Filed under Christianity
An experiment in Bible networking on Twitter
Inspired by the launch in early May 2010 of One Twitter One Book – a book discussion group with 7500 members, Chatbible is a new venture in Bible discussion.
Chat?
You may feel that it should be ‘discussion’ or ‘weighty theological analysis’. However, the title ‘chat’ has been chosen deliberately. Chatbible is intended as an informal discussion forum where no question is too simple and no comment too brief to be valued. With its facility for comment by phone or laptop on the move, it allows the conversation to stretch across borders and to take place at any time of the day or night.
140 characters on the greatest book ever written?
The fact is that for many this would be 140 characters more than many are contributing to any Bible discussion right now. Some Bible chat is better than none, surely? Not only that, but you can tweet as many comments as you like!
How will it work?
Sign up to follow @Chatbible on Twitter. Initially this experiment will be tried over a period of six ten weeks, with a different Bible passage to discuss every week, as detailed below. Participants are invited to comment, question, and respond to each other’s comments and questions.
| Week |
Dates |
Passage |
| 1 |
17-23 May |
The Beatitudes – what are they all about? – Matthew 5:1-11 |
| 2 |
24–30 May |
John’s overture to Jesus – John 1:1-14 |
| 3 |
31 May – 6 Jun |
Tales of lost & found – Luke 15:1-31 |
| 4 |
7-13 Jun |
A desperate Psalm – Jonah 2 |
| 5 |
14–20 Jun |
God’s servant – Isaiah 42:1-9 |
| 6 |
21–27 Jun |
Gideon – hero or wimp? – Judges 6 |
| 7 |
28 Jun – 4 Jul |
Known inside out – Psalm 139 |
| 8 |
5-11 Jul |
The hymn of love – 1 Corinthians 13 |
| 9 |
12-18 Jul |
Vision of Jesus – Revelation 1:9-19 |
| 10 |
19-25 Jul |
Winning through losing – Romans 8:18-39 |
This information is also posted on Richard Littledale’s blog.
Filed under Christianity
Here are notes I made on how Facebook can be a Christian’s friend or foe from a very helpful seminar on ‘Relationships in the New Media Age’ by Neil Powell of City Church Birmingham.
Download or listen to the seminar at http://www.avenuecommunitychurch.org.uk/media/2010-05-09-PM%20Seminar%20-%20Relationships%20in%20the%20New%20Media%20Age.mp3
Facebook as a friend
Facebook can be a blessing when it is used as a tool to…
- Keep in touch with people.
- Reconnect with those we have lost contact with.
- Extend face-to-face relationships.
- Take the focus off ourselves by using it to listen to or encourage others.
- Model a disciplined and creative Christian life to others.
- Model a critical and reflective life by sharing our thoughts on the culture we are consuming (books, films, music etc.)
- Do evangelism.
- Promote events.
- Build community.
- Research trends and sharpen teaching e.g. by finding out what people are reading and watching.
- Support and encourage church mission partners whom we can’t meet face-to-face.
Facebook as a foe
Ways in which the use of Facebook can damaging:
Time
- By encouraging procrastination.
- By encouraging ill-discipline e.g. staying up late at night messing about instead of being asleep.
- By encouraging addictive usage of the Internet.
Relationships
- Flirting – easy way to sin? Lust? Leading others on?
- Using our Facebook profiles to project an image that is not a true representation of who we are.
- By encouraging inappropriate intimacy and voyeurism – why should we view photo albums of people we hardly know? Why should we ‘listen in’ on others’ wall-to-wall conversations?
- Public exclusion – everyone knows who is a ‘friend’, or who has not been invited to an event.
Virtue of humility
- Encourages narcissism (‘look what I’ve done’, or ‘see how many friends I have’) instead of humility.
Celebration of trivial and superficial
- Generally a bad medium for heart-to-heart conversations which require intimacy and extended discourse.
- Lack of accountability if we hide behind numerous superficial relationships instead of investing in a few good friends who will keep us accountable.
The way it weakens our thinking
- Encourages ‘sound bite’ sized thinking to the detriment of reflective thought and the art of communicating an extended argument e.g. the ability to write a good letter.
–
If you’ve found this helpful, be sure to listen to the whole seminar (link above).
Filed under Reading
Richard Littledale is pastor of Teddington Baptist Church in Middlesex and has written two books, Stale Bread?: A Handbook for Spreading the Story and Preacher’s A-Z. He blogs at Richard Littledale’s Preacher’s A – Z and you can follow him on Twitter at richardlittleda.
Richard, please tell us a bit about yourself.
Born and bought up in a non-Christian home. Came to faith on a road which started with my Gideon Bible at school, led on through School Christian Union and Crusaders, and landed me up getting baptised at the age of 16. Trained at St Andrews University and Spurgeon’s College (twice!), and been a Baptist Pastor for 23 years. Married to Fiona with 3 sons, two of whom are at Uni. In addition to my local church work I write books, serve as a tutor with the College of Preachers and provide Pause for Thought talks on BBC Radio 2.
What books or authors have you found most helpful in your growth as a Christian and why?
Lots of then over the years, so I shall just pick out four.
A Table in the Wilderness by Watchman Nee – sound, practical, no-nonsense spirituality which helped me a lot when I was an angry young man/ new Christian.
The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer – weighty and challenging theology from a man who paid for his beliefs with his life.
The Shack by William P. Young – ok, ok, so I know EVERYONE has read it, but it has to be one of the most creative and illuminating depictions of the Christian faith to be written in the Twenty First Century.
The Sermon Maker by Calvin Miller – a touching depiction of a defeated and discouraged preacher who finds his way back. The book combines a story with more academic notes for those who would like to pursue them.
Thank you for your time Richard!
Filed under Reading
How do you choose what to read?
Reading good Christian books can be so helpful in growing as a Christian, but deciding which books to read can be difficult. To be good stewards of our time and money, we need to make wise choices about the books we read.
I’ve found that one of the best ways to discover great books has been to ask people whose opinion I trust for book recommendations. In fact, I’ve found it so helpful that I will be publishing a series of mini email interviews with a range of Christian leaders, asking them to recommend the books and authors they have found most helpful in their growth as a Christian.
The interviews
Also…
If you want to read more but find reading or the motivation to do so hard, check out my post on the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of reading.
If you’ve found this series helpful and want other sources for book recommendations, I’d encourage you to check out the list of recommended books at Desiring God.
Filed under Christianity
A Wordle is a ‘word cloud’ that gives greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in a source text. Here’s a Wordle of the book of Proverbs:
- YJ L
- Michael Bailey
- Mark Leong
- creativereason
- YJ Liew