BookPastor >> "Old Paths, New Power" (Daniel Henderson)

This review was first published at Panorama of a Book Saint on Feb 8th, 2017.

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TITLE: Old Paths, New Power: Awakening Your Church through Prayer and the Ministry of the Word
AUTHOR: Daniel Henderson
PUBLISHER: Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2016, (272 pages).

It's another New Year and time to make new resolutions. It is also tempting to ask ourselves what is the newest, the latest, and the greatest to shore up our work or activities planned for the year. With regard to the Church and the Christian life, it is doubly tempting to incorporate fresh new ideas to renew or revitalize the community. Instead, this book stops us on such a track and forces us to examine old paths instead of seeking new ways. It makes us ponder at the tried-and-tested disciplines instead of relying on the latest and the most novel options available today. Two words sum up the old disciplines needed: Prayer and Bible. It is most timely and timeless. Timely because of the relevance to the needs of today; Timeless because it is applicable throughout the ages. By re-examining the tenacity of the faith and practice of the early Church. While many of us in the modern Church tend to pray in the context of ministry, the early believers minister in the context of prayer. The difference is stark because modern believers treat prayer as a means to an end and practice it only as a department of the overall ministry. This is all wrong. It should be prayer as the context of all ministries. The same applies for the ministry of the Word. This principle is taken from Acts 6:4 which is about how the apostles said: "will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word."

Midweek Meditation: A Musical Peace in Love's River (Audio)

TITLE: Love's River: Calming Music, Soothing Music, Background Music, Dinner Music, New Age Music, Spa Music, Yoga Music, Relaxing Piano Music, Meditation Music
ARTIST: Laura Sullivan

This is a beautiful album for meditation and reflection, especially after a long day's work or when needing to find space to take a break, to rest, and to let our minds linger on spiritual thoughts. Laura Sullivan is an artist that has won a music emmy back in 2013.

Beginning with "Secrets of the Deep," one finds waves of piano melodies allowing one to swim freely without limit. The next song, "Wishing on a Dandelion" sparkles with ripples of hope and happiness. With the piano leading the way, one can follow the bright melody with lightly spirits. Then comes "Awakening to Love" which slows the mood down. Like waking up in the morning, one slowly allows the sleepy soul to awake, and to welcome the beginning of the day, the start of fresh hope, and to embrace the day or the night that is to come. The song "Blessed" is a nice reminder of how thankful we ought to be, for the ability to exercise our human senses, and to give thanks. "Holding Heaven" is a music of hope that much good and joy will come in due time. In "Moonlight Passage," we travel once again through the moods of ups and downs of life. The melancholic and sometimes haunting melody not only slows us down from the fast-paced lifestyle of the modern world, it gives us room to pace ourselves to human speed rather than technological rush. In "Love's River," Sullivan combines two piano playing styles together that reminds me of two persons in love. Like a flowing river, two persons dance with each other to learn, to move, and to enjoy each other's passions together. The song "Calligraphy" is the longest piece in the entire album. Like a musical poem, it flows like a musical essay with stanzas and choruses.

The whole album deals with the journey metaphor of life. Like waters reflecting light, the music reflects what life is essentially about. We need to take stock of what we can do and cannot do. We must learn from our mistakes, and celebrate our victories. In between is where most of us live in. The period of waiting can be a hauntingly anxious time of nothingness. During such times, we need help to be patient and to wait. Learning to rest and relax is becoming very challenging in our world of results and high expectations. We need to learn to slow down so that we can catch a breath. This kind of music ushers us into a mood of meditation and thankfulness.

I warmly recommend this album for your reflection. Though it is considered as "New Age," I would prefer to call it, meditative music for the soul. Learn to distinguish between good music and bad music, rather than all other kinds of differentiation. This album is good music.

conrade

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This album was provided to be free by the producer in exchange for an honest review. 

BookPastor >> "Love Without Walls"

This review was first published on 28 June 2012 at my book blog, "Panorama of a Book Saint" here.

conrade

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TITLE: Love Without Walls: Learning to Be a Church In the World For the World (Leadership Network Innovation Series)
AUTHOR: Laurie Beshore
PUBLISHER: Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012, (160 pages).

