Tag: students

Big Ideas & 'Best Of'

Technology: What is Essential for Ministry?

I’ll be the first to admit — I’m not the most tech-savvy person I know.

In fact, I really dragged my feet when it came to:

getting a cell phone and
getting on Facebook
But I must say, that after slowly easing my way into the waters of technology and social media, I’ve really come to enjoy much of what it has to offer.

So yesterday I posed the questions (on Twitter, Facebook and Google+):

If you have all 3: a smartphone, ipad/tablet and laptop/pc – which do you use the most? Why? Which of these 3 would you give up first if you had to? Why?

Big Ideas & 'Best Of'

Utilizing Google+ for Ministry

Have you heard about Google+ yet? OK, but have you taken the time to check it out? Or try it out?

If not, let me be the first to introduce you to this growing addition to the social media world… and tell you that its intent is to rival Facebook for our all-purpose social networking allegiance.

I found this 4-minute video that does a pretty good job of describing what Google+ is all about:

Student Culture, Trends & Issues, The Campus Minister

A Pastoral Presence Online

Campus — today — is not what it use to be.

Technology continues to advance at a staggering pace and social media is making personal and mass-communication (of a new kind) very accessible to whoever wants it… and our students are well-versed in most of it.

About a year ago I had the chance to step away from campus and spend some time with campus ministers from across the U.S. (and Canada!), thinking about our shared work with college students. On our final morning together I was asked to lead our group in a conversation about what is happening here at Faith ON Campus, but I quickly found us expanding the conversations to explore what it meant (and means) to be a pastor in this digital age.

Transitions

Commissioning Graduates: An Ordination to Daily Work

Before we send our students across the stage (to receive their diploma), and then on out into the world, we will worship together one last time at a baccalaureate service.

For the past several years this service has taken on the intentional theme of: An Ordination to Daily Work.

We want our students to recognize that — regardless of what field of work, sphere of society, or corner of the world they are heading to — God will be there, and wants to use them in some intentional ways in that place.