A section of Call to Commimtent's chapter on "The Integrity of Church Membership"

I opened my recently acquired paperback copy of Call to Commitment,  by Elizabeth O'Connor,  which tells the first published story of the first decade and a half of The Church of the Saviour in Washington, D.C.  It opens with the following affirmation about the nature of the Church:

The brownstone house in Washington, D. C. that has looked on so much of our life together has a small brass plaque to the left of its door. It reads:

HEADQUARTERS OF THE CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR

Strangers read it and ask if we have other churches in other cities or if we plan to start a new denomination. To those of us who worship here on a Sunday morning, the sign is a reminder that we are also the church during all the hours of the week-in the neighborhoods where we live, in our homes, in offices and factories-for "the place whereon you stand is holy ground." We did not know on the day that sign went up what forms the church would take, but we did know that it would exist not only in a building.

I immediately realized how timely these words,  which I first read in the summer of 1976,  are for me today,  26 and a half years later.   To say: we are also the church during all the hours of the week-in the neighborhoods where we live, in our homes, in offices and factories-for "the place whereon you stand is holy ground"  is also to pronounce a blessing upon the possibilities for the "electronically connected Church".  Not that I am pronouncing it as a spiritual panacea,  or a "specially" holy place,  but as an EXTENSION of holy ground.....where pieces of our being can gather.....and where the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts.   The "Smart Mobs" idea in a theological community allows for the envisioning and embodying of "being the Church in our homes, offcies,  and factories/workplaces" in additional ,  heretofore unseen and unanticpated places.

 

I opened my recently acquired paperback copy of Call to Commitment,  by Elizabeth O'Connor,  which tells the first published story of the first decade and a half of The Church of the Saviour in Washington, D.C.  It opens with the following affirmation about the nature of the Church:

The brownstone house in Washington, D. C. that has looked on so much of our life together has a small brass plaque to the left of its door. It reads:

HEADQUARTERS OF THE CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR

Strangers read it and ask if we have other churches in other cities or if we plan to start a new denomination. To those of us who worship here on a Sunday morning, the sign is a reminder that we are also the church during all the hours of the week-in the neighborhoods where we live, in our homes, in offices and factories-for "the place whereon you stand is holy ground." We did not know on the day that sign went up what forms the church would take, but we did know that it would exist not only in a building.

I immediately realized how timely these words,  which I first read in the summer of 1976,  are for me today,  26 and a half years later.   To say: we are also the church during all the hours of the week-in the neighborhoods where we live, in our homes, in offices and factories-for "the place whereon you stand is holy ground"  is also to pronounce a blessing upon the possibilities for the "electronically connected Church".  Not that I am pronouncing it as a spiritual panacea,  or a "specially" holy place,  but as an EXTENSION of holy ground.....where pieces of our being can gather.....and where the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts.   The "Smart Mobs" idea in a theological community allows for the envisioning and embodying of "being the Church in our homes, offcies,  and factories/workplaces" in additional ,  heretofore unseen and unanticpated places.

 

Jobs and that search took a big 'ol back seat during those days (see previous post, "Life is Good"),  and then Christmas and visits to my parents and hers immediately followed.  The trip to Cincinnati was good.  I saw Larry (the Old St. George guy I have mentioned before) and he bought me lunch and made me a cup of some top notch coffee,  and we spent about 4 hours talking job hunting and such.  NPR had a feature on unemployment that we heard on the way up to Cincinnati on Christmas day,  and we talked about some of that,  and how things are so different now--- that all the companies once thought to be so dependable and spelled "security" are dropping like dominoes,  one after another.  

Life is indeed good.  I don't have a job yet,  but prospects are beginning to emerge,  most of which suggest that I may be a free agent, "contract" kind of worker on several Web projects for a handful of companies.   But I am so relieved to be out from under some scary days this past week,  when my wife had to have a breast biopsy.   I found this out on the 18th,  had a consult with a surgeon on the 19th,  the biopsy on the 20th,  which is when we began to get encouraging and extremely relieving signs:  that the indicators were negative,  and that was a good sign that the pathologist report would follow suit.  That report showed up a few days later,  on the 23rd.   Thank God.  Thank YOU, God.  This REALLY put this in perspective.  It removed quite a bit of the panic (but not the urgency to keep on bangin' at the whatever doors I can find). 

Click for 75k larger picture

The Kids (Kelli and Brian), Dec. 23, 2002

From a new weblog by Chris Locke on Corante.com.   I think perhaps this applies to theoblogs as well.  Many times we find ourselves "working out our theology" in a very public way.  Sometimes that may be embarassing,  but I don't think we need be. Just as we are not perfect as humans,  neither are we when we seek to interpret life from a theological perspective. This seems to be the problem with fundamentalist bent toward the "infallibility of scripture".  There is a great confusion between the inspiration that was behind the writing,  and one's own interpretation of it.  They are NOT one and the same.  Many act as if it is,  and therein lies the problem.

