NADCE Quarterly Issue #3: April 2011 "Ministering in a Google World"

NADCE Quarterly
Issue #3: April 2011

“Ministering in a Google World”
Editor's Note
"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before
him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of
God." - Hebrews 12:2

Welcome to the new and improved NADCE Quarterly! We hope that the latest issue will be
user-friendly and helpful to each of you! What's a better topic than technology to introduce in
the latest issue. There are articles being written everywhere on how to effectively use
technology in ministry. We have the world at our fingertips with search engines like Google,
status updates with Facebook and Twitter and a myriad of other web tools. But what is
available that is truly effective and what is just a waste of our time? In this issue, we will
explore various web tools to be used for Bible study and various ministry areas. In an image-
driven culture, let us fix our eyes on Jesus as we pursue His mission in sharing the Gospel.
We have been given some amazing tools; let's use them to glorify Him!

Blessings,

Emily Norman

In This Issue…
 - Digital Bible Study - Jason Christ
   Jason Christ, DCE, has created a website with a collection of tools and resources to be used for
   Bible reading, preparing Bible studies and strategies for success. Check it out HERE and come
   back & visit as new tools become available!

 - Telling the Story with Technology - Jill Hasstedt
   Jill Hasstedt, DCE shares her perspective on sharing the Gospel using technology. "Like many, I
   have grown weary and wary of “religion” but I have never been more passionate about being a
   follower of the Christ. I invite you to join me on a journey to figure out how to best share Jesus with
   others." Read the full article

 - Book Review: Flickering Pixels – Tommy Moll
   Tommy Moll, DCE reviews this book, which is an important read in today's technology-driven
   culture. "Flickering Pixels by Shane Hipps is an exploration of how technology shapes faith. The
   premise of the book is based on Marshall McLuhan‟s concept that the 'medium is the message.'”
   Read the full article

 - Highlighting LHM‟s Five14 – Faith Spelbring
   Lutheran Hour Ministries representative & DCE, Faith Spelbring presents an overview of this
   ministry and how you can use it to benefit your congregation. Read the full article

 - Video Review: Google Apps – Mark Cook
   Check out this video review of Google Apps, brought to you by Mark Cook, DCE. Google isn't just a
   search engine and it's more than just email too. Learn about all the functions of this versatile web
   tool and how you can use them most effectively in your ministry context.

 - What‟s your favorite technology tool that you use in
   ministry? Read the full article

 - NADCE ELECTION RESULTS ANNOUNCED Read the full article

Telling the Story with Technology - Jill Hasstedt, DCE
                            Adapted from a presentation at Valparaiso University
                              Christian Women‟s Conference, April 8-10, 2011
                               Original Document available at Google Docs

Like many, I have grown weary and wary of “religion” but I have never been more passionate about being a
follower of the Christ. I invite you to join me on a journey to figure out how to best share Jesus with others.

Stops on the journey:
 How brains are being changed by the world we live in
 Who do we get to share the Gospel with
 9 Ministry Ideas and 14 Technology Experiments for Ministry

Changing Brains
Scientists have learned that our brains are plastic, they change…and they keep changing right up until we
die. So anyone with an exposure to technology is being changed by that exposure.

Those born since 1995, “digital natives”, are thinking in new
and different ways than “digital immigrants” born earlier.                    New Brains
Digitals natives react faster and expect more instantaneous           New Presentation Styles
and more constant communication then immigrants. There is           If you are more comfortable
less and less patience with step by step (linear) logic and a far   with the step by step approach
greater bend toward “doing.”                                        (linear processing) of Power
                                                                    Point…get ready for a glimpse
In the Book, The Brain that Changes Itself, Doidge and              of the future, Prezi. ( They just
Norman explain:                                                     have to conquer the problem of
                                                                    making us all dizzy!)
       Neuroplasticity: Stimulation of almost any kind
        changes the brain actually affecting “how” people think. Our brains are being constantly
        reorganized. Brain cells are replenished constantly. The brain maintains this “plasticity”
        throughout life.

       Malleability: Thinking patterns change with experience. People who grow up in different cultures
        actually think differently but globalization increases cultural contact so different input will make us
        think differently too.

    All this doesn‟t happen automatically “Brain reorganization takes place when the animal pays
    attention to the sensory input.” Any focused activity changes the brain.

    Divided attention is becoming normal. In fact our attention comes “in bursts”… we tune in
    enough to get the “gist” and to make sure something makes sense but we miss details. While attention
    span might be getting shorter for old ways of learning, it is getting longer for interactive learning.

    What‟s being gained? Parallel processing, graphic awareness, random access to our own memory.

    What‟s being lost? Reflection (Sabbath living); critical thinking; the ability to learn from real world
    experience; delayed gratification.

Who We Get to Share the Gospel
with…                                      “The way I think has changed…
                                           I did not know a non-Christian growing up. To me „they‟
“Maybe no one.” It‟s possible a            were „the lost.‟ Goodness and morality came from my
good chunk of the people we would          Christianity. “
love to tell about Jesus just don‟t want                                                               to
hear what we have to say. This             But then I met good and moral people who were not
includes our own family members.           Christian but who were nicer and more moral then me! I
Religion has a horrible “image.”           know faith in Jesus saves but I cannot believe these
Richard Dawkins and others have            people are bad enough to condemn to hell.”
been spectacularly effective in                                                - A Digital Immigrant
bringing criticism of religion to the
fore on college campuses and in public
media.

Students come home telling their parents they no longer believe in God having been challenged with ideas
that stump the unsuspecting Christian parent or friend. Others hear these challenges in their workplaces
and in public settings.

       How can a good and loving God send anyone to hell?
       Why would a loving God allow so much suffering in the world?
       Religion is the source of all evil in the world.
       Science has disproved Christianity.
       Religion is a straitjacket.
       You can‟t take the Bible literally.
       The human race will outgrow religion.

What‟s a Bible believing follower of Jesus to do?

9 Ideas and 14 Technology Experiments for Ministry

1.   Idea: Empathy is better than offense or defense. (Now is NOT the time for “Onward Christian
     Soldiers.”) Defense implies a need to defend. That‟s not the right “heart” for what is needed in most
     cases. Creating safe places for conversation allows for the development of trusting relationships that
     create opportunity for respectful for dialogue.

     Experiment 1: Try using a non-defensive posture. Lead with empathy and look for the core issue.
     While the Word never returns empty, saturating your Facebook postings or Twitter feeds with daily
     Bible passages might not reach the audience you were hoping to reach.
          Put thoughtful quotes or questions in your posts (but NOT all the time)
          Do start a Facebook Page for your church or youth group. Know the difference between a
             page and a group and what you can do with these.
          Reign in your rants… okay you may be a proud Republican and a staunch opponent of
             abortion but… ranting about baby killers or Obama as the antichrist will not open doors for safe
             spiritual conversation.
          Blog –Blogspot is easier to begin with. You may want to learn a bit about search engine
             optimization (SEO). At the very least connect your Blog posts to Facebook and Twitter or
             LinkedIn or any other social media you use. Make sure you have an RSS feed available. Be
             prepared to laugh at yourself. “MomOnGod” Blog seemed like my best idea ever, I even bought
             the domain name but when I floated it to fellow NADCEer one noted that www.momongod.com
             had him wondering why I was writing about the “Mormon god.” I keep trying to figure out
             how to communicate with those who have serious questions or criticism of the faith. It‟s a
             process. I make mistakes.

2. Idea: Action is better than talk.
   The youngest among us expect Christians act. They‟ll be watching to see who we are personally
   feeding, teaching, healing, or housing? How are we creating opportunities for others to do the same?
   They expect to change the world. They want to see and experience faith in action before they make up
   their minds about Jesus.

