Creating the Common Good Through Writing, Talking, Connecting and Dreaming of the Way Things Ought To Be
I presented at the Theology After Google event last week in Claremont California. Stay tuned for details on a follow-up event in North Carolina in September.
Below is my presentation. You can watch all of them here.
The material I presented is from my forthcoming book Church in the Inventive Age.
A couple of weeks ago I was talking with Tony Jones and he used the term “Unicorn Punch”. I had never heard the phrase, but he directed me to Urban Dictionary…
(noun) The opposite of the unicorn chaser. When one is overwhelmed by cuteness, one feels that only punching a unicorn in the face can re-establish balance.
“Those pictures on your blog are so adorable, they’re going to cause a unicorn punch epidemic!”
It struck me that I might be a Unicorn Puncher. I like to call it being a “wide-eyed contrarian” but UPer might be better.
Jon White, the graphic genius friend of mine, made an image to go with it.
Seeing the image, it somehow makes me proud to be a UPer.
Anyone else a UPer?
I will be in San Diego March 9 for a Social Media Bootcamp from 9-4. Registration here.
Also, would love to connect with some other Hope-Filled Optimists in the area Tuesday night. Interested? Let me know in any of the communication ways – (email, comment, tweet – pagitt, facebook, call).
I will update here and in my SM stream when details are set.
Here is a segment rom the radio show this week on why I don’t believe in miracles. You can listen in the Twin Cities from 10am-12noon on AM950 or at DougPagittRadio.com. You can also see the live video feed. You can get the podcast at itunes and here.
You can subscribe to all my youtube channel here.
Why I don’t believe in miracles:
JoPa Productions (my company) will be offering Ministry Leader Social Media Boot Camps around the country this Spring and Fall.
The San Diego event is only a few weeks away and is limited to 50 people, so spread the word and get registered.
Offerings in other cities as well:
APRIL 9, 2010 (Dallas/Fort Worth)
I will be in the Chicago area this weekend.
A preaching seminar in the Evergreen Park area,on Saturday and at
North Park University Sunday night
Events are open to all and I would be glad to connect.
On a tough day when I found out my van has a cracked transmission and I need to figure out a new car, I ran across this little story in the presentations I am working on and wanted to offer it as a little levity. Read the rest of this entry »
Man alive, things must be changing at Focus on the Family.
I received their weekly email today and to my surprise it was not advocating a political position, nor making judgments about people’s “life-styles”, it was not even pushing a particular model of parenting. Not this time. Nope, it was about the unconditional love of God.
Unconditional!. Meaning God’s love come not by thinking or believing right; not by living right; not by voting right, just straight-up love.
They even went so far as to make the headline “God is Love”.
Here is part of the text from the email and an image of the rest of it.
And the Greatest of These Is … Love
All of us long to have true love in our lives–and we can. We don’t need to have a spouse, a sweetheart, a child or even a close friend to enjoy that. After all, God is Love (1 John 4:8). It’s His very essence, and He’s a giving God.
So bask in the unconditional, lavish love of God today and share it with others through your actions and words.
I mean get a load of that! I tell you people, the Good News is spreading.
I have become convinced of a number of realities of the “emerging church movement” over the last decade and one of those is that it is always much better when experienced face to face to face than face to screen to face or page to face. That is why many of us have endeavored to create faith communities, start cohorts, or even attend graduate school.
As has been the case for 10 years, there are this year, many times, places and pricepoints for folks to meet, spend time together, and engage face to face.
I want to point out four national events that I will be part and invite you to consider joining in one or more of them. 2 are free and the other 2 are a quiet reasonable cost.
Here is another sign of the power of Social Media to interact with organizations.
I tweeted the question “why does the tram at the Minneapolis airport use a woman with a british accent”. Not only did dozens of comment on the tweet (and FB post) but the MSP tweeter replied to me.
Here is a screen shot.
This is a good example of Social Media in organizations. JoPa, my company with Tony Jones, is offering a social media bootcamp on Feb 4 in Minneapolis. A few spots remain if you or someone you know wants to join us. Price is right at $95 for the day including lunch (man, we’ve gotta raise the price on this thing).
Jeff Sharlet will be on my Radio Show this sunday at 11.
We will be discussing his new book The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the heart of American power.
Jeff is also the author of Killing the Buddha: A Heretic’s Bible and Believer, Beware: First-Person Dispatches from the Margins of Faith.
The Family describes the role of a certain version of Evangelicalism in the halls of congress and beyond.