"What we are seeing today on the web -- discounting the plethora of corporate spew -- is the emergence of ourselves as human beings discovering what it means to be human. If you're not doing that, do it. Spook yourself. If you're already spooked, don't quit now. We've only begun to scratch the surface. Why is the net getting so much pushback from the top-down hierarchies of power that freak if they can't control everything. Because it's working, that's why. We're giving ourselves permission to be outlaws. "

Smart Mobs- The Blog (by author Howard Rheingold)
The Book - Buy or read about it at Amazon

A book (and also a Blog) that is something destined to be grabbed up by any group interested in becoming connected to the "always on" day to day routines of millions of working, roaming, "mobs" of people across the world.  Fine sociological analysis of the way different groups in various cultures have "adopted" the various modes of mobile technology.  For me, it will be the next wave (like as soon as I get a new job and can get myself a handheld device and begin to learn the Web services "hooks" in programming that will "open up" the Web-tradtional data to handheld devices and other "smart" devices (devices with built in chips for communication with other devices).

Smart Mobs- The Blog (by author Howard Rheingold)
The Book - Buy or read about it at Amazon

A book (and also a Blog) that is something destined to be grabbed up by any group interested in becoming connected to the "always on" day to day routines of millions of working, roaming, "mobs" of people across the world.  Fine sociological analysis of the way different groups in various cultures have "adopted" the various modes of mobile technology.  For me, it will be the next wave (like as soon as I get a new job and can get myself a handheld device and begin to learn the Web services "hooks" in programming that will "open up" the Web-tradtional data to handheld devices and other "smart" devices (devices with built in chips for communication with other devices).

Tim at e-church wrote about the question of cyberchurch and whether it is right to attend only online.  A similar question: can online church can "be Church" by itself.  I think part of a full response to this is that "by itself" is not truly possible for online Church,  since it depends on the idea that we are attempting to "grow" and "tranform" as we begin to live in a new context.  And it returns us to the question that Tim ponders in his reponse to the discussion.

From Tim's article: Spencer at TheOoze askes, "Is it ok to only attend Church in cyber space?" It is an amazing discussion with 109 posts (as of this entry). Here is my (Tim's) take on the question:

I just printed the whole discussion board on this topic -- 46 pages. As one late to the discussion, here is my two cents. I think the most important word in the question Spenser asked is 'only'. As I read through this thread and think about my own experiences in the real world, I think I that a healthy Christian is one who has multiple memberships in communities of faith, not one who 'only' attends the church in one form....

Important aspect of the online community;  that it enables us to extend our tradtional notions of church and touch many aspects of the wider Christian community than was previously achievable. I wrote an article responding to this: "Multiple Membership".

e-church on Cluetrain

"It is all about belonging to the community, being indigenous. This is the cornerstone of most missions' programs, AND applies online. This is why so few bricks and mortar churches understand the concept of 'online ministry'. To most, we are expensive brochureware -- but that is only because our words reference a world/community where they do not have membership."

Like I'm really surprised,  but this was ONE area of the Bush campaign I determined to keep an open mind about,  even though many of my fellow "non-conservatives" were already dismissing it. The faith-based thing reminds me of some of the themes of Sojourner's Jim Wallis' themes in The Soul of Politics and "Faith Works (paperback) : How Faith-based Organizations are Changing Lives, Neighborhoods, and America".

Reading The letter to Esquire (the one mentioned in the link ---

The previous link (my previous link with no commentary ,  just a link to the article)

From the article from Associated Baptist Press (Former Bush ‘faith-based’ official says White House driven by politics): 

In his eight months serving as an adviser to Bush, DiIulio said, “I heard many, many staff discussions but not three meaningful, substantive policy discussions. There were no actual policy white papers on domestic issues. There were, truth be told, only a couple of people in the West Wing who worried at all about policy substance and analysis....”

The result, he suggested, was “Mayberry Machiavellis -- staff, senior and junior, who consistently talked and acted as if the height of political sophistication consisted in reducing every issue to its simplest, black-and-white terms for public consumption, then steering legislative initiatives or policy proposals as far right as possible.”

Reading further in the letter just brought back the distrust I have for the present "good ol' boys" of the Bush regime,  and the way they utilize religious-right conservative fear and paranoia.  Not that conservative equals these things,  but certainly be taken advantage of,  especially by politicians.  And the promises of campaigns are always the easy part.  It's scary when the work of the West Wing is seen mostly in terms of posturing and promising and which speeches bring the most bang for the buck,  while the things that the vision describes are abandoned when the "talk" has done its job (secured the victory) 

The Ooze asks : "Is it ok to only attend Church in cyber space?" |via e-church,  and Tim's comment on the Oze topic,  and my comment on the same issue (comment #1 at the bottom of the list if there are more than one)

Time for basketball (even though the Titans are still very much alive)

Radio Kit Aggregator Pains in my Radio category posts....

