sustain:if:able kiwi

copyright and blogs: updated

In the last 24 hrs I have had two of my blogs posts copied in their entirety on someone else’s blog. I’m not going to name them because this is not in any way a personal discussion. Rather it just got me thinking.

In a book world, you are allowed to “copy” 10% or a chapter from a book. Should there (is there?) such (voluntary) guidelines for the blog world?

Advantages of 100% copying
1. Ideas get spread. A person’s thoughts get multiplied. That is part of the new media revoluation.
2. Ideas get read more widely. Every blog audience is unique and so the readership of an idea increased.
3. Imitation is the highest form of flattery, so 100% blog post reproduction is a huge compliment.

Disadvantages of 100% copying
1. Words lose context. A blogpost gains layers of meaning because it is shaped by an author and by the surrounding posts. Reproducing a blogpost loses that context. (This is also the reason why I don’t use or like RSS feeds. They might be efficient but they strip context.)
2. The original author is more likely to be removed from any ensuing discussion (ie comments occur in another context and the original author is less likely to be aware).
3. Chinese whispers. You know that game you play where you form a line and pass a whisper down and laugh at how much it has changed. Similarly, reproducing a reproduction heightens the risk of not giving due credit or mixing up words from various bloggers.
4. Internet pollution. In an information rich world, should there be an ethical commitment to streamlining information rather than reproducing the same information?

I am not upset or anything. It just got me thinking. What do you think? What advantages and/or disadvantages do you see?

Updated based on comments:

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Wanting some short, sharp leadership focus?

Mark Strom is speaking for a day on Wise Leadership, Friday, March 24 at the Bible College of New Zealand (Christchurch). Mark combines a passion for Jesus, a PhD knowledge of the Bible, church ministry miles and years of leadership consultancy among business and educational spheres. It is a unique blend not be missed.

Details: Friday March 24, 9:30-12:30; 2-5 pm, Bible College of New Zealand, 70 Condell Ave, Christchurch. To register phone 3544270, chch at bcnz dot ac dot nz.

For overseas punters (included North Islanders 🙂 ), I might see if I can do a podcast with him on “leadership challenges for the New Zealand church.”

the good old days: yeah right

I am working on some notes for my Leadership class tomorrow.

Much Protestant thinking about church leadership is based on the assumption of the “good old days.” All we need to do is re-find the vitality of the “good old days” and we will be right.

However, closer examination suggests that the early church might not be as “ideal” as reformers and revolutionaries tend to make out. The “early church” of Acts involved fraud (Acts 5:1-10), misuse of church finances (6:1-7) and racial segregation (Acts 10).

As John Drane helpfully notes;

[We assume] that the [early church] were always ‘successful’ in the sense of large numbers of people responding to their message. This was not the case, and by including stories of small response [Acts 17:34], as well as of persecution and hardship [Acts 13:50], Luke emphasized that occasions such as the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-41) were few and far between, and his readers could expect that evangelism would generally be hard work with average results. Do Christians Know How to be Spiritual?, London, DLT: 2005. Note 32, p. 179.

We need to be wise in how we apply the so-called “good old days” idealism to our understandings of church and leadership today.

that moment you dread: updated

Last week I got that email I was dreading. “I was wondering if you had any copies of your PhD left that you got made into a smaller book size? If so could I purchase one of you?”

When I completed my PhD in 2004, I wondered if people would want copies, yet knew that it was cheaper to do a bulk run. So I offered a Graduation special, hoping that if their was sufficient interest, to do a bulk run and thus cut costs. I also took a bit of a punt and did a few extras, suspecting that requests might trickle in over the years.

They did. I sold my last extra a week ago. And then, you guessed it, I got that dreaded email, requesting a copy. So I am going to repeat the offer and see if I get enough requests to make it worth generating another run.

Update: Here’s one happy purchaser, who comments: “Go purchase its excellent and a valuable resource!”

Here’s the PhD details:

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books resourcing my mission

On Tuesday with the Christchurch Presbyterians and on Thursday with the Dunedin Baptists I mentioned two books that have greatly resourced my mission and my thinking in the last six months.

A FIRST RESOURCE:
Richard Peace, conversion in the New Testament. This book looks at conversion in the New Testament. It helped me clarify how evangelism is both process and event. The highlight is a wonderful chapter on what evangelism-as-process might look like in a local church. This chapter resourced my thinking and preaching (here and here). This chapter then helped resource and spark an “evangelism-as-process” forum we had at Opawa in October. About twenty people at Opawa gathered to ask “what would evangelism-as-process look like at Opawa?” We prayed and discussed and dreamed. As a result, the previous Sunday at Opawa we launched five “birthing units.” Five people from the October forum wanted to run with their “evangelism-as-process” dream. We introduced:
: intermediate community programme
: family film night helping families find God at the movies
: spiritual resourcing through journalling and naming ceremonies
: third-age programme, offering financial, health, relational and spiritual resources
: grief work among children.
These are ideas dreamed up among our faith community, resourced by my preaching and leadership, largely due to conversion in the New Testament.

