This week we saw the passing of Steve Jobs.  Without doubt he achieved remarkable feats in technology, business, his career and social change.   I admire much of what he did with his 56 years.   He was a man who was productive and focused.   I own several Apple products.

However, it has been fascinating to see the blogosphere’s tributes to the passing of their idol.   God-like adoration and post-humerus worship have filled our news feeds for days.   Without knowing what ‘Jobs’ believe personally, I do wonder what his thoughts are now.  The creator of Apple is now facing the Creator of the universe.    Did the accolades he earned cloud his thinking about eternity?  How does he now view his earthly achievements through the lens of his own mortality?

Personally, I don’t ever expect to reach the heights that Steve Jobs did.  However, I am SO thankful that my eternal reward is not based on my earthly outcomes.  My comfort about my mortality is Jesus’ achievements.    We can all rejoice that the path to God is not through inventing an app, but rather the application of Jesus.

Blessings

- JC

Jason Harris interviews Albert Garlando for InFocus

JH: I know you’re a busy man, so I appreciate you taking the time to share with us. First, just let us know a little about yourself. Where you pastor, your family, background, etc.

AG: I am married to Rachel (18th anniversary last November) and have one daughter, Lily who turns 5 at the end of January and will be starting Kindergarten in 2011.
I am a lead pastor in an independent church in Kogarah NSW called Grace Chinese Christian Church (GCCC). I lead one of the English language congregations.

I was born and raised in Ingham, North Queensland as a nominal Roman Catholic. I came to Christ whilst in high school in March 1985 (and was baptised a bit later) through the ministries of the Ingham Independent Baptist Church, pastored then by Wally Jaworski. While in year 12, after hearing a series of messages by Dr. Bob Jones, Jr., I applied to Sydney Bible Baptist College to pursue training in vocational Christian ministry.

I served in various Sydney based Independent Baptist churches in the capacity of an Assistant or Associate Pastor (sometimes with the title, sometimes not). In 1997/8 we had an opportunity to travel to East Africa and do itinerant gospel work (teaching, training, church planting, starting clinics and schools, etc.) in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. I’ve returned since to speak at training seminars and conferences for local pastors.

For most of my ministry I’ve worked bi-vocationally. That is, I worked a full-time normal job in addition to my ministry role. This isn’t uncommon amongst Australian churches, especially independent ones, but many still consider it a bit strange and don’t count it as “real” ministry. Following a redundancy from one of my “normal” jobs I started seeking full-time paid ministry roles. After a short time, GCCC called me and here I am.

JH: I’ve followed your blog, God is My Constant, for several years now and appreciate how you use it. Can you give us an idea of how you got started blogging and why you choose to blog?

AG: When we got back from Kenya the use of personal websites by the likes of Yahoo and a few ISP’s was popular. Back then they were mostly used to post pictures of pets and hobbies. A few churches had seized the opportunity to set up rudimentary websites with basic info. I started doing this for Grace Baptist Church in Seven Hills. I readily used Phil Johnson’s Bookmarks as a resource and eagerly followed his early Pyromaniac blog.

I had a go at setting up my own blog with an apologetic emphasis and even had the name “apologies” (in fact the default url of my WordPress blog still has it). Now, when I write, I am primarily thinking about my own congregation. I want to encourage them to think through issues, events, and art from a gospel perspective. I don’t often comment on the big controversial doctrinal issues that the evangelical pundits are fighting over unless I get asked about it at church or it has the potential to influence my people.

A benefit of a blog is that I can supplement my preaching and teaching and expand on some details. When I write (at the moment 2-3 times per week), I can also provide snippets and introductions to other authors, blogs, and books. My goal is to stir people up and provoke them to think a little more deeply. For instance, I can write something about gambling around Melbourne Cup time that equips people to be more thoughtful and intentional about how they live and breathe the gospel at their work place. Rather than trying to “fit that in” to my sermon the Sunday before, I can better shepherd and feed my people God’s counsel. It also frees up my preaching to be more focused on expositing the text rather than only reacting to issues.

JH: What kind of time commitment does your blogging habit (makes it sound a bit like a bad addiction!) require?

AG: How long is a piece of string?

