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Thanks to UStream.tv, I’ll be on the air LIVE starting at 3pm CST on Des Moines Local Live. I’ll be on Jackie Joens‘ show and we’ll be talking about how to live a Christ-filled life.

You’ll want to watch. I’m sure of it. Join in the chat below if you got some time. Below is the archived show from the other day–Enjoy!

See you on the intertubes!

Call it dumb luck, but I’ll be joining the team of incredible communicators that will be facilitating at Cultivate 09.

I’ll be facilitating a talk called, “What Would Luther Do?” Here’s how I described it earlier:

The printing press was invented in 1440 and a young pastor/theologian asked the question, “What would happen if all of God’s people could read his Word?” So, Luther set out to translate the Bible into a language the everyday man or woman could understand. What was previously an unreadable piece of dogmatic literature to so many became alive and active and changed the way an entire people group saw God. In the 21st century, we must ask ourselves the same questions Luther did: Where is church polity becoming a stumbling block to people encountering God? How can we leverage cutting-edge technology in order to further God’s Kingdom? What does that look like and what are the implications?

I am seriously so amped to be a part of this. I really hope you can make it (and add your voice to my session as well!) If that’s not a good enough reason, head on over to the Cultivate site and check out the raw talent that will be a part of the event.

As I tweeted yesterday, this conference is probably not like most of the ones you’ve gone to in the past:

• Proceeds from the conference are going to help people. Big time.
• Everyone involved is coming for the main reason to be involved; i.e. no “big budget” speakers, no prima donnas allowed!
• You get to participate. This conference breaks down the fourth wall between presenter and attender!

So hop on the train–and for the love of all things good and holy, come to my session!

The glorious day is upon us, you can now claim vanity URL’s for Facebook Fan Pages.

Earlier this month, Facebook allowed users to grab custom URL’s for their own profile pages. For instance, you can find me on Facebook at Facebook.com/JustinWise:

A much needed, and much appreciated, change from the endless string of numbers that used to make up your profile URL:

(If you haven’t yet grabbed your custom URL, head to Facebook.com/Username and get to it!)

Now, if you’re an admin for a Fan Page, you can grab custom URL’s for those too. (The group has to be more than 100 members, though.)

For instance, I’m an admin for the fan pages of my church’s three different campuses: Hope West Des Moines, Hope NorthBranch, and Hope CityBranch. Before, we were  having to use URL shorteners to easily tell people about the page. Forget trying to tell people the actual URL of the page, most pages have something that looks like this:

Now, we have easily identified URL’s on Facebook for two out of our three campuses:

• Lutheran Church of Hope, West Des Moines is now: Facebook.com/HopeWDM (Which is nice, because our website is HopeWDM.org)
• Lutheran Church of Hope NorthBranch is now: Facebook.com/HopeNorthBranch
• Lutheran Church of Hope CityBranch will be: Facebook.com/HopeCityBranch (CityBranch needs a few more members and then we’re ready to rock!)

Brand recognition, URL brevity, and the power of Facebook–what could be better? Are you an admin for a page on Facebook? Hurry up on over to the site and grab your organization-specific URL now. (And if you procrastinate and don’t get what you want, don’t say we didn’t warn you!)

We’re having a baby in September.

We had our first birthing class tonight.

This was one of the pictures in our book:

She’s clearly not amused.

Simple. Precise. Clear.

My question for you today is this, “What is God teaching you in your life?”

I’ll start the ball rolling… God is teaching me how to expand my imagination.

Now it’s your turn.

I hopped into a conversation on FriendFeed started by Tony Steward yesterday and it got me thinking.

Tony asked the question,

What technology and insights are you most excited about in the church world right now?

I had a few things to add, mostly regarding the iPhone. I thought I’d expound a bit on some of them and see what you all think. I realize that most of these are currently completely unfeasible, but a geek can dream, can’t he?

