Notes from the Trail

I am loving Twitter. I am an unabashed Twaddict. I play with my Twitter daily. And I Twinkle on my iPhone occasionally. 

Twitter users will know what I’m talking about. Others will be ready to censor Notes from their RSS feeds. However, I was recently recommended a site by another Twaddict - AJ Huffman - that I think is a must sub for all Twitter users and those considering it. It’s called TwiTip.com.

Essentially, Twitter is like a mass status update. But it’s so much more. Organizations are using it to keep people updated. Barack Obama used Twitter in the election. Sure, there’s Twitabuse. But that’s no reason not to step into this world of microblogging to make new friends, extend your network, and leverage your influence.

Twittiquette Anecdote

Most newbies on Twitter, including myself, forget to use the “@” symbol to indicate a response to another user. In addition, there is simply too much conversational Twitter when a direct message or a direct text would suffice.

In addition to these, here are some fantastic entries for Twitt-ed:

• How to be useful on Twitter without going crazy
•  Don’t be a Twitter snob; focus on friendships
• Twitter as dinner conversation: a guide to using replies

As an example of how confusing conversational Twitter can be to the Twitterverse… What would you assume the following Twits are talking about? These are verbatim Tweets on Monday, December 1…

• seaarkaj: @journeyguy I know what it is, and I can’t do it. Why you ask?
• deltarazorback: I seem to at the most awkward moments. I can’t do it on command however.
• arniewvw: @journeyguy yeah I can do it. Don’t make a habit of it. Nowdays it’s usually on accident. Back in high school did it a lot
• dheagle93: @journeyguy nope…not among the tools in my toolbox.
• dheagle93: that was not a skill valued at Mid-America Seminary…maybe if we were Methodists…it would be like a portable baptism…

And these are some parts of the same conversation from Facebook:

• only when i dont want to, or I am talking to someone, and then when I do it, I try for the next 20 minute to do it again!!!LOL
• i have a friend who actually poked holes in his tongue or cheeks or something when we were kids to be able to do that better on demand..
• It has always amazed me, but i have never been able to.  one of those mighty mysteries.  Maybe the 10th wonder of the world
• Yep. But not on demand.
• Now you have me trying to do it.  Thanks a lot….I had stuff I wanted to accomplish today.
• I can sort of simulate it, but not with the tongue- it’s a uvula thing. Explains my hate for the French language. That, and it’s spoken by, well, the French.
• I had no idea what it was so I looked it up! And, yep, I can do it! Often it happens when I am singing! But I can’t do it on demand.

What it’s all about…

I sent out an update through Ping.fm (which updates my Facebook and Twitter simultaneously) that said: 

Just curious. How many of you can gleek? (If you don’t know what it is, that answers the question.)

Gleeking is defined by Wikipedia as “the projection of saliva from the submandibular gland upon compression by the tongue.” I’ve always wanted to be able to gleek on command, and the reason I sent out this Tweet earlier today was because I shocked myself with a completely unintentional spray of saliva across my desk this morning. I spent several moments in euphoria, wondering if I had suddenly been given this gift by God. It was with great disappointment that I learned that I could not reproduce it. It was an accidental gleek. Darnit.

But back to the power of microblogging… I’m still getting responses on Facebook from this morning’s update. It’s amazing how a simple microblog can connect and involve folks from all over the world in a moment. It’s a new day.

And here’s a nice new site to help you chart your Twitter activity: TweetStats. It produced the graph below. You can see the rest of my stats here.

In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day: How to Survive and Thrive When Opportunity Roars

 
Mark Batterson is the founding pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D.C. Carolyn and I missed the opportunity to attend when we were there two years ago. It’s a unique church that has one of D.C.’s best coffee houses as its primary outreach ministry – called Ebenezers. NCC has chosen strategically to use movie theaters along the metro line as their worship locations.

In a Pit is a fantastic, easy-to-read book that is harder-to-digest. It’s difficult dining simply because Batterson packs so much challenge and encouragement into such a small book. You won’t put it down scratching your head, but you may put it down holding your heart.