Depending on the type of article or entry, I may spend about one hour “blogging.” I allocate time in my schedule, usually Wednesdays, for writing. This includes blogging, sermon preparation, and other teaching and writing I am involved with. I try, as much as possible, to integrate my blogging with my reading and studying. That way I’m not distracted and the blog becomes just another perspective or medium to discuss things I’m already involved with. I will usually prepare a few articles or posts and then schedule them to be posted throughout the following week. If I see, hear, or read something somewhere else that prompts a spontaneous post then I can quickly include that also, but most of my articles are pre-scheduled.

JH: Is blogging for everyone? For instance, I think some pastors feel like they don’t have the technological know-how to blog. Is blogging just for the younger, tech-savvy pastor?

AG: I think my answer is, it’s not for everyone… to the same extent. Some are put off by the “techy” bells and whistles that some churches and pastors use. As a result the pastor thinks blogging is not for him or his flock.

Whether it’s a sermon outline, bible study questionnaire, devotional paragraph, or a full doctrinal position statement, every pastor is capable of writing. They may just need some help transferring their content to a blog medium.

John MacArthur is a good example. He doesn’t own or use a personal computer (see here, footnote 3) yet he is a prolific writer and author. Phil Johnson and a team of others transpose his work into various formats including blog-type articles. You don’t need to be John MacArthur, but there’s a good chance someone in your congregation knows their way around a website. When I started a website for Grace Baptist, I used my Senior Pastor’s sermon notes (that he provided) as material. Maybe there is someone in their church that can serve in this way as well!

JH: Over the years, have you ever had someone visit the church or find out about the church from the blog? Has it ever provided you with evangelistic opportunities?

AG: I have seen a handful come visit in the last couple years. Not sure how many have stayed on. I have had one guy that had drifted away, come back to church as a direct result of some interaction with the blog.

There have been a few gospel opportunities that have come as well. I have had many substantial conversations with non-Christian friends over things that I have written, quoted, and commented on (they usually respond to a Facebook or Twitter link to the blog). One thread in particular had a few people chiming in. It was reminiscent of the old bulletin board and forum days.

JH: Every medium has it’s benefits and dangers. What are the biggest dangers of blogging for pastors? What tips can you give for dealing with these dangers?

AG: The biggest issue, certainly that I have witnessed is to not be gracious with either readers or writers. Certainly the medium runs the risk of being a little too impersonal—but then the same could have been argued about books, pamphlets, articles, monographs used effectively by pastors, teachers, writers, speakers, etc. throughout all history. A book written in 1700 is no more or no less “personal” than a blog post. However both readers and writers seem to be a little less tolerant and forgiving in the “blogosphere.”

As a pastor, beware the temptation to “vent” on your blog without being accountable for what you have written. I have been guilty of this in the past and subsequently have withdrawn or deleted blog posts. Blogging tends to be short, concise, and more abbreviated than a drawn out conversation or lecture so bear that in mind when writing. Break up your posts into parts if needed and be more self-critical of what you write when you do. Don’t compromise your ministry and integrity through a silly blogging indiscretion.

As a reader, be gracious to other writers, remembering that just as you misspeak when preaching and mistype when blogging, others do also. If something sounds a little off, or abrupt, or inaccurate, learn to politely inquire before you launch your “heretic-seeking missives” in the comments field.

JH: Let me wrap it up with one more question. What have you found most rewarding about blogging as a pastor?

AG: In my homiletics class at bible college, the teacher stressed one very important principle that many a young preacher (and old ones—myself included!) need to hear repeated often: “The mind can procure only what the seat can endure.” Or perhaps the more well known admonition: “KISS” (Keep It Simple Stupid). In other words, don’t do what I am doing here—waffle on!

Blogging is helping me be more disciplined in my teaching and communication. The brevity of the medium forces me to be more precise and concise in conveying my thoughts. The rewards I’ve experienced during “blogging” have given me an opportunity to think more deeply about scripture, the nature and character of God and ministry, and then in turn try to write about that succinctly. That’s an area of personal growth that I am still developing.

JH: I appreciate your thoughts. Thanks for sharing with us.

I want to further support this purpose by focusing today on the question “Should pastors blog?” I’ve interviewed two pastors to ask them this question. Today’s interview is with Bob Bixby.

Jason Harris interviews Bob Bixby for InFocus

JH: I know your time is valuable so I really appreciate you agreeing to this interview. Could you start out by giving us a quick overview of who you are and what you do?

