I Got Your Back | Tap Dance/Spoken Word Mash-up

by Vince on February 28, 2010

I love what comes out of the arts department at Gateway Church:

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State of the internet

by Vince on February 26, 2010

I think they day is fast approaching where we won’t be that impressed by this kind of data…and that’s the day where the web truly becomes a part of the fabric of life.

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from Jesse Thomas on Vimeo.

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Exclusivity and forks in the road

by Vince on February 11, 2010

My son just started playing basketball. Playing may be overstating it. Five year old kids can’t really play basketball. They just don’t have the coordination and body control that is needed to play hoops. Basically it’s just a practice session where they try and learn the building blocks that might one day translate into basketball skills.

One thing I noticed right away is that coach isn’t concerned that the kids are traveling when he instructs them to dribble from one end of the court to the other. In fact he hasn’t once explained what traveling is. He is more concerned that they get the basics down first. Yet, to an experienced basketball player, traveling is pretty basic. Fact is, if he was concerned about the kids understanding and executing properly the concept of traveling at this point in their hoop journey, the journey would all be end. They simply are not ready for that reality yet.

I see this scenario played out in Christendom all the time:

Someone asks a Christian about their faith or about God and not three sentences in they start dropping info about the trinity or the virgin birth, or worse yet, details about their beliefs on eschatology.

At some point in one’s spiritual journey there comes a fork in the road. That fork is one of a series of concepts about the Christian faith that demand exclusivity from other paradigms, and they are important.

Why do we feel the need to rush people to that fork? Should we not first try to take them along a longer road that would prepare them to receive these truths? Should we try and go down a road built on common ground for as long as we can?

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The big red tractor | Francis Chan

by Vince on February 8, 2010

The Big Red Tractor from Jacob Lewis on Vimeo.

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Can we pick up feelings and emotion on the web?

by Vince on February 8, 2010

Have you ever been choked up by a book? Maybe even shed a tear? Get mad? Laugh?

Of course you have. The fact is that emotion can be transmitted through written word.

I have been involved in a lot of conversations about whether or not ‘true community’ can exist on the internet and the fall-back argument of opponents of the idea is that feelings just don’t transmit in the context of the web. We can’t truly know how someone may be feeling in a given context.

Remember when you first started commenting on blogs or posting on social profiles? There was a learning curve for all of us to understand context, emotion, voice and all the other little nuances that go with being an internet citizen that wants to hear and be heard. I think a seasoned internet citizen can pick up on the things we think we’re missing because of the lack of physical presence.

Am  I way off? Can we read feeling and emotion on the web?

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We’re hiring

by Vince on February 1, 2010

At Gateway Church we are taking ministry on the internet to a whole new level and I need a creative developer that has a heart for ministry on the web. We have a vision and strategy that is unique and we need some killer web apps and sites to pull this thing off.  At this early stage in the game I need someone who can gather people, lead a team, dream and execute big ideas and vision.

I’m looking for someone that might not exist, but here goes:

You Are: Active Internet Citizen, outgoing, creative

Skills Needed: PHP chops, Javascript, MySql, CSS, Wordpress, video creation, social media, content management

Bonus Skills: flash, public speaking, writing, disc golf

The bulk of our spaces are built on Expression Engine, Wordpress or Drupal depending on the needs.

Contact me with your resume and don’t forget to throw in you Twitter username too

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Drop

by Vince on January 27, 2010

Justin Girdler put together this video collage to roll before a really heavy morning at Gateway Church. The clip really takes people to the edge and probably opened up some wounds…which can be really good for healing. The chat on the internet campus and the prayer teams at all the campuses were really busy helping people heal, I think we really struck a nerve and moved a lot of people in a good direction.

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Location Based App Ethics

by Vince on January 26, 2010

I have become a fan of the location based app trend that is just beginning to gain some traction and is well on its way from being in the early adopter stage to mainstream. Go see Brent for a breakdown of a few.

Since there is some sort of competitive element that goes with them and more and more businesses that are rewarding users, I think it’s time we started a discussion about ethics.

Here are my proposals:

Don’t check in where you live
It never occurred to me to check in at home, but then I saw some people doing it. I don’t have a particular reason why you shouldn’t, other than the fact it’s dumb.

Don’t check in where you work
As businesses begin to offer rewards to the ‘leading’ users, it only makes sense. How can a restaurant offer a discount or special offer when the leading user on a given app is a waiter at the restaurant?

Connect with people in real life
Connect with the people who frequent the same spots as you, that’s the point of the whole thing isn’t it?

What other points need to be considered?

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