Here are a few of my highlights and notes from the book:

• Media and technology are kind of like Stretch Armstrong: They extend our reach—our words, sounds, images, and even our selves—beyond our normal limits.
• a medium is anything that stretches, extends, or amplifies some human capacity.1
• When we fail to perceive that the things we create are extensions of ourselves, the created things take on god-like characteristics and we become their servants.2Note: refer to greek myth of Narcissus who fell in love with his own image in the water. His falure to understand the medium of a water mirror gave the medium extraordinary power …even power to destroy him.
• This conversation initiated a crisis of faith for me. I began to realize that I had all the answers to the questions no one was asking.
• As McLuhan once observed, “We shape our tools and afterward our tools shape us.”
• Information alone is strength without coordination. We become a danger mostly to ourselves when we have it. Understanding is the ability to coordinate that raw information in meaningful ways. Understanding creates a certain enthusiasm. We can direct our knowledge toward potentially useful ends—but we may also be a danger to others. Wisdom, however, is knowing how, when, and why we use our understanding; wisdom is settling into our understanding without being too enamored by it.
• If we are not alert, the Information Age may stunt our growth and create a permanent puberty of the mind.
• If a picture is worth a thousand words, then images must communicate information more efficiently than words.
• it’s the medium, not the content, that changes us.
• Images give and take away.
• Instead, our beliefs are judged by their fruit—how they change the world while we’re here.
• Direct service to people around us heals our feelings of helplessness and apathy. It is quite possible that the needs in some far-off place are greater. But you aren’t there. You’re here, and there are needs galore in your own backyard. We do what we can, where we are, and watch the world change life by life.
• That intimacy is preserved in that relationship as long as the information remains exclusive. The moment it is available to anyone and everyone is the moment intimacy begins to evaporate.Note: in contrast to Facebook where 400 of your closest friends find out verything at the same time
• In a virtual community, our contacts involve very little real risk and demand even less of us personally.
• Authentic community involves high degrees of intimacy, permanence, and proximity.1
• there is a big difference between being “in touch” and truly connecting with others.
• Reconciliation comes in the context of clear communication, meaningful listening, shared understandings, civility, openness, and a lot of patience.
• The most effective method of conflict resolution always establishes clear rules and boundaries on process long before the content of a dispute is ever discussed. The process is almost always designed to help people gain distance from intense emotions, usually through structured listening and sharing, controlled feedback, and language coaching. When done well, the process will serve to de-escalate emotional tensions long enough to make space for rational dialogue, which greatly increases the chances of resolution. This is another way of saying that the medium is the message. The very way we disagree sends a message, and that process determines the outcome as much or more than the content of our disagreement.
• How we disagree matters more than what we disagree about.
• There is an elastic relationship between access to information and power. In the simplest terms, power is derived from information control. Whenever people have exclusive access to information, they are granted a certain degree of authority, which is why doctors, lawyers, and mechanics receive such deference.
• when Jesus says the Spirit will teach you “all things” that means there is more to come, more that Jesus didn’t say, more insights, expanded knowledge, deeper realities. Jesus is pointing us to a God who keeps communicating an ever-evolving message. That is why the Spirit is given.
• Second, when Jesus says the Spirit will “remind you of everything I have said to you” it means what Jesus said back then is still valid.
• Certainty can be a great friend of arrogance.
• Daring humility shuns boredom, complacency, and endless arguments. Daring humility is honest enough to admit that we see things in a mirror dimly, and bold enough to live a life of deep conviction anyway.
• Jesus is God’s perfect medium—and the medium is the message.
• The church is God’s medium and message.
• Instead of simply resisting or caving in to cultural forces, we are invited to study and understand them. Only then will we learn to use them rather than be used by them.

A group blogging project is going on discussing Flickering Pixels at Church Crunch by John Saddington and a whole host of other bloggers.  Here is a link to the review of the first chapter over a Church Crunch.

Convenience is hugely attractive in organizations because it is easy to defend and easy to approve…The problem is that convenient approaches rarely break through or generate extraordinary returns.

