Muddled Middle or Extreme Center

My friend Clif has been sending me updates on the post below because, quite frankly, I think he knows I disagree with some of the points made in the underlying article. First let me say that in general I agree with Jones and Hamilton on the notion of the Extreme Center. The question is the center of what.

As a Methodist I am certainly not a fundamentalist, and yet I adhere to the supremacy of scripture. As a Methodist I tend to be less dogmatic on certain areas of doctrine like the issues around the end times or other such things, but as Methodists we are confessional in that we believe that Jesus actually was God Incarnate, He was punished for our sins, and He was resurrected. On those issues there can be no real debate. (They are forever ensuring as doctrinal standards in our restrictive rules and cannot be changed.) In other words United Methodists...To the extent that they adhere to their own constitution and stated beliefs, are firmly orthodox.

So my question is the middle means what? I'm not big on saying we are in the middle, I tend to refer to it as the Muddled Middle and think of it as the place where churches go to die. What Jones and Hamilton articulate is not the muddled middle but the extreme center. The word extreme is important here. It is recapturing and rearticulating our Wesleyan core with confidence that we know what is in fact true about God. Namely that He has the heart of a Father and that grace is at the center of His relationship to and with us, and that this grace can transform us. That's appealing to me.

Several things drew my attention in the article. First among them Roberts said,

"But they also want a pastor who didn't ordain himself. Or who changed his first name to Bishop. Or who makes up the church's theological standards to fit her own tastes, needs or desires."

I almost fell out of my chair laughing at this one. After all we are a denomination founded by a renegade Anglican who was kicked out of just about every church he ever preached in, and who violated church law by ordaining missionary bishops (Coke then Coke ordained Asbury) to oversee the Methodist movement in America. And why was Wesley persona non grata in so many churches in England? Because they felt he was "making up the church's theological standards to fit his own tastes, needs, or desires."

Second, the Via Media is not the golden mean of Aristotle Roberts seems to suggest, in fact it refers to a radical middle way between Catholic and Protestant theologies, namely the understanding of grace. The unique focus of Wesley is the idea that grace is both the un-earned favor (Protestant) AND the power to overcome personal sin (Catholic) ... Some would call that quite radical.

Then he said:

"They want a church that didn't rise up out of a vacuum, but that has instead grown up in a creative way from the deep and nourishing roots of history and tradition. They want organization, and order, and transparency that can be trusted. "

Well this is interesting, given that the Methodist movement started as a rebellion of sorts against the established doldrums of the Anglican Church. John Wesley's famous "The World Is My Parish" quote refers to his defiance of the Church of England's insistance that he not preach outside of his parish ... and especially not to the people in the streets. John threatened the organization, order, and transparency of the established church.

So I agree lets persue the Extreme Center, not the Muddled Middle ... Centered on Christ and his mission in the world. After all it is his Body.

So recapping ... Extreme Center-Sign Me Up Muddled Middle-spit it out!

Yep, we really ARE in the middle

Adam Roberts from Shepherd of the Hills UMC in Douglasville, Georgia describes how Methodists really are in the theological middle. In the post he quotes Adam Hamilton, our senior pastor. Scott Jones, the Methodist bishop in Kansas agrees, and refers to this position as "The Extreme Center."

United Methodist News Service article on podcasting

The United Methodist News Service just released a nice article about churches doing podcasting. It features a number of quotes from Peter Metz, Resurrection's Director of Communications.

Nerd test

Jason took the nerd test. I thought I was a nerd, but I must bow to Jason who scored a whopping 96!

A story of evangelism over the web

I don't know how often this happens, but at least here is one story of how the web was used to reach one person.

Top 20 church business admins in the US

Our boss, Brent Messick, is one of the top 20 church business administrators in the US. Congratulations Brent!

Is all this technology making us less human?

Tony Long of Wired News wonders how instant communications technology is impacting our humanity. I'm not fully endorsing his point of view, but it spoke to me today.

Revolution

Barna's new book, Revolution, is getting a lot of buzz, including a prominent mention yesterday in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal. (Thanks, Jeff, for alterting me to this.)

My mom first told me about the book earlier this week, and offered to pay for a copy. Woo hoo! So I guess this will be on my reading list soon.

Word of the podcast is spreading

Jeff is listening to our sermon podcasts and is telling his friends. Jeff, we're happy you're listening and even happier you think it's cool enough to tell your friends.

Typo3 makes #1 on Google with "Content Management"

The creator of the Typo3 CMS posted on this discovery yesterday in the typo3.dev newsgroup at news.netfielders.de.

Searching Google.com for "content management" you will find, at least today, Typo3 is the top result above PostNuke and Vignette.

I also noted this on the Web Empowered Church Developer Forum. To read how WEC is utilizing Typo3 in their ministry to the world, check out webempoweredchurch.com.

Web Developer position open

At Resurrection we've had a position open for a web developer since August. As a hiring manager in the IT field, this is the first time in more than four years that I've had difficulty filling an IT job. See my previous post about how the world has changed. Now Scoble posts this morning that every company he knows is hiring like crazy. The IT labor market has changed for sure.