BB: My name is Bob Bixby. I am one of three pastors at Morning Star Baptist Church in Rockford, Illinois. Our church has about 230-240 that attend each Sunday and about 100 of those are under the age of 18! I am the founding pastor (we started in 2002 with about 35 core people) and am by virtue of my tenure sort of the “lead pastor” although I am not personally fond of titular distinctions. My role in the church has been changing from being the sole teaching pastor to sharing that role with one of the other pastors. This has allowed me to invest more time in thinking about the future as well as preaching (although “Pastor for Preaching and Vision” as John Piper is called at Bethlehem would be far too grandiose a title for what I actually do.) My visioneering consists of asking ministerial imponderables such as, when I consider the leaders God has brought to our church,  “How can we keep all this giftedness around here without any money?” It also includes a more active interest and involvement with the children and teens, the future of the church.

I have a wonderful wife. We’ve been married for 20 years this coming June and we are not ashamed to say that “most” of those years have been wonderful. I was a Type-A, work-obsessed, driven person for too long and it took a toll on our relationship but it did not diminish my wife’s love for God, the ministry, or for me. Perhaps I’ve over-corrected now. The pendulum has swung to the always-so-glad-to-find-another-excuse-to-stay-home-with-the-fam side, but the marriage is so much more fun!

I serve in an amazing church. Jennie and I are in awe about what God has done here. God has collected a very interesting and eclectic group of people with some outstanding gifts and has planted all of us in a city with a very bad economy and absolutely nothing more exciting than the occasional opening of a gonna-last-only-three-years restaurant. And yet we grow. Truly, I have learned that the obsession with demographics that so many church planters have is over-kill. If God wants a church some place, it’ll happen. Period.

JH: I’ve followed your blog, Pensées, for many years now (both the old one and now the new one) and have found it very helpful. First, can you tell us the background to the name of the blog and tell us how it’s pronounced. (!) But second, can you tell me why you, as a pastor, choose to blog.

BB: There is nothing mysterious about my choice of a blog title. Actually, when I started blogging, I literally knew of only two people that blogged. I was kind of a pioneer from my own perspective. At the time I felt kind of outside of fundamentalism because of a bad experience, was suddenly on the bad side of the good old boys, and had no audience but the 30 or so people that came to our church plant. Somebody told me about blogging and I decided to try it. When I was asked to give the designer a title (I don’t think Blogspot or WordPress even existed back then), I tried to think of something that would represent me. I thought of the word “musings” because that would imply that I could write something without too much accountability for grammar or historical accuracy! I was just musing after all; not writing a dissertation. And my musings would be short (so I surmised). Anyway, that made me think of Blaise Pascal and his famous collections of short thoughts (Pensées) and I thought it was fitting since I had grown up in France. Thus, the title. And the subtitle, Musings of a Contented Misfit, still fits. You pronounce Pensées pAHn-say. Kind of. With a French accent, of course.

Honestly, I wrestle with the blog thing. Perhaps it’s the comments section I should can. I don’t know. As my church grows I get busier with counselling and I simply don’t have the time. I have a friend who pastors a church with over 3,000 people. He says that the hardest time of his ministry was when his church was in the 150-300 range because it’s big enough to demand lots of time, but not big enough to have an adequate staff. On the other hand, blogging is a way to gain influence. There is no doubt that my blog has made friends for me and drawn people to our ministry. (We’ll ignore for now the fact that it has also made some non-friends, “enemy” being too harsh a term for professing brothers!). I actually have another blog that I do with the other pastors and it targets our congregation. It is very useful to disseminate all kinds of information and thoughts to them. As for Pensées, the new site has not fully taken off yet because I have not really sold my soul out to it yet. It’s demanding.

Should pastors blog? I think the answer is yes. But it probably should be more like the site that I share with the other leaders in our church. See, for example http://msbcstuff.com/. We also put up the next Sunday’s liturgy and book reports, etc. Whatever we think is helpful. However, the beautiful thing about a blog that targets a larger audience is that you don’t have to fight for an audience. If you write well enough on any topic, you’ll get discovered. And it’s not arrogant to want an audience. As ministers of the Word we believe we have something to say that needs to be heard. I liken blogging to standing on a street corner and speaking as loudly as you can!

