|
***
Technology is the campfire
around which we tell our stories.
Laurie Anderson
***
Rock-the-Cradle Discussion Questions and Exercises:
1. Bring to cell-meeting a copy of Wired magazine, and the children's book The Magic School Bus in the Times of the Dinosaurs..(20) Witness first-hand and discuss how kids are now no longer reading in simply linear fashion. Share how it feels for a Gutenberg person to read a post-Gutenberg children's book printed like an electronic hypertext?
2. Demonstrate to the group some sampling of new ways of reading the Bible--not with bookmarks and paperweights, but with multiple on-screen windows and electronic bookmarks. "Show and Tell" to the group these electronic resources:
Mac Resources:
a. MacBible (Zondervan)--New Revised Standard Version, New International Version and New International Version Study Bible Notes in three windows (simultaneously or scrollably)--you can get add-ons of King James Version, New American Standard Bible, New American Bible, Hebrew Old Testament, Greek New Testament, and others)
b. WORDSearch (NavPress)--electronic concordance; get Strong's Concordance as an add-on
c. BibleMaster (Lockman Foundation)
d. Thompson Chain HyperBible--(Kirkbride Technologies)--hypercard based program (now on CD-ROM)--includes six major English translations of Bible;
e. Online Bible (for Mac)--largest collection of English and foreign-language translations and commentary modules around
f. acCordance (GRAMCORD Institute and OakTree Software)--Mac only: more serious Bible students; you can generate from this maps, charts, graphs, tablers, and so forth. Easy to use for anyone who knows Greek or Hebrew
Windows Resources:
a. BibleSource (Zondervan New Media)--text searches, note- taking, multiple English language translations available
b. Online Bible--same as Mac version
C. BibleMaster--same as Mac version
d. Thompson Chain HyperBible--same as Mac version
e. GRAMCORD for Windows--attached to SeedMaster, with all the things in acCordance mentioned above
f. BibleWorks for Windows--most serious resource; includes over thirty Bibles and reference works
g. New Bible Library CD-ROM (Ellis Enterprises)--twelve English Bible translations
h. PC Study Bible (BibleSoft)--best designed for Bible-study or Sunday school lessons; user-friendly
i. Logos Bible Study 2.0 (Logos Research Systems)
j. Bible Windows (Silver Mountain)--best for serious students and pastors
3. Arrange a telephone interview during your class time with a postmodern circuit rider like Carol Childress of Leadership Network.
4. Billy Graham pushed his people to launch a worldwide satellite mission ten years ago (Global Mission was finally launched in 1995). Graham believes the church is twenty years behind the rest of society in claiming an electronic culture for Christ. Is he right? To what extent has Graham's ministry lived out of the Wired genes?
5. At Central United Methodist Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico, there is a stained-glass window that has in it a typewriter and a waste-paper basket. Pretend you are commissioning a new stained-glass window for your sanctuary. Discuss how different generations might react to the possible presence in stained-glass of a computer or Web TV.
6. Discuss ways your church might supplement on-site education with on-line learning.
7. Select someone from your congregation to be one Sunday the church's Minister of Videography or Minister of Photography. Give them their first project of prsenting pictures on screen to the congregation of what the minister is praying for--e.g. the courthouse, the leaky roof, Aunt Mildred who is going in for surgery, etc.
8. How well is your church at implementing what I call the 10 Commandments of Postmodern Architecture, which are as follows:
10. Thou shalt not make any graven images.
"You are building sacred space...design for multiple use and re-cycling of the facilities. This new world is one of change and complexity, not stability and order."
9. Thou shalt not commit an ugly.
"Your job is to put people in places of beauty, not indulgence. Aesthetics has everything to do with soulmaking."
8. Thou shalt not design for one sense alone, but all five.
"You must design space that engages all five senses...consider them as a whole, not in isolation from one another. Smell will be the most important sense in the 21st century."
7. Thou shalt have a sense of place.
"People today more than ever need roots, a place of belonging. Design for the culture that God has given us and increasingly, ours is an electronic culture and that means screens, especially in the learning space of a church."
6. Thou shalt get real.
"The post modern church is reality based, not performance based, and uncovers hypocrisy. Design for interactivity and accentuate people's relationships."
5. Thou shalt build an organic, living church. "The emphasis in the future will be on arches, domes, and atriums, not glass, steel, and sealed windows."
4. Thou shalt take the church out of doors. "Christianity is an out of door religion. Pay attention to gardens outside and "sky gardens" inside."
3. Thou shalt love the land on which you stand. "Be environmentally responsible."
2. Thou shalt not build dumb buildings.
"Build smart churches that can glorify God."
1. Thou shalt build spaces in which people can experience God.
"Point people to something larger than themselves. Build the sky in which souls may soar." 
|
