THINK DIFFERENTLY

List-O-Mania V.4

Biggest surprise: Biggest surprise was the level of traffic BeDeviant.com is seeing! A few posts really threw us over the top (all election and Obama-related, oddly enough): “Is Obama the First Postmodern President?” and, “Can You Vote for Obama?” Great discussion on both posts. I’ll even be using some of the comments in my sermon this week at Immersion!

Favorite new song: I’ve had LCD Soundsystem’s “Someone Great” on repeat for the past week (link opens in iTunes). I feel like you should do everything in robot-like fashion when you listen to this song. It’s great.

Seminary: I’m gutting out the last few weeks of my classes. Greek is really starting to take a turn for the worse. Not grade-wise, comprehension-wise. I know it’s important for me to learn this ancient language, but sheesh! Beef jerky isn’t as dry as this class is at times. Also trying to figure out how to graduate by Fall 2009. My advisors think I’m insane.

Most excited about: Seeing where this blog goes. It’s fast becoming a favorite hobby of mine and one of my blogs even won an award! I’m excited about the future of this blog because of the awesome content you all provide. Insightful comments, joining in the election liveblogging discussion, and telling your friends about BeDeviant.com - this couldn’t happen without you. The Church is in a massive (and exciting) change right now and I think platforms like this will help usher in a new direction. Decentralization baby!

Favorite new Twitter-er: There’s two this week: @BeImmersed and @d_eickelberg. Immersion is the ministry I’m on staff with and we just hooked up the Twitter to the Immersion blog. Follow along and read some amazing posts by some amazing young adults who have something to say. Dave (@d_eickelberg) just started up a great blog “Someone Has To Say It”. And he is. Follow him on Twitter and give his blog a little love.

Are you a list person? Type A, perhaps? If you like things organized in list-like fashion, check out the List-O-Mania archives for more listed commentary on culture, theology, and life.

Technorati Tags: #iowawebawards, 2008 Election, Barack Obama, Bethel Seminary, Immersion, Iowa Web Awards, List-O-Mania, Postmodern, Twitter

What’s Your Tweet Worth?

WhatsYourTweetWorth.com says mine’s worth $8.04 per month. What’s yours?

Technorati Tags: Twitter, WhatsYourTweetWorth.com

List-O-Mania V.3

Biggest surprise: Probably the biggest surprise of the past week has been putting our townhome up for sale and putting an offer on a new house! It’s kind of taken the Wise household by surprise, but through a series of events we found an amazing deal on a brand new house and had some interest in our townhome. It’s been a whirlwind, but exciting as well. Interested in moving to West Des Moines? Check out our home at tinyurl.com/wise-house!

Favorite new music: My favorite of the last week has been an odd mix of techno and indie ambient shoe gazer stuff. My wife brought home “Ultra 2008″ (opens in iTunes) home from work the other day (she teaches dance). I threw it in and was surprised by how much I liked it. Reminds me of my college days as a dive-bar/dance club DJ. Hammock’s new one “Maybe They Will Sing for Us Tomorrow” (again, iTunes) has been on repeat as well. Great studying music.

Seminary: I’ve been forced to move to the triage method of studying. I am taking three classes this quarter (which counts as full-time) and that translates into a ton of reading. Simply put, there aren’t enough hours in the day! The balance is good, though, and I haven’t found myself getting too overwhelmed. That’s good.

Most excited about: I’ll be heading to Chicago to hang out with Brother Deviant, my bro Ryan “Peep” Wise. We’ll be hitting up Giordano’s, catching the Hawkeyes game at a bar in Wrigleyville, checking out a Bulls game, and engaging in activities steeped in overall “dudeness”. Should be a lot of fun. Not looking forward to the solo drive, though. Look for Twitter updates, especially once I hit the 3G goodness of Chicago.

Favorite new Twitter-er: He’s under the radar now, but @MarkSchlaf is ’bout ready to blow up! I don’t know very many people who can gracefully incorporate the word “earworm” into their tweets, but @MarkSchlaf does it with ease. Follow him. You will be pleased. (On a List-O-Mania sidenote, last week’s “favorite new Twitter-er, @jameseliason, was featured in mad stories this week in the Des Moines Register’s Juice. Way to go!)