I sure wish I could figure out what happened to my Kit's News Aggregator.  For about 3 months,  I had been using Kit Dashboard,  mainly for the Aggregator,  but also for the Radio to the Past.  Now ,  both are broke.  It all started when I got let go at work on Nov. 21.  I had stopped my practice of sending zip files of DataFiles, www,  and Tools directories,  and gone with using my VPN connection and checking my Radio news and doing posts via the Remote Radio functions.  When I got told I was terminated,  I was not even allowed to return to my desk,  I guess because they think I'll go postal and start sabatoging stuff.  They did give me back my Radio files,  but I can't seem to fix the Kit installation now.  Even re-installing won't do it.  Look at this link to see what my News Aggregator Page looks like (it uses the link http://127.0.0.1:5335/kit/news)

On one of the two major principles of Cluetrain:

Networked markets are beginning to self-organize faster than the companies that have traditionally served them

I offer these thoughts about the Self-Organizing Nature of Call 

On the insight:

Online Markets...Networked markets are beginning to self-organize faster than the companies that have traditionally served them. Thanks to the web, markets are becoming better informed, smarter, and more demanding of qualities missing from most business organizations.

The "target group" of the Church,  is really unknown.  It's something known by the process of discerning call.  The ones who respond are the ones who decide to join,  and become part of the community.  A monkey wrench thrown into this "marketing" approach is that the diversity of call is not limited to an existing set of calls;  in other words, just because a given community has a particular set of ministries/missions/calls received,  doesn't mean that this is their "personality" and thus they should only seek people who "fit that profile".  The call process cannot be "focused down" as in marketing.  The call comes and with it comes the resources to fulfill it.  New structures and new strategies and "new blood" are always called for,  since the world does not await the Church's organization of itself around certain missions before it generates a social/spiritual situation which requires intervention and aid.  The world continues to generate new forms of cultural captivity and personal greed,  which spawn refugees who suffer, in one form or another.  So the "market" changes,  and we in the Church can never rest on our laurels.  Our task as Church is to provide a place of discernment,  for "calls yet to come",  for "calls being sounded but not yet heard",  and for "calls that are ending in order to lead us to another --- perhaps a new focus in a more detailed area of the former;  perhaps something entirely different".

IN the Church as I see it,  the "self-organizing" is the nature of call even without computer networks,  or the Internet,  or even the Cluetrain Manifesto.  The self-organizing comes from the ongoing activity of God,  who will push recipients of call to use whatever operating structure-building ,  strategizing tools at their disposal,  and build a mission with a supporting structure.  The existence and growth and evolution of Computer Networking,  in form of the Web,  can certainly leverage the "self-organizing" tendencies of networked operants.  The activity of God and the Calls put forth can reach beyond geography now.  Ideas,  convictions,  dreams,  envisionings;  all can be "put on the table" before a group and explored.  

It is my experience that participants will seek each other out.   Some may be unable to go as far as to relocate or make frequent visits,  but some will.  Maybe only a few will.  But people and their sense of call and their "contributions" in an online setting will add to the mix of a mission,  and provide a variety of means of support.  And the "reports";  the "storytelling" that can be presented online,  can provide a means of support for the mission as online seekers find the stories via searches and links from others,  and "word spreads".

"more demanding of qualities missing from most business organizations" This attribute signals to me the need for the Church to seek out the qualities of self-organization

Story :  "Utilize the Viral Nature of Lay Renewal"

"The Costs of War",  by Bill Moyers,  from the PBS NOW site

"Rediscovering Essence: What I Learned from the Church of the Savior in Washington D.C. Mike Bishop, whatischurch.com editor"

From the article:

COS takes calling very seriously.  One of their deep values is to be committed to the process of call.  I say process, because we can never fully rest in one particular calling.  God is always speaking to us, beckoning us to hear his voice and do what he says.  What COS has ingrained into their corporate identity is a long-lasting patience with God's timing.  God's ways take time, and you don't always see results in the ways you would expect.  A calling never ends up looking like what you thought.  In my short journey with the call to be a church planter, I can whole-heartedly relate!

Former Bush ‘faith-based’ official says White House driven by politics December 10, 2002 - Volume: 02-115

By Mark Wingfield and Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

Yahoo starts maketing Web tools to small businesses --- Another sign that "back-end" tool suites are on the up and up,  providing business management and e-commerce logging.  It seems that the Church is in the "small business category",  but not neccessarily in the e-commerce realm;  but rather as an organization that needs to offer its "participants"a way to plan, support,  and envision together,  and also work on "presentation" (what is shown to the public on the "external Web site").  There are certain "internal" stories we need to have access to as members (as Paul puts it "members of one another",  and therefore "in confidence" --- ie. needing "security" or "login" privileges) and there are "external stories" which are the stuff of evangelism:  ie. Who we are,  what we stand for;  what our theology compels us to do and be;  how we need YOU to fill that gap of what God is calling us to do next;  or "go to the next level" on one of our existing missions to which YOU may feel called to participate with us.   

Markets are conversations - Church is dialogue is my first crack at relating the themes of The Cluetrain Manifesto to the challenge the Church faces.

