I have my friends Meg, Kat and Judy to thank for my love of Social Media. Some people, especially extreme extroverts like me, just seem to really groove on this stuff. I mean, I had dabbled in MySpace, but that always reminded me of a seedy bar, filled with dudes who punch each other and girls who wear too much make-up. So when my three young friends took me under their wing on that chilly day in November of ‘06 and helped me set up my Facebook profile, I’ve been pretty much hooked. I’d be lying if I didn’t confess that I spend a little time each day on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and LinkedIn. Some days, a little more than “a little.”

I know that writing this might conjure up images of an older-ish creepy guy playing “Mafia Wars” with 20 year old Russian girls or Farmvilling with old girlfriends, but I assure you, I’ve never been that guy. I have a theory, that who you are and how you roll in the real world, is how you’ll be in the virtual one. Perhaps a little more boldly, without the encumbrance of face to face contact, but who you are at heart will ultimately show up everywhere. Last year, I followed a story fairly closely about a Pastor out East who was demanding his church leadership to cancel their Facebook profiles or risk church discipline and expulsion. It turns out, he had a three-headed skeleton in his closet, if you catch my drift. I don’t think Facebook has a relationship status for that one. “Religiously Uber-Complicated”, maybe?

 Yesterday, I posted an interesting animated info-graphic called “The World is Obsessed With Facebook” by Alex Trimpe, on my Tumblr Blog. It is pretty fascinating stuff and if you have a minute and 49 seconds, it’s worth your time to check out.  

 Trimpe’s info-graphic exposed a few stunning numbers in regard to the sheer volume of activity that happens on Facebook every day… hour… and minute. It’s amazing. I don’t think anything has impacted our social landscape quite like it in such a short time. I’m not saying it’s been the most important thing ever, as that would be a toss-up between Rock & Roll and Doritos. It has, however, revolutionized the way we share information as a community, communicate with one another and connect with family and friends. I got a real kick this week when my Kindergarten (1967) classmate, Ginny, (who lives 3 hours away) reminded me on one of my posts, that I’ve “never been short for words”. Boundaries of time and space almost completely eliminated. Good jokes and prayer requests; encouragement and disappointments; smiles and tears; overwhelming joy and deep grief, all shared this week between friends in my social space, I’m glad I have friends and relationships here. I take it for what it is and I never forget to hug my wife and kids and tell them I love them. That’s something Facebook can’t do… even if you are “obsessed” with it!

However, something else is happening to Facebook at an alarmingly rapid rate as well. I’ll cover that in a later post, soon. Besides, I have to go play BeJeweled with Natasha. 

JK. I hope you LOL’d.

tumblrbot asked: WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE INANIMATE OBJECT?

Right now… I think my Moleskine notebook. 

This is a song from one of my new favorite Wisconsin bands, Conrad Plymouth. This song will be inside your head all day. If you are a lyric person, you’ll probably be thinking “what’s this song about?” I don’t really know… it’s just cool!

My buddy, Travis Whitty plays Bass for this outfit. He is one of the finest dudes you’ll ever meet.

curiositycounts:

The World Is Obsessed With Facebook – Alex Trimpe captures essential stats in fantastic infographic animation

I think this is amazing. I’ll probably write about it later today. -GS

Since I have started my position with Pinnacle Advertising, I’ve shared very little of this journey with my friends on Facebook and don’t think I’ve ever written about it on Tumblr. Maybe I mentioned it, but that’s about it.

The truth is, I’m crazy about the advertising world. I find it fascinating. To think that in short order, creative directors are challenged with crafting a message that can change someone’s perception, or at least entertain them in 30 seconds, is remarkable. In my old profession, my attempt to reach the masses with multi-layered sermons that took 30 minutes to deliver a payoff, seems ridiculous now. What was I thinking? I mean, I know some of them were clever and funny and hopefully, spiritually thought provoking. I’m certain that some had good, solid, well thought out points and all, but people only remember a little bit. Sound bytes, bullet points… that’s pretty much it. Perhaps I should have reversed my career path. Maybe I should have started in advertising and finished in ministry. I’d have realized that less is more and people could have gotten along a whole lot quicker with their day. You know, napping and ballgames and stuff like that.

At any rate, I, as usual, digress.

I think I need to be a little more intentional about being purposeful on my new path. I’ll try to share more here about what I’m up to. I love to hear about what people are up to, what’s going on in their lives and how I can be a part of their journey. Sharing “in progress” moments can be a powerful exchange. I have not invited enough of you in to mine. Maybe this will be a good place to start.

A lot of big churches have used contemporary worship as a draw to bring people in to their congregations. Some worship leaders are even becoming superstars with big-time royalty checks rolling in for their “worship hits”. I bet some of them actually think they practically invented worship.

I think they should listen this recording of Leadbelly.

I often remind my son, Tate, that if I meet with an untimely doom, he can find pretty much all the answers to life in the Bible and a good library of Johnny Cash songs. I know he’ll be a Cash fan for life, so it’s just my way to be sure he picks up the good book every once in a while!

This is a song that is both haunting and redemptive. The redemptive part is harder to find, but beautiful when you discover it.

Nobody carried a song like the man in black. 

I’m pretty sure that’ll be the first and last time I’ll use a Culture Club lyric as a title for something, but it just fit.

I really like Tumblr. I think I’ll be using it quite frequently. That’s about as far as I can go with my commitment right now. I’m sure as I unpack this, I’ll become more, or less, committed. I hope “more”.