I am really looking forward to it.
I am going to be at Emmetts at West Dundee in the northern Chicago area tomorrow night from 8-10PM for a little Emergent/Missional/Church leader meet up.
No agenda, just connecting and everyone is welcome. Here is a map link
10 years ago I was part of an event about the Bible in Houston, Texas.
It was a great event, so many good thoughts and so many good people. Much of my use and understanding of the Bible today can be traced back to that event.
This April 15-16, The Free For All: Rediscovering the Bible in Community event will, I believe, play that role for many in this coming decade.
Simply put, if you use the Bible in professional or personal setting, I believe this is the most important Bible event in the last 10 years. I encourage you to attend.
You can’t beat the price, it is Free. Free for All is Free, get it?
It will be well worth the trip to North Carolina. The content will be exceptional and the people outstanding. Really, this event is going to be great. Don’t let the non-registration fee fool you, you will want to be at this event
All the details are here.
People have asked for it, so I will do it - Book Club Pricing on my books.
Order 4 of any book and I will ship 5. And the first 4 are only $10 each.
If you have a book club this is a great deal for you as the organizer. You can get 5 books for $40, or 10 for $80. Keep the free book for yourself or pass the savings on the other members.
Some people are planning Sunday School Classes or retreats on A Christianity Worth Believing and they can get the same 1 free with every 4 for the entire group. By the way, these are the hard cover ACWB books.
And, as always the single books are only $10 each and the 5 book variety pack of all 5 is still $40.
Yesterday, on my Radio Show I had a conversation with Chris Rosebrough of Fighting For The Faith and Pirate Christian Radio about his take on why people from his network and stream of faith are so willing to speak about me and others the way they do. I wanted to reflect on it a bit more here.
(I sent this post to Chris and got his “sign-off on it” in an effort to “talk-with” and not “talk-about” people and to be sure I did not mischaracterize him .)
Here is a selection of things said about me just from the last week that I asked Chris to help me understand: Read the rest of this entry »
Yesterday I was on Twin Cities Live TV show talking about Social Media – video below.
If you are interested in learning more about Social Media or refining your abilities on SM or looking to find ways to use it for your organization, then maybe you will be interested in the Social Media Bootcamp I will be running February 4, from 9am-4pm.
It is great or ministry people, but is open to all.
Details here.
The Christianity21 event (21 presenters, 21 minutes each, the future of Christianity in the 21st Century) in October was a great experience for all who were there. And I know there are many who wish they were part of it. Well, now you can be, sort of.
We have put together a package of recordings, images, and live sketched notes that gives not only the content but the vibe and feel of the event.
This groundbreaking and beautiful three days of dreaming about the future of Christianity lives on in three artifacts. We are thrilled that we have audio mp3s of all of the presentations, an extended video by Don Heatley (see a sample here), and a breathtaking booklet with the sketches of Paul Soupiset and the photos of Courtney Perry.
All turned out better than we could have ever dreamed, and we want to give you one more chance to order them, which you can do here. We will be shipping them out by the end of January.
You can order the audio, DVD, Photos and Live Sketched notes for $99 here.
I was ticked at the airport today and put a tweet up about how things did not go well, again, with National Car Rental.
Within minutes I got a response from National. Below is the exchange. I blocked the email since he didn’t seem to want it public. Really powerful is this social media thing.
If you are a ministry leader and want to learn more about Social Media and how it can help and not hurt you and your ministry try the JoPa Social Media Bootcamp February 4, 2010 in Minneapolis.
Update – I was in contact with the person from national and he took good care of me. Thanks National.
I heard an interview, a number of years ago, with a marketing person who was telling the story of the the book industry lobbying architects in the 195o’s to get them to design bookcases in the homes they were designing in the post war housing boom. (You know that classic little book case by the door or built into the wall in the 1958 rambler.)
The idea was that if they put bookcases in new homes people would want to fill them with books. And it worked, so the marketing guy said. Books sales skyrocketed.
I am trying to verify my memory of this story and find a source for it. Can anyone help?
Here is a segment from my show today where I resond to a question from a caller who wanted me to explain why and how I could believe in God.
The show airs live in the Twin Cities on AM950 from 10am-12noon. There is an online stream and live video as well.
You can follow the show at Doug Pagitt Radio.com and get the 2 1-hour podcasts of the show. You can also see all the live video recordings of the show at the Live linke on the site.
watching The Big Lebowski for the first time.