Are you a list person? Type A, perhaps? If you like things organized in list-like fashion, check out the List-O-Mania archives for more listed commentary on culture, theology, and life.

Technorati Tags: Chicago, Des Moines Juice, Hammock, List-O-Mania, Real Estate, Twitter, Ultra 2008

List-O-Mania V.2

Biggest surprise: People actually read this blog. Sometimes you type, type, type and wonder (along with Pink Floyd), “is anybody out there?” Traffic to the site has increased nearly 200% with BeDeviant.com’s nomination for an Iowa Web Award and listing on the RSS aggregator website, Alltop.com. Huzzah!

Favorite new song: “Once In a Lifetime” (link opens in iTunes) by the Talking Heads. It’s so wonderfully bizarre and was featured in the trailer for the new George W. Bush “bio-mock-umentary”, “W”.

What I’m reading: My courses have me neck-deep in The Book of Concord and The Augsburg Confession. I’m also reading Emotionally Healthy Church, The Emotionally Healthy Manager, and Churched by Matthew Paul Turner (BeDeviant.com will be part of the “Churched: Blog Tour” later this month.)

Seminary: I’m trying to figure out how I can get done earlier. Right now, I’m slated to graduate May of 2010. This, simultaneously, seems like forever and like it’s right around the corner. It’s a good thing I’m Lutheran, otherwise the paradox might kill me. This quarter I’m taking three classes, which has been a real challenge, but something I’m finding I can manage. Of course, if anybody out there feels like sponsoring my seminary education, this is a moot point. Got an extra $30,000 laying around?

Most excited about: This week, we’ll be broadcasting the Immersion sermon live at BeDeviant.com/Webcast. We tried it out last week and it worked beautifully. I’m not quite sure how many people actually watched, but we had good feedback all around. So we’ll keep doing it. Mark your calendar: This Thursday. 8:15pm CST. Sermon series: What Does the Bible Really Say About… Topic: Sex. Holla!

Favorite new Twitter-er: Ran into @jameseliason at a wedding I was a part of over the weekend. We went to high school together, but I had no idea he was behind WhatsYourTweetWorth.com, Twittad.com, and FilmFitti.com. Ambitious, I like that.

Technorati Tags: #iowawebawards, George W. Bush, List-O-Mania, Lutheran Confessions, Matthew Paul Turner, Twitter, Webcast

The Digital Pastor

God is seriously blowing my mind.

I’ve recently come across the term, “Digital Pastor” and I really like it. I really like it.

There was an event that happened earlier today, something called #churchtechcamp. Basically the conversation consisted of asking the question, “What does God want to do through the new digital media?” Things like Twitter, Facebook, Mogulus, Second Life, the iPhone, and more.

Rhett Smith points out that the times are a-changin’ for those who call themselves pastors:

“I love ministry…I was and am a pastor, so I love pastoring. But I also think that technology is allowing us to do things differently in a very easy way…communicate, organize, etc, etc. And hopefully the congregation can do this without having to go through all the traditional, hierarchical church structures that have for too long consolidated “power” in the hands of a pastor, exec. team, elder board, etc.

Instead, I think it will put the “power” back in the hands of the congregation…and the pastor will act more as a facilitator, shepherd for the community. But I think that is a great thing.

And maybe we need to rethink the whole role of pastoral leadership in this country anyways.”

Amen, bro. Amen.

Technology is allowing us to approach life in an entirely new way, the church included. Luther had the printing press. We, as the 21st century church, have the Internet. The question becomes will we allow God to breathe through these new mediums and bring his life-changing reality to people in new and creative ways?

#churchtechcamp made the Twitter blog today (and for the record, that’s a big deal.)

Chris Brogan, a faith blogger (amongst other things), is listed in the Top 100 blogs on Technorati.

LifeShare, a recent web ministry event co-opted by Lifechurch.tv and Carlos Whitaker, blew everyone’s expectations away by linking countless numbers of believers over the internet in an effort to “become the church” online.

