Month: August 2007

  • My Pastoral Experience Thus Far

    I am definitely in my early days as a religious leader, but that doesn’t mean that I should avoid practical experience. I’ve been fortunate enough to have my home church support me in my walk with God and they have embraced me as their student minister.

    Note: I am still growing as a religious leader and I definitely have gaps in:
    a) my knowledge of how to be a pastor; and
    b) my strength and moral conviction as a spiritual leader;

    But, that’s part of the journey: living, growing and breathing in God’s presence as we strive to grow closer to him and to represent ourselves and our faith in an appropriate way.

    My home church has offered me numerous opportunities to serve and get involved in various roles within the church. There are three valuable growing experiences that stand out in particular as tremendous areas of growth:

    1. Prayer – My self-proclaimed weakness has and continues to be public prayer. This is an area that need to exercise in order to make it strong. I have had the opportunity to develop this through prayer groups, worship leading with the congregation and leading sunday school classes.
    2. Preaching – Until a year ago, I had never delivered a sermon. Period. Since then, I have performed numerous sermons, and each one has been increasingly better. I have a greater sense of confidence at the pulpit, greater confidence in my knowledge of the subject matter and a greater maturity at delivering my messages.
    3. Leading – My largest area of focus at my home church has been as a Sunday School teacher. I have had the priviledge of building a Christian parenting and marriage group. This experience has been extremely rewarding. it has given me the chance to learn a great deal, while working to build a community of like-minded people in a fun setting.

    My biggest lesson so far has been the power of relationships. Pastoral ministry is about building relationships and connecting with people. At first, I thought that strong academic content would be the best way to connect with people. I found that academic language quickly took a back seat to relaxed group discussion, anecdotal examples and personal reflection. My experience has shown that group dynamics typically require short, easy to understand and quick to explain snippets of information. Thus, I quickly adjusted my teaching style to present succinct examples that prompted group discussion. I noticed that the content became secondary in many of our group discussions. The content was simply to start conversations. From there, the discussions typically took on a life of their own.

    Does this mean that I no longer care about content? Hardly. On the contrary… I focus more on content than I did in the past. Valuable class outlines require tight agendas and meaningful content in a brief, organized and accurate layout. This type of an outline is harder though: it’s harder to convey meaning in a short explanation than in a longer one. And, each week, I try to make my descriptions as short and concise as possible.

    I have a long way to go in order to perfect my skill and ability as a pastor, but the experience I have received so far has been extremely helpful. I look forward to continuing my education on an ongoing basis.

    That’s it for today. Next time, we’ll discuss, Grad School – my experience so far at Divinity School.

  • Types of Blog Posts Day 5 of 5: Interaction type posts

    In this 5 part series, we’re examining 5 Different Types of Blog Posts.

    Post 5 of 5 (red)Question: What’s one of the best ways to build rapport with your audience?

    Answer: To engage your audience in a dialogue. And the primary way of doing this is asking or answering questions. I’ve used this method a few times and it works wonders. Here’s why:

    • When readers ask questions, they have a vested interest in watching for a response.
    • When readers ask questions, you know that they are reading your content and that they want to engage in conversation with you.
    • When you answer reader questions, you are providing content that is in demand.
    • When you answer reader questions, you are telling your readers that you care about them.

    All of this helps to build a sense of community around your blog. Community is so important. Few people last long simply sitting and listening to a lecture. The best teachers I’ve ever had have invited discussion, whether in the form of questions, comments or personal observations. It is this give and take between the participants that leads to growth in your audience.

    Question-type posts are just that: You ask your readers to submit questions that they would like you to address in future posts. This is a great way to build a posting schedule for the near future if you’re unsure about what to write about. And, it’s also a great way to keep your readers coming back on a regular basis.

    Answer-type posts are the follow up to the question-type posts (pretty obvious stuff). These are especially good when you provide links to the people that posed the questions. Everybody likes to see their names mentioned in print. Mentioning them at the beginning of this type of post immediately bumps your blog to the top of their favourites list for a while! Keep that in mind when trying to build community with your readers.

    And, whether you use all of the questions or not in your blog posts, be sure to respond to every suggestion in some way. Remember, you’re building relationships with your visitors. Write them back. Thank them for their submissions. If you’re going to use their questions, great. Give them some sort of idea when you’ll be addressing their questions. And if you don’t use their questions, it’s probably a good idea to let them know why. After all, they did take the time to write to you.

