place of insecurity. These behaviors will sink a church staff or organization. Everyone knows who these people are, but staff often, unknowingly, feed this person’s behavior.

There is that negative comment at lunch, a complaint that comes after a meeting, or an overly critical email that is sent around people’s backs. This person lets everyone know that they are unhappy with organizational decisions or have personal gripes with others without confronting the issue at hand. This type of underhanded behavior sinks staff and there is a name for it:

social media

Social media can change spiritual habits

Even though 89% of American households have a Bible, the number of those who read it daily is very low. A new study released by Lifeway Research revealed what may be one of the many a sources of church attendance decline. Only 19% of church goers read their Bible daily. About 18% said that they never read their Bible.

The study found that:

While the majority of churchgoers desire to honor Christ with their lives and even profess to think on biblical truths, a recent study found few actually engage in personal reading and study of the Scriptures.

The hot religious craze now is spiritual individualism, which has had a direct impact of the spiritual development of Christians. Though Christians or non-church going Christians may claim they are very spiritual, they most likely have not grown spiritual at all. You may be able to read a Bible at home, but how can you learn without guidance? The spiritual but not religious moment is focused on how individual trumps the religious community.

So how are we to draw these spiritual folk back to a religious community?

Associate Pastor, the work of the associate Pastor

Are church staff associates sidekicks?

Remember to enter to win a free copy of my new Judson Press book.

With my new book The Work of the Associate Pastor out, fellow blogger and Baptist minister, Tripp Huggins (aka AngloBaptist) posed an interesting question to me, “are associates sidekicks?”

I wonder if this imagery is helpful or even healthy?

Tripp quotes from the book, The Wicked Truth About Love:

Sidekicks have enormous hearts and are incredibly intuitive about what other people need. They live to serve and get real joy out of helping those around them be successful. They don’t need the spotlight but celebrate when the spotlight shines on their family or friends. Sidekicks need to be needed more than they need to be loved. The Wicked Truth About Love can help a Sidekick lover figure out why they fall into this pattern.

I have not read the book, but at first I had a hard time with this image of church staff associates as sidekicks.

Culture, faith, God, politics

God is not a political football

In football, you want to move the ball forward towards the end zone. You want to exploit the weaknesses of your opponent. If they carry the ball too high on their pads it is an easy target to strip the ball for a fumble. If the quarterback drops the ball it is an opportunity for the other team to gain control.

At the Democratic Convention this year, the Democrats had a fumble of their own. It was brought to the attention of delegates that the mention of “God” was omitted from the party’s platform. In a hasty attempt to correct this, the Democrats wanted to move the “God ball” forward quickly and without anyone taking note of their “mistake”. Republicans were quick to jump on this and decried the action as an attack on religion that was uncovered.

God suddenly became a political football that could be controlled, voted on, thrown, approved, and used as a political tool.

This past week I heard two people discussing these series of events. I overheard one bemoan the Democrats and their godless agenda to over throw religion in American. “Isn’t that awful! I’ll never vote for a Democrat ever again.” Another replied, “That’s why we have to get rid of this godless party of atheists! Mitt Romney is my man!”

9/11, Culture, September 11

Three responses to 9/11 grief

On September 11, 2001 I was in college. I was getting out of a Tuesday morning class when I heard people talking about an airplane crash. As I walked back to my apartment, I heard more and more information. I walked by a utility truck and heard words on the radio, “World Trade Center… airplane… Pentagon… crash.” I thought to myself, this is serious. Minutes later I watched the towers come down.

With the 11th anniversary of September 11, 2001 here, many Americans are sorting through their minds and hearts. How have I changed from 2001? What do I feel when I think of September 11, 2001? Where was I on that fateful day? Am I still sad? Where can our country go from here?

As we reflect and look back, we have three main responses to the attacks on September 11, 2001:

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