Yesterday I received a comment question about my post Revolutionary Thinking.  It was a great question and I thought I would take the time to answer it!  Stacy asked…

I heard somewhere that only 1 in 4 college students who went to church with there parents choose to go to church on there own… why do you think that is? Do you not feel that all of this technology has made the apparent need for relationships decrease?

I can’t say that I have actually heard that statistic before, but it really doesn’t surprise me.  Many times kids go to church just because that’s what their parents do and a lot of the time it doesn’t ever really make it from something that they do to becoming their own faith and something that they are.   Then enter college and the freedom that comes along with it and no one is there to make you.   It happened to me (not quite the same reasoning, but still).  I think it comes down to whether or not they are able to make the beliefs their own instead of just what their parents told them.

As far as the technology goes I think that the technological world that we live in is what is causing the isolation, if you will. The more texting and chatting and emailing grow the less we feel the need to interact with humans all the time. I believe we were made to interact and those things were intended to be tools to help that, but in many cases they seem to be making it worse. I mean look at junior high girls with unlimited texting plans. They now are closer to each other and know more details about each other than they ever could before and its immediate!

Now add church to the technology mix. For sure online church isn’t perfect. No church is.  There are definitely some difficulties.  With some great timing considering I wrote yesterday’s post a couple days ago, on the LifeChurch.tv blog, Swerve, yesterday they talked about some of the limitations of having church online.  Their big things were baptisms, communion, accountability, and personal physical needs.  I am not sure that church online is the end all.  LifeChurch.tv (the one I know the most about) really pushes people to get into LifeGroups or start them.  They also encourage “watch parties”.  Church online could be just the start of your relationship with Christ.  Maybe after a while of going to church online you start going to a LifeGroup or find a church home.  I think that is the next step.  It’s just like joining the church isn’t the end.  There are still more steps to take.

So I guess my answer would be yes, technology in many ways does seem to be pushing people farther away, but I don’t think that our need for relationships could ever be gone.  And then when you add church online, BabelWith.Me, Twitter, Facebook, and more to it the world can seem to get farther away.  But I think BabelWith.Me, Twitter, Facebook, etc. are all tools to help people get connected.  If all we do is sit on those all day long then we are missing the point.  Same with church online.  It is a reaching tool but not the finish line.  Maybe one day we will figure out better ways to reach people, but I am just glad we are thinking outside the box to try to do so.

To reach people no one is reaching, you must do things no one is doing. ~ Craig Groeschel

I know that this may smudge some people’s Pumas, but  I’m gonna talk about it anyway.  I think my biggest beef with church in general is that we don’t adapt very well.  For too long we have been spending so much time trying to figure out what the culture of the times is doing and trying to be relevant.  For too long we have been trying to play a game of catch up and not understanding why we always feel behind.

I have been so guilty of this myself.  When facebook and MySpace exploded, I dodged!  I didn’t wanna be “that guy”.  Then one day when I was trying to figure out how to be relevant to the students in the youth ministry I was pastoring it hit me.  I have to be willing to try things and look to those newfangled gadgets the young whippersnappers were into.  Ok, so maybe I wasn’t your grandmother, but still I didn’t see it until that day.  Without a facebook or MySpace page I was not going to be able to really get into these kids’ world.  Ever since then I have been trying to at least give things a shot and now Twitter and blogs are a big part of my daily connecting, stretching and growing.

Unfortunately, it seems that many churches act like I did when I was trying so desperately to keep my world the same and not change it.  We aren’t willing to lead and end up waiting for someone else to do it and then try to catch up.  On the flip side, there are a great number of churches that are willing to trying anything and everything to reach the world.  There are some incredible things happening in many of these churches across America that I desperately pray catch on with the rest.  Cutting edge Biblical tools and systems that maximize efficiency and data are revolutionizing how many ministries work, learn and grow.  Churches are mastering the internet as it is undoubtably the medium of the future.

There are two things that I have experienced and think will play a HUGE part in creating culture and I’m seriously excited about!  One is an amazing chat tool called BabelWith.Me.  Now people from all over the world can speak their language and it be immediately translated into the language that you speak!  I have had conversations with people speaking Spanish, Arabic and Hebrew!  The other is Church Online.  I have spoken with many skeptics, but I have seen these online communities effects.  I have been to church with people from 25+ different countries while sitting at home in my underwear!

We as Christ followers need to step up and create the world’s culture.  God created us to be creative people.  We need to stop being the followers or worse yet just sitting still.  Let’s stop doing things because it is the way we have always done it and do things because that is the way people today are hearing and responding.  Let’s stop trying to be relevant and set culture.  The message of Christ is always the same, but the methods are what have to change.  I pray that I will have an open mind to trying new things and doing old things in new ways to reach out to the world.  I pray that I will be able to help my community think outside the box and reach out in a new way.  I pray that we as Christ followers will stop getting caught up in religion and start using the love of God to lead the world!

NOTE: First off, I want to make sure that no one thinks that I am supporting or promoting the use of the term nugget as referred to ANYTHING other than pieces of gold or fried chicken.  Just want to be clear.  Drives me crazy.