     Experiment 2: Create service opportunities of varied kinds that can be accomplished personally,
     locally or globally and use technology to make it very easy to connect to these.
          Cross pollinate your website, blog and other social media to let folks know what you‟re doing
              and give them the opportunity to help in person.
          Make it “look” easy. Do hardcore planning up front so that from a participant‟s point of view
              there is no wasted time.
          In June, our Adult Bible classes will be studying Max Lucado's, Out Live Your Life.
              In July, we‟ll be asking those folks to go serve a picnic lunch at local hotel where we often pay
              for people to spend the night. It‟s a place where the “close to homeless” often stay. Prostitutes
              use it. Families live there on a week to week basis. We‟ll provide a free lunch, groceries, and
              health packs. Our social ministry is growing.

3. Idea: Be prepared and prepare others.
   When was the last time you taught a lesson on the wrath of God? Love and wrath go hand in hand.
   You cannot love another deeply without experiencing deep rage should they do great harm to
   themselves or to others. That is not to say God is vindictive. The cross is proof that God will go to
   extreme measures to love us.

     Experiment 3: Check out “The King‟s Cross, the Story of the World in the Life of Jesus” by Timothy
     Keller.) Anything by Keller is amazing. He is being hailed as the C.S. Lewis of this generation. Blog

about what you learn. Quote it in the signature of your emails. Tweet or write a recommendation on
    Amazon.

4. Idea: Relationships trump ideology
   Christianity is above all a relationship not a religion. A relationship with Jesus
   changes everything. His love powerfully demonstrated in the context of
   relationship may be the only way we “get” to talk about him with others. It                           means
   churches can‟t be the center of our life, Jesus is. Church is a launch pad.                          There
   are too many “rockets” sitting on that launch pad.

    Experiment 4: Find a place to connect beyond the Christian community. Start loving people there -
    no strings attached. You can do this via Social media too but not just there.

5. Idea: Use technology to model empathy, action, openness to dialogue, relational care.

    Experiment 5: Pick an empathetic phrase to use and use it lavishly and sincerely. “Oh
    man”, “rats”, or even just a sympathetic sound like “Ohhhhh.” Use it with angry people. Use it with
    ranters. Use it with hurting people. Use it with friends, colleagues, with people in line. Use it in real
    life and hyperspace. The empathy must be sincere and it must cultivate a habit of looking at others
    with a heart changed by Jesus love and sacrifice for them. (Sarcasm and road rage might disappear
    from your life.)

6. Idea: Use technology to build relationships:

    Experiment 6: Build relationships that allow connection with non-Christians. However, that‟s what
    Jesus has commissioned me to do NOT what my church has “called” me to do. My job here is to equip
    the saints. A good portion of my experimenting on personal time gets brought into my official
    equipping activities. An authentic Christian should never have a “professional” witness but always a
    “personal” one.

    Experiment 7: DCE Chris Draeger is using Skype to connect college students and high school youth
    to Sunday morning Bible classes when they cannot be present in person. Sue Steege tweets from
    worship. Leon Jameson posts about the Gospel life on Facebook. (Tip: use the snip feature in
    Windows to take a picture of your email address. Place this image in your blog or on your website.
    Spam crawlers can‟t pick it up that way)

7. Idea: Use social media to connect away.

    Experiment 8: We used Skype in a school chapel to connect with Jillian, a young woman taking a
    year to care for babies in an orphanage in Taiwan. She told us about her work and challenged students
    to live out their faith where they are. As students entered chapel and saw Jillian‟s smiling face on the
    big screen they began to wave at her. They thought she could see them too… I had to quickly re
    position the webcam so that was true.

    Experiment 9: It‟s easy to use Google docs along with Skype for meetings. I‟ve even used a free
    conference call service this year for a quick lunchtime meeting with our Financial Education Ministry
    Team. We avoided an evening meeting and participants could have lunch at their desk and join in.

8. Idea: Use technology to remove barriers – what barriers? Where your church is located and
   whether you have a nursery can be barriers easily removed on a simple website. You will be prejudged

on the quality of your website. But basically, the fewer the steps in any process the more likely you are
    to get a response (There are great ideas in Activate by Nelson Searcy even if you are into small groups)

    Experiment 10: Visit you own web site or better yet ask someone who is not a member of your
    church to do so and tell you what they think. (Google analytics can help you see what‟s working.)

    Experiment 11: Constant Contact has 60 day free trials for email marketing or event marketing, plus
    loads of support for use of surveys and social media. Learn as you go. Their customer support is top
    notch.

    You can use PayPal to allow participants to pay online or they can send in a check. You get an email
    when someone registers and they get one thanking them. (Before you do this, get your email list ready.
    It‟s best if you can import it from an Excel document but you can enter them manually.) I plan to have
    our 1 page VBS website, with a VBS registration form and payment online May 1.

    Experiment 12: Help individual Christians learn to create safe places for communication and to
    engage in respectful conversation even when they don‟t know all the answers. The conversations will
    point the way for future learning… 1 piece at a time. ( The Reason for God, by Timothy Keller models
    this. There is a Small Group study that can be used without the book)

9. Idea: Help Re-brand Christianity. Our current “brand” among non-Christians too often reads
   “judgmental”, “narrow minded”, “anti-intellectual”, “homosexual-hating”, “obsolete.” The devil has
   successfully encouraged belief in his non-existence yet he is active in creating an image of Christianity
   as just another religion. Christianity is not a religion it is a relationship. Jesus changes everything once
   he gets into your life and heart and words and actions.

    Experiment 13: Try communicating about your church on social media in a way that improves its
    brand in 50 words or less. (Try it in 40 characters or less on Twitter.) Use empathy. Ask questions
    that provoke thought. Be funny. Use images when possible. Be wary of phrases that lack cultural
    clarity (”spirituality”, “religion”, “God”)

    Experiment 14: Is your website terrible? Tackle the learning curve. Is no one on staff good with
    technology? Take a few classes at your local community college. Start with an HTML/XHTML class.
    Call a web design company. Get info. It could take years. Keep learning. Still recruit others to help.

Book Review: Flickering Pixels – Tommy Moll

Note about the format: Throughout this review I used text from the book to introduce a new idea. The
quoted text will be bold and in quotations.

“A burning bush carries its own message; no matter what is spoken through it.”

Flickering Pixels by Shane Hipps is an exploration of how technology shapes faith. The premise of the book
is based on Marshall McLuhan‟s concept that the “medium is the message.”

Hipps‟ challenges the phrase, “The methods change, but the message stays the same.” He goes through a
variety of different technologies, everything from the printing press to Morse code to Facebook, describing
how each technology actually changes the way we think.

“Our culture is teaming with…one-eyed prophets who see only what new technologies can
do and are incapable of imagining what they will undo.”

This idea of “undoing” or “reversing” as it‟s referred to in the book is a reoccurring theme. If Hipps offers
any clear advice it‟s that we should consider what a technology could undo in our lives before we assume
that it will somehow make our lives better. When we use a certain media, we have a responsibility to
consider how we‟re affecting the way people think. When we use something like a video to teach, we are
actually changing the way people learn.

“When we watch television, we are oblivious to the medium itself…Instead, we sit
hypnotized by the program – the content – which has gripped our attention, unaware of the
ways in which the television, regardless of its content, is repatterning the neural pathways
in our brain and reducing our capacity for abstract thought.”

Sections like this from the book were the most alarming for me on my first read. If the way we teach
changes the brain, then where does the theory of learning styles or multiple intelligences fall? If we cater to
one way the brain processes information, could we actually be forming that brain to be weaker in other
areas? Hipps leaves these kinds of questions hanging in the air for the reader to wrestle with.

If you‟re wondering precisely how different technologies change brain chemistry, you won‟t find it in this
book. Hipps doesn‟t go into brain chemistry extensively. What‟s nice about this book is that he has a great
„notes‟ and „resources‟ page if you‟d like to do further reading.

“If we are not alert, the Information Age may stunt our growth and create a permanent
puberty of the mind.”

“Reading…demands concentration and sustained neural energy. This practice is also
generative. Powerful capacities are created which are not naturally developed by the brain,
resulting in ever-more nuanced skills of discernment, logic, and reasoning.”