- Seth Godin

How has your business or ministry been handicapped by convenience?  As Seth points out, extraordinary returns do not come from taking the convenient approach.  The “bird in the hand is greater than two in the bush” mentality is safe and may be good, but it won’t lead to greatness.  If you always accept what you have in your grasp you will never realize greatness.  In my practice, I have several things that are safe.  I know I can generate a certain level of business each month just by doing a few things.  The problem with that is my time is tied up and I convince myself that things are good.  Before the ideal practice will show up, I may have to jump off the safe road.

What can you do to avaoid ordinary results and move toward extraordinary?

“Our call as lawyers is to minister God’s truth, beauty, goodness, justice, mercy, compassion, or love wherever it is lacking, whether it be in our law office, our law school, the county courthouse, the adversary system, our client’s family, our partner’s life, or at the coffee shop”

- Michael P. Schutt in Redeeming Law: Christian Calling and the Legal Profession

“Discover that the most powerful way to help those you love is to lead by example - and realize you’re leading by example all of the time.”

- Joe Caruso

Where does your church stand?

Is the culture of your church such that whatever tool is new, whatever technology is hot that it is okay - encouraged even - to use on Sunday mornings for worship?  If that is you, congratulations!  But what if you are like me and find yourself at a medium sized church where the congregation is older and quite frankly, technology scares them? You press on with your call and your introduction of technology without waiting.  While you may be forced to move slowly, at least you are moving.

What can be done to get your church on board?

In The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell, he states that plans fail because followers either have a fear of change, ignorance,  they are uncertain about the future, or because there is a lack of imagination.  When it comes changes in a church, and specifically those related to technology,  I believe that most of the opposition is due to ignorance and lack of imagination.  As our church has been on somewhat of a “capital campaign” to raise money for a new projection system in the sanctuary it has been met with resistance.  While the motion to begin the campaign passed with no problem there are still questions.  Some people understand PowerPoint and have an idea of what can be done with the system, but as you and I know so much more is possible through the effective use of video in a worship service than just have the pastor’s outline or some song lyrics on the big screen.  Some of the people have not gone to a worship service in another church in fifty years so they have no idea that things can be done in a different way than they are accustomed to.  They have know idea about what technology is available and what it can do to enhance the Kingdom and improve our worship and fellowship with one another.

So, when faced with the question of whether/when to move forward with introducing new technology to your church, you should.  If you are not an advocate for it, then no one will be.  Look for ways to distribute information about your project so people will understand what is going to happen.  Then, give them as many practical “tastes” of the project to increase their imagination to show them what could be done with the new technology.

Here are some of the things that jumped out at me as I read the book:

• Sharon Hull says, “A  dream is the seed of possibility planted in the soul of a human being,  which calls him to pursue a unique path to the realization of his  purpose.
• 1. BE WILLING TO BET ON YOURSELF: You may succeed if nobody else believes in you, but you will never  succeed if you don’t believe in yourself.
• Joyce Meyer wisely states, “God will help  you be all you can be, but He will never help you be someone else.”
• Both vision and strategy are  important, but there is a priority to them. Vision always comes first.  Always. If you have a clear vision, you will eventually attract the  right strategy. If you don’t have a clear vision, no strategy will save  you.
• The problem is that people get  stuck on the how. They don’t see how they could accomplish more,  so they throttle back their vision, convinced that they must be realistic.   And what they expect becomes their new reality.”
• It sounds overly simple, but a primary reason that most people  don’t get what they want is that they don’t know what they want.
• It’s easy to get so caught up in the day-to-day process of life that  you lose sight of the big picture. However, when your dream is  clearly in sight, it helps you get your priorities straight.
• The Greek philosopher Aristotle observed, “We are what we  repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.” Your
• We quickly realize that between the  dream’s inspiration and its manifestation, there’s going to be lot of  perspiration!
• Playwright George Bernard Shaw asserted, “I’m  sick of all the reasonable people: they see all the reasons for doing  nothing.” Passion makes us unreasonable.
• In other words, the conditions will never be perfect for you to go after  your dream. In fact, conditions may not seem all that favorable. Move  forward anyway. Be tenacious in your commitment to action.
• But what finally helped them turn the corner was advice from  a teacher named Scolastico, who told them, “If you would go every day  to a very large tree and take five swings at it with a very sharp ax, eventually,   no matter how large the tree, it would have to come down.”  From that advice, the authors developed what they call the “rule  of five.” Every day they did five specific things that would move them  closer to their dream of selling books.