JH: So you’ve highlighted a distinction between the personal blog (Pensées) and the “church blog.” I think that’s a helpful distinction because a lot of pastors tend to associate blogging only with the blog wars they see now and again. So looking at your “church blog” specifically, what percentage of your members would you estimate read your posts there regularly? Also, do you find that it is less time consuming than Pensées?

BB: The church blog is less time consuming because the other pastors contribute to it as well. I do not know exactly what percentage of our congregation reads that blog, but I don’t think I’d be off the mark to say the large majority. Our church is a young congregation and so they are pretty in tune to the whole connection by internet concept. Interestingly, a very small percentage of people in my church read my main blog, the one that outsiders know about. And, frankly, I’m happy with that. I don’t really think it’s necessary that they experience the “blog wars,” etc.

JH: Let me change direction here for a moment and ask you about the macro trends for ongoing learning for pastors. In the past, I think pastors have tended to read books and theological journals as a way to stay sharp on theological trends and larger issues and then subscribed to a few magazines to stay abreast of the latest developments in matters relevant to Christianity. Could you comment on how you think this has changed or might change and what role blogs can/should/will play in ongoing pastoral learning?

BB: I think blogs are overrated. I hardly read them myself. I have about twenty on my reader and every third day or so will peruse the titles to see if anything catches my eye. I doubt I read more than two whole blog posts a week. I’m old fashioned when it comes to reading and do not feel like I have really absorbed something unless I have physically held a book or journal in my hand. So, I’m a bad person to ask about this subject. However, having said that, I also think that blogs are underrated. They are not going to go away. They’re available and accessible at all times. My blog will lay dormant for a long time, but if I write something provocative I’ll have over 600 reads a day for an extended period of time. That is something you certainly cannot do with the printed page. And, additionally, the readers are presumably interested readers. If they selected your blog post it is because they are interested in the topic. I had lunch with Justin Taylor and several other pastors recently and this very topic came up. The pastors were all from very large churches and they all said that they hugely benefit from Justin’s “Drudge Report”-style collection of articles and information that is going on in the evangelical world because they are too busy to keep up with what is going on. I can sympathize with that. At the same time, I found it fascinating that Justin seemed to shrug off the impact of blogging and its long term role in pastors’ ministries. I do not know why. Perhaps, like me, he doubts the value of getting information overload.

JH: Information overload… that’s a good segue to my next question. As with anything new, there will be benefits as well as dangers. What do you consider to be the biggest dangers for pastors who blog? Perhaps you could also comment on how you seek to address these pitfalls in your own blogging.

BB: I think that there are potential pitfalls for the blogging pastor. If you allow commenters to opine on your blog you always risk getting ensnared in a debate that has spun away from the original track. Some people seem determined to miss the obvious intent of the blogger and they are so effective at it that you wonder if they went to school to learn the skill. Blogging is risky in that you really don’t know who will read your post. I once saw an article that I wrote about my daughter and adoption posted on a radical feminist blog in which everything that I said was ripped out of context and I was being villainised and people were pitying my daughter as if she had been captured by a cult!

A more subtle danger is that a blogger can both overestimate and underestimate his influence. I think both possibilities are risky. Overestimating your influence is obviously dumb, but it could lead to an over-investment of time in something that distracts from one’s main ministry. Underestimating one’s influence is also dangerous because it could lead to a carelessness about what one writes or how he writes it. I have erred in both ways.

My own solution is to treat my blog as a “ministerial hobby.” Generally, hobby and ministry would not go together. A hobby is supposed to be a distraction from the pressures of ministry. But in the case of my blog, I don’t commit my soul to it, don’t worry about investing lots of time to keep it up, and do it when I have time that does not take away from my local church ministry. But, I’m trying to think more ministerially about it and reflect a little bit on the pastoral/ministerial goals I could pursue with the blog.

JH: It’s important to be aware of the pitfalls of blogging, but let me finish up by asking you about the benefits of blogging. What have you found most rewarding about blogging as a pastor?

BB: Blogging has opened up many vistas of relationships, connections, friendships, and influence that I truly do not believe I could have had otherwise. I’m shocked by how many people tell me that they’ve read a blog post and what it meant to them. Though, I’m not nearly as active now as I used to be, I still get mail from people I’ve never met that ask questions or say nice things about what they’ve read. It’s been a real blessing.

