Methodist Bloggers Unite!

08 Thursday Jan 2009

Posted by Kevin M. Watson in Blogroll, links, Technology

One of the things that is great about blogging is that you can find out if an idea is terrible simply by the deafening silence that greets a post. Yesterday, when I posted about an experiment to raise awareness of the Methodist blogging presence, I wondered if this would be one of those ideas. I wasn’t even sure if I would hear a calm still voice… though I hoped if nothing else my closest friends would post the video because they felt sorry for me.

Twenty-four hours after posting the invitation to post a YouTube video promoting Reclaiming the Wesleyan Tradition: John Wesley’s Sermons for Todayhas been posted on nine blogs and the experiment has been mentioned on another.

Thanks to these bloggers for posting the video:

Hit the Back Button to Move Forward

The original post was also mentioned on this morning’s Morning Report on the Wesley Report.

I am interested to see what the results of this experiment will be. If nothing else this will have been a success, because I have discovered a few Methodist blogs I didn’t know existed. If you haven’t posted the video yet, it is not too late. You can read about the experiment and copy and paste a sample post here. Thanks again to all who have participated.

An Experiment in Improving UM Social Media Exposure

07 Wednesday Jan 2009

Posted by Kevin M. Watson in links, Ministry, Technology

≈ 17 Comments

I would like to find out how much of an impact Methodist bloggers can have on spreading the word if we all join together. How big of an impact do you think we could have? To get an idea, and to hopefully gain some concrete evidence of how Methodist bloggers can help get the Methodist message out there, I invite you to participate in an experiment with me.

This past Saturday I posted a link to a YouTube video that I recently discovered promoting a book that I co-authored called Reclaiming the Wesleyan Tradition: John Wesley’s Sermons for TodayAfter posting the video, Gavin, at Hit the Back Button to Move Forward, posted about the video and his disappointment that it has not received more exposure. His post also stirred up some discussion about how United Methodism could do a much better job with getting our message across. Gavin also noted at one point how much the views from the video had gone up in a few days, just from he and I linking to it. (When I wrote my post there had been 44 views in over six months. As of this writing there have been 189 views!)

All of this has stuck in my mind over the last few days. I have been wondering if people at Discipleship Resources and other arms of United Methodism that are involved in publishing and communications understand what a resource they have in all of the Methodists who maintain great blogs. My guess is that they don’t realize the potential that exists for bloggers to be a serious avenue for getting the Methodist message out there.

Now let me say that while I would certainly like to see folks like Discipleship Resources and Abingdon have more success in selling books in mainstream venues like Barnes and Noble and Borders, this is about more than selling books. I believe that the Wesleyan tradition has an important contribution to make to the Church and to the world. Currently, I think that institutionally the United Methodist Church could be doing a better job communicating our message.

So, I would like to try an experiment to see what potential Methodist bloggers have to spread the word and get a message out there. I would like to see how much we can increase the views of the Reclaiming the Wesleyan Tradition YouTube video in two weeks. If you are willing to help here is what I would suggest: First, post the video on your blog. (The link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ISKTrScpzQ) Second, write a post that either links to this post or summarizes in your own words the experiment to see how much social capital Methodist bloggers have. Third, one week after posting the video write a follow-up post that reminds people about the video and the experiment.

If this experiment has significant results, I plan on trying to get in touch with the folks at Discipleship Resources and the GBOD to let them know the difference that plugging into the Methodist blogging world made. I would also suggest they create a forum from learning from you all about how they can better communicate through social media and the internet.

So, here is the video:

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If you would like to save time, you can copy and paste this as the post: (you can also change any part of it that you would like to)

Kevin Watson at https://deeplycommitted.wordpress.com has started an experiment to see how much social capital Methodist bloggers have. This experiment was prompted by the feeling among some Methodist bloggers that United Methodism does not always do as good of a job as it could at getting the Wesleyan message out there, particularly on-line. So, he wants to see how many views a YouTube video can get if Methodist bloggers work together to promote it. The experiment is to see how many hits the video will receive in two weeks.

If you want to participate you can: First, watch the video below. Second, copy and paste this entire post into a new post on your blog and post it. Third, remind people about this experiment in one week.

Based on the results of the experiment, Kevin will get in touch with the folks at Discipleship Resources and let them know the ways in which Methodist bloggers are often an underused resource.

Here is a link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ISKTrScpzQ

Is the Emerging Church Still a Conversation?

06 Tuesday Jan 2009

Posted by Kevin M. Watson in links, Ministry

≈ 4 Comments

For the last few months I have been wondering if the emerging movement is still a conversation. Many in the movement have preferred to call it the emerging conversation, rather than the emerging church. This question has particularly stuck in my mind since I asked someone who is a leader in the emerging “conversation” if they knew of anyone who had offered a substantive response to D. A. Carson’s Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement and Its ImplicationsThe answer I received was, “Most of us believe that book is so bad it doesn’t deserve a response.”

I was surprised by this answer, because I did not find Carson’s book to be offensive or intentionally trying to distort the emerging message. It may be that I don’t get it, but I felt that Carson was really trying to understand and interact with his best understanding of this movement and then make a meaningful response to it. Obviously there are going to be areas where D. A. Carson disagrees with key voices in the emerging church. For my part, Carson’s book left me sincerely interested in how people like Brian McLaren (who was not the person I was corresponding with) would respond to Carson’s concerns.

To be fair, I am raising this question based on a very short response I received from one person. It would be unfair to make this representative of an entire group of people. Moreover, Peter Rollins was recently as SMU and I had the chance to visit with him for about thirty minutes after he spoke in a New Testament calss. He was very gracious and in the time I spent with him I felt that he wanted to be part of an ongoing conversation. (While I do not agree with everything he says, both of his books are worth reading: How (Not) to Speak of Godand The Fidelity of Betrayal: Towards a Church Beyond BeliefHow (Not) to Speak of God has particularly been praised by folks within Emergent.)

To push things a bit farther: From my perspective, there does not seem to be all that much critical reflection on what is coming out of the emerging church. I have sometimes detected a bit of a defensive posture from folks in the emerging church, such as the appendix in Tony Jones’ The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier titled “A Response to Our Critics.” Of course, this is also an effort to do exactly what I am asking for – conversing with those who disagree with them. So, I am sure that the emerging church has received more than its fair share of uncharitable criticism. I am also sure that they have often done their best to respond to their critics. However, lately I have felt that there is a bit of an attitude that “those people just don’t get it” and therefore they are not worth talking to.

I write this because there has always been something that I can’t quite put my finger on about the emerging church that has attracted me. I think that there are many things that they get powerfully right. I also think their ability to get their message out and sell books in places like Barnes and Noble shows that they are meeting a real need that people have, particularly younger people – a demographic my own denomination currently has a very hard time connecting with. So I am a fan of the emerging church. I buy the new books that come out (although enough are coming out now that I can’t say I buy all of them). However, I also have some questions. Occasionally I think they get things completely wrong. I don’t think this makes them different from any other group. But because they are raising such important issues and are connecting with popular culture so well, I hope that they will not insulate themselves from constructive criticism or change. It seems to me that these were in many ways the very motives which raised up the emerging church to begin with – a desire to move the church closer to faithfulness and relevance in a changing culture.

What are your thoughts? Am I missing key venues where the conversation continues? I am interested in your perception of the current state of the emerging conversation.

Reading the Entire Bible in 2009

05 Monday Jan 2009

Posted by Kevin M. Watson in Book Review, links

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Bible, One Year Bible

One of my goals for 2009 is to read through the Bible. In beginning a Ph.D. last semester, I did not consistently make time to “search the Scriptures.” This year, I intend to get back into the habit of spending time each day reading the Bible. I will read three chapters Monday through Saturday and five chapters on Sunday. According to my calculations, this would result in my finishing the Bible with a day or two to spare.

If you have gotten out of the habit of daily spending time reading the Bible, there is no time like the present! You can use my approach or check out these resources:

YouVersion is an online Bible resource that has added a plan for reading the Bible in One Year. You can view the readings for each day by clicking here.

There are also Bibles that are specifically organized into daily readings so that you don’t have to do any calculating or remember where you left off. You just have to turn to the right day and start reading. The One Year Bible Compact Edition NIV is a good example of this and at $10.39 from amazon.com, it is affordable too!

If you have already read all the way through the Bible, I would recommend purchasing a chronological Bible, which arranges the readings chronologically. (This is a bit controversial because it involves making decisions about when specific books were actually written, which scholars are not always in full agreement on.) The advantage of a chronological Bible is that it helps you to see how the Bible is one narrative of God’s work in the world. The One Year Chronological Bible [NIV]is a good example of a chronological Bible, that is again also reasonably priced at $13.59.

Are there strategies or approaches that you have used to help maintain the habit of daily Bible reading that I have not mentioned? Or is there a particular Bible for reading the Bible in a year that you have read and found particularly helpful?