I think you will enjoy being challenged by this book.

Presumably the person who is blogging in a legal niche is an attorney.  At least in my marketing plan as an attorney, my blogs are there to educate the public and to hopefully increase my exposure in the community and on the internet as an expert in my area of practice.  My goal for monetizing my blogs is this: convert visitors into readers; readers into prospective clients who will call my office and make an appointment; then turn prospects into paying clients. 

The benefits of a blog for this are several.  The first, and most important for many lawyer-bloggers is that blogging is pretty cheap.  In fact, when you compare it to traditional advertising methods like the telephone book it is almost free.  You can gain almost immediate traction with search engines which leads to more visitors and readers thus increasing your chance to get people in your office.  Finally, it lets you hone your skills.  It is really easy to explain some areas of law to another attorney.  You start talking in legal geek-speak and everyone knows what you’re talking about.  It is much more difficult to translate that so the everyday person can understand.  When writing on your blog - unless you are writing for an academic or legal audience - you will be forced to write on a level where people can understand you or people will simply not read your work.  This helps you sell to your client when they are in your office because they will be more confident in your services because you can explain even the most complex legal theory in a way they can at least get some grasp of. 

So, in saying all of that, my opinion of advertisements on a legal blog is that it is a very short-sighted way of making money from your blog.  Sure, who wouldn’t want to be a "pro-blogger" and make lots of money from the traffic you already have from your blog?  But I think you have to make sure it fits your niche - and I do not believe it fits the legal niche at all.  So you make a few bucks here and there by having people click on your ads, but you are not gaining the full value of that blog visitor because they are immediately clicking on an ad and being whisked away to another lawyer’s website who they will likely hire and pay thousands of dollars to.  So, congratulations on that quarter you just earned from the pay-per-click ad.  If that isn’t bad enough, why are you doing all of that work writing those blog posts if you are just going to let someone come to your site and then click on an ad and disappear?

Summary - have a full view of the reason for your legal blog.  This is a crock-pot, not a microwave.  It may take you some time, but don’t cheapen your legal blog by adding advertising.  Don’t pimp out your legal blog for the sake of earning a few quick bucks. Focus on your prospective clients and adding value to them - then they will add value to you in a way that advertising cannot.  

Of course, the one day that we get snow I am scheduled to be in court for three different hearings.  I am spending most of my time checking my iPhone or the local news station to see if the court has been closed because everything else in town is closed.  And just my luck, the court says they are going to be open on a three hour delay.  That means one of my hearings is cancelled, but the two afternoon hearings are on.

I get on to my wife and friends about working all the time.  I strive to have balance.  I want to be a great daddy to my son and be there with him, especially during cool times like this when we get an extra day away from the office.  But I can’t just skip a hearing.  So we play for a little while in the snow and then I go in to shower and suit up for my hearings.  I had a little work to do at the office in preparation for the hearings so I had to leave a little early.  Once I arrived at my office I had received several voice mails from the Court stating that all of the hearings had been cancelled for the day.  Now, I was a little relieved because my mind was at home with my wife and son, but at the same time I was at the office, alone, with some quiet time where I could really get some quality work done.  With the intention of staying just a “little while” I spent nearly four hours there working.  I’m sure it was all extremely important and time sensititve (insert sarcasm).

I felt pretty convicted as I thought about it later that afternoon.  I give Steph a hard time about working crazy hours as a CPA, but when I have the chance to take off and get home I chose work.  While I “talk” the “talk” about family being one of my high priorities, when it came time to walk the walk, I failed.

Are there areas in your life you are failing at that you claim are “important” to you?  Don’t waste another minute.  Do an inventory of your life and your values and make sure everything is lined up or get a plan to get them lined up ASAP.

You can check out some of our other snow day pictures here.

"If You Chase Two Rabbits, Both Will Escape"  (Author Unknown)

For me, I have a lot of ideas.  I have a lot of dreams.  And, I have a lot of responsibilities.  Many times, the responsibilities require me to hold off on an idea or they make me overly cautious or scared to proceed with a dream.  Even though it may align perfectly with my life vision. 