This book tears down vertical walls and builds horizontal bridges. It erases the mental barriers of "I can't" by replacing them with "In God, we can." Instead of trying to make needy people feel needier and dependent on handouts, Beshore argues powerfully for a change of "giveaway" mindset toward an empowering mentality. Far too many churches have adopted a "giveaway" culture that essentially disempowers the poor and the needy from helping themselves. The major disconnect is often the helpers, despite their good intentions, seeing people as problems to be solved rather than as people to relate with. This is the crux of a walled outreach. Such outreaches more often than not puts one's ministry and one's mission primary, and everyone else becomes secondary.  As a result, many church outreach programs feed into a "culture of poverty" which unfortunately causes a "lack of a sense of self-fulfillment, and a lack of a sense of hope or a sense that things can get better." Thankfully, Beshore goes on to provide renewed understanding of how outreach can make sense to the helpers and the people to be helped. One such initiative is the four-step "development funnel."

The first step is "Expose" where volunteers are need to take a fresh look at the usual excuses for not doing any outreach. When the convictions are there, busyness is not an excuse. Neither is lack of qualifications, or uncertainty about what to do. When one knows the whys, one will creatively find out the hows.

The second step is "Enfold." This means partnering with a member of the people we are trying to help. Not only is it able to help churches and ministries gain a deeper first hand understanding of the real needs and solutions, it gives churches a chance to build relationships and disciple the leading members of the community.

The third step is "Engage." This means that volunteers learn how to engage and when to disengage. When engaging, one learns to take ownership in learning and in relating. In disengaging, one learns how to let the people learn to help themselves. Through encouragement and engaging, one connects with the community meaningfully.

The fourth step is "Empower." This remains the key purpose of any outreach program. We cannot simply sit back and relax after firing a bullet of goodwill. We cannot behave like bombardier pilots who instead of "Bombs away," call out "Food and clothing dumped away!" Empowering people requires a sharing of biblical principles of why we do what we are doing. It is a process of learning, of giving, and of sharing.

My Thoughts

I am all praise for this book. It is small enough to read through quickly but my advice is "Don't." The book is soaked with much painful experience and valuable tips for outreach that we need to spend time soaking in learning experience. Patience is needed to understand the communities we are trying to help. Leadership is needed to navigate the highs and lows of outreach efforts, of recruiting people, and of training future leaders.

The constant refrain I am hearing is this. Outreach is not about programs. It is about people. That is why we must place relationships before any giveaways, involving people up close and personal instead of isolating them as Me-Giver, You-Receiver relational dichotomy. It takes a change of attitude to say that we, the potential givers, are actually the biggest beneficiaries of outreach. This ought to humble us to build more bridges, and at the same time tear down our walls of isolation. Only then, can we truly say our love is true. Outreach is about building bridges with planks of love. We cannot look at the gulf before us and get discouraged into non-action. Instead, we need to realize how deep God's love is for miserable old me, so that we can share the love of God, as one beggar showing another beggar where to find food.

Beshore's book needs to be read by anyone interested in outreach. For that matter, if a Church is made for the benefit of others, I believe it is required reading for anyone who is a leader in any Church. My praises for this book are not only filled to the brim, it is overflowing with gratitude to Beshore and the powerful ministry of Mariners Church.

Rating. 5 stars of 5.

conrade

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This book is part of a blog tour with EngagingChurchBlog that runs from 25-29 June 2012, and is provided to me free by Zondervan without any obligation for a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

Kregel Blog Tour: "Praying with the Grain"

This review is part of a blog tour with Kregel Publications for the week May 21-25, 2012. Published simultaneously on my book blog, "Panorama of a Book Saint."


conrade

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TITLE: Praying with the Grain: How Your Personality Affects the Way You Pray
AUTHOR: Pablo Martinez
PUBLISHER: Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2012, (176 pages).

Why is prayer so easy for some people, and difficult for others? Why are some people uncomfortable about praying in public? How do I learn to pray with pleasure rather than pressurize ourselves to pray? Is there a way to pray in a way that befits how we are created, like our personality types? What about prayer as a psychological projection? Are Christians imagining a divine person in their prayers? These questions and many more are tackled in this very insightful book about personality types, psychology, psychotherapy, Christianity, temperaments and how prayer can be therapeutic and also spiritual.

