educating eric

Just encountered this insight while surfing the FTA satellite onto IBN and the Time to Revive ministry and a message from Dr. Kyle Lance Martin... The Old Testament emphasis on sacrifices was bringing your first and best -- you don't bring leftovers to God.  In Romans 12, Paul writes that we should "offer our bodies as living sacrifices."  So, my conclusion: Doesn't this mean that God sees us as a worthy sacrifice?  That we have something of value to offer? For many of you, this is obvious.  But many of today's Calvinist (or Puritan) Christian theologies run instead to OT passages like Isaiah 64 and insist that "our righteous acts are like filthy rags" ...and therefore, we ourselves are like filthy rags to God.  That sad not only because it's clearly incorrect, but because it denigrates the human creations that God loves.  Fallen? Absolutely. Valuable? Absolutely.  Please don't forget that.

I think I need a new word. I'm trying to describe my hope that project participants and client volunteers have two qualities. They need to be enthusiastic, in that they are positive and encouraging and engaged regarding the project. And, enthusiasm needs to be voluntary, in that it's because of a true personal interest in intrinsic motivation, not nearly fake because of some reward or feeling of obligation. But I think the word "voluntary" doesn't exactly capture that. As long as it's not under threat or duress, engaging in something is by definition "voluntary." So I need a word that captures something more than "I'm not doing this because anybody is forcing me to," but instead really says, "I'm doing this because I truly want to do it." Is that a distinction without a difference, or does it make sense?

In the world of social media management, sometimes you encounter people who don't quite get it. And that's OK. But sometimes you encounter the "collateral damage" that those people do. So, here's a brief Public Service Announcement on how Twitter blocking works, and might have unintended consequences for you and the people who rely on you. Here's the background: I had seen an interesting exchange between two Ed Tech personalities: Shelly Terrell publicly complained that someone had @-messaged her (a public "nod" or "head's up" on Twitter and other social media platforms).  She asked that they direct-message her instead. That's a really odd thing to say. Sure, you can use Twitter however you want to, but that's really not what it was designed for. Or, at least, it's unusual to complain that someone is using a key notification feature of it; @-messages were really early innovation and were ...

I'm listening to Beyond the To Do List , and up comes Rob Bell on "Being Present with Rhythm, Routines and Rituals":  http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BeyondTheToDoList/~3/ssYjvb7ILZk/ I know not everyone does... but I like Rob Bell. If we spent more time appreciating wisdom rather than vilifying him personally, I think the world would be better off...

Last February I met Darin Delaney at a " social media in small business " event sponsored by the BMO Harris bank branch in Burnsville, Minnesota.  At the time, he mentioned the Social Marketing and Networking Meet Up group that he co-leads, and I was all set to go... until I got sidelined by a cold the morning of.  (One of those "Wake up at 8:00 a.m., make a couple calls and emails to cancel appointments, go back to sleep for what you think will be just awhile, wake up again at 3:00 p.m.) kinds of colds; had I not gotten a flu shot, I'd have sworn it was the flu...) Fast forward to June (June?!?) and I finally made it to one of their monthly events. Today.  (What happened to March, April and May in my world?) I decided that rather than keeping my notes private, I might as well post them publicly.  It's social, right? Featured speaker and social marketing specialist Janet Johnson spent nearly two hours filling us in on Facebook ads.  The case-study was ...

There are a ton of interesting spiritual messages coming up as I'm Listening to The Ray Edwards Show (#233: Cliff Ravenscraft, "I Am Not Spock"): http://rayedwards.com/233/ or "It's Not About the Microphone" (Part Two of Two) Note: This episode is the second half of my conversation with Cliff Ravenscraft, aka The Podcast Answer Man . You can listen to Part One by clicking here. Cliff Ravenscraft is the king of helping people start their own podcast. He's helped thousands of people do it. But wait – there's more… This is fascinating conversation ended up being so far-ranging, we had to make it two episodes. We'll discover… Why typecasting is not necessarily a bad thing. How the musical Hamilton changed Cliff's life – and so many others. The nature of ambition, service, and selfishness. And so much more! Click here to download or listen to this episode now . Links Wow – what a lot of links we mentione...

I FOUND IT! After years of pondering in the back of my mind, I found an article by Clay Shirky that summarizes what I’ve been seeking for years:     From: Larson, Eric M. Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2010 10:00 AM Subject: Collective Action and "opting out"?   Hi, Clay!  At last week's AllVoices webinar you mentioned a really interesting concept in passing:  That the studies/experiences in the "psychology of collective action" show that that people tend to "opt out" when the participation rates are unknown.   In other words, "Gee, I don't know how big a deal this is, so I guess I won't go" -- which would be the flip side of, "Wow!  It sounds like that thing is going to be popular; I'd better be there!"  (Or maybe, "Gosh, it's going to be a tiny group; I'd better go to help them out"?)     Here’s the closest thing I...