I don't Twitter (or is it tweet?).  But I can't claim total purity, since I have facebook, myspace, and I blog.  Still, I've been purposefully avoiding the Tweet scene because it seemed to me to represent the worst of the other three.  No genuine conversation or community whatsoever, just an endless flow of (mostly trivial) information. 

I may rethink this position.  Not only did Abraham Piper point out that a narcissist is a narcissist regardless of where he is or how he spreads his narcissism (i.e. the powers of Twitter can be used for both good and evil, it all depends on the person), but the boys at Middlebrow (the podcast of Scriptorium Daily) have brought up a point worth considering:  If Christians are called to witness to the world and bring the gospel to the marketplace, and our marketplace is Twitter, isn't that exactly where we should go? 

It certainly is.  Christians who avoid new technologies and cultural trends altogether are not paying attention to the book of Acts.  Meeting unbelievers where they are and speaking their language is essential to evangelism.  But there's a danger lurking.  I would not be the least bit surprised to hear someone advocating "Twitter church" pretty soon.  This would be nothing new, of course.  Evangelicals have been advocating a move away from traditional church structures to private religion for years.  The point is that God knows what he's doing, and it's not up to us to decide to change the rules of the game. 

Dr. Reynolds has noted that Christianity is a religion of a book, not a movie.  This means that, however good it is that we are becoming more and more video literate as a culture, we can't allow our normal literacy to decline, because God isn't likely to send us an inspired DVD any time soon.  As a Christian, being video literate is important for witnessing to a video culture, but we can't allow ourselves to lose the ability to read and interpret a written text.  If we do, we will lose our only direct tie to the foundation of Christianity itself, the Word of God.

Likewise, Tweeting is not preaching.  In the Old Testament, the Word of God was delivered to messengers called Prophets, who personally and incarnationally brought that Word to the people.  In the Apostolic age, the Word was made flesh and the gospel of that Word was delivered by the Apostles through preaching.  It is in hearing the preached Word that God has promised to meet his people, to create and increase faith, and to seal believers with the Holy Spirit.  This simply can't happen on Twitter.

Just as we need to become more video literatre while not losing our ability to read and understand written texts, we must be careful not to let our increased Twitteracy diminish our ability to engange in genuine communication with real people in real community.  The more we retreat into Twitter and other online communites, the less at home we will feel in true, physical communities (such as church).  The body of Christ, like the Son of God Himself, is incarnational. 

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:11-12)

Earlier today a hacker took over most of my online identity. I believe they started at www.rogeroverton.com, which was a Drupal-based site. They took out my content and put in a link to a virus. (I have since removed the entire site.)

Using the password from my website, they proceeded to take over my Facebook and Hotmail accounts, and changed the passwords. On Facebook, they deleted all of my picture albums and put pornographic images on my profile. When Amy posted a comment on my wall to warn others that my account had been hacked, the hacker began sending her inappropriate messages.

On Hotmail, they began sending messages to everyone on my contact list telling them to visit my site, where the link to the virus was. They also started deleting my emails (more than 600 of them).

Thankfully, when I got home I was able to quickly get back into my accounts through password recovery options and clear out the garbage that had been posted. I don’t believe anything inappropriate was on my profile for more than 40 minutes or so, though it did take Facebook awhile to cycle the updates out of their news feeds.

The obvious, immediate question is why would someone do something like this? What’s the point of hacking into someone’s accounts and posting inappropriate content? There may be a number of reasons, including total depravity. But there is one particular reason that was given by the hacker. They left me a note in my hotmail account. Among other things it said, the hacker called me a “stupid f**ing religious faggot.”

So as best as I can tell, the motivation for all of this is that I am an outspoken Christian. When I read that, I immediately thought of the promise that we would be persecuted because of Christ, and I take great joy in that. I have many shortcomings, and there are times I wonder about the quality of my witness. But apparently there are those in the world who have identified me with Christ and one person in particular who decided to take their hatred of Him out on me.

I have lost my website (a site I was never satisfied with), my Facebook photo albums, 3 or 4 Facebook friends, a pile of email I probably didn’t need and a few hours of sorting through the damage. All in all, it could have been much worse. Those things can be dismissed and/or replaced. What I have gained is of great value- a better understanding of the importance of web security, and (more importantly) a deeper sense of joy in my affiliation with Jesus the Christ.