A SECOND RESOURCE:
James Kemp, gospel according to Dr Seuss. This book explores gospel themes that emerge from the stories of Dr Suess. It provides creative sparks for the Take a Kid to Faith services at Opawa. Take a Kid services involve all-ages exploring faith together. This book, gospel according to Dr Seuss, gives me ideas that both engage kids and suggestion significant gospel themes.

Presbyterians don’t clap

I spent this evening with about 60 Presbyterians from around Christchurch. A very enjoyable evening. I was asked to provide some stimulus in terms of mission. So I talked about:
: the diversity of our contemporary cultures
: the diversity of response to Jesus at the resurrection (Peter ran, Mary loved, Thomas questioned and experienced, John thought)
: which raised the question; if Jesus met these people at their point of experience; what does it mean for us to be part of communities and spaces that similarly meet people at their point of experience?
: i then talked about the multi-congregational model we’ve developed at Opawa

and concluded with two concrete examples:
: espresso and
: take a kid to faith services.

Afterward they all clapped. I was then informed over a pleasant cup of tea that Presbyterians very rarely clap. So a good sign of an evening well spent.

Resources I used tonight, for those interested include:
: the multi-congregational model
: spoken words from the Lenten 40 visual resource.
: take a kid to faith services.
: espresso
: my out of bounds church? book.

(The above is quite similar to what I did with about 35 Baptists in Dunedin on Thursday evening.)

This is 40

I waited patiently for the band
In time they heard my cry.
I set my fingers to the net,
and made my bookings firm.

I will sing, sing a new song,
Not long to sing this song.

Vertigo to rock our land,
we’ll cheer our favourite band
Many Kiwis to see and hear
Thousands to sing and cheer

I will sing, sing a new song,
Not long to sing this song.

Now we light a flame for the Edge
And pray for all that’s dear

And we’ll sing, sing an old song.
How long to sing this song?

Link: U2 concert postponement

comment denial

Sorry if you have been trying to leave a comment anytime in the last 4 days. I have been overzealous in my despamming settings. I trust it is fixed now.

podcast: women, the emerging church and male cultures

Here is a podcast I did with Jenny McIntosh . In a first podcast Jenny describes the ministry of Spirited Exchanges as a ministry to those outside the church. Download file: ethos of Spirited Exchanges: 2 mins : 600K

In a second podcast Jenny and I talk about women and the emerging church. We identify three ways in which the emerging church can exclude women;
– in the way the Bible is used
– in not seeking representation in speaking and in leadership
– in continuing a “culture”, patterns of being and talking, that are male in nature.
Jenny and I then discuss one thing men could do and one thing women could do to increase the place of women in the emerging church. I’m biased but I think it’s one of the most helpful and challenging conversations I’ve had in a long time and I think anyone serious about the future of the emerging church needs to listen and ponder. Download file : women and the emerging church : 9 mins : 2.5 MB

Today is Saturday 11 March

Today is Saturday 11 March. There are people from Opawa Baptist;
: meeting in the foyer training in youth leadership
: meeting at the Christchurch Polytech to learn how to make coffee in the church coffee machine
: meeting in my office talking about global mission and prayer
: sleeping in over at the church tonight because they are fasting and raising money for mission through the 40 hour famine.

Photo via Jas

It’s a snapshot of our life as a church; diverse, caring, outward.

a day to be organised: UPDATE

Today is a day to be organised.

9-10 am; Pastoral leadeship and management lecture.

11-12:20 am: Working with a local community trust on leadership.

1:20 pm: Flying to Dunedin, where I spend the evening working with local churches in the area of mission (and doing 2 potential Letters from a dying church).

So today involves speaking among 3 different groups in 2 different cities. I learnt a word over last weekend “alignment”; the looking to make different parts of my life work together. Today feels a bit like “alignment;”
: what God is doing at Opawa; working into my speaking; working into a writing project
: the same content from my leadership lectures being spoken in two contexts.

UPDATE: I managed to meet all the deadlines and there seemed to be some good connection in various contexts. Peace to all the people I met!

passionate practices in Next Wave Magazine

The latest edition of Next Wave magazine includes an article based on a blog post I did back in February, on how we are applying passionate practices here at Opawa, on how we are trying to make the doing of our faith a community activity around which we shape our worship.

The Next Wave article is here.

Lenten practices: using 40 as a worship resource

Here’s a Lenten DJed worship resource, that morphs into a spiritual takeway. It’s from my weekend, where I used it three times; as a call to worship at the start of Brian McLaren, as an introduction to communion on Sunday morning and to focus our evening service on passionate practices during Lent.

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podcast: emerging church scene in New Zealand06

Here are some “voices” commenting on the emerging church scene here in New Zealand, recorded as part of the Brian McLaren weekend.

Here is Grace McLaren giving her impressions of the emerging church scene in New Zealand. Download Grace McLaren: (2 mins; 700K)

Here is Jason King, part of the team at Opawa, reflecting on the challenges of the weekend; Download Jason King: (1 min; 270K)