    So… to properly wrap up this post, I guess I should ask a question. Here goes:

    What would you like to see me talk about in a future post or series of posts here at Wirepaper.com?

  • Types of Blog Posts Day 4 of 5: Blog Series

    In this 5 part series, we’re examining 5 Different Types of Blog Posts.

    Post 4 of 5 (red)There are times when you have an ambitious message to get out to your audience. You want to cover a bunch of stuff and you’re not sure how best to structure it. A good rule of thumb is to keep blog posts short and easy to read. So, that rules out generating complex posts. So, why not break up a complex post into multiple posts?

    Blog series are just that – a series of blog posts that has a unifying theme. Take this current blog series as an example. I wanted to convey my tips pertaining to different types of blog posts. I didn’t want to just provide a very basic list and leaving it at that. And I also didn’t want to provide a HUGE blog post containing all of this info. So, I broke it up into sections.

    Here are the steps that I took to build this series:

    1. I made a high-level list of items that I wanted to present. In this case, I was able to brainstorm 7 key types of blog posts.
    2. I organized those items into a structured list. I managed to categorize the 7 items into a 5 item list.
    3. I expanded upon each item in the structured list. This became the text of each blog entry.
    4. I settled on a unifying theme to tie it all together. This was the “5 Days of Blog Posts” title that I gave to this series.
    5. I generated a simple, eye-pleasing badge (the Day X of 5 badge) to dress up the posts a little and to provide a bit of a legend to the post in relation to the rest of the series.
    6. I built the blog posts in WordPress and scheduled them for publication in advance. I wrote these posts a week in advance. this allowed me to be a week ahead of my post schedule and it also alleviated the stress of needing to produce a blog post on short notice.

    One of my favourite things about blog series’ is that they allow me to be more verbose. In each blog post, I do my best to be concise and to the point. The ability to elaborate on each point means that I explain things with more detail, which adds value for the reader.

    And, a blog series gives the reader a reason to come back each day. As long as the content is strong, it should keep your readers coming back throughout the series to see what’s going to happen next.

    That’s it for today. Until tomorrow, tag!

    Todd

  • Maintaining My Faith as a Philosophy Undergrad Student

    I’m the type of person that has to ask why about things. I can’t just do things in a half-hearted manner. It’s either all or nothing for me. And, if I am going to be serious about my faith, then I need to understand and articulate my faith in a way that makes sense. It’s not enough for me to just say, “because” as an answer to the question, “Why do you believe what you believe?” And, I can’t be a lightweight: I need to be able to defend and articulate my faith in the face of skepticism and disbelief.

    So, what better place to increase my understanding and to stretch my faith than philosophy and religious studies at university? With courses like “Modern Atheism”, “The Rationalists”, “Sociology of Religion” and “Issues in the Philosophy of Religion”, I can honestly say that I put myself right in the middle of some serious debate pertaining to the existence of God and the adequacy of faithful living.

    After wrestling with the likes of Schopenhauer, Feuerbach, Nietzsche, Kant, Darwin, Daley, Paley, Dennet, Weber, Schmitt and many others, I think that I’ve put myself sufficiently in the line of fire to challenge my faith. And, after reading the best that classical philosophy can offer. And, I’ve also examined some writing from the more “popular philosophists” of our modern time – Dawkin’s “The God Delusion” and Christopher Hitchens’ “God Is Not Great” are among these.

    The two greatest faith lessons that I learned from my studies at U of T are the following:
    1. Faith and reason speak different languages – this doesn’t mean that they are mutually exclusive.
    Faith and reason use different methods of understanding the world around us and our existence within it. Where reason requires tangible empirical evidence to support its claims, faith based arguments rely upon belief based on feelings and historical reminders of God’s intervention. Where reason may provide practical applications to living within the natural world, religious belief is much better at articulating a worldview wrapped in purpose and ethical understanding. Neither worldview claims to provide all of the answers, but both can coexist on top off one another to greatly benefit an individual or community.

