Review: The New UMC.org

Last night I attended a 'launch' gathering for bloggers of the new UMC.org. The web meeting itself was interesting - I simultaneously logged on and called in, and the meeting used Acrobat Connect to guide us through a presentation of the site while we listened to commentary over the phone from Matt Carlisle, Larry Hollon, and Stephen Drachler. The phone connection was a little iffy - feedback and random background noises made it hard to communicate clearly. After the presentation, there was time for Q & A - not many questions were asked - I didn't ask any myself - but I think in part this was because 1) The presentation was clear and the features are somewhat self-explanatory and 2) Until you get a chance to actually check out and use the new site yourself it is not clear what you might want to ask.

So - the new site...

The main feature of the new site is that it contains a social-networking component, which is being hosted/run by 7 Villages. Apparently, some annual conferences (that are cooler and more technology-hip than mine) have already been using 7 Villages, and the hope is that more UMC groups will begin to hook into 7 Villages as a major piece of their web ministries. I've made my page, as well as a 'village' for my annual conference. I'm pretty excited about this site - it's certainly no myspace - some of the features of myspace are missing, and member pages aren't as dynamic and unique, but I think this may change over time as people begin using the site more. Right now things are a little - bulky, I guess I would say - hard to navigate. But there is a lot of potential there, and I'm excited to see what direction it takes.

Other features: Overall, Hollon and Carlisle talked about their process for design and their focus on being user-oriented vs. institution-oriented. They've focused on making navigation easier, making connecting with people and ministries easier, and making local ministries more apparent and more at the center of attention.

Serve: Another new feature allows users to search for volunteer opportunities and for users to submit volunteer opportunities. I think this is a great idea. In the past, I've been searching for a VIM trip opportunity for myself, and found it difficult to find any place where all trips are listed. Still to work on here - the search features should be expanded. I want to be able to search for opportunities by date, or by age-group, etc. Carlisle (or Hollon, I can't remember) mentioned that a recent Christian Science Monitor article notes an increase in global volunteerism - 29% of people volunteered in 2005, an increase, a 30-year high actually. Interestingly, the age-groups volunteering: older teens, baby-boomers, and senior citizens. People want hands-on ways to make a difference.

Pray: You can now submit prayer requests online, which are directed to the Upper Room Living Prayer Center. A more interactive prayer center might be interesting, where people could respond to one another's prayers - a feature like this was shared at the Web-Empowered Church workshop at the Congress on Evangelism - anyone have a link to that feature?

Other features include a still-being-added-to Methopedia, which is a bit skimpy now, but could be quite useful when more articles are added, and a section for local church leaders, giving resources for different positions and ministries. Also, churches now have more freedom to enter their own information and images and details in the find-a-church feature, which is the most-hit feature in the site. I definitely need to update my church's page!

I think this is definitely a positive new direction for the site. A work in progress, for sure, but what isn't? Check it out, and let me know what you think.

Cross-posted at the Methoblog.

More Book of Resolutions Fun

I know, I know - you've been missing posts about the Book of Resolutions. We're soon getting ready for another meeting of the Book of Resolutions Task Force, and I have a couple of specific questions I'd like your feedback on.

1) Who should be allowed to submit a petition to General Conference? Right now, any member of a local UMC can submit a petition directly to General Conference. I think personally that this is a great asset to the UMC - we are the only mainline denomination where members can directly petition the general church for change. As much as people complain about the General Church not representing the local members, our denomination does have a way for individual members to act and react. But, that said, this ability also sometimes enables abuse or manipulation or at least just lots of extra work when it comes to petitions to deal with at GC. Some people write petitions dealing with every single paragraph of the Book of Discipline. Still, should restrictions be put in place? What kind? Should petitions have to be approved by some other body? An administrative council? A local UMW or UMM unit?

2) Publishing and copyright issues - Right now, the United Methodist Publishing House holds the copyright for the Book of Discipline and Book of Resolutions. This can be somewhat problematic - for example, general agencies can not post relevant resolutions on their websites. GBCS, whose work directly relates to many resolutions, can only reference little chunks, but can't post whole resolutions on the website. This seems not helpful at best - it makes it harder for people to see connections between what we believe (or say we do) and the work we do. Do you have any suggestions related to publishing and copyright?