He uses the little-known Old Testament passage about one of King David’s mighty men, Benaiah, in 2 Samuel 23. Batterson builds a bridge from Christian inactivity to faithful adventure. As you read, you’ll be inspired and encouraged to quit sitting on the bench and get into the game of hope, faith, life, and joy. He calls you into adventure that is promised and compelled by Christ’s love.

An early chapter challenges our view of God. So many of us think God is just about the “big stuff,” and the “small stuff” is ours to deal with. However, as he deals with another passage about the loss of an axhead, Batterson says,

He cares about the little things like wedding receptions and borrowed ax heads. God is great not just because nothing is too big for Him. God is great because nothing is too small for Him either. 

How does one quit cowering in a corner and embrace risk? Batterson’s short book may not tell you exactly how, but it will lead you to the edge of your seat wondering whether perhaps the life you’re living is only a non-life and the greatest experiences are out there… on the end of the high dive.

He makes an excellent point talking about sin avoidance in our lives. Too many “Christians” try to avoid sinful things… yet they excuse themselves for all the things they never do which they should be embracing as followers of Christ.

The servant who buries his talent and breaks even is called “wicked.” Why? Because he wasn’t willing to take a calculated risk. Maybe risk taking is at the heart of righteousness. Maybe righteousness has less to do with not doing anything wrong and more to do with doing things right.

And I would add that perhaps righteousness is not just doing things right but doing the right things. Batterson urges us to become lion chasers just like Benaiah. To do so requires a radical trust in a God that will have you in His hands – whether you die or live.

The real issue is not in chasing the lion or even in killing it. The real issue is in facing the lion. Facing the lions of life is much like facing our fears. They will retain terrible control over what we attempt and what we avoid until we destroy their power over us through faith in His Greater Power.

I can’t think of a book that I would recommend more to someone who has a limited reading attention span. Tell me what you think of it after you climb out of the pit. And leave the lion behind.

So far this week, I’ve had the joy and privilege of participating in two worship services that were not at Journey but were highly significant. Briefly…

Sunday morning, our church was invited by Revival Center Church to worship with them. RCC is a predominately African-American church led by a good minister friend of mine, Michael Jones. Michael and I have met and have prayed a few times now for the Lord to grant us favor and wisdom as we consider what a multiethnic ministry might look like here in our Delta region town.

I invited Mark DeYmaz and Stephen Weathers, pastors of Mosaic Church in Little Rock down a few months ago to help us being that dialogue. Mosaic’s church DNA is wrapped around the concept of every people, every tribe. Their vision is a multisite, multiethnic church.

At RCC Sunday, I was blessed to be able to preach to both our congregations about “Thankful for Joy.” You can listen to the podcast here. However, greater than the message proclaimed was the message of the Gospel in the pews. We loved meeting with them and worshiping our Savior together. We’re looking ahead already to the next time.

The second worship opportunity was last night at the Baptist Collegiate Ministry at UAM. I served there from 1995-2003 as the director before resigning to start Journey. Last night was the final worship service of the semester. They call it “Refuge” these days. (We called it FIRE back in the day). What was significant is that it wasn’t just the last Refuge of the semester. It was the last Refuge in that building forever.

The BCM will be moving into a brand new facility built by love, faith, and vision in January. They will move in debt free after at least 10 years of prayer and fund-raising. Their current facility was built by Southern Baptist Churches back in 1954. In fact, the BSU (as it was known then) at UAM was founded in 1932.

It was deeply surreal for me to be able to stand in the back, listening to current director Tracy Reed teach and participate in the student-led worship time. I loved every minute of it and thanked the Lord for the generations of students that have been touched for eternity through God’s people ministering in that location.

As I reflect on both opportunities for worship, I’m confident of one thing in relation to each… it is not an isolated worship service that marks a ministry. It’s the overall direction of that ministry in relation to the teachings of Jesus Christ. In both cases I would say that the path ahead is bright indeed!