i’ve been familiar with ice climbing before. when i was regularly going rock climbing & working at rei the idea of ice climbing was way cool, but being in an area that it rarely gets below freezing for more than two days straight it is not something i ever imagined doing myself. now i don’t think i could ever imagine climbing iceburgs, but it sure is cool to know people try.
Personal
swimming with the characters of nashville : the polar plunge
participated in the polar plunge today as fundraiser for special olympics. it was supposed to be a mission thing we were doing as part of our senior dudes small group. but it ended up just being us adult leaders as our youth wigged out, forgot to get out of work, or had some state hockey tournament.. all very lame excuses if you ask me.
todd's daughter, bailey, was our photographer for the day. so hopefully i can share some other pictures.
immersing in the new media : what has happened to my blogging
i regularly called blogging my spiritual practice. it was a way of reflecting on some idea or challenge that came across in my day. however, if i was honest with myself, the 'spiritual' aspect of my blogging practice was waining. very few times did i really have some thought that was challenging on a daily basis. instead, and probably more healthy as a practice, i was pondering something for weeks or months at a time. but that doesn't help in keeping an active blog going. so i have been feeling like i was putting in a bunch of filler stuff.
well, some of that filler stuff (which i do think was good most of the time, admittedly not all the time) is moving around to other avenues, along with some of my other ponderings. i am more and more using twitter as a way of crossing the town green, sharing prayers, information, links and photos from my day etc. i have also taken advantage of posting within facebook.
i've started to reshape my blog to reflect this change. putting all my lifestream stuff through friendfeed and showing it off on the side bar. i also created a lifestream page that is more expanded.
tricky part to all of this is that there is not a searchable long tail in twitter content. its probably a good thing as i am not sure i want to find 140 character snippets for the first page of all my searches. so what is worthy of sharing for the long term? i'm still trying to figure that one out.
look back into the past : the things that were about this time years ago
in my on going toss out of lifting up some of the archives of this blog from similar time period over the years.
- i jumped in on some oovoo conversations with marketing & tech type people (pretty sure i was the only youth minister participating in the event). that was fun, but oovoo hasn't taken off. tokbox seems to be the next multi person video conference center.
- some ponderings from the desert fathers & mothers on parenting & youth ministry
- everyone can use some new 'faith filled' pick up lines
- an early morning reflection on the homeless in my city
- remember when the nfl was going to sue churches if you had a super bowl party.. seems they have learned from that pr nightmare
- i was again likened to a celebrity.. well, he wasn't so much celebrity then, he's more now
- church shopping & the devices of the entertaining church
- i took the strengths profile test that our church is big proponent of. can you guess what i came out as?
- my abbey journal kept while on retreat at gethsemani. good times, need to get back soon.
- in what is the only time you see capital letters use consistently, my pastor michael williams guest blogged on the theological conversation with miroslav volf
- this is what happens when you are friends with jonathon norman
- thoughts on how justice issues can become an idol unto themselves
- some ponderings on contemporary worship in my church context & how our greater church sold their soul to contemporary worship
- starbucks goes down!
warmth in winter : glimpse into a retreat
this is partially a mobile test post
This is a pic of a core part of our design team for warmth in winter jumping around dancing at the end if another great retreat. they worked harder than ever before to make this one happen and it turned out great. view more photos at our conference flickr & my own flickr set.