I'd appreciate your thoughts.

**Also, a reminder - tomorrow (the 31st) is the last day (I think) to cast your vote over at BroGreg's 2006 Bloggy Awards page.***

Review: Blood Diamond

Last week I went to see Blood Diamond, and I've had a half-written review sitting in my draft posts since then. Ah, procrastination!

I never understand the kind of reviews Blood Diamond got, which are typical reviews that roll out for movies of this kind. The review goes: this is a bad movie because it makes you think too much, and has a clear message that it wants you to take away. I know what they're getting at, but is this such a bad thing? Is it bad for a movie's story to want to show you certain things, lead you to certain conclusions? Why is it so bad if a movie illicits feelings of guilt or responsibility for us? God forbid! God forbid a movie inspire us to action or changed behavior or even just new knowledge... Movies in particular that give us a look at anything going on in Africa are few and far between, so I will take one and the message that comes with it when I can.

This movie was excellent and moving and horrifying, horrifying because the things portrayed, while not autobiographical of anyone in particular, are based on fact. Particularly startling are scenes that look at child soldiers and the lives children endure in such tumultuous locations. Appalling.

Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou, and Jennifer Connelly star in Blood Diamond. DiCaprio continues to impress me with his acting. He just seems so natural in such varying roles. Hounsou is also excellent and he communicates so much with his facial expressions. Connelly has never been a favorite of mine - I've always thought she was a bit overrated, except, of course, in Labyrinth. I thought in the first scenes she was in in this film that I wasn't going to like her character - she was a bit stiff in her delivery. But by the end of the film, she really grew on me.

The plot of the movie is predictable, I guess you could say. But in a movie like this, I'm not sure an intriguing plot is the point. The point is to show you something you haven't seen. And in that, the movie was successful and compelling. I was reminded of how closed our eyes are to things that are going on across the ocean. And I don't think we want to see it - so maybe, in a small way, this movie helps.

Think Tank Reflections: 3 Dollars Worth of God

As I've mentioned before, I'm currently part of a 'think-tank' book study with my district superintendent and some area clergy. We gathered again yesterday, and my also-pastor uncle, Bill Mudge, shared a bit of this 'poem' with us (authored by preacher/writer Wilbur Reese):

3 Dollars Worth of God

I would like to buy 3 dollars worth of God, please
Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don't want enough of him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant.
I want ecstasy, not transformation.
I want the warmth of the womb not a new birth.
I want about a pound of the eternal in a paper sack.
I'd like to buy 3 dollars worth of God, please
How much God do you want?
You get as much or as little as you desire.

I really like this - not just because I think it echoes the unspoken sentiments of some people I encounter in my everyday ministry, but also because I think it says out loud my unspoken sentiments. How much of God do I really want? Enough to feel warm and fuzzy, or even to make me feel righteously indignant about injustices I see, but perhaps not enough to make me get off my butt and have a changed life...

How much of God do you want?

Reflections: Congress on Evangelism - Part 4 and Wrap Up

Here, finally, is my last set of reflections from the Congress on Evangelism.

Bishop Scott Jones was the Denman Lecturer at the event. I first met Bishop Jones in his pre-bishop days at General Conference 2000. Jones was the vice-chair of the legislative committee that I was on, Faith and Order, which in that quadrennium discussed all the sexuality issues. Though I disagreed with Jones' point of view, I did definitely appreciate his knowledge of the Book of Discipline, and his willingness to apply it consistently even when the responses it gave weren't necessarily supporting his personal point of view. Later, when I was interning at the General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns (say that five times fast), I read most of Jones' book, John Wesley's Conception and Use of Scripture , to write a paper on John Wesley and the authority of scripture. Of course, my paper made almost the exact opposite argument as Jones' book, but still, that's my prior experience of Bishop Jones.

