This year, I’m reading some blogs that are following Ramadan. It is helpful for me as I consider my own path of faith and the spiritual agitation it will take for change to come in my own life and practice of Christianity.
Ramadan and the Riots: A Spiritual Agitation
Rami Nashashibi | Executive Director, Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN)
from Huffingpost.com | August 17, 2011
The solutions aren’t easy and certainly won’t be arrived at overnight, but the spiritual agitation needed to consider the larger problem truly our own is perhaps one of the most important steps in ensuring that our neighborhoods don’t end up in flames. For me, the daily fast, reflections on its deeper spiritual-social justice meanings and the group of unemployed and relatively hopeless young men hanging out at the end of my block will be the reasons this Ramadan to take the lessons of the London riots, as partly prompted by ongoing social inequities, seriously.
Some interesting thoughts for congregations and denominational leaders [ie: Regional Ministers in the CC(DOC)] as well as for our General Unit Presidents. This is not particularly “new” in the distinction of persons in the pews, but social media can play a role in the evolution of Christianity and communal life. Click the title to read more.
A New Type Of Leader Is Rising Up At Local Churches
by Brian Dodd | August 14, 2011
Two months ago a friend of mine walked up to me at church and said these words, “Man, I love your blog! And you have over 4,000 followers on Twitter. I knew you were a nice guy but you just stand here working a door every week. And you’re like a celebrity or something!”
I am not a celebrity but I am a greeter at my church. I work a door, say “Good morning”, hand out bulletins, help people find seats, and show them where the bathrooms are. Basically, until I became an elder, I was pretty nondescript from anyone else. Oh, and I am also very involved in social media and so are countless others in your church.
I feel there are now four types of leaders sitting in every church – Positional, Non-Positional (leaders in your community but just not plugged into your church), Financial, and now Social Media leaders.