Hipps devotes a chapter to the medium of the written word format of the Bible and how teaching with such
a medium is becoming increasingly difficult. If we submit to the idea that brains have indeed been changed
by how information has been presented, we meet new challenges in preaching and teaching to a generation
who has been raised on text snippets, thirty second videos, and image driven marketing. Julianna Shults
wrote a great article on Complex Text on the YouthESource that explores the issues with teaching
something as complex as the Bible to a generation who struggles to read books.

“The internet makes a flat stone of the mind and skips it across the surface of the world‟s
information ocean. A book, by contrast, is a sturdy submarine, diving the mind deep into
the sea.”

One of the big questions that came up for me while reading this book was, “How do I teach wisdom in a
culture that encourages shallow growth?” Leonard Sweet brought this point up at the 2011 NADCE
conference. We are no longer in a position that we need to be granting access to information as those we
teach can get a hold of information on just about any subject imaginable through the internet. Instead,
those we minister to need help sorting through a vast sea of truths and half-truths in order to gain spiritual
wisdom.

“Media and technology have far less power to shape us when they are brought into the light
and we understand them. Perhaps the thing that prevents understanding is premature
judgment. We are too eager to assign a value to things; we want to call something „good‟ or
„bad‟ long before we understand what it can do and undo.”

This book gave me permission to evaluate the technology that I use to see how it affects my life and faith.
It‟s so easy to get caught up in thinking that if I don‟t adopt a certain technology, I‟m somehow behind. This
applies just as easily to our ministries. Does every church need to podcast sermons or use motion
backgrounds in worship or even have a website? Hipps calls us to ask “why” to new technology for the sake
of those we minister to.

“You cannot separate the medium from the message. The church is simply an expression of
the gospel. The church is a direct reflection of Jesus, God‟s chosen medium sent to be – not
just to proclaim – a message of healing and hope to the world.”

“We are the message.”

Hipps said in an interview about the book that “You are God‟s chosen medium.” No matter how much we
process and debate the effects of technology on the culture and the people we minister to, the fact that God
uses us as his chosen medium is what we‟re left with.

“I was sitting with a…friend at lunch one day. His cell phone rang. I stopped talking and
said, „You can get that, if you need to.‟ Without blinking or checking the phone he said, „You

took the time and effort to get together with me. Whoever is calling didn‟t. Now, what were
you saying?‟ All he did was ignore his phone long enough to be present where his body was.
Not only did I feel honored, but it also made me appreciate the gift of being there.”

I pray that no matter how you use technology, you might never lose the art of being there.

Resources

As I said in the review, the book has a great „notes‟ and „resources‟ page. Below are a couple resources
recommended by the book and a few things I explored for the review or will be exploring because of the
book:

My next two reads will be The Book of Probes which explores Marshall McLuhan‟s philosophy and The
Hidden Power of Electronic Culture: How Media Shapes Faith, the Gospel, and Church by Shane Hipps.

Rob Bell interviews Shane Hipps about Flickering Pixels [Shane Hipps is now a pastor along with Rob Bell
at Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan]

Julianna Shults‟ YouthESource article: Complex Text

ShaneHipps.com [not much there but you can read about the author and order one of his books]

Radiolab Podcast: What Does Technology Want? [an interesting podcast on how technology might have a
mind of its own]

Mars Hill Bible Church [you can listen to sermons by Shane Hipps]

Rethinking Learning on Clark Quinn‟s blog: Learnlets [a good conversation starter in thinking about how
learning styles and multiple intelligences might need to be questioned in lieu of new research]

Highlighting LHM‟s Five14 – Faith Spelbring
Video Review: LHM's five14

five14 – LHM‟s media-intense teen witnessing training program that equips teens to share their faith with
peers, family and neighbors. It even challenges them to move beyond, “What can I get away with?” to,
“Will this word or action cause others to Glorify God?” Videos are a key part of both the training and
continued engagement of the teens.