I just now realized that I've been remiss in not posting our job opening here. Are you a skilled web developer who is a passionate follower of Christ and would consider a ministry position at Resurrection? Do you know someone like that?

Here's the job posting:

Blend your passion for following Christ with your technical talents at one of the top mainline Protestant churches in the United States.

Outstanding opportunity for an early-career IT professional to gain experience in all aspects of IT in this multi-functional position. Work in the energetic IT department of a large and fast-growing church in Kansas City, reporting to the Director of IT. Develop both .NET web applications connecting to existing SQL Server databases and simple web applications that integrate with the TYPO3 open source web content management system. Develop new web page templates for TYPO3, support line-of-business applications including TYPO3, Shelby church management system, and the mass outbound e-mail system. Work directly with end users.

Candidate should have two years current web development experience using the Microsoft platform (Visual Studio, Internet Explorer, IIS, ASP, SQL Server, .NET). The position will require technical proficiency in HTML, CSS, XML, and SQL. Should be familiar with TCP/IP, HTTP protocols, object-oriented and structured programming, Windows 2000/2003 user administration, and SQL Server Enterprise Manager.

Familiarity with the open source platform (Linux, Apache, PHP, MySQL) and graphical web design skills are a plus.

If you are a disciplined software engineer, have the personality to work with non-technical end users, are committed to personal spiritual growth, and desire to serve God in a ministry position, this could be your calling. Please email your resume to kcesi@email.com, then call Cork Kurlbaum at 913-685-8383.

Looks like we better upgrade Skype right away

Skype has a critical security flaw. You need to upgrade to the newest version, 1.4.0.84.

Gutenburg Goes to Church

In a new post called "Gutenburg goes to church," Internet evangelist Scott Reese imagines the early resistance Gutenburg might have encountered when he wanted to use his new printing press to print Bibles. Those of us who develop, refine, and deploy new technology are faced every day with the kinds of issues Gutenburg must have faced as well.

Church Management System comparison

In this month's issue, Christian Computing Magazine compares 40 Church Management Systems in a familiar product evaluation matrix format. Full contact info on all 40 vendors is provided at the end of the article. If you're looking to buy a CMS or to replace your existing CMS, having a list of 40 vendors with contact info all in one place will speed your search significantly.

Resurrection Podcast is Live

Resurrection's Weekly Sermon podcast is now live. Here's the link to our feed: http://www.cor.org/index.php?id=2485

Read on to learn how we built the podcast and publicized it to the world.

We decided to base our podcast feed on the RSS 2.0 capability that is built in to the ttnews plugin in TYPO3. First, we had to get ttnews working properly and generating the RSS feed. Then we had to modify ttnews to make it add enclosure tags to the feed for the MP3 files. While we were at it, we decided to add the iTunes-specific tags as well.

Next, we had to think about the user experience. We know that podcasting is a new technology that is only understood well by techies and other early adopters. When we release this capability to the 7,000+ weekly visitors to our website, how will the non-techies react to it? Will they be confused? Intimidated?

Podcasting technology is relatively immature and lacks a large installed base of podcatchers. iTunes is the only major media player that can act as a podcatcher. Also, Apple is the leader in integrating the website, music store, client software, and portable player device. Accordingly, we wanted to take advantage of Apple's market leadership, but without endorsing iTunes or implying that other podcatchers wouldn't work just as well.

So we did register the podcast with the iTunes Music Store. This is really a pain in the rear. First, you can't do this on the iTunes website. You have to go to the Music Store inside the iTunes application. Within the iTunes application click "Podcasts" and then "Submit a podcast." Then, you need an Apple ID. Then you need to sign up for the music store, which requires full contact information and a credit card as though you are going to download songs, even if you never intend to do that. (This whole time we're thinking, "we just want to register our podcast with your stupid directory!")

We're a bit confused about the podcast metadata you supply when you register with iTunes. Once registered, there doesn't seem to be any way to edit your registration. Yet, Apple does seem to pick up changes to the channel information in our feed. So perhaps it doesn't really matter what information (such as genre, author, etc.) you give when you sign up? Perhaps the only thing that really matters is the channel information? Also, be aware that Apple is caching the channel information. We don't know how frequently they poll the RSS feed for new information, but there doesn't seem to be a way to ping it to let it know your feed has changed (Feedburner is great about this).

Finally, we had to figure out how we were going to explain this whole podcasting thing to non-techie site visitors. We've done a bunch of work on this and posted some pages on the site. We don't know yet whether it is going to be adequate or whether further changes will be necessary. You can see our subscription page here and our FAQ page here. We borrowed the "Subscribe with iTunes" button from Brian Bailey. Thanks Brian! We hope you don't mind.