Moving on.  One of the main things I love about Twitter is the accessibility to the great, inspiring and thought-provoking tweets from many people that I don’t have contact with on a normal basis.  (For those of you that don’t know what Twitter is…well, sorry.  I’m glad you use the internet, though.  That’s step one.  After you figure out Facebook and realize that no one uses My Space anymore, then head on over to Twitter, check it out and follow me!)  It’s great.  If you so choose, you can read tons of thoughts and quotes (many times a little too much) from leaders like John Piper, Perry Noble, Craig Groeschel, Andy Stanley, Steven Furtick, and many more.  I recently saw a quote from Andy Stanley that I thought was great and want to focus on.

“When your memories exceed your dreams the end is near.”  I didn’t hear him say this and I don’t know the context he used it in, but I’m pretty sure he isn’t speaking to all the old people out there and referring to a lifetime of memories and buying the farm.  I think he is speaking to leaders of the church.  When our memories of how it used to be are more important to us or more prominent to us than the dreams that God has given us, our time in leadership is coming to an end.  I don’t ever want to get to the point in my ministry that I am so satisfied with what has already taken place that I am no longer looking forward to what God can and will still do!  I am NOT saying that we shouldn’t be excited that X number of people gave their lives to Christ last week.  We absolutely should!  But we shouldn’t be content with those people and think that we have arrived.  We are only being used by God as a part of something so much bigger than we could ever dream up!  So let’s be excited about the things that God has done, but realize that He still has so much more He wants to do!

Recently a friend of mine told me he was thinking about creating a blog.  He wanted to know what tips I had for him and how to make it good.  He isn’t the only person.  I actually had parent tell me a little bit about their plans to start a blog as well.  So, I though to myself, why not help them all out and post a blog with many of the tips and thoughts that I have about how to make your blog successful?!  So here goes!  I hope this helps you all out!

WordPress vs. Blogspot – I am not going to go into detail about which site is better because they both have their pros and cons.  Also, I have already done so with my post BS or WP? That Is The Question.  But I think the main thing to keep in mind is that while it isn’t hard to change links, people are lazy and don’t like to.  The best thing to do is to start a blog and stick with that same site.  If you have read my blog from the beginning you know that wasn’t the case for me.  Take your time.  Think through it.  Then get your site.

Posting – People seem to like to read blogs.  That’s good for us bloggers.  So capitalize on that and post!  Do it often.  If you do so regularly you will keep the traffic (readers) coming back all the time!  If you don’t post much, people won’t come back to it.  They may for a while, but eventually they will lose interest in your site and move on.

Find Your Niche – Many people like to read blogs on specific topics.  They go to certain blogs for different things.  They may go to Stuff Christians Like for their fill of laughing at the goofy things that Christians do.  They may go to Kara-Kae James‘s blog to read about the first year of marriage or weddings.  They may go to Swerve or Church Relevance to read about church innovation.  Or Stuff White People Like to laugh at white people.  Or maybe just to check out some really awesome pictures (probably my favorite site) at the Sexy People Blog.  Personally, I am not good at this.  My mind is completely too scattered and all over the place to really find a niche.  So I would be willing to bet that my blog isn’t reaching its full potential because of this topic specifically!

Link Love – Every blogger likes to see that people are reading their blog.  They also love to see that other bloggers have linked them too!  There are a couple good ways to do this.  You can link them in the posts as you talk about them as I have done in the Find Your Niche section.  This lets people follow the links to whatever you may be talking about.  There is also something the blog world calls Link Love or Blog Roll.  This is what I have right here to the left of this post.  If you look to your left you will see all the blogs from other people that I follow.  I wanna get them traffic and give them props too!  Get them to add you to theirs too!

Keep It Fresh – I’m not talking about just the topics or what you write about, although fresh and new posts are good too.  There are lots of ways you can keep it interesting.  Catchy titles are always good.  Many web sites show just the titles of a blog post so your title needs to be able to catch someone’s attention.  Use pictures!  Some people are like me and suck at reading.  We need pictures to keep our attention and give us a nice change of pace from reading words and then re-reading those words because we realize that we didn’t really read the words.  Change up the way your blog looks.  Some sites work better for this than others, but if you have a way to do this, change it every once in a while to give people a change of scenery.

Comments – Comments are second to hits as the blood line of your blog.  You want comments!  Good ones, bad ones, supportive ones and negative ones.  They are all good.  Do what you can to get people to comment on what you write.  Go to other blogs that you read and comment on their posts.  Many bloggers will in turn comment back on your blog.

Twitter/Facebook/MySpace – Use other social networks to drive traffic to your blog.  When you write a new blog post update your status on the other networks and let people know there is something new there!  People will come check out what is new!

Patience Is A Virtue – Be patient.  The whole world won’t find your blog the moment you start it!  It will take a little time to figure all of it out.  It will take people some time to get you linked or to bookmark your page.  Don’t get discouraged!  Keep writing!

For those of you that have blogs, what tips and thoughts would you add?  What has made your blog successful?

Well, here goes nothing.  I’m really not sure why I am starting this other than for the fact that I really don’t want to start on my next project at the moment and have to stop it without being able to finish by the time my band gets here.  As the title says, I am new to this, and frankly have always tried to keep away from this crap (i.e. – blogging, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter).  But I always get talked into joining them for some reason or another, except for this time.  Maybe this will be fun.  Maybe it will be a good way to pass the time or to pretend like I’m working.  I don’t know, but I think I want to give it a shot.