I am not sure if I have ever met Rebecca Kirkpatrick, but after reading this post on her blog I need to make time and opportunity to meet this Presbyterian Pastor from Indiana. Read her post from her blog, and then tell what you think.
Bread Not Stones - 10 Things I want to tell parents -- Pastor Rebecca Kirkpatrick
Is she correct?
What would you want to tell parents?
Parents is she fair? Did she miss something?
I think that these kinds of conversations are how we might best learn from one another and build a church that is both challenging, vibrant, faithful, and engaging.
I will tip my hat and claim my bias: I think her list a good one. I might have written it myself. If faith formation and spiritual development is only to take place at church in 1 - 3 hours per week it is little wonder that youth and young adults find themselves equally or more devoted to other competing claims and causes in the world.
What do you think?
My apologies to Sam Adams. Sam is an old friend and I have done him no justice with this fuzzy picture. He is much less fuzzy in person! He wrote a blog on Huffington Post this week which takes an intellectually deep and biblically informed look at social media. How will church use this tool? What do the prophets have to say about it? Sam brings his great mind and keen insight as an Old Testament scholar to this post. It was picked up by our Young Adult feed -- WMPC Young Adults Word Press blog. So I know some of them have looked at the piece. I'd commend it to a wider audience.
Here's the post: Facebook, Netiquette, and the Bible
So, what do you think about the church and social media?
Have you seen the new WMPC website?
Are we using tools well? Have you found WMPC on Facebook yet? Have you "liked" out Youth Group, our PYC pages yet?
I think there is a broad based understanding in the church that we'll have to use these tools, but to what degree?
Sam gives a good theoretical, biblical, and scholar account as to how we might approach these questions.
Lastly, if you have a little time in the next few days, my dear, dear friend and fellow Presbyterian Outlook compadra Mindy Douglas the Pastor at Chapel in the Pines in Chatam County delivered a lecture worth hearing and consideration.
Mindy gave the concluding Sprunt Lecture at Union Presbyterian Seminary last week. It was about the future of the seminary and what pastors need to know. It is insightful and well worth the investment of time. I really like the way she ended her lecture: a call to initiative. In my sermons in the coming weeks and into the fall I'll be referencing the four lectures I heard - I literally took 30 pages of notes. So grateful to be surrounded and supported by a great cloud of witnesses - a cloud that counts brilliant colleagues like Mindy among their number. Thank you Mindy for the call and the passion.
To watch her remarks, click here: http://unionlive.org/?p=356.
To view the other lectures, simply go to http://unionlive.org which is a growing and inspiring resource.
As always, I offer these things to advance our conversation and give us all inspiration for prayer and review.
May grace abound in all of our lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment