I’m extremely excited to be speaking at the “Theology After Google” conference, March 10-12, at Claremont. I’ll be joining Tony Jones, Adam Walker Cleaveland, Spencer Burke, John Franke, Dwight Friesen, Jon Irvine, and others. If you’re interested in learning more about using social media in communicating ideas (especially folks on the West Coast), I hope you’ll consider coming out to this unique conference!

My Take on the Apple iPad
The big news last week was the launch of Apple’s much-anticipated iPad tablet computer. I wrote up the story for the Halogen TV website with my prediction: “It’s not the device itself that’s magical. It’s the innovation that the device now allows—the new interactive games/applications and multimedia ebooks/e-publications (magazines and newspapers) that are going to be developed—which will make the iPad a ‘revolutionary,’ must-have device.”

“Theology After Google” student Wesley Menke nicely synthesized the iPad news with my presentation in his blog post “Apple’s ‘Magical Realism.’” His take on the “magical” language employed by Apple in its marketing of the iPad and contrasting it with the “liturgical” (“work of the people”) concept of Web 2.0/new media is a great observation. This is, in fact, one of the big criticisms of the iPad—that it is a device for consuming media rather than creating media.

I don’t think this is in any way an “accident.” Apple is, no doubt, banking on the market being ready for a consumer device for reading/experiencing multimedia e-books and e-publications (magazines and newspapers). Other companies are quickly joining the e-reader/tablet PC race, but their offerings will now have to stack up against the iPad. And, besides, Apple’s computers are built for creating, while their other mobile devices (iPod, iPhone) are not. In that sense, iPad fits perfectly with Apple’s other mobile devices, and this makes perfect sense now that Steve Jobs is calling Apple “a mobile devices company.”

Luke was actually one of the first people to report the Haiti earthquake on Twitter. Since he began sending regular tweet updates from Haiti, his Twitter account has grown from a handful of followers to over 3,000.

Ann Curry of NBC News connected with Luke via Twitter and later met and interviewed him in person, calling him a “Twitter rock star.” Luke tells me that he and Curry are now scheduled to appear together at the 140 Characters conference in New York in April to discuss the role of social media in the Haiti earthquake response!

This was also my first article for the Halogen TV website. A number of my friends here in Charlotte are now working with Halogen, which produces “socially-conscious empowering entertainment.” The four major themes of Halogen programming (inspired in part, I’m told, by the writings of N.T. Wright) are justice, purpose, connection, and beauty—now, those are themes that resonate with me!

If you haven’t heard of Halogen, please check out the website, curated beautifully by Cara Davis, and find where you can get Halogen in your area.

Photos courtesy of www.FiresideInternational.org

We look back on historical epochs and give them names, usually described by the things we humans make during that period. Bronze Age, Iron Age, Industrial Age, Nuclear Age … Guess what they’ll call the past hundred years in a millennia or two? The Plastic Age!

Yea, I’m convinced of this. The oil-based polymer plastic that we generally use today had its 100th anniversary last year. What a wonderful invention … until five billion people ended up using it at the same time! Now, we have to deal with all the excess, most of which will last 100,000 years before decomposing. What a wonderful gift to give our descendants! Archaeologists will really have no problem being able to identify the 20th and 21st (and maybe future?) centuries, ‘cuz they’ll just have to start with the layer(s?) of plastic in the geological evidence.

It’s gotten so bad that it’s now the #1 source of our garbage footprint. We now have landfills full of plastics: Some that you can see from space, like Fresh Kills outside of NYC, which, ironically, is also where most of the WTC debris was put after the 9-11 attacks (including countless remains of victims). Others that have become the tallest piece of land in the local area (my favorite is “Mount Rumpke”, outside of Cincinnati, actually named after the waste company that created it, 1,045 ft. tall, the highest point in the county. We now also have “plastic patches” floating on our oceans, some that are bigger than U.S. states (e.g., Great Pacific Garbage Patch, twice the size of Texas!).

Read and weep, my friends. Sadly, this is one of the most prevalent legacies we give to the future …

Action Item: Take a look at the picture (above). This is one of the myriad of problems with our excess plastic these days—it’s going to be responsible for the extinction of countless of species. Baby albatross, such as the one in this pic, are fed the plastic by their mothers, because the plastic is mistaken for food. In pictures such as this one, you can see how this baby bird simply choked to death on the colorful “decoys.” I’ll leave it to you to decide what to do about this, if anything.

Dennis Teall-Fleming is Director of Faith Formation at Queen of the Apostles Catholic Church, Belmont, NC, and part-time Religion Instructor at Gaston College, Dallas, NC.