PS- If you run a Drupal based website, take extra care to protect your password files.

The videos of all speaker addresses and panel discussions from this year's T4G conference are available online for free at Ligonier.org (for a limited time).  These conferences are amazing, encouraging (and often humorous) and it would be well worth your time to watch the videos (if you don't have a lot of time, just watch the panel discussions!)

Check them out here. 

Unfortunately this will not be a book review.  I haven’t had the opportunity yet to read the book, though I plan to in the near future.  I did however read the Christianity Today article bearing the same title two years ago, and I’ve seen, heard or read several interviews with the author (here's a good one).  Here I simply wish to make a few comments in light of a recent study done by ChurchRelevence.com (more on that in a moment).

Basically, a good chunk o’ Christian youth (roughly 18 – 25) are moving away from the Arminian, mainstream evangelicalism of their childhood toward (to differing degrees) classical Reformed theology (the primary motive being, at least according to the CT article, a desire for deeper theology grounded in historic creeds and confessions).  The majority of the credit for this Renaissance of Reformed thought is given to John Piper.  Because of his passionate preaching and evident concern for world missions, Piper has managed to break into circles (such as the annual Passion Conference) that were previously closed, sometimes even hostile, to Reformed theology.   Thus, Let The Nations Be Glad became a “gateway drug” to Piper’s deeply Reformed emphasis on the radical sinfulness of man, the radical holiness of God, and His absolute sovereignty in all things. 

All this makes sense to me (and I have no doubt that it’s true), but as a blogger, I can’t help but wonder if the recent advent of New Media has contributed to this exodus into the Reformed promised land.  R. C. Sproul was on the cutting edge in the late 80’s and 90’s.  Ligonier made use of every available medium of communication, from radio to cassette tapes, to videos.  Now Dr. Sproul’s teaching series are available daily on the internet and satellite TV.  So, you might ask, why wasn’t there a Reformed Renaissance in the 90’s?  I think it has been slowly building.  Many today who are in the 18 – 25 bracket could have grown up with Dr. Piper’s or Dr. Sproul’s ministries, or their parents could have been first introduced to it.  The use of so many different forms of media mean that some folk who would not have otherwise been exposed to Reformed teaching had the opportunity to see loving, Christ-like pastors and teachers arguing passionately for the clear teaching of Scripture as expressed by historic Reformation theology.  Both Piper and Sproul (and others), it must be admitted, break the mold of what most non-Reformed people tend to think of Reformed people (or worse…Calvinists!).  The point being, there have probably been 1,000 John Pipers preaching faithfully to their small Reformed congregations over the last 100 years, but no one outside their limited communities knew them.  And no one would actually pick up the writings of Calvin or Edwards because of the stigma surrounding “Calvinism.”  Godly men like John Piper, in most cases, remove that stigma.

Now fast forward to 2009.  ChurchRelevance.com has posted a list of the “Top 60 Church Blogs.”  As I looked at the list I was suddenly struck by how many of these blogs are Reformed (some of them are even “confessional”!).  Not only are the top 2 blogs Reformed, which really says something all by itself, but of the 60, a total of 10 are definitely Reformed, at least 1 (the Evangelical Outpost, formerly of Joe Carter) was Calvinist, though Joe didn’t wear it on his sleeve, and perhaps 2 or 3 others as well, but I’m not confident enough to say for sure.  Now 10 – 12 isn’t a LOT out of 60, but consider that no other single theological strain or movement has nearly so many (the Emergent movement had 3 or 4 by my count). 

Now, the correlation-causation relationship is always tricky.  Are there so many popular Reformed blogs because of the movement, or has the movement grown, at least in part, because of so many average Reformed Joes and more-than-average Reformed mega-stars getting into New Media and using it more effectively than the other guys?  I can’t really say for sure, but given what I’ve seen happen with New Media in other arenas over the past decade, I’m inclined to think the latter. 

Has anyone read Hansen’s book?  Does he address this issue at all, and if so, what does he have to say? 

Everyone loves free stuff- so how about a free copy of The New Media Frontier, edited by John Mark Reynolds and Roger Overton. Crossway will be sending a free copy of the book to the first 30 people who agree to review on their blog or Facebook page. Here are the details:

1)      Send an email to marketing@crossway.org with the subject "New Media Frontier Giveaway" with your name, mailing address, and blog address.

