Ministry

Technologies for a startup church

March 24, 2011 by Keith Seabourn 2 Comments

Dad, I’m pretty sure I’ll be asked to set up the church local area network (LAN) when I join Imago Dei church. I’ll probably set up some type of internet connection. What do you recommend for our startup church for file sharing, printer sharing, and internet connection?

My son is finishing his degree from Dallas Seminary and will join a startup church in Phoenix. He’s pretty sure his electrical engineering training from Texas Tech means he’ll be the technology guy.

You may be surprised at my answer.

I suggested that he not build much technology infrastructure. I suggested that they use cloud-based technologies like Google Apps (docs, calendar), Dropbox, WordPress.com, and others. I suggested that they purchase an internet service for their church office but no servers. Just use a wifi network. Purchase a network-capable printer or use a less expensive printer with an inexpensive print server. For my home network, I use a D-Link DP-300U device I purchased on eBay.

How would you have answered the question?

Leading with Information

February 25, 2011 by Keith Seabourn Leave a Comment

“It is my observation that your organization doesn’t pay much attention to mission effectiveness.”

A business leader observed this with one of our top leaders in Campus Crusade for Christ. Many of us agree that he is correct. We pay attention to good relationships. We pay attention to strong spiritual life. We pay attention to good processes that win people to Christ, build them in their faith, and send them out.

But perhaps we don’t pay much attention to effectiveness. We do many things well. But we don’t measure our progress towards the mission very well.

It is hard to do. How do you measure transformed lives? Transformed communities? Personal holiness? Spiritual formation?

But it needs to be done.

That is why this group of people has met these last 3 days in Thailand. We have been tasked by Campus Crusade for Christ to help help develop a culture of using measurable information to make leadership decisions.

Our President, Steve Douglass, has said that we want to have the right information to make the right decisions. We do not necessarily need perfect and complete information. Rather, we need timely information.

We call it Leading with Information. And it needs to be done.

The internet is our mountain

February 15, 2011 by Keith Seabourn 2 Comments

I’ve been looking out over the beautiful mountains surrounding our conference room in Addis Ababa for the past several days. I’m sitting in the room training and strategizing on using the internet to expand our ability to reach everyone.

The words of Isaiah 40:9 have been a very real picture:

You who bring good news,
go up on a high mountain.
You who bring good news,
lift up your voice with a shout,
lift it up, do not be afraid;
Say to the towns,
“Here is your God!”

God was telling them to use what he had provided to accomplish his purposes. Use the high mountains to shout “Here is your God!”

During our time as God’s ambassador’s, God has given us the gift of the internet: social networks (Facebook, Twitter), simple websites (WordPress, Blogger), video and audio (YouTube, Vimeo), inexpensive phone (Skype). God is telling us:

Use these things God has provided
Lift up your voice. Be bold. Be “loud” in embracing these opportunities.
Do not be afraid
Show God to everyone

As one church leader said, Inhabit the digital universe with a believing heart and to help give a soul to the endless flow of communications on the internet.

Miracle appointments

January 30, 2011 by Keith Seabourn Leave a Comment

I read these quotes in the latest Rick Warren newsletter. These are GREAT!

I especially like the Wilkinson quote: God is … “planning miracle appointments on earth and looking for people who will volunteer to partner with him in delivering them.” Gives meaning to every person in my day. Do they need a miracle smile from someone who recognizes them as another human being. A miracle door held open by someone who isn’t thinking only of himself. A miracle conversation about Jesus by someone who overcomes his fears of how they might respond.

“I used to see Heaven as a place where I might live someday. Now I recognize that Heaven is also a place where God is busy right now planning miracle appointments on earth and looking for people who will volunteer to partner with him in delivering them.” ~ Bruce Wilkinson, You Were Born for This (Multnomah Books, reprint, 2011)

“Church is not a meeting or a place you enter. It is an identity that is ours in Christ. It is an identity that shapes the whole of life so that life and mission become ‘total church.'” ~ Total Church: A Radical Re-Shaping around Gospel and Community (Crossway, 2008)

“What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.” ~ American author Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Os Guiness on Globalization at Lausanne Congress

October 27, 2010 by Keith Seabourn Leave a Comment

I recommend to you Os Guiness’ presentation on globalization at the Lausanne Congress. It’s 15 minutes long. You can skip to the 2 minute point to get past the introductions.

Additional panel speakers are listed on the bottom right of the page in “Join related conversations”.

Some notes from my listening:

His understanding: Globalization is the process through which our human interconnectedness has now reached truly global proportions.

The deepest driver in globalization is information technology. Particularly the 3 “S” forces:
Speed: Communicate at instantaneous speed
Scope: Communicate with the entire world
Simultaneity: Communicate everywhere at the same time

What is happening in the global revolution, centered in information technology, has been described as significant as the rise of the wheel, the invention of the alphabet or human writing. Something that is transforming human experience at all sorts of levels from identity, to families, to work, to communities, to nations, to notions such as evil to religions and even for the sense of the [future] prospect of the human race.

Globalization is the single strongest face of the world in our time. We will wrestle with it throughout our lifetimes as the context for our living and witnessing.