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Could your internet knowledge make a difference in your local community? The Mozilla Foundation, the organization behind the Firefox web browser, has declared September 14-21 Mozilla Service Week. The idea is simple: during that week, we all look for concrete ways that internet knowledge or skills can be put to work in the service of our local communities.

Here are some of the examples they provide:

• Teach senior citizens how to use the Web.
• Show a non-profit how to use social networking to grow its base of supporters.
• Help install a wireless network at a school.
• Create Web how-to materials for a library’s computer cluster.
• Refurbish hardware for a local computer center.
• Update a non-profit organization’s website.
• Teach the values of the open Web to other public benefit organizations.

As you can see, you don’t have to be an expert coder or a seasoned computer engineer to help out.

I think this is a wonderful idea—and easily translatable into a ministry environment. Who do you know in your community who could use some internet-related help? What local ministries or organizations could you help by donating a few hours of time upgrading software or training their staff? If you’re reading this blog post, chances are you have the skills to help a person or organization in your community in some way.

I note that UrbanMinistry.org has already jumped on this—take a look at their virtual volunteer opportunities, and think about how you or your church might get involved in a virtual service project this September.

Our good friends and colleagues over at Youth Specialties just produced their 50th video podcast! It’s an achievement for any organization to create 50 podcasts, but to do so while maintaining the level of quality of the YS crew is a truly special thing.

While I’m not personally a youth pastor, I love learning about the issues that youth pastors are confronted with on a day to day basis. You can check out the 50th podcast over on their site.

The video kicks off with a list of 50 tips for youth workers. Some of my favorites were:

• Good planning makes for successful spontaneity
• Always count your kids
• Being present with kids is just about the most important thing you can do.

The rest of the video is of YS co-founder Wayne Rice. It’s highly worth watching if you or someone you know is involved in youth ministry.

What are some tips you’d give to the youth worker in your life?

Earlier this month, Out of Ur hosted an interesting conversation about the advantages and drawbacks of “internet campuses” for churches. (When you read the post, be sure to check out the excellent discussion in the comments as well.) But what really caught my attention this week was Bob Hyatt’s post arguing that there is no such thing as a virtual church.

Hyatt’s point is a compelling one, and puts words to the vague unease that many Christians (even the most tech-savvy ones!) have about the role of online churches and worship communities. Hyatt’s argument is that while an online church community can reproduce many of the things that define a true church, they simply cannot replicate the low-key but critical face-to-face interaction from which real, everyday Christian ministry springs.

At an online church, Hyatt argues, you’ll never hear Bob Churchgoer gripe about his difficult work week, or Jane Choirmember recount her ongoing struggle with migraines. And without those little interactions, we’d miss out on countless small opportunities to serve others and meet their needs (maybe inviting Bob out for coffee to relax, or volunteering to watch Jane’s kid next time a migraine knocks her out of commission.)

I almost agree with Hyatt… almost.

At this point in my life, online church isn’t for me, for many of the reasons Hyatt describes. I think Hyatt would be correct if he were arguing that few or no online churches active right now can replicate the intimate fellowship that happens in a face-to-face church, with all the Christian encouragement and ministry that spring out of such things.

But I’m not comfortable saying that online church can never meet those needs. I don’t know about you, but I’ve encountered plenty of online forums—not even Christian or church-related ones–where people share the same everyday gripes, praises, and pleas that they would in a face-to-face environment. This might be an indictment of my poor socialization at church, but I actually learn as much about prayer needs and praise reports through Facebook as I do from the post-service cookies-and-coffee break where most congregational chatting takes place.

There are many things an online community would have to do to (some of them quite difficult) to create an environment of authentic fellowship, but I don’t see any reason why it’s impossible. I can think of several reasons why it could actually be a good idea—for one thing, you can’t have been on the internet at any point in the last ten years and failed to notice that people tend to open up online about their ideas, opinions, and problems in ways that they might rarely do face-to-face.

So while I sympathize with much of Hyatt’s concerns, I’m a little unsure whence comes his insistence that virtual church is a complete spiritual dead-end. A follow-up post is promised, so I’ll be watching Out of Ur to see where he leads the conversation. What do you think? Have you experienced genuine church worship and fellowship online?