I think the biggest blessing for a pastor, however, is that the blog enables him to leave his personal opinions about almost everything away from the pulpit and just exposit the Word. Pastoral opinions matter. They should matter to people. But in the end they’re just opinions. The blog affords an opportunity for the pastor to opine on many real-life issues and frees him from the temptation of trying to sneak it in during his pulpit ministry. Blogging has helped my preaching stay purely expositional and I have hardly ever wandered off into secondary issues to opine or coach our folks on how they ought to think about a particular matter. They get my opinions, but not from the pulpit!

JH: Amen. I really appreciate your perspective on this and look forward to continuing to follow your blog.

Our purpose

Our purpose is…

to develop the Australian blogosphere,
….to cultivate serious and useful discussion, and
………to develop a generation of readers, thinkers, and theologians.

1. Readers

The term “readers” here does not refer to the mere activity of reading, nor does it imply that everyone should be a “bookworm.” Instead it refers to a quality of character.

Perhaps the closest synonym is “learner.” Readers read because they understand that they don’t know everything yet. And the more they read, the more they realise that they don’t know much at all.

2. Thinkers

When I say “thinkers,” I am not suggesting that everyone should have a reflective personality. Rather, I mean that we take appropriate care to think things through.

Thinkers are people who do not walk away from an idea just because it isn’t easy to understand. Thinkers try to understand. They may not always succeed, but at least they try.

Additionally, thinkers are not content with poor thinking. When something does not follow logically, they seek clarification and if need be, reject it because they understand that an invalid argument is no better than no argument.

3. Theologians

Again, when I say “theologians,” I am not referring to pastors. Nor am I referring to theology graduates. I am referring to people who have a systematic, working knowledge of Christian theology.

Such a working knowledge is unlikely to be gained by merely sitting under preaching. It will usually require some degree of systematic study.

Theologians can take any particular sermon, passage, or area of doctrine and at least have an idea of where it fits in the broader system of Christian theology. Because of this, they can discuss theology with others in a coherent and beneficial manner.

Theologians also have a framework around which to fit the things they are learning as they read and think.

While becoming such a theologian will not likely occur immediately after salvation, it is something that can be attained in one or two years of intense study or five to ten years of more sporadic study.

What would happen if…?

What would happen if we did not develop a generation of readers, thinkers, and theologians?

Christianity in Australia would begin to degenerate. Our theology would become shallow and twisted. Our theological debates would become incoherent and inane. Our pulpits would become places for guys to give their opinions.

We would become weak people who are susceptible to cultic thinking and practice. We would become gullible. We would end up fighting and dividing over doctrines we didn’t even understand.

We would end up discouraging our brightest minds from developing. We would lose those who did develop. We would see a diminishing in good scholarship and peer-reviewed publication.

We would become rigid and cantankerous. We would become legalistic and judgemental. We would become narrow and sectarian.

Our children would grow up knowing what to believe, but neither knowing why nor actually believing it. We would become focused on externals. We would begin to de-emphasise doctrine and emphasise “practical teaching.”

Eventually, we would have so neglected and reshaped theology that we would lose the gospel itself. If we were to not develop a generation of readers, thinkers, and theologians, there would come a day in Australia when our own children would grow up in our own churches and hardly even understand what the gospel really is.

What would be the fate of such a generation?

I shudder to think.

Our purpose

Our purpose is…

to develop the Australian blogosphere,
….to cultivate serious and useful discussion, and
………to develop a generation of readers, thinkers, and theologians.

The first line reflects our belief that our generation should put the tools that God has given us to good use. The power of the press is well documented. That’s why the most common version of our logo depicts Gutenberg’s original printing press.

I’ll address the third line in next week’s post, God willing. But today, I’d like to focus on the second line.

Serious and useful discussion

InFocus is grounded in the principle that some controversy is worth having. See, as Christians, we love truth. That is fundamental to what it means to be a Christian. Christianity inherently demands love for truth at every level.

Of course the problem is that none of us knows exactly what is true in every area. Certainly, God has revealed much absolute truth to us in the Christian Scriptures.

But God did not always choose to deliver truth in absolute, moral propositions. Instead he chose to reveal truth in a variety of literary genres, languages, locations, times, cultures, and to a variety of people.

This means that we must carefully discern the truth through the lens of our own epistemological, ontological, and hermeneutical understandings. Or to put that simply, it’s not always easy to understand what is true.

Enter controversy

Controversy occurs when people have differing understandings of what is true. Of course controversy can get ugly, but it doesn’t need to.

