Flickering Pixels Posts Chapter 9

Chapter 9 of Shane Hipps book Flickering Pixels is talking about the difference between true character vs how the media makes people look, either through TV or specifically photographs. I know, I know,  this explanation doesn’t make you wanna go out and buy the book right away, but let me continue.

OK, here we go with the meat of this post. The thing that struck me the most was in the second paragraph where Shane pointed out that: Former generations had heroes, people who are well known for remarkable feats of bravery, brilliance, creativity or self sacrifice,” but that today, celebrities are well known just for being well known.
He used the example of Fabio and Paris Hilton. Most of us don’t know why they are famous, we just know that they are famous, well Fabio may be famous for this.

Shane continued with the example of the pastor of the mega church. He or she is preaching live at one location while there are a few other locations watching him or her live, but on a screen. Shane pointed out that the video shows the talent of the preacher, not necessarily his or her character. Not that it is a bad thing to preach via satellite, people need to learn, but are we drawn to pastors or leaders because they are famous or because of their character and the content that they are delivering?

I teach at different YWAM schools and programs. Now I could easily just show up at these events, give my thoughts and ideas, pray and leave, or I could do these same things, but stay and hang out. Teaching and leaving doesn’t show the students my character, it just shows them my talent (or lack there of) and my heart. Now it is much easier for me to teach and leave, but if I want to be authentic and if I want people to learn more from me than just what I have to say then I need to hang out.

What struck me about this chapter was the whole idea of how the media is wanting us, or has created a way to show us people not as they truly are, but as they want us to see them.  We were created in the image of God, our creator. Society and our culture it trying, and succeeding in communicating that we need something more, we need to touch up what God has created. Basically telling us that we are not good enough and encouraging us to work on our shallow, surface things and not our character.

How have you seen this played out?

Do you follow people because they are known, or because you know them?

What reason are we giving people to follow us?

For the comments and to follow this blog project please check out Church Crunch

Flickering Pixels Chapter 8

Previous Post And The Winner is

Flickering Pixels Chapter 8 review is up on Church Crunch. It is a great post, worthy of discussion. Here is one paragraph of it by Jay Caruso. In Chapter 8, ‘The Dimmer Switch’, Shane discusses what he sees as a “hazard” with regard to conversion from non-follower to Christ follower. In modern culture, it’s common for people to recount the exact moment in their lives when they became Christ followers and often the implication is that if you cannot remember that exact moment, then there is a good chance that you’re not saved. Shane reminds us that the gospel writers don’t seem to be so concerned with that exact moment and in fact, it would be hard to pinpoint that exact moment for any of the disciples. For the rest of the post follow the link and read on.

Thanks, have a great morning.

And the winner is……

Previous Post Scared

I am always a proud dad, but today I have a piece of paper that goes with my proudness (is that a word)? Today Emma won 3rd place in the poster contest for the kindergarten/grade 1 classes. They are having a town heritage day in Aug. and every student from kindergarten through grade 5 made a poster. They had 9 winners and my little girl was one of them. I am attaching a pic here for your viewing enjoyment.

By the way, I suck at making posters, so she must of got it from my wife, who sucks less than me at making posters.

Scared

Previous Post Flickering Pixels Blogging Project Chapter 5&6A

A week or so ago, at the recomendation of my good friend Jamie Arpin-Ricci, I picked up Scared, a novel by Tom Davis. I will leave you with the trailer of the book, in stead of trying to explain it myself, but I will tell you that it had me from the start.

I began reading the book at 6pm and by 6pm the following day I had finished all 270 pages. If you know me, you know that I like to read, but I am not a speed reader by no means. The only other books that I have read in full over a 24 hour time span is C.S. Lewis “The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe” and the book of Jude (haha).

I have cared deeply about justice issues for a long time now and Tom brings these issues to life through his writing. There was a time at the beginning of the book where I thought it was a bit to Christian (that sounds bad) in that I felt Tom was forcing God in there, but after reading on, God became the center of the story. It all of a sudden made sense that he was in there, it wasn’t forced at all. Tom showed Gods heart for Justice like I have rarely seen before in writing or movies.

Have you ever read a book or seen a movie and while reading or watching you keep thinking of people to email and recomend the book to? This was me while reading Scared. I kept thinking of my friend Ingvar who loves to be moved by books. Amy, my wife who cares deeply about photography and Amanda, who cares about Justice and bought me a great book on Justice once (Mountains Beyond Mountains).

I want to leave you with a plea. My plea is that you would buy this book. It is Toms first novel and he has done a remarkable job on it. Also, when you have finished reading please recommend this book to someone else. Finally, if you are on Twitter follow Tom.

Flickering Pixels Chapter 5 & 6

So, I have missed a couple of chapters on the Flickering Pixels Blogging project. I am linking you to the posts and comments for chapter 5 and chapter 6 if you are and have been following along. Here is the link for chapter 5 and here is the link for chapter 6.

If you have any questions, or would like to get involved in future book blogging projects with a bunch of cool guy’s and girls let me know.

Laters.

Flickering Pixels Chapter 4

Flickering Pixels- How Technology Shapes Your Faith chapter 4 review is now up at Church Crunch

lets celebrate, this parties over and i’m going home

Previous Post Flickering Pixels Chapter Two

In 4 1/2 hours I board a plane headed for the left coast. I am flying into Vancouver, renting a car and driving down to Seattle. I will be in Seattle for a week hosting a youth choir team from my friend Lars Rood’s church in Dallas. Don’t ask how this ended up on my plate, but I guess that’s what friends are for. Thanks Lars, haha.

