We’re really excited that just as this year’s MERGE event is happening, we’re able to let you know about MERGE 2011.
Next year’s event will be July 11-16, 2011 and will once again be hosted by Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, MI.
Many more details to come over the next few weeks and months, but we wanted to make sure you knew the dates as soon as possible. We really hope you and your youth ministry will consider making MERGE 2011 a part of your plans next summer!
We started MERGE today, and we’re so happy about the group of students and leaders who are here with us. For many of them, tonight was their first storying experience, and I can’t say enough about how they jumped right in and engaged with all that was happening.
It continues to amaze me how every time we do this with students, they make observations about the story and share insights about God that I’ve never heard before, even after almost 30 years in the Church! So incredible, and so life-giving .
We’ll be blogging more about the event this week, as well posting on Twitter and Facebook, and even a video or two on YouTube. More to come…
CNN recently posted a really interesting article about “natural user interfaces”. What 5 years ago might have seemed ridiculous, now is not so hard to imagine…
I continue to be fascinated by the topic of information overload, and what filters we’re applying to organize information.
The 15-min documentary above is a bit geeky, but I love that it delves not only into how information on the web might be organized in the future, but also how we make sense of information in general.
What tools have you found (online or otherwise) that help you organize or make sense of the information you encounter?
(via Collide)
Jodi Adams wrote a really thought-provoking piece over at Creative Worship Tour.com on Tuesday. She talks about how our use of images in worship gatherings can frame or re-frame the actual meaning of songs in the worship gathering environment. Talking about how our own agendas influence our choices, she says:
When art becomes that purposeful, that monochromatic (so to speak), that agenda driven it becomes propaganda, no matter how excellent the execution of design.
This puts words to what I sometimes feel about the imagery in worship gatherings. Certain kinds of images have become so commonplace, so typically used to elicit (manipulate?) response out of those gathered, that something just feels icky about it.
I think we can do better. I think we can be more thoughtful about the imagery we use. I think we can be more imaginative. And more than anything, I think we can be more courageous.
Sir Ken Robinson brings it again:
Every education system in the world is being reformed—and it’s not enough. What we need is not evolution, but revolution.
The way we learn, the way we gather and the way we worship is needing not to just evolve, but to be transformed into something else. Not just tweaked or not stylized. I think his words about shifting from an industrial model to an agricultural model applies directly to the church as well. I am excited to live in a time where I get to be among those challenging assumptions and dreaming of new ideas.
Today’s the day you can start pre-ordering the new iPhone. If you haven’t seen it, it’s not too shabby.
All of the iPhone’s recent buzz got me thinking about how much has changed in technology over the past 18-24 months, and how much it affects us on a daily basis. While there’s been some amazing advancements in technology during my lifetime, I wonder if we’ll look back on the past 2 years as something truly extraordinary.
Extraordinary and so life-changing because with social media now everywhere, and smart phones like the iPhone allowing us to do so much to connect with each other, our lives now revolve around a crazy number of people and one small device. Could we have even imagined a few short years ago that we would grow so dependent on knowing where our friends are, or what they are doing, reading and thinking at any given moment? And could we have imagined that we’d expect all that power to fit in our pocket?
What has this shift in expectations done to what we come to expect from one another?
This building in Tokyo is covered in code so that when you look at it through your phone’s camera you can see where people are in the building and what they are twittering. We are going to increasingly see this additional “layer” of reality in our society— this undoubtedly has huge possibilities and implications, changing social media, advertising, and search engines. I can’t help but wonder how this will effect us interpersonally and socially as well.
(ht: viralblog.com)
Neue recently sat down with Gabe Lyons (creator of the Q Conference) and Brad Lomenick (creator of Catalyst) to talk about the future of church conferences. One of Gabe’s quotes stood out to me:
If you can create a gathering where most of the content has never been written about or stated publicly before, and the others attending the event are amazing leaders in their own right, your event focuses on what people can do while together in a room, and you host it in a great environment—this can create the motivation to fly cross-country, and spend whatever it costs to get that experience.
While I’m not sure people will pay “whatever it costs” to attend an event, I think that conferences definitely have to become less about those on stage, and more about those attending. The truth is, people can usually get so much of a typical event’s content elsewhere in other forms (books, online videos, etc.).
But what can happen only because the exact people attending the event are in that exact location at that exact time? Something unique for sure.
I hope that Q, Catalyst, and other events for church leaders will only move more and more in this direction.
Though I hadn’t watched a single show in previous years, I found myself watching American Idol this season, due to the fact that winner Lee Dewyze grew up about 10 min from where we live. As I watched, I couldn’t help thinking how many of the performances reminded me of some of the musical performances I’ve seen over the years in megachurches.
A recent Los Angeles Times article explored the relationship between American Idol and music in U.S. churches. In a nutshell, they described how today’s churches are often perfect grounds for preparing future Idol contestants, due to church musician’s exposure to a wide variety of musical styles, and the high production values at many churches. Said former contestant Jason Castro, “Any of the larger churches you go into are really full-on performance venues.”
To be honest, I’ve got mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I love that churches are encouraging the creative gifts of kids growing up in them. On the other hand, it does speak not only to how performance-oriented many of our churches have become, but broadcast-oriented as well.
What do you think? Does this trend trouble you, or do you think it’s a good thing for both the church and the entertainment industry?