Reclaiming the Wesleyan Tradition on YouTube

03 Saturday Jan 2009

Posted by Kevin M. Watson in Book Review, links, Wesley

≈ 4 Comments

I just stumbled onto this promotional video for Reclaiming the Wesleyan Tradition: John Wesley’s Sermons for Today on YouTube. I had no idea it existed and am very interested to know how it is being used. In any case, here is the video:

By the way, if any of you were not aware that I co-authored this book and have come across it somewhere else, I would love to know how and where you came across it. I would also be very interested in hearing if anyone has used it as a small group study (which is what we had in mind when we wrote the book) and how it was received.

Top 10 Books of 2008

02 Friday Jan 2009

Posted by Kevin M. Watson in Book Review, links

≈ 7 Comments

Glancing back through the books I read in 2008, here are my favorites:

10. Wesley and the People Called Methodists Richard P. Heitzenrater

9. The Fidelity of Betrayal: Towards a Church Beyond Belief Peter Rollins

8. In Constant Prayer (The Ancient Practices) Robert Benson

7. The Crisis of Younger Clergy Lovett Weems and Ann Michel

6. They Like Jesus but Not the Church: Insights from Emerging Generations Dan Kimball

5. Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations Robert Schnase

4. What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (Oxford History of the United States) Daniel Walker Howe

3. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln Doris Kearns Goodwin

2. Charles Wesley and the Struggle for Methodist Identity Gareth Lloyd

1. Forgotten Ways, The: Reactivating the Missional Church Alan Hirsch

Great Online Wesleyan Resource

23 Tuesday Dec 2008

Posted by Kevin M. Watson in links

≈ 2 Comments

Shayne Raynor at the Wesley Report has put together an excellent resource. Shayne writes excellent posts that are balanced and thought-provoking. He also compiles what he sees as the best posts from around the Methodist blogosphere. Raynor also posts excerpts from John Wesley’s journal and more.

I recommend you check out the Wesley Report, it looks like it will be a very important online resource for Methodist/Wesleyan conversation on the internet.

You can read Raynor’s vision for the Wesley Report here.

Upside Down/ Backwards Christmas Story

21 Sunday Dec 2008

Posted by Kevin M. Watson in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Melissa and I worshiped this morning at Cornerstone, the contemporary worship service at Highland Park United Methodist Church. Before the sermon they played this video, which had a powerful impact on the congregation:

Vodpod videos no longer available.

(This video was originally posted at pacehartfield.com. To see the original post, click on this link.)

Top 5 Things I Miss About Pastoring in a Local Church

18 Thursday Dec 2008

Posted by Kevin M. Watson in Ministry

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

local church, pastoring

Top 5 Things I Miss about Pastoring in a Local Church:

5. Teaching. I loved teaching Sunday School and seasonal studies. I enjoyed the give and take that came with small group gatherings where people were able to respond to my teaching and forced me to think more carefully and more deeply. It was through teaching in Lamont that my gifts for teaching were affirmed and where I began to gain confidence in my desire to teach at the seminary level. However, it was also in teaching in Lamont that I realized that I sometimes made things too easy, neat, or straightforward. I learned to learn from others and my time teaching in Lamont, I believe, made me a better teacher.

4. Presiding at the Eucharist. This would be closer to # 1, except that it took me a while to really become comfortable with the liturgy of the Communion service. Once I began to feel more at home in the movements and words of the Great Thanksgiving, I was able to better sense what God had done and continued to do for us through the Eucharist and through Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. I agree with Wesley that communion is the grand channel by which God delivers grace to us.

3. Christmas Eve Communion Service. Lamont did a wonderful job of preparing for Christmas Eve and had a beautiful sanctuary. I felt the peace of the Holy Spirit and the power of Christ’s coming each year during the Christmas Eve service. More people came to worship for that service than any other service of the year and I always left feeling like people had been given the opportunity to glimpse the fullness of the kingdom. It was a particularly special service because so many people’s families came home for Christmas, and more often than not my family was there too.

2. Preaching. I have not preached a sermon since my last sunday in Lamont. While some sermons took a lot more effort and energy than others, I always loved preaching. And I never ceased being amazed at how God was able to use my sermons in very different ways than I had imagined.

1. Being used by God to usher people into the Kingdom of God through the sacrament of baptism. One of my favorite mementos from my time as the pastor of Lamont United Methodist Church is the crinkled pages in my hymnal where I drops of water fell during baptisms. I can’t quite explain it, but each baptism was a holy moment for me.