My family moved to Seattle in 1999 and lived there for 9 years before leaving for Canada in June of last year. We have been back a couple of times since then, but each time I go back it feels less and less like home. I hate saying that, and I fight those feelings, but it seems to be true.

Now I love the city of Seattle, and I pray that one day I will live there again, but for some reason I don’t feel connected to it anymore.  I still feel connected to my friends, although connections with friends definitely change when separated by 2000 miles.

I am super excited to go to my favorite cafe’s, have a beer at Flowers where my friend William works, drive on I-5 wishing that I had my single speed so I could ride more freely and just be near water, but It just seems so different now that I don’t reside there.

I remember when this first happened, when I first had these feelings. It was in Nov. and Amy and I were driving in Seattle on a visit back. We looked at each other and at the same time realized that the connection was gone, we were no longer residents of Seattle. The weird thing was is that it wasn’t followed by sorrow or grief, it was just there and a reality, and it sucked.

I want to make the most of my time in Seattle during the next week. I want and will connect well with friends, eat and drink well and love the city as I always have. I just pray that I don’t feel like a visitor, but in some strange way feel like I am coming home. Home to the place where my children were born, where best friends were made, where coffee became more than just hot caffeine, and where people without tattoos are the minority. I’ll be Tweeting and let ya know how it goes.

Flicikering Pixels Chapter 2

Previous Post Flickering Pixels Book Project.

The review of chapter 2 of Shane Hipps book Flickering Pixels is up.   Adam Shields wrote some challenging things about the book, he didn’t just go a long with it and say all was good. I appreciated Adam’s post and cretique. Take a moment and check it out here if you are interested. Also, if you have no idea what I am talking about, go back to the previous post where you can read more about the Flickering Pixels blogging project that we are doing.

Flickering Pixels Group Blogging Project

Over the next month and a bit I am involved in a blogging project on the book Flickering Pixels by Shane Hipps. There are 17 of us, each taking a chapter to post on and discuss. The project is being hosted at Church Crunch by John Saddington. I will post on this blog each day that there is a new post on the book so that if you would like to read a long and become a part of the discussion you can. I hope that it is an encouragement to you and all of us involved and that we learn how to use and not to use technology in our faith and walk with Jesus.

Here is a brief intro and overview of the book by John Dyer and below will be the link to the first post by Susan K. Stewart.

“To set the stage for the ChurchCrunch blog tour of Shane Hipps, Flickering Pixels, we thought it might be helpful to introduce Shane Hipps and the subject he’s been writing and speaking about. For fun, let’s do them in reverse order:What He’s Talking About?

Have you ever heard someone say, “90% of communication is tone of voice”?
Well, over the last 100 years people started thinking that if our words could be shaped and reinterpreted based on body language, maybe technologies like TV, radio, and even writing also shape the way we think and interact.

Marshall McLuhan was one of the first well known thinkers in this area which came to be called “media ecology.” However, his popularity died down in the late 1960s and even in his heyday, the Church didn’t really take much interest in his ideas.

About Shane Hipps
In Flickering Pixels, Hipps is attempting to take media ecology out of the academic world and use it to show us how technology impacts the way we see the world and our faith.
Hipps is in a unique position to do this because he used to work in Porche’s advertising department and now is a pastor of a Mennonite church. This means he’s neither just some guy who doesn’t really understand media nor a person who’s never done any real ministry.

What’s the Big Deal?
Hipps is concerned that most of us don’t understand the enormous influence technology has on our lives. Rather than tell us to run away and turn it all off, he wants to help the Church understand it. He writes, “we are only puppets of our technology if we remain asleep; Flickering Pixels will wake us up.”
Hopefully, reading Flickering Pixels and talking about it together we can all help wake each other up!”

Well, there you go. To check out the first post by Susan go here and I will update as to when each new post comes available. Enjoy.

Coffee shops and parking lots

Yesterday on my way back home from Winnipeg my family and I met my dad in a mall parking lot. We had gone to Winnipeg for the weekend to celebrate Emmas 7th birthday and host a support gathering at my home supporting church. It was a busy week and we didn’t get to connect with my dad, so on the way out of town we hooked up for 15 minutes or so. When I left I couldn’t stop thinking that since my dad left my mom 5+ years ago the only places we have spent time together are parking lots and coffee shops.

As I drove away I thought once again of the consequences of our sin. My times in Winnipeg with my family are few and not that long. It was hard enough coming home for only 2 weeks a year and then leaving, but now when I come home there is a big part of home missing, my dad. Now instead of just seeing my dad at the house, sitting with him and talking on the couch or having a meal together we have to set up a meeting where we can both fit each other into our busy schedules. I don’t like meeting my dad, I like it when he is just a regular part of my life, of my coming and going.

I had tears in my eyes yesterday as I drove out of the city. Tears and grief about life being broken and being changed. These consequences affect my dad too, he hates meeting in malls and cafe’s, he wants to be a regular part of my life as well. Just as I can’t sit in my mom and dads house with my dad and just be, he can’t do that with anyone in his family, or can he? This is the question that rings in my ears, can this change? Can this be different? Can this work out in some other way where he and his family have a normal connection as all parents should have with their children.

This is as far as it gets, it ends with a question mark. If you are reading this and come from a broken home, or know someone from a broken home what are your thoughts? How have you seen this play out? How would you like it to play out for you?