Open Cluetrain Online from Gonzo Markets My comments in blue- Theology of Cluetrain Manifesto Cluetrain: A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. Relevant knowledge,  shared globally,  is a way to extend upon the concept of sharing knowledge and insight only in locality;  we benefit from having local support,  and need the support of people who care for us and are able to "be there" for us; but we have new experiences happening to us as individuals and as "connected" populations:  we can reach across geographic and chronographic divides,  and hear the human voice from many places. The writings which were carefully handled and read in public and taught in synagogues were kept as largely public readings,  keeping the idea of the written word and the spoken word close together ---- Paul's letters were an early hint of the separation between message and recipient;  the first "time shifted communications Later the words of books became something more often read in silence.  But these communications were monologue ---- the dialogue came after the hearing of the message,  and the author of the message did not receive immediate feeedback.  Days,  but usually weeks and months passed before word of how the message was received got back to the sender.  If the author and recipients are in closer ,  more compact relationship in terms of time --- if the communication is more dialogical,  then the formation of theology is more collaborative --- the mix of the messages about how and where God is working takes on a different chemistry.  Churches become less top-down message delievery structures and more grassroots and enabling.  As the Cluetrain authors proclaim that "markets are conversations";  Churches and the context of inspiration and the receiving of call becomes grassroots;  the renewal of laity;  a "connected" laity who no longer have to rely on the Church heirarchy and the educated clergy for news of the rest of the world.  As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies. The laity are better at connecting with one another than the tactics and strategies the Church using and trying to teach them.   These markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and often shocking. Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can't be faked. Most corporations, on the other hand, only know how to talk in the soothing, humorless monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure, and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies. No wonder networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do. There seems to be a common thread between the clueless in the business world and the "out of touch" in the Church heirarchy.  Is it that we need an infusion of new and contemporary stories that continue in the Biblical tradition,  but depart from them in that they hook into more contemporary myths;  illuminate the underlying message of the old world mythologies by casting them as expressions of new art; dialogue with contemporary issues,  and communicating the urgency of the gospel message by investing in communicative tools that enable the "conversation". But learning to speak in a human voice is not some trick, nor will corporations convince us they are human with lip service about "listening to customers." They will only sound human when they empower real human beings to speak on their behalf. The Church may begin to sound "real" again when it becomes an enabler and a conduit for stories being told and "proclaimed from housetops" (the ancient megaphone;  the early precursor of mass communication,  which has evolved into "many-to-many" communication -- most strikingly implemented on the most social of  the Websites. While many such people already work for companies today, most companies ignore their ability to deliver genuine knowledge, opting instead to crank out sterile happytalk that insults the intelligence of markets literally too smart to buy it. However, employees are getting hyperlinked even as markets are. Companies need to listen carefully to both. Mostly, they need to get out of the way so intranetworked employees can converse directly with internetworked markets. The Church needs to "get out of the way?"  No,  the leaders do.  Leadership is the enabling of the conversation --- and for us,  the "conversation" is multi-pronged.  God with us,  God in us,  God among us,  All of us mixing it up,  finding God through others,  hearing God speak to us in the stories of others,  being called out of the great dialogue that is happening into specific confrontations with mission and discovering what we have to give to that.  Corporate firewalls have kept smart employees in and smart markets out. It's going to cause real pain to tear those walls down. But the result will be a new kind of conversation. And it will be the most exciting conversation business has ever engaged in. When we are "called out",  we go on mission.  We meet in the world on some misssion with others also called;  part of our "story" is the process of our being called,  and how the struggle happens.   I think that people are evangelized when they identify with the experience of knowing they have a purpose and something to give;  that they can make a difference ,  and that they are needed  for the work of God. And best of all;  that there are "partners" for mission who identify with us and our vision to see something built which will aid in the will of God being done on earth.

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if you only have time for one clue this year, this is the one to get...

95 theses the following are the 95 theses from The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual Copyright © 1999, 2001 Locke, Weinberger, Searls & Levine. All rights reserved. cluetrain.com back to table of contents back to Gonzo Marketing home

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A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies. These markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and often shocking. Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can't be faked. Most corporations, on the other hand, only know how to talk in the soothing, humorless monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure, and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies. No wonder networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do. But learning to speak in a human voice is not some trick, nor will corporations convince us they are human with lip service about "listening to customers." They will only sound human when they empower real human beings to speak on their behalf. While many such people already work for companies today, most companies ignore their ability to deliver genuine knowledge, opting instead to crank out sterile happytalk that insults the intelligence of markets literally too smart to buy it. However, employees are getting hyperlinked even as markets are. Companies need to listen carefully to both. Mostly, they need to get out of the way so intranetworked employees can converse directly with internetworked markets. Corporate firewalls have kept smart employees in and smart markets out. It's going to cause real pain to tear those walls down. But the result will be a new kind of conversation. And it will be the most exciting conversation business has ever engaged in.

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if you only have time for one clue this year, this is the one to get...