In this book, Pablo Martinez describes the psychology and the apologetics of prayer. In Part One, "The Psychology of Prayer," Martinez highlights three factors that directly affect our praying, namely; our temperament, our personality, and our circumstances. All of these are not separate entities but play varying roles according to the interactions of our mental, emotional, and spiritual being. For temperament, Martinez uses Carl Jung's classification of two general attitudes (introvert, extrovert) and four psychological types (thinking, sensation, feeling, intuitive). For instance, introverts tend to prefer praying in private while extroverts are comfortable in public prayer gatherings. Introverts prefer meditation while extroverts work better through activities. The author is careful to point out that such classifications are simply tendencies rather than totalities.

Psychological Profiling

Jungian Four Personalities

On the psychological profile, Martinez believes that while everyone exhibits a little of thinking, of sensing, of feeling, and of intuition, only one trait is dominant. The problem occurs when there is an imbalance of all four to the point that this dominant trait grows at the expense of the rest. The healthy condition is for the dominant trait to be strengthened and not undermine the rest. For example, while we can cultivate our strengths, it is good to be aware of our weaknesses. We can train ourselves in such a way to train ourselves accordingly, knowing our psychological tendencies. This helps immensely when it comes to relationships. With this understanding, thinking types tend to be more objective over the subjective. The Apostle Paul and Martin Luther are thinking types.

At the other end of thinking, there is the Feeling types that use emotions more expressively than the thinking types. Feelers are more sympthetic to social causes and reactive to injustice they see. For them, they step forward with heart first. The biblical character, Jeremiah is an example of Feeling personality.

Then there is the Intuitive type that sees the possibilities, contemplate better, and more apt toward the presence of God in prayer. Mystics like Theresa of Avila, St John of the Cross, are known as intuitives. The missionary David Livingstone is also another example. Intuitives shun methodical praying, preferring freedom in approaching God.

On the other end of the vertical spectrum is the sensation which responds more readily to external senses. For them, perception is key in their seeing, their hearing, their touching. While they can enter into prayer quite readily, they are also susceptible to the ups and downs of everyday living.

The three recommendations that Martinez gives are the need to accept ourselves as we are, accepting one another, and to strike a "temperamental balance."

The rest of Part One deals with how the various temperaments and personality types interact with regards to overcoming difficulties and therapeutic element of prayer.

Apologetics of Prayer

Part Two addresses two basic questions. The first is about psychology and prayer. The second covers the comparison between Christian prayer and Eastern meditation. In it, Martinez engages a challenging aspect of psychological versus prayer, painstakingly distinguishing one from the other, clarifying the purposes of each and how they can complement, not supplant each other. There is a powerful explanation that prayer is not another form of "self-suggestion" because of three factors. First, unlike self-suggestion, the purpose of prayer is not evasive from reality, but seeking a known God. Second, the object of prayer is not a hysterical or "uncritical compliance" designed to please man but a journey toward God in peace, order and balance, zeal and fire.Third, the duration of prayer outruns that of self-suggestion. Prayer is also not behaviorism which is essentially us growing out or away from something, but growing in love more toward God. Martinez finishes his book with a brief comparison of Christian prayer and Eastern Meditation in terms of differences in purpose, means, and how it leads to valuing the person concerned.

My Thoughts

This book is rich. It dives in deep into explaining the psychological and temperamental traits of a person without becoming lost in the psychotherapy world. In fact, the author makes it a point to constantly check back on Christian principles and biblical perspective of it all. Even the analyses of each personality profile are measured carefully. It is clear that the author does not want to paint a picture of a one-size-fits-all scenario for all readers. Instead, the author invites us to consider the different personality types, understand the nuances, and the importance of depending on the Holy Spirit to show us ourselves. He deals with some of the most difficult questions asked.

1. Is pain a spiritual or psychological problem?
2. How do we make sense of feelings in prayer and intercession?
3. Is it ok to ask for things for ourselves?
4. How do we know God's will?
5. What to do with bad thoughts in our praying?
6. How do we avoid over-analyzing things when we pray?