The kind of controversy that should be common among believers is the kind where two people who genuinely love the truth more than their own positions exchange reasons for the beliefs they hold and critique the reasons given by the other person.

In such an exchange, the participants and the observers cannot but be challenged to think through their understanding of truth more carefully. More precisely. More contextually.

This is beneficial.

Not only is it beneficial, it is necessary. Otherwise, our views become inflexible. Pride takes root and we begin to love our positions more than we love the truth. Being challenged by others who love truth is a grace for which we should thank God.

Rubber, meet road

None of this is particularly revolutionary in the broad Christian context. However, there are some circles of Christianity in Australia where what I just described is viewed not only as revolutionary, but as dangerous.

It is my prayer that InFocus would be a place where those who are passionate about the gospel of Jesus Christ can come together and challenge each other. That we would not seek controversy simply for the sake of controversy, but that we would recognise that some controversy is worth having. And that in that process, we would be able to cultivate serious and useful discussion for the glory of God.

Grace to you.

We browsed profile pages, catching up on people’s careers, family situations, and personal interests.  Their photos showed the progress of life: a new child, a new home, wrinkles, and so on.  At first, I had wondered how many thirty-somethings would be into an online social network.  Now it seems like everyone we know is there.  We’re Friends again, thanks to Facebook.

I think many users are at the stage where they cannot imagine life without Facebook.  I check it daily, like email.  In a way, Facebook has superseded email.  Remember when you used to email friends with photos and news?  We still do that, but not as often now.  Facebook is ubiquitous (until the next network!) and the idea of online social networking is now a way of life.

How should we then live on Facebook?

1.  Just ten more minutes. Most people agree that Facebook can be a time waster, through playing trivial games (Farmville etc.) or mindless browsing through others’ pages.  I don’t think this is much different from wasting time in other ways, such as excessive TV watching.  But Facebook increases the shame of time wasting, by announcing to the world that you spent the evening accumulating useless scores or “achievements.”  The point is not to hide your time wasting, but to keep asking yourself, “Am I really making the best use of the time God has given me?” *

As John Piper has observed, “TV still reigns as the great life-waster.  The main problem with TV is not how much smut is available, though that is a problem…  The greater problem is banality.  A mind fed daily on TV diminishes.  Your mind was made to know and love God. Its facility for this great calling is ruined by excessive TV.” *

The same can be said of Facebook.  It can be a G-rated way to waste life.

2.  Here’s my heart, everyone. Facebook is a platform for declaring your thoughts and feelings publicly.  It’s so easy to type a status update about your tiredness, frustration, and aspirations.  I think we sometimes express feelings to everyone on Facebook, when we would do better to pour our hearts out to God first.  Yes, God hears us on Facebook, but there’s something more efficient than Facebook for communicating to God.  It’s called prayer!

3.  Edify, edify, edify. It’s great to receive an encouraging message or wall post from someone who cares about you.  Why not take a minute to encourage a friend?  A brief message that says “I’ve prayed for you today” will have far more eternal value than a link to a funny video.  And along with encouragement:

4.  More Bible, please. Sure, tell us about your plans for the day or a random observation.  Everyone else is doing the same thing.  But when you simply mention a Bible verse which has spoken to you, that is not trivia — it’s your testimony of God at work in your life.

See you on Facebook!

* Ephesians 5:15-17; Don’t Waste Your Life

In no particular order:

Online Texts

http://www.ccel.org/

http://www.monergism.com/

Online Audio

http://www.sermonaudio.com

http://www.faithcomesbyhearing.com/

Ministries

http://www.desiringgod.org/

http://www.gty.org/

Blogs

http://triablogue.blogspot.com

http://www.aomin.org/aoblog/

http://www.9marks.org/blog/

http://teampyro.blogspot.com

Randomly

This made me chuckle, so I decided to throw it in.

The iPad makes your research tools more accessible. Logos has a version for the iPad which gives you access to your books in the iPad form factor.  This is one step closer to the resolution of the debate between paper vs. digital commentaries.  PDF documents are common in pastoral libraries.  Many of the original sources have been converted to PDF thanks the ceaseless work of the people at Ages Digital Library and other groups such as CCEL.  I like to print out my PDFs and mark them up with a yellow highlighter and red pen.  iAnnotate for the iPad gives you the same functionality with the ability to correlate your annotations for easy reference when you’re trying to remember where you got that incredible quote or illustration from.   Another neat feature in iAnnotate is the ability to open multiple PDFs in a tabbed interface allowing for cross referencing.  The convergence of Apple iBooks, Amazon Kindle, B&N eReader, and free programs like Stanza onto one device is a great benefit for book lovers.  I’m reading Os Guiness’ The Call through Kindle and a book on the history of China through B&N.