The Cluetrain Manifesto
Online Markets... Networked markets are beginning to self-organize faster than the companies that have traditionally served them. Thanks to the web, markets are becoming better informed, smarter, and more demanding of qualities missing from most business organizations.	...People of Earth The sky is open to the stars. Clouds roll over us night and day. Oceans rise and fall. Whatever you may have heard, this is our world, our place to be. Whatever you've been told, our flags fly free. Our heart goes on forever. People of Earth, remember.
95 Theses Markets are conversations. Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors. Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice. Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives, dissenting arguments or humorous asides, the human voice is typically open, natural, uncontrived. People recognize each other as such from the sound of this voice. The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media. Hyperlinks subvert hierarchy. In both internetworked markets and among intranetworked employees, people are speaking to each other in a powerful new way. These networked conversations are enabling powerful new forms of social organization and knowledge exchange to emerge. As a result, markets are getting smarter, more informed, more organized. Participation in a networked market changes people fundamentally. People in networked markets have figured out that they get far better information and support from one another than from vendors. So much for corporate rhetoric about adding value to commoditized products. There are no secrets. The networked market knows more than companies do about their own products. And whether the news is good or bad, they tell everyone. What's happening to markets is also happening among employees. A metaphysical construct called "The Company" is the only thing standing between the two. Corporations do not speak in the same voice as these new networked conversations. To their intended online audiences, companies sound hollow, flat, literally inhuman. In just a few more years, the current homogenized "voice" of business—the sound of mission statements and brochures—will seem as contrived and artificial as the language of the 18th century French court. Already, companies that speak in the language of the pitch, the dog-and-pony show, are no longer speaking to anyone. Companies that assume online markets are the same markets that used to watch their ads on television are kidding themselves. Companies that don't realize their markets are now networked person-to-person, getting smarter as a result and deeply joined in conversation are missing their best opportunity. Companies can now communicate with their markets directly. If they blow it, it could be their last chance. Companies need to realize their markets are often laughing. At them. Companies need to lighten up and take themselves less seriously. They need to get a sense of humor. Getting a sense of humor does not mean putting some jokes on the corporate web site. Rather, it requires big values, a little humility, straight talk, and a genuine point of view. Companies attempting to "position" themselves need to take a position. Optimally, it should relate to something their market actually cares about. Bombastic boasts—"We are positioned to become the preeminent provider of XYZ"—do not constitute a position. Companies need to come down from their Ivory Towers and talk to the people with whom they hope to create relationships. Public Relations does not relate to the public. Companies are deeply afraid of their markets. By speaking in language that is distant, uninviting, arrogant, they build walls to keep markets at bay. Most marketing programs are based on the fear that the market might see what's really going on inside the company. Elvis said it best: "We can't go on together with suspicious minds." Brand loyalty is the corporate version of going steady, but the breakup is inevitable—and coming fast. Because they are networked, smart markets are able to renegotiate relationships with blinding speed. Networked markets can change suppliers overnight. Networked knowledge workers can change employers over lunch. Your own "downsizing initiatives" taught us to ask the question: "Loyalty? What's that?" Smart markets will find suppliers who speak their own language. Learning to speak with a human voice is not a parlor trick. It can't be "picked up" at some tony conference. To speak with a human voice, companies must share the concerns of their communities. But first, they must belong to a community. Companies must ask themselves where their corporate cultures end. If their cultures end before the community begins, they will have no market. Human communities are based on discourse—on human speech about human concerns. The community of discourse is the market. Companies that do not belong to a community of discourse will die. Companies make a religion of security, but this is largely a red herring. Most are protecting less against competitors than against their own market and workforce. As with networked markets, people are also talking to each other directly inside the company—and not just about rules and regulations, boardroom directives, bottom lines. Such conversations are taking place today on corporate intranets. But only when the conditions are right. Companies typically install intranets top-down to distribute HR policies and other corporate information that workers are doing their best to ignore. Intranets naturally tend to route around boredom. The best are built bottom-up by engaged individuals cooperating to construct something far more valuable: an intranetworked corporate conversation. A healthy intranet organizes workers in many meanings of the word. Its effect is more radical than the agenda of any union. While this scares companies witless, they also depend heavily on open intranets to generate and share critical knowledge. They need to resist the urge to "improve" or control these networked conversations. When corporate intranets are not constrained by fear and legalistic rules, the type of conversation they encourage sounds remarkably like the conversation of the networked marketplace. Org charts worked in an older economy where plans could be fully understood from atop steep management pyramids and detailed work orders could be handed down from on high. Today, the org chart is hyperlinked, not hierarchical. Respect for hands-on knowledge wins over respect for abstract authority. Command-and-control management styles both derive from and reinforce bureaucracy, power tripping and an overall culture of paranoia. Paranoia kills conversation. That's its point. But lack of open conversation kills companies. There are two conversations going on. One inside the company. One with the market. In most cases, neither conversation is going very well. Almost invariably, the cause of failure can be traced to obsolete notions of command and control. As policy, these notions are poisonous. As tools, they are broken. Command and control are met with hostility by intranetworked knowledge workers and generate distrust in internetworked markets. These two conversations want to talk to each other. They are speaking the same language. They recognize each other's voices. Smart companies will get out of the way and help the inevitable to happen sooner. If willingness to get out of the way is taken as a measure of IQ, then very few companies have yet wised up. However subliminally at the moment, millions of people now online perceive companies as little more than quaint legal fictions that are actively preventing these conversations from intersecting. This is suicidal. Markets want to talk to companies. Sadly, the part of the company a networked market wants to talk to is usually hidden behind a smokescreen of hucksterism, of language that rings false—and often is. Markets do not want to talk to flacks and hucksters. They want to participate in the conversations going on behind the corporate firewall. De-cloaking, getting personal: We are those markets. We want to talk to you. We want access to your corporate information, to your plans and strategies, your best thinking, your genuine knowledge. We will not settle for the 4-color brochure, for web sites chock-a-block with eye candy but lacking any substance. We're also the workers who make your companies go. We want to talk to customers directly in our own voices, not in platitudes written into a script. As markets, as workers, both of us are sick to death of getting our information by remote control. Why do we need faceless annual reports and third-hand market research studies to introduce us to each other? As markets, as workers, we wonder why you're not listening. You seem to be speaking a different language. The inflated self-important jargon you sling around—in the press, at your conferences—what's that got to do with us? Maybe you're impressing your investors. Maybe you're impressing Wall Street. You're not impressing us. If you don't impress us, your investors are going to take a bath. Don't they understand this? If they did, they wouldn't let you talk that way. Your tired notions of "the market" make our eyes glaze over. We don't recognize ourselves in your projections—perhaps because we know we're already elsewhere. We like this new marketplace much better. In fact, we are creating it. You're invited, but it's our world. Take your shoes off at the door. If you want to barter with us, get down off that camel! We are immune to advertising. Just forget it. If you want us to talk to you, tell us something. Make it something interesting for a change. We've got some ideas for you too: some new tools we need, some better service. Stuff we'd be willing to pay for. Got a minute? You're too busy "doing business" to answer our email? Oh gosh, sorry, gee, we'll come back later. Maybe. You want us to pay? We want you to pay attention. We want you to drop your trip, come out of your neurotic self-involvement, join the party. Don't worry, you can still make money. That is, as long as it's not the only thing on your mind. Have you noticed that, in itself, money is kind of one-dimensional and boring? What else can we talk about? Your product broke. Why? We'd like to ask the guy who made it. Your corporate strategy makes no sense. We'd like to have a chat with your CEO. What do you mean she's not in? We want you to take 50 million of us as seriously as you take one reporter from The Wall Street Journal. We know some people from your company. They're pretty cool online. Do you have any more like that you're hiding? Can they come out and play? When we have questions we turn to each other for answers. If you didn't have such a tight rein on "your people" maybe they'd be among the people we'd turn to. When we're not busy being your "target market," many of us are your people. We'd rather be talking to friends online than watching the clock. That would get your name around better than your entire million dollar web site. But you tell us speaking to the market is Marketing's job. We'd like it if you got what's going on here. That'd be real nice. But it would be a big mistake to think we're holding our breath. We have better things to do than worry about whether you'll change in time to get our business. Business is only a part of our lives. It seems to be all of yours. Think about it: who needs whom? We have real power and we know it. If you don't quite see the light, some other outfit will come along that's more attentive, more interesting, more fun to play with. Even at its worst, our newfound conversation is more interesting than most trade shows, more entertaining than any TV sitcom, and certainly more true-to-life than the corporate web sites we've been seeing. Our allegiance is to ourselves—our friends, our new allies and acquaintances, even our sparring partners. Companies that have no part in this world, also have no future. Companies are spending billions of dollars on Y2K. Why can't they hear this market timebomb ticking? The stakes are even higher. We're both inside companies and outside them. The boundaries that separate our conversations look like the Berlin Wall today, but they're really just an annoyance. We know they're coming down. We're going to work from both sides to take them down. To traditional corporations, networked conversations may appear confused, may sound confusing. But we are organizing faster than they are. We have better tools, more new ideas, no rules to slow us down. We are waking up and linking to each other. We are watching. But we are not waiting.

