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Prayers for the Stillborn

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One year ago today my niece, Lily René, was born sleeping (stillborn). I have always been one to turn to the prayers of the church for comfort and guidance, and so to cope and as a way to offer pastoral care to my family I put together a prayer book for my niece. On the first anniversary of Lily’s birth I would like to offer her prayer book as a resource to all who have lost children in stillbirth and miscarriage. These prayers have been most helpful to me and my family in the last year. At the end of this post I have included a .pdf of Lily’s prayer book for download. Lily René, may light perpetual shine upon you. + … [Read more...]

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Digital Natives

Christopher Harris Speaker

Yesterday, I spoke to the Parents of Teens class at Saint Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Dallas, TX. My topic was Digital Natives: Raising the Facebook Generation.  The focus of my talk was on the current context in which we find ourselves sharing the faith with younger generations. My thanks to the class and Andy Sahl for inviting me to speak.  They were most hospitable and an attentive audience.  I wish them many blessings in their ministry to, with, by and for young people. I promised that I would make slides and resources available - hence this post. The internet and in particular social networks give us the ability to be producers of content not just consumers. These channels allow for communication from many to many as opposed to one to many like newspapers or television. I presented some of Doug Pagitt's work from his book, Church in the Inventive Age. I also talked about cognitive surplus from Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age by Clay Shirky. I briefly talked about the website http://www.ushahidi.com/.  Great information about Ushahidi can be found in one of Clay Shirky's Ted talks on YouTube.  This is a better explanation of the site than I was able to cover in my brief talk. Below is my slide deck from Slide Share.  I hope you find this information beneficial. This is a topic that I enjoy conversing about, so comment below with your thoughts and ideas about the ministry landscape in light of the communication changes in civilization. Digital Natives: Raising the Facebook Generation View more presentations from revrevwine … [Read more...]

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What I am Reading: Social Media Resources for Ministry

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  Our main goal at Faith Growth is to assist faith communities in developing the required digital media foundation to support their ministry. Social media is a key component of this foundation. We refer to using social media tools as doing ministry “Beyond the Building.” I have come across some information this week that is of interest, and I want to pass it along to you. These resources provide helpful suggestions for organizations regarding social media.  They are targeted to the business community, however, I feel there is a great deal that ministry organizations can glean from them as well. Brian Solis has a great interview with Charlene Li author of Open Leadership.  The video is about 15 minutes and offers great insight into leadership in our current times. CIK Marketing has a good piece titled, “Link Bait.” Churches produce a great deal of content.  I do not believe that the church needs to produce new content for digital media, but repackage what is already being produced for digital consumption.  This article gives 5 suggestions for types of content that is attractive to readers. Amber Naslund shares, “4 Ways To Give Your Presentations Legs.”  Her article offers good tips for giving your offline presentations a life of their own in the online world.  Once again I reiterate that participating in the digital world is not about necessarily creating new content, but making it available in new ways. I hope you find the resources helpful for your ministry. Let me know what’s working for you as you engage ministry in a digital context in the comments below. Disclosure: If you choose to purchase Charlene’s book from the link above Faith Growth receives a commission form Amazon.com. … [Read more...]