(Credit: National Geographic)

So let’s assume you have a wonderful library chock full of theological texts, doctrinal dissertations written by the patriarchs of Christianity like Spurgeon, Calvin, Luther and others. Let’s also assume you have several expanded concordances, Bible dictionaries, multi-volume commentary sets, Bible maps and various other study tools. Oh yes, don’t forget your Greek and Hebrew interlinear Bibles too! You definitely have a posh library and study going for yourself.

And then you wake up.

Now you realized that you are, in fact, just like the rest of us in that you do not have a library like the one listed above. The fact is, my grandfather was a well-read minister for over sixty years, and his library never amassed to anything like that! (I do have his copy of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs from the 1920s although!)

Enter Logos Bible Software.

Logos is simply the most fantastic Bible study software I’ve ever seen. It literally is a seminary library on your computer. Even a basic package, such as the Bible Study Library, includes 200 titles valued at roughly $4,500 in print equivalents! Upgrade to a Scholar’s Library: Silver Edition (like what I use), and you have access to 750 texts worth over $11,000 in print! Each book is fully indexed so you can search it just like you would a Google Docs document. Speaking of Google Docs, you can highlight and annotate your references. Logos will keep track of those too, and they will show up in relevant searches too.

Finally, we come to the best part of all:

In an interesting turn of events, it appears that the people growing up in “Generation @” actually prefer to not be online.

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Does this mean that, at any moment, Chicken Little will come screaming, “The sky is falling, the sky is falling!” causing a great alarm? Of course not! (But, if the news media finds itself with a slow news day, don’t be surprised if they start yelling it!) What this really means is something we’ve known for a long, long time (like 10 years now): some people are online a bunch, some are not.

Let me point out some things that may not sound profound, but will get you thinking. In the 90s and early 2000s, the techno-crazes were:

The other day, I wrote about 5 Core Elements to Be a True Online Expression of Jesus. I’d like to think it was a good article, and you should read it and leave a comment. Now. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Jane Jetson's all over telepresence!

All caught up now? Good. One of the terms I threw around was telepresence. While I would love to say I coined that word gilded in its shiny pants goodness, I did not. The first time I saw it was in SimChurch by Douglas Estes. In the book, he describes this theological concept of togetherness as described in Acts 4:32, but in the context of doing it online. His summary of the concept of telepresence is thus,

Today is a vision dreaming sort of day for me. The worship gathering with our local church body was fantastic and intimate. I even had the pleasure of doing lunch with a good friend afterward. All in all, it’s been a pretty good day if you ask me!

At lunch, we chatted about the upcoming Online Campus we’ll be launching. Since the gears are turning, I’ve been mulling over a few elements which I believe define an Online Campus. While this is not a conclusive list, it is the very bare minimum five requirements to become a functional, biblically ecclesiological expression of Jesus.

(Credit: Doug Shelton, CreativeMYK)

1. Be in sync with the church’s vision. Habakkuk 2:2f

This is the first and foremost requirement. If an Online Campus is not

In reading the articles posted on this site, it’s pretty hard to miss the fact that God has called me into online ministry. What that looks like exactly is, well, figuring that out is half the fun! If you want to join me on this adventure, why not subscribe to my RSS feed, or contribute through the comments below.

(Credit: Todd White, CreativeMYK)

As part of my serving at our local church (and I am strongly convicted that any believer should be part of a local, physical expression of the Church), is working with the Media Arts Team. Specifically within that Team, I am helping to birth a fully functional digital campus for the church. While thinking about what that may look like, and thinking about ministry in general within the local church, this thought came to mind:

When you spend a lot of time finding people to attend your ministry, you are really putting on an event. But when you put on an event to fulfill the needs of your people, you are then doing real ministry. (Tweet this idea!)

Let’s unpack that a little bit.

(Credit: myklroventine, Flickr)

So I was lying in bed last night, and checking Twitter before falling asleep. This is pretty normal for me, checking Facebook and Twitter one last time to make sure I didn’t miss any earthquakes or funny goings-on. I did do something different last night though.

This is part of a series “Honoring Our Messiah with Mimicry Not Mockery,” where we examine characteristic traits of Jesus Christ, and how they are applied to a biblical Christian life. The underlying question in each article  is “Are you imitating your Savior in a way that looks like mimicry or mockery?”

Need to catch up? Read Part 1.

(Credit: Paule Patterson, CreativeMYK)

How do you identify yourself? Answer that question to yourself now, seriously. Do you identify yourself by the esteem of others, the amount of money and stuff you can amass, how many are under you in your power structure at work, or by something else? What you draw your identity from speaks volumes about who you are.

Understanding our identity

(Credit: Paule Patterson, CreativeMYK)

For the past few weeks, I have been teaching a series about the character traits of Jesus. I’ve been asked to post the messages, and open this up for discussion. I hope you enjoy learning about our Savior as much as I did writing these!

It’s often said that plagiarism is one of the most sincere forms of flattery in writing circles. But, what does this mean exactly? Parents and people who work with children know this lesson well! How many times have we known a child mimic an action or repeat something they heard us say without understanding what it really meant? For many of us, that memory is an embarrassing one for sure! If you are a trainer or manager at your workplace, it means those under your leadership will

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Here is an easy question for you to answer if you are a leader (of any capacity) within your church: Are you approachable? Okay. Here is a difficult question for you to answer: Are you really approachable, or are you bluffing yourself? Think about that for a second…

Did you serious think about that or just pop down here to keep reading?

I just saw the headline at Slashdot this post is named after, and the ensuing story shocked me.

“’After its recent bait and switch, AT&T went ahead and threatened someone emailing the company CEO about customer service concerns, namely with a query about tethering and eligibility rates. The email author also put up a voicemail recording of the company’s response and how he managed to contact the CEO in the first place — through The Consumerist.’

As Engadget notes (as does the complaining customer’s updated page), AT&T did at least offer an apology for the threat of legal action, which the company says was unauthorized.”Now I understand your church may not be the size of AT&T, or (I pray) not have the same hierarchical leadership method, but the question this brings up is relevant: are you unapproachable as a leader? Honestly, are you?

Sure, any leader can rally a bunch of yes-men around him to placate their appetite for flattery. But when the stuff hits the fan, do others have to draw straws to determine who commits professional seppuku to bring you the bad news?