---

The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual
Copyright © 1999, 2001 Locke, Weinberger, Searls & Levine.
All rights reserved.

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the entire text* of The Cluetrain Manifesto

Foreword (Petzinger) The 95 Theses Elevator Rap (Weinberger) Introduction (Locke) Chapter 1: Internet Apocalypso (Locke) Chapter 2: The Longing (Weinberger) Chapter 3: Talk Is Cheap (Levine) Chapter 4: Markets Are Conversations (Searls & Weinberger) Chapter 5: The Hyperlinked Organization (Weinberger) Chapter 6: EZ Answers (Locke & Weinberger) Chapter 7: Post-Apocalypso (Locke) order The Cluetrain Manifesto from Amazon from Barnes & Noble

Here it is

Entire text of Cluetrain Manifesto

There are so many direct correlations between MANY points in this manifesto and the theological convictions I hold regarding online communications and the Church --- mainly,  that we need to be getting a clue much more intentionally than we have ---- perhaps a Cluetrain category here?  That's my next step.  When I push a few buttons,  I will have it at this link

I have set up a system which needs many further refinements,  done as an effort to provide a way to update the Website through some data updates.  The Church Newsletter and weekly schedules are entered into a schema that organizes Site Page copy by section,  the "This Sunday " link (which grabs a page full of copy I dump in from the email they send me) and grabs the entry by the date of the Sunday,  and automatically empties it out of there after 1pm on that Sunday and displays a message "Click here for info on next Sunday") , Calendar (for which I'm still searching for an app that will accomodate entering of repeat events (weekly, monthly -- by such as First Monday or Third Thursday instead of by date,  which alsmost never happens on monthly events

Web Development Strategy is an entry under the category MyWebDevelopment where I can be technology and strategically specific about how some of this "Church of the Saviour Web" vision might be incarnated in code.