2)      Crossway will send you a shiny new copy of The New Media Frontier.

3)      Read the book and post a review on either a blog or your Facebook profile so all your friends can see it by October 31st, 2008.

4)      Cross-post your review on Amazon.com

The annual God Blog convention hosted by the Torrey Honors Institute is only a few months away. This year it's September 20-21 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Most importantly, early bird registration ends on June 20th. So if you want to get the best price, register NOW! (click on the banner) Here's this year's speaker line-up: Andrew Jones (TallSkinnyKiwi) Ken Myers  (Mars Hill Audio Journal) Scott Ott (ScrappleFace) Mark Joseph (HuffingtonPost) Joe Carter (EvangelicalOutpost) Wade Tonkin (Affiliate Marketing) John Mark Reynolds (Buffy Addicts Anonymous) Roger Overton GodBlogCon will take place only a couple of weeks after the publication of The New Media Frontier, and the book is actually the result of past conferences. So this GBC will be something of a premier/launch party for the book. I'll be speaking about the book as one of the sessions, and we'll have a book signing. So come network with other Christian new media folks and get to know what's going on and how to use it all for God's glory!

Here, at last, is the big announcement...


will be published by Crossway Books in September 2008.

Here's the Table of Contents:

Introduction: Roger N. Overton (www.ATeamBlog.com)

Part One: The Landscape of New Media

 

Chapter One: The New Media: First Thoughts -Dr. John Mark Reynolds (Scriptorium Daily)

Chapter Two: The Future of New Media -Dr. John Mark Reynolds (Scriptorium Daily)

Chapter Three:Three Cautions among the Cheers: The Dangers of Uncritically Embracing New Media - Matthew L. Anderson (Mere Orthodoxy Blog)

Chapter Four: Beginning Bloggers Toolbox -Joe Carter (Evangelical Outpost)

Chapter Five: Beginner's Toolbox Part II: Even Newer New Media -- Podcasting, Video Casting and More – Matthew Eppinette (Americans United for Life) and Terence Armentano (TerenceOnline.blogspot.com )

Part Two: Engaging New Media

Chapter Six: Theological Blogging -David Wayne (JollyBlogger)
Chapter Seven: Blog as Microwave Community – Dr. Tod Bolsinger (It Takes a Church Blog)
Chapter Eight: Pastors and the New Media -Dr. Mark D. Roberts (MarkDRoberts.com)
Chapter Nine: Navigating the Evolving World of Youth Ministry in the Facebook-MySpace Generation - Rhett Smith (RhettSmith.com)
Chapter Ten: Evangelism and Apologetics - Roger N. Overton ( www.ATeamBlog.com)
Chapter Eleven: Professors with a New Public: Academics and New Media –Dr. Fred Sanders (Scriptorium Daily)
Chapter Twelve: Virtual Classrooms, Real Learning –Dr. Jason Baker (BakersGuide.com)

Chapter Fifteen: Social Justice, Social Relief and New Media -Stephen Shields (FaithMaps.org)

Here's a summary of the book:

We'd like to offer some direction for how Christians can use the new media with discernment and grace. Many of the contributors to The New Media Frontier began using new media at the encouragement of national radio host Hugh Hewitt, so we are delighted that he has provided a foreword for the project. Roger Overton presents a brief introduction to the concept of new media and why Christians should engage it with wisdom. Part One of the book addresses new media in general. Dr. John Mark Reynolds begins with a chapter examining the history of human communication in order to provide a fresh perspective on what new media really is. In the second chapter, Dr. Reynolds looks to the future of new media and stresses the urgency for Christian involvement before the opportunities vanish.

Matthew Anderson contributes our third chapter by looking at what dangers new media pose for those who uncritically dive into it. His chapter advocates the careful use of wisdom in consuming and creating digital content. With the foundation laid by these first three chapters, chapters four and five spell out exactly how consumers can become creators in the new media. Joe Carter explains how to blog in chapter four and in chapter five Matthew Eppinette and Terence Armentano explain how to podcast and vlog.

