Blogathon :: 20 January 2005

Well we’ve done Bobs and Freds so now its time for the Steves with the Steve Admiration Society

‘The Steve Admiration Society was based on this concept. The idea of a deep and devoted love for Steve is what the origonal founders of the society had in mind. They knew that there were many people just like themselves, who were deeply in love with Steve, but just needed a way to show their love.’

Omidar Network has a good page full of Nonprofit Blogs. Very very cool!

‘This page is a collection point for nonprofit weblogs. The purpose is simply to begin to get a sense of what this particular slice of the blogosphere looks like. In addition, it begins to give us a sense of who to reach out to as we begin to look at larger projects in this area.’

A mate on MSN said i should write a post on why Australia and Canada should merge and become Canustralia.

I think it would be a pretty good idea on a few levels.

1. When its summer in Australia its winter in Canada and visa a versa - no more cold!
2. Aussies and Canadans are both a pretty relaxed groups of people from what I can tell
3. Our sense of humor and ability to give it to one another is pretty good.
4. We would totally win the Commonwealth games EASY!

Any other ideas my fellow Aussies and Canadians???

Craig McGinty asks:

‘It would be interesting to hear thoughts on the value of setting up ‘quick-hit’ blogs to cover individual sporting events, entertainment stories or maybe even high-profile court cases.

It is clear that people are turning to the web for quick access to information, especially when news is still breaking on a story.’

Great question and observation Craig - this is something I’ve pondered with those that I’ve worked with and have actually explored a little. One of the wonderful things about blogging is that it is so easy to set one up. On our Breaking News Blog collective I can have a blog set up and working well (with a nice template) within a few minutes. Part of the reason for this is that we want to be able to mobilize quickly to take advantage of ‘breaking news’ whether it be on sporting, entertainment, politics etc. We’re yet to test it on the new network but its a plan that we’re waiting for the right situation to act upon.

In August of 2004 a friend of mine and myself started Athens Olympic Games Blog to test the idea that you’ve written about above. We learnt so much from the project (and would do it quite differently if we were to do it again) but overall it was a successful experiment where we saw over 1.6 million readers hit the site in just a few weeks.

So in my opinion Craig there is a lot of potential. The keys will be to find a way to get ranked quickly on Google for the search terms and to be able to throw enough time and energy into it at the spur of the moment. Whilst our Olympics blog was very successful there were at least another 10 or 15 blogs that we saw launched around the same time that didn’t achieve anything like what we did. Part of the reason for this was that between the two off us we worked around the clock on the site for virtually a month - no gain without pain as they say.

Ok - those of you who have been reading along every post with me all day will be noticing that my posts are becoming less original.

I’m sorry - feeling like my brain is shutting down a little now. I’m sure I’ll get another burst of energy soon - maybe.

Until then you’ll have to put up with a few more light hearted posts and me doing a few quotes from things that I THINK might be good posts but that I’m not in a position to really understand.

Anyone out there?

I really like Alan Hartung’s post where he Critiques the emerging church - no wait a moment - he’s not having a go at ‘THE’ emerging church as a movement, he’s doing the responsible thing and writing on a more personal level. I think its healthy for us to be doing this type of reflecting and am looking forward to taking a bit more time to work through what he’s goto to say in the next few days…

‘I’ve noticed a call lately, by several bloggers and others, for those within the emerging church to offer up a kind of self-critique. I think this is valuable work that needs to be done.

But it is also a difficult task. Because the emerging church encompasses so many different traditions, styles, and structures, there could be a tendency to critique what the other guys in the movement are doing. I want to steer clear of that.

So I only want to speak on things I’ve noticed in my own life and participation with groups of followers who are really trying to do something different…..’

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Interesting post over at under the acacias on Emerging church in multicultural society 2

‘How do we do church in a way that is relevant to the cultural identities of all the different groups in our society? How can we be church in a way that will be outreach-orientated, permitting people to meet God within their own cultural context? These are questions that are as relevant in post-modern UK and US, as in pre-modern Burkina Faso.

In response to the traditional “one size fits all” approach to church, some “church growth” and “emerging church” thinkers have proposed the doing church separately for each cultural sub-group in a society. In Gorom-Gorom, this would mean a church for the Mossi, and a separate church for the Fulani. In post-modern western cities, it may mean a church for youth, a church for post-moderns, a church for Asian immigrants etc.’

Good to see these questions getting tossed around in some different contexts. I’ve noticed in the last 6 months here in Australia that a larger variety of people are asking questions about church. Interestingly I’ve been bumping into more people in rural areas and in multicultural settings exploring it. Nice to see. I’m excited to see what emerges out of all the talk.

Last night saw LivingRoom start up again for the year. We’d had a couple of weeks break to give everyone a chance to have some space and enjoy the summer.

One of the exciting things that has happened in the last few weeks is the number of people that have approached members of our group to investigated joining. Last night we had four new people come along and I know of another 5 that could come along next week! Others in the group have also had conversations with friends who are interested also so there is a potential of another 5 or so.

So in the space of a few weeks we could feasibly grow from a group of 13 to a group of 25 or more. The mood around this growth is exciting but I also want to be a little cautious. Change can be unsettling for some and growth at this rate changes the dynamics significantly. It will be very interesting to see how things unfold in the next few months as we continue to talk about how we grow and if we start up another LivingRoom.

Spotted this Chart that Compares Emergent churches to the Bible

To be honest I’m not sure I have the brain capacity to really critique this critique on the Emerging Church at the moment but my initial reaction to the comparison is that it is a gross generalization and that many of the comparisons and critique could be leveled against other churches and movements.

I’m interested in what others (who’ve had a bit more sleep, exercise and time away from the computer today than me) think about this chart.

Inside Blogging is running the 2005 Business Blogging Awards and is seeking more nominations especially in some of their categories. Darren also lists the growing list of prizes for the awards - some of which will hopefully motivate some nominations. When I first saw the list of categories I wondered if there were a few too many to get quality nominations across them all. Anyway - check out the categories and if you know some good contenders make a nomination.

We’ve been going now for 18 hours (6 to go). I’ve posted 80 posts so far and think I’ll make it to the 112 target but will have to increase my posting speed.

This is the time of the night when I remember things slowing down last year. Donations seem to have dried up for the last couple of hours. If you’ve just popped by the site I ask you to make a donation towards helping the children affected by the Tsunami by simply following the prompts after clicking on the ‘make a donation’ button.

Today we are featuring questions and answers from an interview that I’ve done this week with Rebecca Monson from Oak Tree Foundation (the recipients of donations that you our wonderful readers will give through this blogathon).

DR: In what non-financial ways can people support Oak Tree’s work?

RM: People who are aged 25 and under can become volunteers!!! The Oak Tree is constantly growing, and you will be able to fully utilize your skills – while I can’t guarantee that you won’t ever be stuffing envelopes or photocopying, this is certainly not all that you will be confined to!!

For people aged 26 and over, there may be the possibility of you becoming a ‘mentor’. We have a teams of volunteers managing every aspect of the Oak Tree’s affairs, including volunteers, legal, media, finance and IT, to name just a few. It may be that we need people in your field to mentor Oak Tree volunteers.

You can also help by spreading the word. While the Oak Tree has grown very rapidly in the past two years, we hope that this trend continues – we are always looking to establish new ‘branches’ in schools, universities and churches.

Finally, the Oak Tree Foundation is a non-denominational Christian organization. While many of our volunteers are of no religious persuasion, and we are not an evangelistic organization, many of us are motivated by our faith and the values and principals of the Oak Tree are rooted in the Christian faith. We therefore appreciate your support through prayer.