If you’re in ministry, are you prepared to engage a culture in a completely new way? Are you prepared (or willing to be prepared and/or prepare others) to translate the message of Christ using a fully digital language? If “digital” is not your native tongue, will your accent betray you to a generation that is desperate to know that God is real?

In the meantime, hit me up on Twitter and we can talk about it. In 140 characters or less, of course.

Technorati Tags: #churchtechcamp, Digital Pastor, Facebook, LifeChurch.tv, LifeShare, Twitter

BeDeviant.com List-O-Mania.

There are numerous variations of this all over the place, but I thought I’d add one more blog to the pile … It’s the BeDeviant.com List-O-Mania!

Favorite New Ministry Websites
I recently stumbled upon NeueMinistry.com. I like it because the content is interesting and it’s geared towards people in ministry. People like me. CollideMagazine.com looks really promising, as does Des Moines’ own VeritasMag.com. Content for normal Christians who find themselves in the normal, everyday world.

Favorite Twitter Follower
I find myself looking forward to @paul_stewart’s updates as of late. He’s always got something good to say. Good use of linking back to his blog, precise updates, and he doesn’t update too much. Nothing’s worse than a Twitterer who tells you when they’re getting up to go to the bathroom, how their fantasy football team is doing or how bored they are. One word for those people, ” BUH-LETED!” (Of course, if you want to follow me you can do so here.)

Favorite iPhone App
Air Sharing is an app that says what it does and does what it says. It turns your iPhone into a wireless hard drive and works as advertised. Oh yeah, it’s free! Much better than pricey (and fickle) competitor DataCase.

Worst Upgrade of the Week
The new Facebook bites. It’s counterintuitive (something we Mac users depend on), it’s ugly and it hides all the stuff that I love about Facebook (read: Flair).

Favorite New Twitter Tool
Twitthat! is a nifty tool that lets you tweet what you read. Simple, easy and useful. Now I can let people know when I’m reading the latest post from JakeBouma.com or Swerve.

Here ends the List-O-Mania. What are you diggin’ in your world?

Technorati Tags: Air Sharing, CollideMagazine.com, Facebook, iPhone, JakeBouma.com, LifeChurch.tv, List-O-Mania, NeueMinistry.com, Twitter, VeritasMag.com

NYC.

I‘ve never been to New York City.

The farthest east I’ve been is Weirton, West Virginia, where they brew and bottle their own beer and make steel like it’s their job. Because it is.

I’m going to New York City this week with my wife and my family-in-law (mother-, father- and brother- to be exact.) I’m really curious to see if all the stereotypes of New Yorkers are true:

“They’re all rude.”
“You’ll get mugged. Wear a fanny pack.”
“All the cabbies smell.”
“They’ll stab you if you go into the Park after dark.”
“All they eat is pizza.”
“Bums urinate on the subway.”
“The city never sleeps. Wait, that’s Las Vegas. Isn’t it? Shoot. I’ll just have a bagel with lox and call it a day.”

You get the idea.

Have you ever been to New York City? What should we see? What should we avoid? Where’s the best place to get pizza? Best place to get coffee (if you say “Central Perk” I will kindly respond by saying, “it’s not a real place. Trust me, I’ve already looked into it.”)?

My father-in-law is from this area. He even played college football for the Syracuse Orangemen. I must say, I’m glad he’ll be with us, leading us on our maiden voyage to what could be a “strange land” for this Midwestern guy. I’m glad he’ll be there, a.) because it will be fun to get to know him and my mother-in-law better and, b.) he will serve as our interpreter/guide/overall thug in case any New Yorkers give us guff. (After I asked for his blessing to marry Kerry - my now-wife, his daughter - he gave me a hug and slapped my back so hard I thought a vertebrae had dislodged and fallen out the bottom of my shoe.) Skadoosh suckas!

So, I bid you all farewell and shall return to this glorious blog on Monday, July 14th. Follow my trip via Twitter at www.twitter.com/JustinWise.

Technorati Tags: Family, Free Time, New York City, Pizza, Syracuse Orangemen, Twitter, Vacation