Hacking.Church 04: Leveling Up
A rising tide lifts all boats...and shared learnings benefit everyone!
Hello World
Welcome to the email subscription for HackingChristianity.net! I’m so glad you’ve subscribed. By the time you get this, we should be at 150 subscribers—not bad for a newsletter that launched just two months ago only on its fourth issue! While Hacking Christianity has over 8000 subscribers on social media, it’s okay that newsletters are more selective. Glad to be connected with you!
This email subscription provides a semi-weekly update with recent articles, curated articles, and special subscriber-only content at the end of the email. Thanks for subscribing and feel free to share!
Here’s what was published in our genres since our last newsletter, and the promised exclusive content at the bottom.
Church and Christianity articles:
[NEW] What Shape of Church will escape the Maelstrom? - a devotional based on Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, asking who we will be on the other side of this pandemic and how will we get there. Side note: this was first shared in the “open tabs” last time and now you see it in final form as an article. That’s how this works!
[NEW] Three ways for Churches to count COVID-19 online worship attendance - It’s the time for evaluation of 2020, and one area that churches might struggle with is how to report online attendance during COVID-19. Take a read on a suggestion that will work in the absence of clear guidance from your denominational authorities!
Welcome to Hacking Christianity 5.0 is the “welcome back” post after several months offline that explores the new logo, new features, and where we go from here. If you missed it at launch, here it is again!
Geek Gospel articles:
[NEW] Sci-fi Time Loops show us that Sacred Stories break cycles - Perfect for Groundhog Day, Science Fiction and Fantasy allow us to play out ethical scenarios in different contexts, one of which is a time loop where a day repeats over and over…which we do in our own way in real life!
United Methodist articles:
[NEW] The barriers against a Virtual General Conference - Traditionalist caucus groups are hot on a virtual global conference so they can break up United Methodism. Is that cause for concern? An examination of the challenges of conferencing in an age of COVID-19.
[NEW] Will the Drivers of The United Methodist Church take responsibility? - Progressives are the popular scapegoats for All Of United Methodist Problems, but how are they the driver of a dominant-conservative denomination? Take a read on the data that pushes back against the caucus group narratives.
Upcoming: Several new articles in the works about United Methodism and race, the problem of the Episcopal Fund, and the failure of the Wesleyan Covenant Association to let its “yes be yes” as Scripture calls us to be.
Open Tabs:
Finally, as promised, email subscribers get exclusive content not available elsewhere. Right now, that is Open Tabs: these are the windows that are open RIGHT NOW on my computer that I just can’t stand to close yet:
Again & Again Lenten Resource. My church is using this program (developed by an artist collective with BIPOC leadership from the PCUSA) for Lent. Take a look and see if it speaks to you!
White Supremacy Culture (PDF) to help people understand what the drivers are of white supremacy and how organizations and individuals can push back against it.
The Spiritual Mysteries of ‘The Mandalorian’ - I keep wanting to write on Mando and I haven’t quite gotten the right angle yet. This is close!
Wesley and Charism: an analysis of John Wesley’s view of Spiritual Gifts (PDF) is still open from a twitter argument about John Wesley’s view on spiritual gifts, so might as well share it before I close it.
One last geeky reference: "Shaka, When the Walls Fell” in the Atlantic magazine in 2014. It helps describe both an obscure internet meme and a fascinating Star Trek: The Next Generation episode. Makes me wonder what that would look like for us to think and experience communication like this.
That’s it for this week. Blessings to you and yours this season and look for an update in the coming weeks!
~Rev. Jeremy