What Martinez is trying to drive at throughout the book is that prayer is not only necessary but a vital return back to the first relationship we have with God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Everyone of us can pray, albeit differently. The book is more descriptive rather than prescriptive. What is missing are some basic questionnaires that can help readers at least to get some snapshot of their own tendencies. For after reading and appreciating the different prayer personality types, I am still not sure where I am. Moreover, while Martinez affirms the unity of the mental, the body, and the spirit, his wholesale adoption of Jungian concepts makes it challenging for the reader in knowing how to integrate them intuitively. It gives me a feeling of the book being easy to understand but difficult to apply.

What is more helpful in the book is the way Martinez answer the various questions regarding overcoming difficulties in prayer, prayer and psychology, eastern meditation and Christian prayer, and the various apologetics. If that is your area of interest, this book is a must read.

Rating: 4 stars of 5.

conrade

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This book is provided to me free by Kregel Publications without any obligation for a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

Cultivating INLINE Behaviour in an Online World

One of the things that is needful in our interconnected world is the wisdom on how to use social media. There are tonnes of books that talk about the steps to get onto social media, techniques on gaining followers, advertisement snippets, and all kinds of methods to up one's profile in world gone online. As I ponder on the new world, I cannot but help think about what Jesus will do and say if Internet and social media had been available back then in the first century. Remember John 17:15 where Jesus says: "My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one"? Chances are, the online world will be included with the "world" used by Jesus. How then do we practice being in the world but not of the world? Being online is one of the most recognizable marks of our current era. Think about this. According to Toni Birdsong and Tami Heim (incidentally, they met on Twitter), people spend 110 billion minutes a month on social media. Some have even used the Internet platform as a way to evangelize. One popular website talks about 4 principles for 21st Century evangelism.

1. Think Digital
2. Think Social
3. Think Mobile
4. Think Storytelling.

@StickyJesus

I have no beef against any of these Internet evangelists. They all stem from a deep love to share the love of God in Jesus. My main concern is whether the drive can be sustained. I am wary of the race to try to keep up all the time, telling ourselves we need to connect constantly with newer technologies at greater speed using many different kinds of devices. I admit. After the initial novelty and fanfare, I get bored. I become more exhausted than excited, more skeptical than hopeful. Don't get me wrong. Birdsong and Heim are right on so many counts. They are correct in identifying the potency of the new social media platform. They are spot on with regards to the need to understand the new world of Twitter, Facebook, and all things social media. They are to be commended to bring a sense of Jesus awareness in a media that is secular and dangerously filled with all kinds of worldliness. Many other things they have written deserve our attention.

• We may be fixated on social media updates but only Jesus sticks to our hearts, if we allow Him to
• Social media may be filled with glittering images, but there is only one true light
• The world constantly changes, but the love of God never changes.
• Jesus came not to inform but to transform us
• Being holy is better than being awesome
• God has given us a mission to share the gospel, including using online means

Readers can find more updates about their book and resources at www.stickyjesus.com. 

My Thoughts

It is one thing to be fascinated by the online world, but we need to recognize the motivation that leads us, not the fascination that drives us. The online world is mostly glittered with images and visual stimulation that is temporal and fleeting. All it takes is a click of a LOGOUT icon, or an Internet disconnect, or a power trip, and our entire online world gets darkened and blacked out. For anyone who spends hundreds and thousands of hours online, there is a risk of substituting visual images for real images, digital replacement for an analog life, and an electronic version instead of a real version. 

For me, I believe we need to take on an "inline" mentality when working or thinking about online/offline circumstances. Being inline means we are constantly aware of two things. Our audience as well as ourselves. We know the limits of social media, what it can and cannot do. Being inline requires us to have an astute knowledge of expectations placed on our online and offline relationships. Being inline means we speak in a manner that is understood, and we listen in a manner that is respectful. It is one thing to open a social media account and start typing away our own life. It is yet another to observe an "inline" attitude, to share according to what the Spirit is prompting us to.

Being inline means we notice our own online patterns, and constantly seek to ask ourselves how that glorifies God, and how they lead to loving our neighbours more. How then do we grow our inline behaviour in an online world? Let me suggest 5 ways. I will use the acronym SPACE as a way to incorporate an inline mentality in an online world.