The iPad can change the context of your working environment.  The evangelists of the Great Awakening used to study and pray on horseback.  Ministers now have the opportunity with a form factor that fits somewhere between a traditional notepad and a smart phone.  I see a lot of benefit in the prepaid 3G plans for Australian readers.  It allows you to use the Internet and email in the native form factor when you are out of the office.

Taking notes on the iPad produces mixed results. As a touch typist, I find that if I trust the flat interface it produces excellent results.  At this point I am still double guessing myself as my hammer-fingers look for some form of tacticity on the glass screen.  I might get used to it – but the Bluetooth keyboard is a great addition.

Most of the ministers that I know adopted some form of PDA (palm, pocket pc, etc) prior to the adoption of smartphones.  I don’t think that you can classify the iPad in the same category.  Give it a try and let’s get some more ministry-related feedback on its potential.  I’ll be happy to answer your specific questions as well.  By the way – don’t think that the iPad will magically cure daydreaming, tiredness or difficult textual problems.  It’s only a tool.

As a long-time blogger, I’ve often had to assess my motives at this juncture. I could say something in a less controversial way and get some people to read it. Or I could say the same thing in a more controversial way and get twice as many people to consider it. Which should I do?

Listening to National Public Radio on the way home from university the other night, a reporter said something that struck me and gave me new insight on this matter.

Here’s what he said:

“Controversy makes people think.”

Immediately I thought “Yes! Exactly! That’s a thought I’ve been needing to put into words for years.”

Of course it’s important that we understand the weaknesses of saying things in a more controversial way (and there are plenty). And it’s important that we use controversy thoughtfully and wisely.

But this is a huge part of why I still blog even after realising that controversy and blogging will always spend a lot of time together. Controversy makes people think. And that is what InFocus is about. Developing readers, thinkers, and theologians.

So keep an eye out! You never know what kind of controversy I might stir up next. [If using emoticons wasn't a major violation of the manly blogger code of practice, I'd probably put a ";" next to a ")" right about now...]

Seriously though, that’s part of why I come out with the occasional controversial post.

And for what it’s worth, if someone says something controversial and it makes you think, don’t be afraid to put your thoughts in comments. Whether or not you agree with the writer, you will both likely benefit.

Matthias Media is a local evangelical publisher with a distinct focus:

“We’re not the slightest bit interested in adding to the already monumental pile of Christian books churned out each year by the Christian publishing industry. The world needs more Christian books like it needs more websites.

However, we are passionate about publishing resources that fuel, promote and support gospel growth. So our publishing criteria for any project is threefold:

» Does it meet a gospel ministry need?

» Is the content faithful to the Bible?

» Is the quality of a high standard?”

At church, we’ve found much of their material meets those criteria, including the well-known Two Ways To Live gospel tract / training course and small group Bible studies.  I appreciate that the contents are written by locals, as it can be difficult to adapt overseas material for local use.  Matthias Media also produces The Briefing, a leading Australian evangelical publication.

The Geneva Push is a new Australian church planting network, with the aim to “raise up a new generation of church planters dedicated to evangelising churches into existence across this great nation.”  They are a non-denominational support organisation, offering information to update pastors and leaders on church planting news and issues.  They also provide assessments and coaching for potential church planters.

I’ve learned that the ministry and mindset of church planting is very different to ministry in an established church.  Church planters need the kind of support which The Geneva Push is offering.  If you are interested in planting a church, bookmark this site.

This well-produced site is very informative, collecting Australian religious news and providing viewpoints on ministry and social issues.  It’s Anglican-centric, but you don’t have to be Anglican to benefit from it!

Wellsprings

Each quarter, north Queensland pastors Wally Jaworski and Tracy Minnick  publish a helpful collection of articles for pastors, for free.  Produced with independent Baptists in mind, Wellsprings usually includes biblical, theological or pastoral topics by various writers, as well as book reviews.

Have you found a helpful ministry site?  Share it with us!