Part Two of the book looks to specific areas in which Christians can utilize new media more thoroughly and specifically. These areas include: Theology (David Wayne), Community (Tod Bolsinger), Pastoral Ministry (Mark D. Roberts), Youth Ministry (Rhett Smith), Evangelism & Apologetics (Roger N. Overton), Academics (Fred Sanders), Education (Jason Baker), Politics (Scott Ott), Bioethics (Joe Carther & Matthew Eppinette), and Social Justice (Stephen Shields).

While these brief explorations of each topic will in no way say everything that could or should be said, we do hope they can help to start a process of critical assessment so that when Christians use new media they will do so in a manner consistent with the character and quality of Christ. After finishing the book, readers should have an effective understanding of how they can advance, demonstrate, and utilize the Christian worldview through the use of new media.

Though it's only in the beginning of development, we will have a blog dedicated to the book at NewMediaFrontier.com We also have a Facebook group up and running. I'll post some of the major announcements regarding the project as they happen here, but you'll always be able to find out more through the NMF blog and Facebook group. We'll also do some sort of tie-in with next year's GodBlogCon, which will be September 18-19 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Paul Spears compared this masterpiece by Rubens to a portrait of an 18th century man.  Both were technically excellent, but the first had substance that the second lacked--passion, a story, something deeper than a semi-narcissistic commissioned portrait.

In the same way, we should not only have the same kind of technical craftsmanship that the great artists had when creating their paintings (in our case, correct grammar, spelling, and language), but if we want to have significant blogs, we also need the kind of substance demonstrated in the Rubens painting.  The story and ideas of Christ and our Christian worldview need to support and surround everything that we write.  Our posts ought to point our readers to bigger, more important things and increase their understanding of the truth about the world.

This will be much easier to do if we keep our focus on God rather than our own importance and self-centered ambition.  The motivation for our blogging had better be a transcendent cause--our calling to serve Christ--rather than a desire to build our own little blogging kingdom where we get a certain number of hits and readers.  Though the human temptation is to move in the second direction, attracting us to the trendy (not to mention boring) rather than the deep, we have to fight its pull; it's the easiest way to kill the long-term value and significance of our work.

John Mark Reynolds had some good advice about how to not burn out as a blogger.  He particularly emphasized the need for us to write less about ourselves and more about external ideas.  Begin with an outer focus and then reflect on the inner implications.  If we do the opposite, the likely result will be that we'll become boring as we end up saying nearly the same thing every day (whatever our pet ideas happen to be), twisting every topic into a way to get our own agenda across.

Secondly, we ought to blog for the permanent side of the blogosphere rather than for our immediate readers.  In other words, even as we're commenting on timely topics, there ought to be a certain timelessness to our commentary so our work will continue to be of value.  Posts that offer this will be stumbled upon and accessed by people for years to come, and in this way our impact will possibly be greater in the long term than we would expect from our number of usual readers. 

As an aid to both of the above goals, Dr. Reynolds reminded us that the best new media relies on old media (books, film, etc.) and not on other new media.  If we're taking in great ideas and reflecting on them and their goodness, beauty, and truth, and if we make our goal to see the face of God rather than to exalt ourselves, we'll persevere in creating valuable, lasting work.

After noting that it's an anomaly to find a Southern Baptist in Las Vegas, Al Mohler talked more of the irony of the idea that "we came to a place of deception in order to talk about the truth."

He said that, as Christians, we should be known as people who have something to say.  Communication is central to what we do.  It's a special gift from God, and we have a mandate to spread the good news.  The gift of communication is a special trust that was twisted in the Fall, leading to slander, propaganda, etc.; we should not misuse it.

There is communication from God to us--the revelation God gave of Himself came to us through words.  Words are central in our communication with each other within the body of Christ as we instruct and exhort.  Evangelism also requires words; we can only make the nations glad if we use words.  We can use more than words, but never less.

Movable type enabled Christians to print pamphlets, books, and newspapers.  Radio made things even more simple; anyone can listen to a radio broadcast.  Cassette distribution expanded our ability to influence even further.  Unfortunately, the technology that increased our ability to communicate also increased the opportunity for Christians to embarrass themselves, and the quality of what we do has not always kept pace with the availability.  Since new media is so immediately accessible and publishable, we increase exponentially our ability to make huge mistakes, not to mention our tendency to be sloppy.  There's very little editing, and even less proper self-censorship.