Now that my Web development is "free" (in the sense that the projects I am envisioning are now "from within" instead of imposed from above -- in the sense of a workplace, managerial figure) ,  I want to begin to technically map some of the ways and means of achiveing and building enviroments where some of this "Church of the Saviour Web" envisoning can emerge and become incarnate...like,  the Word became code -- and provided communication among us --- :-)

I have strung together some articles around the
"Church of the Saviour Web" theme

"Telling the Story of a Church on the web" 
"Beyond BrochureWare for Churches" 
"A Place of Connectivity" 

I have strung together some articles around the
"Church of the Saviour Web" theme

"Telling the Story of a Church on the web" 
"Beyond BrochureWare for Churches" 
"A Place of Connectivity" 

I have strung together some articles around the
"Church of the Saviour Web" theme

"Telling the Story of a Church on the web" 
"Beyond BrochureWare for Churches" 
"A Place of Connectivity" 

In "A Place of Connectivity" (a substory under "Church of the Saviour Web") I am wondering about how to do "TrackBack":

The "disconnect" between the "experience" of a Church when comparing their "atmosphere" in face-to-face events vs the "aura" of the online "place" is what I consider to be the best indicator of where to attack the problem of the lack of "aliveness" on Church Web sites.  Some would say this is as it should be,  that you can't do something so personal in an online setting.  But I know this to be wrong.  It is certainly possible to facilitate a place with personal energy and "prescence" in an online setting.  Even this Weblog itself places me in the context of something that places me in dialogue with people ,  both now and in the future, for it carries with it the stories that I relate which are shared online in order to invite others to "connect with me" and perhaps become "online support" by subscribing to my RSS feed,  posting comments,  linking to things on my Weblog from theirs (which I then "discover" in my referrer logs ---- which reminds me:  I want to investigate this TrackBack thing.  It seems to be a Movable Type thing,  but I am still unsure,  but from what I can gather,  it seems to be another way to "keep abreast" of what people are reacting to in what I have shared).  Ideas?  Please comment

"Church of the Saviour Web" is a piece I am writing which begins to explore the many pieces of an effective, engaging, and energizing Church Web which communicates how closely integrated Church can be with ALL OF LIFE. An "always on" connection to the "buzz" and to the energy of the spirit which seems to permeate the atmosphere in a place where people are about doing the work which fulfills them.

"Church of the Saviour Web" is a piece I am writing which begins to explore the many pieces of an effective, engaging, and energizing Church Web which communicates how closely integrated Church can be with ALL OF LIFE. An "always on" connection to the "buzz" and to the energy of the spirit which seems to permeate the atmosphere in a place where people are about doing the work which fulfills them.

"Church of the Saviour Web" is a piece I am writing which begins to explore the many pieces of an effective, engaging, and energizing Church Web which communicates how closely integrated Church can be with ALL OF LIFE. An "always on" connection to the "buzz" and to the energy of the spirit which seems to permeate the atmosphere in a place where people are about doing the work which fulfills them.

"A RADICAL EXPERIMENT IN WASHINGTON Peter Rentier visited the Church of the Saviour in Washington and found a church that wasn't afraid to take a risk. Ahead of their time, they have built a radically different kind of small church committed to its community."

Today I'm going downtown to meet a guy that I discovered had some common experiences in ministry,  and has also been involved with the Web from the early days.   I'm going to his place of work and I'm going to show him my resume and he's going to make any suggestions about what might help me.  And I'm sure we'll talk a little SBC, a little Web,   and a little digital photography and video (he's done some of that, too).

Sports Blog: "Reds Hall of Famers"

The big four Reds of the 70s: Bench , Morgan, Perez, and the should be hall-of-famer, Rose.  If Steve Howe can be given, what was it? 5 chances at drug rehab,  then Rose can be forgiven.

A friend of mine is working on publishing some ideas to encourage dialogue on the re-organizationof a mjor denomination.  He asked me for input,  since I am never hesitant to speak of my concerns regarding the Church's failures in the area of commuication technology,  the Internet in particular.  I feel that as more and more people turn to the "information superhighway" for their information,  and do "Google or Yahoo searches" to find coverage of just about any topic,  there is very little offered on many topics,  especially in disciplines where theological-based communties should have plenty to say and plenty of prescence in terms of "being there" and offering "sanctuary" to the Internet traveler where they can be surrounded by community and welcome and offer alternatives to the kind of isolation they experience in the world.   With the Internet rapidly becoming overrun with all manner of instrusive e-commerce plots,  spam,  and the search engines collaborating by providing "purchase this" links related to the topic being searched,  it is becoming more difficult to find sites that attempt to find out and affirm who we are and bring a message of healing and welcome,  or offer hope of connecting with people who identify with us,  share our concerns,  and want to be our friend.