[image from flickr user shadysidelantern]

ThinkChristian.net is talking about thinness, and how it relates to our spiritual lives:

It’s easy to let your appetite become a god to you, but it’s also easy to let weight loss or self improvement to become an idol….

As I’m sure many of you know, weight is a life-long struggle for some and not a problem for others. Genetics, culture and economics play an important role. In fact, weight and health (or fitness) are not always as linked as we think they are. I would hate for this trend to imply that thin people are better Christians than fat people. In my experience, body fat and love for Jesus do not correlate.

On the other hand, I do think that we should seek God’s council and put God first in anything we do, including cooking, eating and working out. I think exercise is a great way to glorify God, who gave us amazing bodies that can lift heavy weights, run marathons, and hold yoga poses. I think eating well is a great way to glorify God for the amazing variety of plants and animals he has given us to eat.

Bethany brings up a few wonderful points. First, one’s weight isn’t always a matter of whether or not you gorged on cookies; it’s tied to genetics, culture and economics as well. Second, we’ve all met people who are so focused on dieting and exercise we have to wonder if they have an unhealthy obsession with health. I’m sure you can find people on either end of the health spectrum whose relationship with food has become physically abusive.

The Bible does give us some guidance on the issue; Jesus clearly tells us to rely on God when it comes to food. In fact, he makes it a line item in the Lord’s Prayer: we are to ask God for our daily bread. He later teaches that there’s much more to life than worrying about food and clothes. In the Old Testament, God provides manna for the Israelites during their meandering journey through the desert.

All of these Biblical references to food seem to add up to an admonition to enjoy what God gives us in moderation and with respect.

What other Bible passages discuss food? While we all know that gluttony is expressly prohibited by the Bible, the line between enjoying food and pigging out isn’t always crystal clear. Where do you personally draw the line? Do you even think about it?

You can’t have ventured online at any point during the last year and not read something about Twitter. It’s the latest star in the ongoing evolution of online communication, and as with any such thing, it has its share of champions and detractors. The Christian church, with its long history of using new media to spread its age-old message, is split on the issue: some Christians have embraced Twitter wholeheartedly while others have criticized it.

At Strangely Dim, Rebecca Larson chimes in with a compelling new take on the Twitter discussion: Twitter may restrict our communication to extremely brief bursts, but it’s incorrect to say that meaningful communication can’t take place through Twitter. For proof, she turns to poetry, which has long communicated important messages in short but insightful pieces.

What do you think? Those of you who use Twitter, do you see meaningful or spiritually enriching communication taking place through it? Or is Twitter the narcissistic toy its detractors claim it to be?

At the Youth Specialties blog, Adam McClane discusses the tension between evangelism and discipleship in churches and youth ministry.

He writes that youth pastors are often caught between the stated and unstated goals of the church. The written vision of a church is often focused on evangelism. However, individual church members typically understand the vision to be one of discipleship.

While both excellent visions for a church, these two points of focus can create tension in everyday youth ministry. Youth workers need to stress both evangelism and discipleship equally, but sometimes the two appear to be mutually exclusive. As Adam puts it:

Maybe this is jaded, but it’s been my experience. As much as we’d like to be an equal, complimentary balance between evangelism and discipleship, it always plays out that one wins….

Think about the youth programs you’ve been involved with, either as student or worker. Have any of them handled that tension well?

What about in your personal life? How do you make sure you’re making enough time for both nurturing your personal faith and actively inviting others into God’s kingdom? Do you ever feel a tension between discipleship and evangelism?

Ramadan begins tomorrow—are you ready?

Ramadan is, of course, an Islamic tradition, not a Christian one. For Muslims, it’s a month-long period of fasting and prayer. But some Christians are suggesting that we use the month of Ramadan as a time of special prayer for Muslims around the world.

Arab World Ministries has put together daily Ramadan prayer points for Christians, each of which highlights a specific prayer need “for Muslims, Muslim background believers or Christian workers based in the Arab world.” If you’d like to participate, just check back each day over the next month for a daily prayer point.

Mission Network News is also running a story about Ramadan if you’d like more background about it. If you know of other Christians or ministries who are using the month of Ramadan as an opportunity to pray for Muslims and Christians in the Arab world, please leave a comment below!

The start of the school year is a time filled with excitement, preparation and probably more than a little dread. Many of you know of someone who is starting college for the first time. They are headed into an extremely invigorating time filled with exciting experiences.