          Check out videos from some of the teens
          Check out the five14 promo video
          Check out the five14 Facebook page

Men‟s Network – LHM‟s men‟s ministry put LHM on the map as the video resource go-to people,
offering FREE video-based Bible studies that avoid many of the pitfalls of video-based teaching tools. No
boring talking heads! Just HD videos with settings like inside Royals Stadium, throughout a Bible
museum, and from the back of a Harley Davidson.

          Check out the video-based studies here
          Check out the weekly vlog called “Stuff they didn‟t teach me in Sunday School”
          Check out the periodic vlog that goes on the offense against those that ridicule Christianity

Over the Static – Daily vlogs surrounding Advent and Lent, portraying the lives of those who encounter
the message of Jesus in the midst of real struggles.

          Check out the latest vlog here

Bible on Trial – LHM‟s one-hour television special that will soon air nationally! Set in a court room, this
documentary-like program investigates the trustworthiness of the Bible.

          Check back soon for your area‟s broadcast information
          Stream or download the program

International Ministries – LHM‟s global mission work uses video to share the stories of God‟s work in
the world with people here who could not otherwise see with their own eyes how God‟s Spirit is moving and
God‟s people are serving!

          Check out the International flavor of LHM!

What‟s your favorite technology tool that you use in
ministry?
“The technology tool that I find indispensible for my ministry is „GoToMyPC‟, which allows me to connect
remotely to my office computer from anywhere in the world. I use it for e-mail, to share files, to print (at
home or at church), and to update the screen announcements in the sanctuary.”

Jim Haack, DCE, Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church, La Vista, NE

“I thought of www.polleverywhere.com. It allows people to text message or tweet answers/responses to
questions. My kids love it because they can use their cell phones during Bible study, and I love it because I
get some honest feedback (it‟s anonymous).”

Andrew Nelson, DCE, Messiah Evangelical Lutheran Church, Sterling, IL

“I have a ton of gadgets, websites, and other tools that I love to use for my ministry. The other night I used
my iPad to show a short clip of a movie during a small group bible study.

Dropbox: A place that I can access and share files with others. I use this all the time with my different
committees that I‟m on along with the church secretary. You can also put files into a public folder that then
generates a link to the file. I use this feature for forms I need filled out by students or
parents. www.dropbox.com (Free).

YouVersion app: This is my digital bible that I can carry on my phone, iPad, or visit on the web. The great
part is I can move between all the different translations and compare verses. I used it Sunday during
church to show a friend why I didn‟t like the ESV version of Genesis 3:15 compared to the NIV.

Here is a link to our District Youth Website article that my friend Dave put together. Both Dave and I
maintain this website for the district.”
http://www.psdyouth.net/eNews/TechTools/tabid/123/Default.aspx

Phil Gaylor, DCE, Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & School, Diamond Bar, CA

Have a favorite technology tool that you use in ministry? Email me at emilydce@sbcglobal.net and we will
feature it in a future technology issue!

NADCE ELECTION RESULTS ANNOUNCED
The National Association of Directors of Christian Education (NADCE) held its first election recently to
replace retiring members on its Board of Directors. The entire election process from the nomination of
candidates to the actual voting was conducted online through the NADCE website. The new members will
be welcomed to the Board of Directors at its next meeting later this summer. The Board congratulates the
winners of the election and is pleased to announce the following results:

   CHAIRPERSON-ELECT                                    MEMBER-AT-LARGE

   JEREMY BECKER, DCE

   Minister to Senior Youth

   Concordia Lutheran Church                            DR. MARK BLANKE, DCE

   Kirkwood, Missouri                                   DCE Program Director

                                                        Concordia University Nebraska

   SECRETARY                                            Seward, Nebraska

                                                        MEMBER-AT-LARGE

   JAMES LOHMAN, DCE
                                                        LESLIE LEONARD, DCE
   Associate Director
                                                        Director of Youth & Recreational Ministries
   LCMS National Board for Mission
                                                        Christ the King Lutheran Church
   St. Louis, Missouri
                                                        Largo, Florida

MEMBER –AT-LARGE

ANDREW NELSON, DCE

Director of Christian Education

Messiah Lutheran Church

Sterling, Illinois