I enjoyed Jones' presentation. He packed a lot in to a short amount of time, and moved quickly through his material - so quickly that I occasionally missed points I wanted to catch. Some highlights:

• Excellent congregations are churches that have a 'missional culture' rather than a 'club' mentality. They embrace tradition but not traditionalism - we celebrate "the living faith of the dead, not the dead faith of the living," he said, which I think he was quoting from someone else, but I didn't catch it. He talked about intention - things that don't just happen randomly, but happen because of intentional effort.


• He listed things he considered "not really essential" when it comes to faith - in other words, things we don't have to agree about or have a specific 'right belief' for: 1) A particular kind of experience of being 'born again' 2) Membership in a particular church 3) A particular doctrine of the second coming 4) A specific 'correct' mode of baptism or 5) A particular political ideology.


• Jones listed 10 things that we ought to know as Christians, and have some clear understanding of: 1) The Church is a spirit-filled missional community 2) The doctrine of a Triune God 3) Creation - not as in creation science, but our understanding of God as Creator and that God's role as Creator is the important thing to know about creation! 4) Sin 5) Repentance 6) Justification 7) New Birth 8) Assurance 9) Maturity 10) Grace. I really liked this list - very Wesleyan (naturally) but also one that I think hits on key things, as Jones says. And I think in these 10 things there is a lot more unity or at least common ground within our denomination than we realize, even when we have different expressions of such.

So, I enjoyed Jones' lectures. I did miss the last one, but I liked what I heard (except his dig at the lectionary, but I can let that go! :) )

I was a bit disappointed in the overwhelmingly white male leadership in the event. Yes, there were some women who were speakers and workshop leaders, and people of color, but overall, the event was pretty white-male dominated, even down to the musicians, at least what I saw of it. I did also find it a bit off-putting when I was interacting with one person who was very clearly positioning for a run for the episcopacy - very interested in self-promotion and politicking. Ah, I guess General Conference time is a-coming.... But, overall, I had a really good time - mostly, firstly, because of meeting other methobloggers. But I also did get a lot from the content of the event, the workshops and speakers, and I've find myself already using or referring to things I learned while away.

Interlude

It's been a quiet week on the blog because it has been a busy, busy week in real life, and a long week too. Today I led a funeral for a member of the congregation, and his death has hit our congregation pretty hard. I'm blessed to serve a church that really functions as a pretty close and supportive family. This surely can be a challenge from time to time - not always a group that is fast to change or try new things - but my congregation is pretty welcoming and friendly and fiercely supportive and protective of its 'children', our members.

So anyway, this was a hard funeral because the grief of the congregation is just so palpable. I've done lots of funerals since coming to St. Paul's, and there's a strange truth to the saying that funerals really tie together pastors and parishioners. But it also gets harder the longer I'm at St. Paul's. The longer I'm there, the more I've been a part of these peoples' lives, and visa versa, and the more difficult it becomes to say goodbye, for many reasons. I guess in a good way, one person's death is not just their death alone - it is an event that impacts lots of people in different ways, and though some of these ways may be positive in the long run, I grieve in particular the sadness that this death brings to so many people.

Guess that's all. Hopefully back to regular blogging this weekend. Heck, I still have one more set of Congress on Evangelism reflections to write!

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

* This week I went snow-shoeing twice this week. I got snow-shoes for Christmas (thanks Mom), but given the recent tropic climate in Central NY, there hasn't been any snow to speak of. So, as soon as there was snow, I hit the trails. I live right along the Erie Canal, which was a good place to try them out. (I was competing with snowmobilers who were also taking advantage of the weather.) If you can walk, you can snow-shoe, so they say, and this seemed pretty true to me. Also, if you are a person who doesn't like exercising, but you still want to workout, I highly recommend snow-shoeing. You don't feel like you're working hard at all, but then the next day, you will feel it in your muscles.

* Don't forget to go vote (right now!) for the Bloggys at Greg's. He's looking for more ballots, and the voting is open til the end of the month.

* I've been meaning to link to this article for a while, about a recent study that has found a link between high IQ and vegetarianism. Tell me something I didn't know already. Yet one more reason to take the veggie-plunge. I just celebrated 9 years as a vegetarian this January 1.