1) S = Sabbath

Make a point to rest ourselves from the online world. Being connected all the time is not healthy emotionally. Learn to work six days and rest one day. We will not only do our own minds a favour, we enable our family members to look forward at least to one day a week where our eyes will be on anything other than the computer, the tablet, or the smartphone screen.

2) P = Prayer

The online world is largely a visual stimulant. We are easily attracted by moving Youtube clips or sound bites that try to garner our attention. Learn to shut our eyes on a periodic basis and to utter a short prayer. Think of God. Read Scripture. Remember the things of God as written in the Word of God. Intercede for one another.

3) A = Addiction-Awareness

The online world tempts us with the addiction to do more rather than to be more of ourselves. We are tempted only to share positive sides of our lives. We keep most of our negative parts to ourselves. We can easily become addicts to popular videos that have gone viral, or are constantly on a search for articles that give us an adrenaline rush. One quick tip with regards to checking our addiction is to record how many times per day we are checking or giving updates on our social media account. A few times a day is good and healthy. Many times each hour may be way too much.

4) C = Community

Ask not what the Internet can do for you, but what you can do for the community THROUGH the Internet. This is perhaps one of the least practised in an Internet world of I-Me-Myself. Social media is an insidious platform for self-promotion.  From personal updates on our blogs to self-publishing of books, almost everything revolves around ourselves. Learn to use our social media resources to share about the needs of the world around you, or the communities you are in.

5) E = Exercise

Last but not least, one of the biggest problems for an online world is that we have a lopsided use of our body parts. Our fingers do most of the typing while our feet becomes more or less stationary. Our eyes are constantly bombarded by visual images and digital pixels while our ears receive silence. Our bodies are often in a seated position more than any other positions.

Take a walk. Smell the roses. Listen to the birds. Breathe in fresh air from the park.

Let us learn to incorporate an inline behaviour by giving ourselves the SPACE we need.


Conrade Yap, (Dr), D.Min.

A Simplistic and False Dichotomy

Currently, there is a video that has gone viral. It hypes up the age-old maxim of "Religion is Bad, while Jesus is good." Made by a young online evangelist called Jeff Bethke, it contrasts and compare the traditional understanding of religion with the desired brand of Jesus faith. This is remarkably similar to the "I'm not religious, I'm spiritual" movement. According to the Christian Post, the video has generated more than 66000 comments on the Youtube page alone. As of today, it has surpassed the 10000 mark to reach 102,167 comments.



A) Some Online Responses

Many responses have been posted on social media like Facebook and on blogs. Bloggers like Elizabeth Esther highlights 8 erroneous claims in the video, calling it a 'thinly disguised anti-Catholicism.' Others like Morgan Guyton prefers to probe the reasons behind Bethke's rant. Unwittingly, Guyton too performs a dichotomy. Instead of religion-is-bad-and-jesus-is-good argument, Guyton elevates 'what-jesus-has-done' over 'what we believe.' My friend, Joshua calls the dichotomy as plain 'stupid'

Other notable responses include two postings by Kevin deYoung. The first is a disagreement that triggers a brief exchange of emails between Bethke and DeYoung. The second is a followup that is more reconciliatory. DeYoung labels several parts of the video that are 'unhelpful and misleading.' He takes pains to dissect the statements to point out the mixed bag of both helpful and unhelpful stuff splashed out unabasedly on the video. The crux of DeYoung's argument is that one should not try to hype up a religion-free 'Jesus' at the expense of downplaying religion. Otherwise there will not be much 'Jesus left.'

The underlying tone is that of a cautious handshake. While trying to correct each other, there is a tone of reserved self-control on both sides. Whether we call it humility or speaking the truth in love, in a social media era, it is important to recognize the limits of e-communications. A video can speak a thousand words. The clarifying emails and comments may contribute a few more words. It is the face to face conversations that build bridges much clearer and more lovingly.

B) A Simplistic Portrayal

Videos like this is to me an overly simplistic portrayal of faith. While it appeals initially as a rhetoric or a creative rant about doing something right in a culture that contains some things wrong, it fizzles out when we probe a little deeper.