Gutless Pacifist asks a question that a lot of people find offensive:

If I had some super powers (besides the ones my small child seems to think I have) and I could PROMISE you (and you believed me) that I could / would trade you the lives of 2 (innocent & healthy) small children (below the age of three say) for the magical and complete death of Saddam......
(click on the "No comment" link to continue reading)

WOULD YOU DO IT? | Read The Article and responses

The more I read about this, the more nauseated I get.  e-Church provides the following Associated Baptist Press Story about the firing of the Missions Professor I mentioned yesterday that I saw first via Tim at  e-Church.  I take it from the looks of the Associated Baptist Press Site that they are not well thought of by a certain number in SBC Leadership.  They simply cover too many sides of an issue,  and actually lift up the work being done by the CBF.

Tim also includes a list of links related to the issue in his post about it.  Tim introduces the links:

Related Links:

From my reading of the articles mentioned in the Related Links, it seems to me that Mr. Harbin is a good professor who is operating (I hope) like most of the good professors in seminaries.

My favorite paragraph from Tim's post:

Mark Kelly's remarks seem to betray his belief that knowledge -- if not communicated 'just right' -- will destroy faith. Well, that seems to put an awful lot of power in the hands of humanity. It also seems to be deficient in attributing the proper power and authority to God. I say this in the light that Chris Harbin is not actually teaching heresy, but rather applying critical thinking to biblical study. In my opinion, Mr. Harin is appropriately preparing students to think in an increasingly hostile, postmodern world.

I have written a short piece on Church Web Development in "Church Web Schemas"

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A bedtime jammy getup for Kelli so cute I had to capture it

Tim,  you wouldn't be a "former" Southern Baptist like myself, would you? Your story and your comments echo many of my views on this.  So many of the present leadership of the SBC just KNOW what God's Word is,  and that it couldn't possibly consist mostly of "their own appropriation" of that Word.  It just "says what it says".  I think Jesus said "If you knew you were blind,  your sins would be forgiven.  But since you say 'we see',  your sin remains".   That says something to me about claiming to have a corner on 'who God is' and what the Word is.

I bought (or got free at Best Buy with a purchase of Norton System Works) Ordinary People ,  a movie I saw while I was a seminary student,  and was one of the best I ever saw.  Powerful, emotional, and real.  I've been wanting a DVD copy of this for quite a while.

After my job ended Nov. 21,  I once again picked up the book of sermons by Gordon Cosby.  I was entering a fearful time (and I'm still there).  Chapter 15 was where my bookmark sat,  and the Chapter is entitled "Reducing Fear",  followed by "Detachment",  "Deepening Connections".  Those three chapters helped me at just the right time.  Nothing is solved yet with my job situation,  but "Reducing Fear" was mostly about seeking what God calls me to,  and realizing in that experience the fulfillment of doing what I most want to do in my inner being.

Time and time again,  fear of unfulfilled work;  that my vision for Web and Church would be put on perennial hold; this kept me asking myself if this was worth sticking out.  In the end,  instead of finding something else and leaving,  I stayed and kept busy,  and didn't have the urgency about me to seek other open doors,  and it ended up driving my frustration way too deep.  I kept jabbing with biting comments. 

I needed "detachment" ---- to keep in touch with what was real (the thing God was calling me to) and do what I was doing there without the kind of rebellious feelings I had and "do the job" while hoping and dreaming and envisioning ways to fulfill my call.  If I perceived the job to be out of my hands and moving along without the kind of direction I felt it needed,  then that was the amount of "detachment" I needed ---- dis-engage there,  and "Deepen Connections" to the actual real things:  the vision that kept calling me ,  toward which I was going to have to find other ways to move.

Books I'm reading or trying to read,  and carrying around with me in my bag.

What I'm reading (or carrying around with me, intending to finish), with links to entries where I comment on them:

• Smart Mobs - Howard Rheingold (I'll be mulling that over for years to come.....even more so when I can become a "Smart Mob-ster" myself and get me "one of them" (meaning a pocket PC/Phone contraption so I can be "always connected") . I did finish this one. Check out the ongoing blog on the book and its issues at Smart Mobs.com
• By Grace Transformed - Gordon Cosby - also finished -
• Blogging - Biz Stone  -  I borrowed this one....been browsing
• We Blog - Bausch, Haughey, Hourhan
• Essential Blogging - O'reilly (Doctorow, Dornfest, Johnson, Powers, Trott & Trott)
• Give Me That Online Religion - Brenda Brasher -   still picking it up and reading a chapter at a time evry other day or so

 

My earlier post about the WIRED article,  The Pope's Astrophysicist,  was the thing which got me thinking about the idea that the Net needs to be considered a Mission Field.  The Vatican has spent who knows how much on the observatory in Tucson,  and the research going on there that searches for "clues" and "signs" in the physical cosmos.  While this work is certainly fascinating and thoughts about "beginnings" and "creation" and the Divine role are certainly "worthwhile",  I can;t help but think that studies of The Net and its heretofore largely unexplored impact on sociology and psuchology of human culture,  particularly here in the U.S.,  are even more needed.  They rank higher for me because they obviously hold the promise of increasing the "connectivity" of persons in getting projects going and achieved.