1. Let me embed hyperlinks into my Keynote slides (or PowerPoint, for you Windoze users) that beams the Scripture references I am using to web-enabled cell phones automatically over WiFi. This could, essentially, eliminate the “I forgot my Bible at home” syndrome, and would allow me as the communicator to pick one translation so everyone can be on the same page, literally.

2. Open up a web-based communication channel that would allow me, as communicator, to see real-time feedback from the audience on my iPhone. It would need to be “closed” and identity-based to allow some accountability.

3. “What song did the band play tonight? It was that one song… You know, with the chorus and the guitar? That one.” Ever heard that as a ministry or worship leader? What if you provide a real-time tracking system for your worship songs that allowed iPhone users to be notified of each song played at your service and a link to iTunes to download immediately? If one were so inclined, you could have the entire night’s worship set in your iPhone before you leave the church.

4. Give me an app that generates tag clouds of the preachers and teachers I am listening to. Type in their name (or build voice-recognition into the app so it can automatically identify who it is you are listening to) and the app goes to work, collecting tags about the speaker from Amazon reviews, blogs, Twitter, etc.

This is “Web4” type stuff, requiring data that can “sense and react” to the real-world environment around us. It’s possible, just not right now. Ask Seth Godin–he knows.

So let’s continue to conversation that Tony started, right here. What technology and insights are you most excited about in the church world?

Yes.

Did you know that President Obama gives weekly national addresses… on YouTube?

Many “in the know” believe that Obama won the presidency, in part, to his savvy use of social media. His campaign motivated the masses to stand up and take part and be known. In turn, President Obama has paved the way for an “open White House” in terms of accessibility and information sharing.

Say what you want about his politics, but in my opinion there has never been a President who has had the same level of accessibility as Obama. Today, at 11:30am CST, President Obama will hold the fourth press conference of his administration, more than any other President at this point in his term. Politics aside, one can see Obama wants the American people to hear something from him, even if some don’t agree with it.

That’s smart. President Obama understands that social media is “flattening” the playing field. If you’re not divulging the information that people want to know, someone is. Just ask the “leaders” of Iran. Information is like water, it will take the path of least resistance and take the form of whatever container it fills. That’s why the government of Iran is having fits over a social media site developed by two Californians called “Twitter.” Simply fascinating.

What can we learn from Obama? From Iran?

• For starters, your organization no longer holds the reigns.
• You no longer get to control “where the water flows,” but you can influence it. This is what President Obama does so brilliantly: Instead of allowing other people to speak on his behalf, inevitably misquoting him, he simply addresses the situation himself. Brilliant. This way he sets the pace, the “flow,” of information, not someone else. Sure, people will twist his words and take them out of context, but it will be at their own peril.
• Someone is speaking on your behalf, either for the good or for the bad. Wouldn’t you like to be in on the conversation?

As a public service, here’s President Obama’s latest address from YouTube. You can check out his channel here. Enjoy, be informed, and let the river flow:

Is marriage dead? According to this woman, it is:

On this site, we aim to discuss matters of culture, matters of faith, and/or matters of technology. This topic seems to fit two out of the three and, in the words of Jack Nicholson, “That ain’t bad!”

I just delivered a message last Thursday on this specific issue: Marriage. It seems as though the more self-centered our society becomes, the less that marriages tend to succeed. As the “me” quotient goes up, the satisfaction, longevity, and enjoyment of a marriage goes down.

A God-blessed marriage is one that asks “What’s in it for thee,” not “What’s in it for me.” Marriage exists for the sake of the other person, not yourself.

Is it any wonder the woman featured in the video is so anti-marriage? She’s completely missed the point!

Those of you who are married, what’s one of the biggest keys to making your marriage work and work well? Please share, we need to hear from you!

A while back, we ran a contest to give away a Deviant t-shirt.

Here is the proud winner, Billy Johnson, sportin’ the swag:

You can pick yours up now at Store.BeDeviant.com. Checka-check it out!