How to Make a Micromovement

from the book, Tribes, by Seth Godin

You got something worth fighting for? Seth Godin says that you do. He believes you can change the industry with just an idea. Below are listed what it takes to create an online movement, adding my own thoughts to them. (103)

 

• Publish a manisfesto – Your idea must be bigger than you. You have to believe that your idea must be worth putting out into the open. It must be faithful to the cause, and faithful that others believe the same thing. Publishing does two things: creating visibility and begins interest. 
• Make it easy for your followers to connect with you – If your idea is good, people will want to know who made the idea. People want to understand who put this in front of the world. People want to make your a leader. Besides making sure you have contact information out into the world, people want to see if you embody the idea. People want to see if you have a vision, and a goal, and if they can join the cause. 
• Make it easy for your followers to connect with others – if you want movement, you need to create a body. A body does not move part by part. Rather, a body moves together as one. Make everyone meet each other and know their names. Let them learn how to get along with each other and work together.  
• Money is not the point of the movement – Money can corrupt an idea. Take for instance, a fundraiser. A fundraiser in itself is for a bigger idea. But so much effort can be put into the fundraiser that you can lose focus towards the idea itself. If you have a purely good idea, you don't need money. You need faith. 
• Track your progress – The only way you know that you have reached your goal is when you know how far you've gone. Seth says make your followers help you. I would go one step further and say make them part of the progress itself. Make them understand how far they've come in reaching a cause. Have them personalize it and own it.

Theology After Google

One of the reasons why I started this blog was for a class requirement. As the class has progressed, so has my understanding of the influence and interaction between our evolving culture and our everlasting Christian theology.

Something must change.

Here's how.

The class I'm in is part of a conference that I hope that you can attend. It is called Theology After Google. There's no need to link to it, because there's a huge link to the right of this blog. Click on it, and you will see a lot of people both in the emergent Christianity realm and in the emerging technology/networking realm.

It will cover ideas and thoughts about:

• Having the church catch up in a social-networking, blogging, and tweeting world
• Emergent theology for mainliners
• Blogging Basics
• Emergence through biology and theology
• One word spiritual reflection
• Energizing your church with social media
• Film making from a theological standpoint
• Web 3.0: the human evolution of technology and theology
• Podcasting 101

Be there or be here listening to the streamed version on March 10-12!

Jon

Let Brian McLaren's Voice Be Heard!

Hmm… There’s no way in which I can write all my thoughts about Brian McLaren’s new book, A New Kind of Christianity. In what has began as a class project, I would like to speak on behalf of someone who supports what Brian McLaren is proposing in his book. Type McLaren’s name into Google and you will find that this pastor and his book has been described as a “heretic” from the right side and repetitive from the left. I hope that through this post (and the next…) you would feel compelled to read this book. This post will try to expose your mind to the first 5 questions, with insight from my classmates and other bloggers.

Question 1: What is the storyline of the Bible? What we have come to understand is that the way we see the Bible has been interpreted over and over, largely in part towards Greco-Roman influence and superiority. If we strip away what we have understood as the six-lined narrative, we can see God and the purpose of Jesus in a new light. We are a product of 2000 years of being shaped into Christianity, emphasizing all the “good” and ignoring/killing/excommunicating the “bad”, “indifferent”, and “marginalized”. I suggest you watch McLaren’s answer. Chad Holtz gives an insightful perspective of what McLaren is trying to do in the first couple of chapters and in this first question here. Scroll down halfway.

Question 2: How should the Bible be understood? McLaren suggests that scripture could be, and has been used to defend and advocate any position like constitutional law (78-79). Rather, think of the Bible as an “inspired library” that has kept track these conversations so that we can continue them (83). My classmate, James Kang, takes a different direction in his blog, asking, “when will BIBLE 2.0 come out?” Chad Holtz explains his take as well.

Question 3: Is God violent? Depending on what chapter, verse, or book in the Bible can give you a range of depictions of God. You could potentially choose who you would like to pray for, as McLaren mentions Ricky Bobby as a sad example (first 2-3 mins). McLaren poses that the negative images of God need to be understood as the best depictions that our Christian ancestors could describe with words (103) and that the full image description of God has been in constant transformation to something that is culminated into what we know and to believe is Jesus.

Question 4: Who is Jesus and why is he important? McLaren is so focused on the issue that Christianity has heavy Greco-Roman influences because Jesus’ life was based upon moving away from the Greco-Roman life (126). Using the book of John, McLaren describes Jesus as the new Adam bringing a new Genesis to the world (135).

Question 5: What is the Gospel? McLaren uses Romans as the moving point: to understand the gospel that Paul preached, we have to understand the gospel that Jesus preached, which in its most raw form, it is to know that the Kingdom is at hand (138). This Kingdom, as McLaren brings to life through Romans shows that it is the presence of everyone and everything being encompassed underneath God. The Kingdom is now.

I will leave you with this until next time. Mike Morrell wrote a blog in defense of what McLaren is trying to do, which McLaren appreciates as well as I. Here is a few things of what he said:

…From my vantage point, Brian is now doing what many wish Obama would do: Grow a pair and say “You know, my message isn’t for everybody. I’ve been very diplomatic for years, but that hasn’t gotten me very far with those who continue to loathe me and my message. So now I’m going to speak plainly to those who like these kinds of conversations, which can still be all kinds of people. Except for those who, by general disposition, are inclined to (yes) ask “Is it acceptable to my religious/ideological community or belief system?” before they ask “Is it possibly true, valuable, and worth exploring?”…

Like Mike Morrell, McLaren is not above criticism. In fact I believe he wants constructive criticism. That’s the whole point. Lets actually talk about the things that we put our entire faith into.