Here is a peek at the stream of thoughts that are constantly going through my head in some form or another: I like my job, do I like my job, am I a good lawyer, and I a good dad, I like parts of practicing law, can a Christian be a divorce attorney, should I go into full-time ministry of some sort, what kind of business can I open on the side, I need to spend time with my family tonight, I need to work on my business plan, marketing and strategy…  On and on my brain is constantly thinking and working.  I follow nearly 100 blogs and RSS feeds, I listen to about 10 podcasts each week, I read books on business, ministry, parenting, leadership, and personal development all the time.  I can’t turn my brain off.  At least not easily. 

It is in this moment that I realize - somehow it has been brought immediately to my attention - that I need to "be still and know that [He] is God" (Psalm 46:10).  It is in this stillness, this time with God, this focused attention on the Source of the call and vision for my life that I will be directed in the right direction. 

Many churches are out on the edge of technology these days, and in my opinion that is a good thing.  Culture is telling people that all kinds of things are available for them to use and enjoy, but many churches are still providing the same type of “services” as they were twenty years ago.  While blogging and services like Twitter may not be bleeding edge, they are still new to most people and will still be “new” for a long time as people pick up on them.  Young people, however, are already into blogging and tweeting, Facebook, MySpace, Ning and other social networks.  Churches are losing ground with a younger generation because they are trying to communicate to them the wrong way.

There are many benefits to ministry blogging that include immediate dispersion of the information, more open communication, a conversation with your blog readers, getting to know the author and commenters on a deeper level, high quality marketing and publicity for you and the church, and many more.

I think most churches  have good intentions.  They feel a burden to reach out to a younger generation, but maybe they just don’t get into worshipping with up tempo music or a fancy light show.  They like a piano and organ.  There’s definitely nothing wrong with that!  The research will bear out that most young adults don’t weigh worship style as highly as everyone thinks.  I mean, it seems like that is the obvioius reason for church growth. But in fact, a feeling of community, belonging to something greater than yourself, authenticity and service to the world are what young adults crave and are what draw young adults into any organization (including a church).

Lowering Barriers

So, back to blogging and social media for churches.  These exercises are important because they lower the barriers of entry for someone that may be considering coming to your church.  Some people have never met a stranger and don’t have any problems showing up to a new group or meeting for the first time and just getting involved.  I’m not like that.  I like to have a soft introduction into a new group.  The first day of school was always rough for me if I didn’t know anyone in the class.  I can’t imagine walking into a new church “blind” and having no idea what to expect.

How does blogging lower barriers?  A blog is a window into the church.  You can get a whole new view on the mind, thoughts and passions of a person by following their blog.  When blogging is done properly by a pastor and his staff then you get a wide angle view of the church as a whole.  You get the opportunity to have a constant flow of information from the church then just on Sunday mornings through the bulletin and announcements and the monthly newsletter.  I follow many pastors’ on their blogs and feel like I know them and know what is going on at their church.  I could almost feel like if I attended their church that weekend, it would be like I have been going there for months.

Twitter also gives you a picture into the lives of the staff.  While a blog allows the staff to take time to throughly communicate to you about what is going on in their lives, what they are hearing from God, what is happening at the church and so on, Twitter allows you to see what is going on in 140 character snipits of other people’s day.  Relationships and conversations are formed on Twitter in ways that can’t otherwise be done.

Stepping Outside the Box

Many churches already record their services on video or at least record the audio on CD or some other format.  This data can be used in the social media context to lower the barriers, give more people information about the church and style, and expand the reach and ministry of the church from just your local area to an unlimited reach on the internet.  YouTube, Itunes, Vimeo, Viddler and many other services will let you host video and audio of your services or portions of your services for free.  These videos can become “viral” and spread around the internet.

I hope this quick post gives you a taste of what you can do with blogging and social media and you see the benefits that blogs can have for businesses, ministries and churches if they are used correctly.  There are many reasons for using social media - even in the ministry context - and those reasons will direct the methods, technology, and ethics used in a successful strategy.