All I can say is: It’s Thursday … but Saturday’s comin’!

If you wonder what led to all this, this latest round of doom and gloom about the emerging church was sparked by Andrew Jones’ missive “Emerging Church Movement (1989-2009)?”

Andrew and I have been exchanging quite a few emails these past few days. Since writing the controversial “end of an era” blog post, I was saddened to read his “Goodbyes to Emergent Village.” He’s leaving the TransFORM Network, as well.

I understand and respect that Andrew has a different focus in the work he is trying to do, and I wish him all the best. His contributions to the global conversation will no doubt continue to challenge and make Emergent Village (and TransFORM) better, whether he considers himself a part of it or not.

I talk a little about the “weakness” of social networking in creating the kind of community that can address deep emotional and psychological pain.

I’d love to get comments and feedback on the article, especially if you are challenged/encouraged to reach out to anyone you may know who is hurting or struggling with depression. Don’t hesitate to show your love to those around you—reach out to someone today!

Thanks to Jesse Phillips, the editor of the Catalyst blog, for posting my article.

This is a guest post by Dennis Teall-Fleming:

There’s no denying it, by the year 2050, there will not be a racial/ethnic majority in the U.S. In the next decade, that will become true of people under 18, very quickly. Yes, it seems that the U.S. is finally going to live up to its message of freedom for all—by not killing and suppressing any “Other”s, en masse, for the past 50 years or so, those Others have been able to thrive! And now will help to make our country what it should have been from the beginning—a place so diverse and full of difference, that each person, race, ethnicity, and nationality nurtures, enhances, and strengthens the other.

You can see many of these demographic changes tracked very well at the Pew Hispanic Center, and at more specific resources, like its population tracker by county. These changes have already affected our political landscape, and will continue to do so very dramatically in the next decade. The Census predictions are that, at the end of the 2010 count, Texas will gain three electoral votes, and AZ, FL, GA, NV, SC, UT, and WA will each gain one. OH will lose two, and IL, IA, LA, MA, MI, NJ, NY and PA will each lose one (“South sees new pull via Census”). This is population growth driven primarily by Hispanic population growth—immigrants legal or illegal, and native-born Hispanics—not by us “Yankees” moving South and West. The future is Brown, Southern, and Western!

This is not something to be feared, but welcomed. Each influx of Others has always made our country ever greater. Jews, Germans, Africans, Italians, Irish, Eastern Europeans, Asians, Hispanics … it’s this that makes our country great, that we can all become an US (U.S.) together.

Action Item: Listen to a great analysis of the Pew Hispanic study on young Hispanics at the Dec. 14 “Talk of the Nation” show. If you’re not able to listen to the show, there’s a transcript of it at the page linked. A large group of young Americans that are going to make a big difference. Enjoy!

Dennis Teall-Fleming is Director of Faith Formation at Queen of the Apostles Catholic Church, Belmont, NC, and part-time Religion Instructor at Gaston College, Dallas, NC.

Related: Read Dr. Jay Gary’s thoughts on Multichurch (multicultural church)

Photo: CCIR

A number of people I know have non-profit ventures that are worthy of support. I would support all of them if I could, but since I can’t, I want to highlight just a few of them:

Tom Davis at Children’s HopeChest has received a $20,000 grant to stop sex trafficking in Russia if it can be matched by midnight, December 31. Tom writes, “When you give, you are helping stop sex trafficking in Russia before it starts. You’re helping HopeChest stay ahead of the prostitution rings that are targeting vulnerable orphans.”

Bowie Snodgrass at Faith House Manhattan is seeking $58,000 to continue its operations in 2010. Faith House founder and Christian co-leader Samir Selmanovic writes, “The world is hurt not only by the actions of religious extremist minorities but by the religious ignorance and indifference of the majority. Tolerance and appreciation between religions is simply not enough. We all must dig further into our texts, traditions, and practices to help us experience, understand and actually learn to need one another.” Faith House is an “urban laboratory of interdependence” where this is happening, and it’s exciting to see.

Christine and Tom Sine at Mustard Seed Associates continue to do innovative and important work that benefits the broader church. Christine writes, “Looking back on 2009 … we were on the creative edge of providing resources and hosting events that stimulated innovative responses to the economic downturn. Peoples’ faith has been strengthened as they have been equipped to live into God’s future and be God’s compassionate witnesses in these turbulent times.”

