Being courageous

This week I went to see "Courageous", a new movie by Christian filmmaker Sherwood films in association with TriStar. The heroes of the story are a group of cops who are wrestling with a more challenging calling, being fathers. They are faced with both work and life challenges, and the audience gets caught up in their personal tragedies and triumphs. If you go, bring lots of tissues, especially if you are a parent. Yes, I'm serious, the message is heart-rending.

The movie is a challenge to fathers to step up, and take that role seriously. This movie comes from a un-apologetically evangelical Christian worldview, which I think surprised some local reviewers. To be honest I had mixed feelings about going to see this movie. It is not uncommon in evangelical churches to have the annual "Mothers are wonderful!" sermon in May, and the corresponding "Fathers are failing their kids" message in June. Hey pastors, constructive options motivate better than guilt. Thankfully I think this movie did offer more than guilt, and I appreciated that. Our church strongly encouraged its members to attend, and is following up with small groups for couples to talk about their parenting challenge.

Churches are often seen as opponents to popular media including movies. Many people don't realize that North American Christians saw very early the potential of cinema to transform culture and to educate. The Vatican as early as the 1920s believed that film as a means of cultural expression "enriches the church and cultures themselves." Billy Graham was an early adopter of radio, and later television and film as tools for evangelism. The Billy Graham Association's World Wide Pictures produced 38 feature films.

I admit when I go to movies, I go for the escapism: Thor, X-Men, and Despicable Me (Dave is cool.) But sometimes it is good to be challenged.

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Amazon and the For-Fee Library

So the rumour goes that Amazon is trying to convince its publisher friends to allow it to create an e-book rental service. The story is that this service might be like Netflix and offer unlimited (?!) borrowing for a set monthly fee. Amazon has the reader client base already, software/hardware (Kindle) and the publisher relationships. They already have piloted a limited textbook rental service. Not surprisingly the model is difficult for publishers to swallow. Like the music industry pre-iTunes, it seems like publishers don't see that there is money to be made here.

What of brick and mortar libraries? A blogger for The Guardian has suggested "If I were a librarian, I confess, I'd be putting the career-change plan into action just about now." Yes, yes, I know, we have been hearing about the end of libraries for some time. I noted recently a book by the title "The End of Libraries" published in 1982. Thirty years on, still hanging in there.

But let's talk about this. As the blogger noted, "If you can "borrow" the ebook instantly from your living room, why would you bother schlepping into town to pick it up in person?" That was my experience with movie rentals (sorry Blockbuster, but I did pick up a few good movies at the close out sale.)  Many public libraries offer e-books but offerings are usually limited to popular leisure reading. Academic libraries also offer some e-books, but with a variety of vendor platforms, and tight use restrictions.

Can these e-book services withstand the competition? Or more specifically, would I pay a fee for access to an online library? Yes, I probably would, even though I could borrow the books for free at my library, and even though I enjoy holding a paper book. The deciding factor for me would be the scope of the collection. At present few of the books I would use for academic research are available in digital format. I would buy a digital copy of the Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research today! (Sad I know.)  I would love to have a core research collection on my iPad in the field. Until publishers are prepared to release ALL books in digital formats, libraries as book lenders will continue.

Here is the great mystery: in a time when library budgets are under attack, Amazon believes people will pay to borrow books. If they make it convenient and simple. That begs the question, what of libraries?

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The Journey Online

The challenge of any helping role is that most of the work you do is invisible. This is the case for pastors, whose jobs involve confidential counselling, mentoring, and simply coming alongside. I remember in my early days as a student pastor having to put up with comments like "nice job, only having to work one day a week." I kept thinking that a regular 9-5 job sounded so nice! So how does one share the fullness of pastoral life without appearing to be an attention seeker?

A friend at the Archdiocese of Ottawa office recently told me about Archbishop Terrence Prendergast's blog "the Journey of a Bishop." Posting nearly everyday, he chronicles events in the life of the church, both local and international. He shares prayers, pastoral thoughts and photos of special events. I understand that even the office staff find it a great source of information about the goings on of the church and the Archbishop. It the counter is accurate, he has had nearly 300,000 visits to his blog since January 2009.

The first thing that strikes me is the man is busy! Obviously there is much more he does than is depicted here, but this is a good outline of public activities. The next thing that strikes me is that this opens a window to the life of the church. This isn't text written by a PR firm, or photos air brushed by marketing. But if I was ever curious what does an Archbishop does, here is a good place to start.

Many pastors have blogs, feeds and websites. Some are current news, some are ancient history. It takes time and effort to blog, and I know pastors who feel there time could be better spent. Pastor John Piper has made a strong argument for pastors blogging, among them interacting, and being known. Interacting is important, and perhaps a weakness of "The Journey of a Bishop" is that it remains one way communication, although I have no way of knowing how many comments and questions are sent. I am just not part of the dialogue. Recently ChurchMag had an interesting post about using Church social media. How do you use social media to create conversations? Ask questions. Scary when you are on the web.

Piper's comment about being known also caught my attention. Piper writes,
"Your people hear you teach a lot; it’s probably the main way that most of them know you. You preach on Sundays, teach on Wednesdays, give messages at weddings, funerals, youth events, retreats, etc. This is good—it’s your job. But it’s not all you are....your people need some access to you as a person. A blog is one way to help them."

This is powerful. I find that much of the religious blogging I encounter is, well frankly, evangelistic and somewhat contrived. You rarely meet the person behind the scripture verses or sermon notes.

Lots to chew on. What is your favourite personal blog? What draws you back to it?

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Eulogy for a bookstore and a short rant

On December 31, 2011 the Baptist Bookroom will close after fifty years serving the needs of the Convention of Atlantic Baptist Churches. It was likely inevitable; the brick storefront model is passing away. I have ordered a few items online from them, but as it is a province away I never visited in person. I took a few minutes to write and ask the folks at the Convention office "So what's next?" Yes, this business model has failed, but the need for good Christian educational materials remain. Yes, there are good online sources like CBD or directly from trusted publishers. But do our parishioners know who are the trusted publishers? Are they current with what resources are available to meet their particular need?

That I think is the greatest loss when the local bookstores close; we lose the local expertise. I think most churches hope their clergy can provide those insights but the reality is that these aren't skills they teach you in seminary. Reader's advisory services are also offered in libraries, and if your religious group has a local seminary/college you might be able to get some assistance there. Most parishioners are on their own; my own research suggests that if they have been given enough rooting in their own groups beliefs they will muddle through. Regrettably many have only a passing acquaintance with the beliefs of their religious group.

Though not surprising, another bookstore closing is sad. But what is sadder still is that there seems to be no plan for what's next. The information age is upon; time to have a strategy.

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