Some of my friends at Regent call this video a simplistic portrayal of a false dichotomy. Simplistic because people do not understand the contexts behind the historical events of wars and culture of Jesus. False dichotomy because the Bible does not condemn but redeems religion. See how James talks about 'true religion.'

"If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." (James 1:26-27)

Will Jesus hate such a 'religion?' What if the position that is advocated by Bethke adopts the very religious flavour that they are arguing against? If I were to refer to 'Jesus-only-ism' as the anti-thesis of religion, we get all kinds of confusing flavours. Flavours like:

• Hypocrisy: Can your version of 'loving Jesus' only-ism become a religion in itself?
• Church: Can your version of Jesus only-ism become an institution too?
• Tradition and Doctrine: Can your 'Jesus only-ism, and all things 'love' become a dogmatic statement in itself?
• Religion: Are you debunking all religion just because of a few bad apples?
• Love: What makes one think that Jesus only-ism is able to hold both truth and love at the same time?

C) We Need Both

The truth is, both traditional religion and Jesus only-ism needs each other to clarify, to convict, and to co-operate in the realm of truth and speaking the truth in love. The moment we do a dissection in such a simplistic way, we are effectively planting the seeds of our brand of belief into a dogma. We need each other. We need to utilize our strengths to help our communities. At the same time, we need to let others speak and encourage us in our weaknesses. False dichotomies are unhelpful, and often too simplistic for any good. 

May our Church and various Christian communities learn to accept one another's differences without the need to be dogmatic about our various positions. Who knows? How Christians treat one another on the social media stage is how the world at large is seeing how Christians love one another. We can love one another without having to compel ourselves to compromise our own stand. Likewise, we can speak the truth in love, trusting the Holy Spirit to help us to have the humility to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to let ourselves be changed, and the wisdom to know the difference.

conrade

ANNOUNCEMENT: Two New Book Review Blogs

This month, I have the longest list of new books from various publishers to be reviewed. From the looks of it, the list can only grow longer each month. Rather than overwhelming this blog with too many book reviews on any single day, I have decided to create two separate book blogs. Effective April 2011, most of my book reviews will be spread out between the two blogs below. In general, I will try to limit postings to at most once per day. You can also go to the book blog page link via the main YAPDATES blog page.

#1 - Panorama of a book Saint - (Mainly NEW / UNRELEASED BOOKS)

This blog focuses on the review of new books, and especially those that are yet to be released to the general public. The purpose is to give a telescopic view of the new book horizon.
Frequency: At most once a day.

#2 - Thoughts from a Book Loving Pastor (Good books for Spiritual Growth)

For this blog, I will attempt to review and suggest good books for the disciple. Occasionally, I will highlight some popular books of interest to educate and to inform the Christian public about the pluses and minuses of the book concerned.

Planned Frequency: One book per week.

As for my YAPDATES blog (this blog,) when necessary, I will re-post book reviews on this blog.

conrade

Is Social Media a Fad?

Fads are temporary attractions. It comes suddenly, generates an adrenaline rush for a while, before it exits. Fads happen to grab attention and create a buzz. However, after all the excitement, people go back to what they normally do. With the sudden popularity of social networking media like Facebook, Twitter and others, some people start to question whether these are also fads. The well made video below says no. Looking at the statistics on the video, we will find it difficult to argue against the 'people-driven' social economy.



Websites like 'Church Blog Theory' are starting to ask if social networking is here to stay. The video above is part of the promotion for the book called Socialnomics. Hence, I am not surprised by the passionate arguments that the author is making that social networking is here to stay.

My Comments
I think social networking will be here for a while. It is a way people communicate with one another, just like the telephones since they were invented. Judging from the trend how emails replace telephone calls and fax messages, social networking is fast replacing emails as the communication of choice. The crux of the matter is this. People desire to know others, and be known. In an age where efficiency, productivity, costs and technical speed are worshiped, people will choose the medium that optimizes all four aspects of communications.

• Efficiency: If it gets the work done the way I want it, use it;
• Productivity: If it gets results according to my plans, use it;
• Costs: If it is cheap or free, use it;
• Speed: If it is fast and effective, use it.