I’ve tried to blog in the past, but I’ve always had a tough time of it. I used to write a “Facebook sermon” almost every Sunday night during the San Damiano days and I always had great feedback from those little posts. I probably wrote a hundred of those, so maybe someday I’ll repost a few of them… more about them later. When I say “little”, I mean they were usually much shorter than my “rambley” Sunday morning messages, yet still too long for those who get intimidated when they see more than three paragraphs. Those of you who suffer with this malady are already getting fatigued right now by the length of this post.

In the interest of being sensitive to those who are more comfortable with just sound bites, you probably don’t want to go much further than this, as I’m feeling a little inspired right now. 

So, back to blogging, communicating and Tumblr. When I would write those Facebook sermons, I just wanted people to know that we had this little thing called church in a few hours and they were welcome to come, no matter their physical or spiritual condition. I always felt that it was important that I didn’t try to do a preview of what I’d be talking about. Just a reminder that God loved them and that the doors of San Damiano (which were actually the doors of a local bar) were always open to them. Looking back, San Damiano, although it failed, was successful in many important ways. I certainly don’t regret a single moment of it and feel healthy enough myself to start writing a little here and there. Sort of a way to keep exercising the spiritually creative part of me. I hope you enjoy them.

Back in the day, sermons for me were a little weird. I always felt that for them to be truly “real” that they’d have to be in the moment that they happened. I didn’t like recording them, because I felt like they were meant for that moment, that crowd, for their eyes, ears and hearts. Like the context had a specific time correlation and that it didn’t apply as well to another time. Consequently, I didn’t ever use notes and often ended up drawing on the stories in the room for inspiration. I enjoyed that, I know it had a little downside to it, but at least it was organic and authentic. Writing, to me, is so much different. It’s an opportunity to be both creative and deliberate at the same time. Still real and honest, but more reflective and introspective, which I personally don’t take enough time to do during my regular routine. I hope I can be faithful to that here. 

One of the great things about Tumblr is that you can post one song per day on here. Because I have a pretty diverse and significant music collection, I’ll try to do this often because music is one of those things that exposes our souls a little bit. It shows everyone what’s moving us. When I think about it, every era of my life can be marked by songs and music. Songs cajole memories that have been cobwebbed for years. Everyone has a soundtrack, if you’re not sharing yours some way, you probably should. I’ll post one of those a few minutes after this post. So… I hope you like those contributions as well.

I have a few messages rolling around in my head that I look forward to sharing soon.

Blessings for your day!

GS

P.S. If anyone knows Boy George, tell him no offense meant by that opening line.

This song goes with today’s earlier post.

I think it’s a vinyl version.

Enjoy!

This morning, I noticed that someone tweeted out a picture and short video of some kids attending the “See You At The Pole” gathering in Little Chute on the campus of my local High School/Middle School. It honestly warmed my heart a great deal to see these kids gather together to sing a little and pray for their classmates, teachers, community and world. I was in youth ministry for 25 years and still have a huge heart for young people. In fact, I feel very connected to this particular event because a group of co-youth ministers and I were the ones to encourage and promote (locally) it when it first started.

This event was born, maybe 15-20 years ago, out of a group of high school kids in Texas who basically wanted to pray for their classmates.Today, kids from all over the country commemorate this initial gathering by getting together at their own schools on a specific Tuesday morning (today) in September. It was (and still kind of, is) a truly organic and spiritually honest gesture. However, adults have gotten involved over the last several years, so it’s gotten a little more “corporate” I can prove that because now, you can buy a T-Shirt for it.

As I remember the story, these kids in Texas were tired of faking it in regard to their faith. They were also tired of being attached to a brand of Christianity that was based on words and not much action. They decided, on their own, to gather together at the flagpole of their school and pray, because they cared about the people around them. From what I remember, they had no other agenda. I think seeing that picture this morning reminded me of how much I like agenda-less Christianity.

When I say “agenda-less Christianity” I probably should qualify it a little. I don’t at all mean a Christianity without the agenda of Jesus… that would amount to a weak, ineffective and spiritually impotent social club. What I’m talking about is the stuff we gather around (other flagpoles) that are just not critical to our mission of loving, giving and serving. The small group of kids who got together this morning represented several different churches and student ministries, so no one group can “claim” this thing and therefore, dominate or control it’s purpose. That’s a pretty healthy trait, right from the get-go. I think that this also lends itself to being a lot less influenced spiritual/Christian special interest groups.

I am only guessing, but I bet no kid there prayed against the “godless Obama administration” or against the “secularly humanistic Democratic agenda” or prayed that “God would send his judgement to the gay community”. No… I bet those kids prayed for the girls from Little Chute that were in a car accident yesterday. That’s because when you’re that age, friendships and relationships really, really matter. I’m just speculating here, but it’s probably fair to say that someone probably prayed that they’d be a better human representation of Jesus to others. I know that, because in their culture, being inauthentic is just pathetic. I don’t think it would be a stretch to imagine that one of those kids prayed for their teachers, even if some of them might not be “Christian”, because God knows, their generation has a severe lack of honest and caring mentors in their lives. This may sound like a real zinger for some of you, but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that somewhere, someone even prayed for President Obama… without any guile.

I miss it. I miss getting together with a spiritual community that can pray and sing without having to internally monitor each others behavior. I miss being around people who are known for what they are for, not against. I hope, for my own soul, that I can finish my days gathering around a flagpole that only has a Jesus banner on it. I hope I can remain more like my young friends and not be encumbered with the things that seem so important, but in the end, alienate me from others. You know, like the ones that sin worse than me or have “shaky” doctrine or might be politcally misguided. Ugh.

God bless you, who got together this morning… I hope you remain forever young.