Troy Bronsink is the abbot of Neighbor’s Abbey in southwest Atlanta. He’s put together a nifty “Big Small Near Far” campaign to ask 200 people to support the Abbey $10 per month in 2010. Watch the video to get the picture:

Of course, I’m working with a new network called TransFORM that I’m looking forward to getting off the ground in 2010, and donations are being accepted for that as well. If anyone is so inclined to support TransFORM financially, please be sure to select “TransFORM” from the “Budget” dropdown. I’d be very grateful.

Well, this video featuring John Nese, the owner/proprietor of Galco’s Soda Pop Stop in Los Angeles, California, re-ignited my latent soda dreams today. Nese waxes philosophical about corn syrup, the only diet soda that tastes good, the best cola (a.k.a. best alternatives to the classic RC Draft), and re-use vs. recycling. He also shares some interesting insights about nichification and how having a unique product offering can differentiate you from the place next door.

Galco’s Soda Pop Stop … I – want – to – go – there:

Here are a couple of videos that I watched recently that scratched my futurist itch …

Pranav Mistry shares at the TEDIndia conference his research into developing SixthSense technology:

This video by MAYA Design creatively explains “the invisible but fast approaching challenges and opportunities in the pervasive computing age”:

Last night, I enjoyed the Social Media Holiday Party put on by the Search Engine Marketing Association of Charlotte. Jeff Elder led a panel discussion with four of the Queen City’s social media professionals, and the conversation included future technology and “what’s next” in social media. While Foursquare got a mention, the panel seemed to agree that the real innovations that are set to change the game in 2010 are geo-tagging and augmented reality (a.k.a. location-based) applications.

Today, Mashable hunk Pete Cashmore dropped his “10 Web trends to watch in 2010″ on CNN.com. Cashmore includes location-based applications and augmented reality in his top 10, along with: the real-time Web, content curation (I like this one!), cloud computing, Internet TV/movies, software/hardware convergence, social gaming, mobile payments, and last (but certainly not least) fame abundancy/privacy scarcity.

I don’t have the programming chops to create groundbreaking devices like Pranav Mistry or setup cloud computing or what-have-you. But I would love to be involved in creating content for some augmented reality applications and/or curating content (which is something I feel like I’ve always done, to some degree). Got any projects for me? [makes "hang loose" hand gesture and puts up to face, mouthing, "call me!"]

At the beginning of November, I redesigned my personal website and in the process did some work of re-branding myself, developing the Knightopia concept, and incorporating my official tagline (It’s like utopia—only better!) for the first time.

The focus of my work in recent years has focused on “Communication + Mission,” even to the point of developing a vision for “Kingdom Journalism” and branding myself as a “Kingdom Journalist.” While I still think there’s a lot of value in that language (I even have half a book proposal drafted on the subject), I realized that it’s not quite as accessible conceptually as I’d like it to be for a broader range of people.

So I’m setting aside “Kingdom Journalism” for right now and changing the language I use about what I really enjoy doing and that is (to steal a phrase from one of my favorite bloggers, Andrew Jones):

Telling Stories and Throwing Parties

Telling Stories for me is all about communication, storytelling, using words and images to create a compelling narrative. This is not only information, but also interaction and conversation — in other words, social media. I’ve been involved in the social media space pretty heavily for the past several years, and as I consider pursuing another full-time position, I’m most interested in finding a social media marketing job that will allow me to focus on utilizing (and continuing to develop) my skills in this area.

Throwing Parties for me is all about creating spaces where stories can be told and where interaction/conversation can take place (whether it be virtual or actual). I’ve had the privilege of coordinating a monthly Meetup group for the past five years (among other IRL “parties”), and I’ve had the opportunity to curate several online communities over the past few years, as well. I see value and find joy in both, and I’m excited to be involved with both in a new venture also launched at the beginning of November called TransFORM.

There’s a lot to the TransFORM story that I hope to tell at some point, but suffice it to say that it’s really come together over the past eight months. I’m excited that we’ll be hosting our first TransFORM event (a missional community formation learning party, if you will), in Washington, D.C., next spring (April 30-May 2, 2010), featuring some amazing people, talking about some exciting missional work that’s already being done, with the hope of spurring on others to love and good deeds (i.e., forming new missional communities of practice).

I’ve had encouraging conversations with potential funders that could really make things happen, and I’m beginning to pursue 501c3 status for TransFORM. If I could dedicate myself 100% to developing TransFORM, I absolutely would. I’m coming to the realization, though, that it’s probably more realistic (and possibly even better) to be bi-vocational and work another social media/communication job in addition to developing TransFORM. I’m not sure yet what the right way forward is exactly, but I’m excited to find out. I’m knocking on every door right now, waiting to see which one(s) will open up.

I appreciate everyone’s friendship, prayers, and support — and any job leads you might know of!