While college is generally a fun time, it can also be a tenuous time for people’s faiths. It’s often the first time one needs to take charge of their faith. No one forces you to read your Bible, or pray or go to Church. Those things become your choices.

That’s why ministries like InterVarsity are so necessary. They provide ways for students to immediately start taking responsibility for their faith and ways to connect to other students who are doing the same.

Recently, they published an article titled A New Year on Campus that details their expectations this coming year. I really enjoy hearing Alec Hill’s take on InterVarsity’s passion:

Simply put, we love students, faculty and the campus. For nearly 70 years, InterVarsity has been sending missionaries to universities, colleges, community colleges and institutes. We seek to discern what the Lord is already doing on a particular campus and then align our activities with His. We believe that the best way to reach a university community – after prayer and “scouting out the land” – is identify as many “missional” Christians as possible and then equip them to impact others for the Kingdom.

Do you have any stories about how ministries like InterVarsity impacted your time at college? Any college students headed off looking to get involved in InterVarsity?

Gospel for Asia reports that missionaries in Orissa, India were arrested earlier this month after being confronted by anti-Christian extremists. The missionaries have been released, but the incident has raised concerns about the impending anniversary of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati’s murder in the region last year:

Christians are under constant scrutiny by other religious groups after the mass persecution that occurred in Orissa last fall. The death of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, who was a top leader of the VHP (World Hindu Council), ignited an outrageous persecution of Christians, even though Maoist rebels claimed responsibility for his murder.

As the anniversary of Saraswati’s death approaches on August 23, security has heightened. Followers of Saraswati plan to hold processions in observance of his death. No threats have been mentioned, but fear still lingers among some Christians because of past experiences.

Events like this are a good reminder to pray regularly for Christians who are called to ministry in parts of the world that are hostile to the Gospel. It’s tempting to imagine that religious persecution is a thing of the past, but it’s a present reality for Christians in Orissa and elsewhere. Read GFA’s report on the arrests for more, and if you want to get lend prayer support to specific missionary needs like this, consider getting involved as a member of their prayer team.

BibleGateway.com just announced a new feature: the Embed Passage tool. We posted this on the BibleGateway.com blog, but because so many of you who read this blog also use BibleGateway.com, we thought it would be helpful to post it here as well.

Ever wanted to quickly and easily paste a Bible passage from BibleGateway.com into your blog or website? We’ve just added a tool that makes it easy to post Scripture passages from certain translations on your blog: the Embed Passage tool.

The Embed Passage tool automatically creates a cleanly-formatted version of the Bible passage you’re reading, which you can then paste into a blog or website. It also generates a URL that links straight to the passage.

To use it, just click on the Embed Passage button in the row of icons above the Bible passage you’re reading. You’ll see a window like this:

Here’s how it works:

• The Passage field shows you which Bible passage is currently being used. If you want to change the range of quoted verses, you can do so by editing the book name or numbers and clicking Update.
• To copy a permanent link to the Bible passage, click once in the Link field to select it, and copy it by right-clicking and selecting Copy. Alternately, press Control-C (Command-C on Macs).
• To copy the entire Bible passage, click once in the Embed field to select it, and copy it (see the instructions in the above step).
• You can then paste the link or the passage text directly into a blog or HTML editor. To paste it, right-click and select Paste, or press Control-V in Windows (Command-V on Macs).

By default, the Embed tool leaves verse numbers in the passage, but does not display footnotes, headings, or cross-references. You can toggle any of those options by clicking Show embed options at the bottom of the window and checking or unchecking the appropriate boxes:

We hope this tool makes it easier for you to link to or quote Scripture on your website or blog. Give it a try and let us know what you think, and how we can improve it. You can also post your thoughts and suggestions on the Bible Gateway fan page on Facebook.

Currently, the Embed Passage tool only works with our public domain Bibles, like the King James Version, and a few others, like the New King James Version, the New Century Version, and The Message. In the future, we hope to expand it to cover all of our Bibles. Here’s a list of Bibles currently supported:

• American Standard Version
• King James Version
• Young’s Literal Translation
• Darby Translation
• 21st Century King James Version
• New King James Version
• The Message
• Douay Rheims 1899 American Edition
• Worldwide English New Testament
• New Century Version