I dare say that social networking is the electronic fast-food of the new era. Anyone familiar with Fast-Food will be familiar with fastfood style electronic communication. Technology is fast becoming popular and pervasive because people have been exposed to fast-food syndrome since young.  Think McDonald's Happy Meals etc.

Such a phenomena is coined by George Ritzer as the 'McDonaldization of Society.' According to Ritzer,

"McDonaldization is the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as of the rest of the world." (George Ritzer, The McDonaldization of Society, NY: Sage, 2004, p1)

I think Ritzer's observation can be applied to the electronic media as well. The reason why social networking is so popular is because it works. It is fast. It is cheap. It is efficient (people get updates instantaneously). It is highly productive (try looking for long lost friends). All of these factors reflect the fast-food society that we are all familiar with. So what's the future? Maybe faster-food society?

In conclusion, I think the video does highlight some important observations. Yet, I do not believe that it will stay that way for long. Things like Facebook and Twitter will be overtaken by others, especially if they do not keep up with the changing environment, or the social and psychological movement of culture and society.  regardless of what the video above advocates, I think any media, even social media, will need to keep up with what is going on in the metanarratives of modern society in order to be relevant. Otherwise, they will be a fad. Already there are many who are contemplating quitting Facebook altogether. It is a growing movement and I think it spells the beginning of the end of the Facebook fad. Yet, something else is more troubling. Whatever the new substitute for social media, I hope it will be something that enables people to communicate purposefully, with a firm understanding that both good AND bad information can be communicated quickly, efficiently and cheaply. I hope whatever new media will not be the domain of any one particular social group, but something that people of all ages can comfortably use. Keep it simple. Keep it meaningful. Remember, social media is only a tool. Keep it that way. If social networking is a form of electronic fast-food, remember that too much calories can kill relationships too.

conrade

My Top 10 Favourite Posts of 2009

I have written a lot this year, more than previous years. As I reflect, let me list 10 of my personal favourites for the year. It comprises book reviews, reflections on culture and media, community, economics, evangelism, authenticity and thing about life. Hope you can agree. They are listed in descending order, according to the date published.

1.  Secret to True Identity (Dec 16th, 2009)
   
   
2.  Book Review - "Cash Values" (Nov 28th, 2009)
   
   
3.  'Preparing for the Worst' article (Oct 9th, 2009)
   
   
4.  Reconciliable Differences (Sep 25th, 2009)
   
   
5.  Why Prayer Meetings Are Unpopular (Aug 20th, 2009)
   
   
6.  Musings on Outreach and Evangelism (Jul 7th, 2009)
   
   
7.  Call for Cool Heads Warm Hearts (May 4th, 2009)
   
   
8.  Joining Up the Dots (Mar 10th, 2009)
   
   
9.  A Full Life (Feb 12th, 2009)
   
   
10.  Where is God Amid Economic Trouble? (Jan 24th, 2009)
    
    

Of these 10, which do you like best?

conrade

Free ebook: "What Matters Now"

An Example of Collaborative Blogging

Here is a free ebook generously contributed by a host of well known writers, authors, bloggers and publishers. Called "What Matters Now," it is a collection of short writings (about 200 words) per page by various people, and compiled into an 82-page ebook format. It is an idea credited to Seth Godin, who manages to gather the collection of articles. I call this one solid example of 'collaborative blogging.' Hopefully, we can kick start a Regent-alum version of it soon.

You can download the ebook here.

conrade

"Top 100 Church Blogs" (Sep 4, 2009)

Here is a compiled list of Top 100 Church blogs by ChurchRevelance. The list is primarily based on web-statistics extracted from popular page rank organizations. Looking at the selection, I cannot help but feel that some of these blogs are not exactly the institutional-church-type that one may be led to think. Some are private bloggers (Michael Hyatt, Tim Challies) while others are doing it as part of their organizational reach (like desiringgod). Perhaps it ought to be called "Christian" or even "Top 100 Blogs from a Christian Perspective." From a theological point of view, I agree with Shaffer. From a popular view, maybe a more inclusive title will help.

Anyway, thanks to Kent Shaffer, we have a pretty good list of websites that we can journey with. Many of these sites are new to me, so I do appreciate such a listing.

ks