    2. History does support the claims made in the Bible.
    The Bible is under constant attack from those that question the validity of its claims. Most prominent in the eyes of Christians is the truth claims of our Messiah, Jesus Christ. The 20th century has been rife with “religious studies scholars” who have attempted to repackage Jesus as a magician, a charlatan or even a cynic philosopher. Although the Jesus Seminar and other similar groups appear to be sincere in their intentions, they are disappointing in their conclusions. Like Tom Harpur in his book, “The Pagan Christ”, they attempt to dismiss the Jesus of the gospels as an impostor or a straw man that they build up and then quickly knock down. But they don’t consider the full scope of documentation in support of Jesus (look at the earliest gospel sources and the historical writing of Josephus and others for mention of Jesus during the first century AD) or the trials and tribulations endured by the earliest followers of Jesus. I find it hard to believe that the original apostles would die for Jesus in such horrible ways if they were not convinced of Jesus’ position as savior. I could go on, but I’ll save this discussion for another time.

    My most enjoyable debates are always with those that favour an existential view of the world. For Heidegger or Husserl, we could gain a worldview that there is nothing outside of our immediate understanding. Time and space are figments of our imagination. “The Nothing” is the real state of our existence. My response: wow, that sure is something! Funny how we can make something out of nothing just by talking about it. There are parallels to this existential understanding when we look at time and space in our universe and beyond. I don’t claim to understand the external world around us, but I do think it’s a bit egocentric to think that we exist strictly within our minds. And really… doesn’t that just take us back to Leibniz and his first draft of “The Matrix” in some crazy way?

    So… this is my personal “40 days in the desert” story. I did my best to challenge my faith and to be tempted in the wilderness. I deliberately searched out alternate worldviews that might convince me against following Christianity. But, I wasn’t convinced. And I’m here to share my story with you.

    Regardless of the source of criticism to religious debate, I remain unflinching in my belief in a God who is good, in his son who died and rose again for my sins and salvation and for the message of peace, love and forgiveness that I should live by. The Bible is a living, breathing document that retains a voice of the past while offering a roadmap for the future.

    That’s it for today. Next time, we’ll discuss, My Pastoral Experiences Thus Far.

    Talk soon!

    Todd

  • Types of Blog Posts Day 3 of 5: Link Posts

    In this 5 part series, we’re examining 5 Different Types of Blog Posts.

    Post 3 of 5 (red)
    Today, we’re going to look at link-type posts. These are posts where the primary focus is on an external website or websites. There are days when I come across a wide variety of news items, product reviews or blog posts and I have a strong desire to share all of them with my readers. But unfortunately, I don’t have enough hours in the day to write lengthy posts on each item. Nor should I have to, as there’s no point in rehashing existing content. We want to write fresh, new, original content. In cases like this, link posts come in handy.

    In link posts, the goal is to quickly introduce the links and then get out of the way and allow the reader to enjoy the content. But remember these tips:

    • Your readers trust you Your readers visit your site to read content that you are consistent in delivering. Keep your links relevant as well. No point in sending your readers off to view something on gardening if they’re coming to your site that specializes in Transformers Collectibles.
    • Link to quality content Where you link to reflects back on you. If you directed me to a poor-quality site, I might second guess clicking on one of your recommended links next time.
    • Be brief, but informative Provide a strong introduction to the link. This builds the reader’s expectations and it helps to give them some context when visiting the link.
    • Shake and Bake Your Link Intros For some variety, try Speedlinking from time to time. This is the act of providing a simple list of links from time to time with little introduction other than a topic or theme. This is a quick and easy way of sharing a bunch of sites with very little prep work.

    Some would say that link posts are an easy day’s work in the blogosphere. But I beg to differ. Link posts require vetting content and deciding whether or not to share it with your audience. This is an important task, as the content that you link to reflects on your site brand. Sometimes, this can get you out of a bind if you’re feeling writer’s block, but that doesn’t lessen the quality of the post at all.

    And, to give you an example of what a link post might look like, here’s a list of my own.

    Today’s list topic: 5 links that I found useful this morning:

    1. Blog Writing With True Passion – I like the idea of writing your blog, then getting articles published from it to make extra income. Some other interesting tips here as well.
    2. Google Reader – I’ve tried out a few RSS readers and Google is definitely my favourite for reading my favourite blogs and other RSS content.
    3. The Secret to Lightning-Fast Feed Reading – Some great tips on using your favourite feed reader. Excellent, concise and quite valuable in terms of time saved and efficiencies realized.
    4. Analyze Your Blog’s Competition – Not only will this tell you who else your readers might be reading, but it’ll also give you some ideas about how you could improve your own site.
    5. Todd’s Search for Meaning – A personal link to give you a bit of insight into who I am.

    Anywho… enough rambling for one day.

    Talk soon!

    Todd