Update
The final test was asking my wife to subscribe. Watching her try and fail at this was a humbling experience for me. I had to tweak all the text on the subscription page before I got something that made sense to her. Once I wrote some text that she could understand, she downloaded iTunes. Then she had trouble installing it. When she finally got it installed, clicking the "Subscribe with iTunes" button didn't work. So I suggested a reboot (thinking there might be something not registered correctly from the installation). Still no luck. She finally gave up on that and tried subscribing manually. This was a disaster too. This whole time I'm thinking, "I sure hope this podcasting thing doesn't generate an avalanche of support calls! Ugh!"

Bottom line: it seems that podcasting is great for early adopters, but has a ways to go before it will work well for the masses. Feel free to comment if you think differently.

Evangelist for two churches at the same time?

Brian Bailey of Fellowship Church explains why they require their staff people to be members of the church. I totally understand the rationale behind this, but of course, I have my own unique perspective on it, which I shared in a comment to Brian's post.

Make the right thing easy and the wrong thing hard

Kathy Sierra of Creating Passionate Users has a great new post where she illustrates how great product design makes it easy for the user to do the right thing and difficult for them to do the wrong thing.

Simple principle, but difficult to always practice. For example, we know we have some usability issues on the Resurrection web site. We need to make some improvements to make it really great for users, but we can't do it all immediately. Is the first step admitting you have a problem?

Yahoo! RSS Research

Quoting Richard McManus:

"During the Web 2.0 Conference Yahoo! released a research report on the takeup of RSS. The resulting white paper was entitled RSS - Crossing into the Mainstream, which is a good indication of both the findings of the research and what Yahoo! is attempting to achieve in their use of RSS. The main points in the research were:

* Only 12% of the Internet population has heard the term RSS
* Only 4% of the population knowingly uses RSS
* 27% of the internet population uses RSS but doesn’t know that it's called RSS."

So we have a ways to go before RSS is truly mainstream. No real surprise there, but it's good to know where we are in the adoption curve.

More good local press

In his October 13 editorial, Steve Rose, the publisher of a local newspaper, gives Resurrection's Senior Pastor, Adam Hamilton, a very positive review.

Quoting from the piece: "Having seen Hamilton live and after hearing samples of his prior services, I can only say he is one of the most dynamic and inspiring speakers I have ever heard. His words are captivating, and his messages are very powerful."

That's awesome. Thanks Steve!

In an e-mail to the congregation, Adam had this to say in response: "First, I am grateful for the kind words of Steve Rose. He and his family are community leaders who have helped shape Johnson County in many wonderful ways. I was humbled and honored by his comments. I did want to offer two corrections to the column. The first has to do with the title; I am grateful to be the founding pastor of this congregation, and I thank God every day for the privilege of being your Senior Pastor, however I do not believe this is my church; this church belongs to God. If I had not been assigned to start this church, I am confident God would have called someone else; and if something were to happen to me, I am confident God would have someone in mind to take my place.

The second correction I would make would be to this paragraph, "The idea is to be inclusive and inoffensive. There's usually no talk about controversial subjects such as abortion and homosexuality." I think I know what Steve meant; I think he was contrasting us with some churches who seem to preach on these issues, particularly homosexuality, incessantly. As you know, we do talk about difficult issues, including abortion, homosexuality, stem cells, the war, racism, and other critical issues of our time. Though these are not our primary focus -- our primary focus is on helping people become deeply committed Christians -- our faith does touch on all of these issues. On some we take a clear stand; on other issues my aim is to help you to hear and understand those Christians on either side of the issue, and then to encourage you to think about these issues from a Biblical, pastoral and theological perspective. After attempting to model how we might listen to the claims of those with whom we disagree, I tell you how I see the issue. My book, Confronting the Controversies, is an example of how we've done this at Church of the Resurrection. I believe the Gospel will give offense at times -- it will be a stumbling block. I used a quote in Tom Leathers' funeral that captures one dimension of preaching -- "to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable." I think that describes how I see part of the task of preaching at the Church of the Resurrection.

I am grateful to Steve Rose for his positive words about our church and for his leadership in our community."

Why blogging scares a lot of bosses

In a recent post, Microsoft's Robert Scoble helps us understand not only the benefits of blogging but also why this brave new world scares a lot of bosses.

Quoting from the post (referring to the this post, this post, and this post by various Microsoft bloggers) :

"This conversation is probably scaring so many people at other companies away from blogging. Is your company ready for this kind of conversation between an anonymous blogger and executives (and guys seven levels down like me?)

Most aren't.

Me? This is cool, but it's not where the big corporate payoff in blogging is (and there is a payoff for having a Mini-Microsoft -- he's getting read and causing conversations both internally and externally that are very healthy).

No, the big payoff is because now we can have a conversation with customers without having any intermediaries (and, thanks to Google you can find us!). I see evidence internally every day about just how big a deal this is."

I'm confident these lessons from Microsoft's bloging in the business world should apply to us in the church world too. Authenticity is absolutely critical for us to be effective, particularly with the post-moderns. Every day Microsoft is more and more transparent. As Scoble points out, it probably scares many people, but customers love it. Microsoft is showing us how transparency is worth the risks; and they play by some rules that help manage those risks. Can we in the church adopt a few basic rules and open up too?