This past Monday was the second meeting of Digital Disciples Charlotte. Compared to thelast time we met, there was double the people (six people!), and tons more stories to go around.
For this, our second meeting, I was asked to facilitate the discussion and have something of a flow to things being done. We opened up in prayer, and then had some time where we gave a small introduction (name, how long in Charlotte, and something about that ‘intersection of faith and technology that brought you out to Digital Disciples’). We are a storied bunch, and I (personally) really enjoyed hearing all of the ways that we have kind of gotten to that one point. A common theme early on was transition.
We then moved into a small section of time where we just reflected on the Word a bit. I read from Proverbs 2:1-8 and talked about 5-10min on how our use of technology has to follow in the ways of Godly wisdom and understanding. How it is a good thing to acquire knowledge and use this technology, but we have to hold ourselves to a high standard of integrity if others are going to receive this gift as wisdom and understanding (applied) from us.
Honestly, I didn’t want to be overly long with that section of things, but God impressed on my heart that the Word should be broken some that night.
After that I asked a discussion question that pretty much led us into the rest of the time together (about 1hr 30min total time for the evening). The question was, what are some of the ways that you are using or seeing technology being used that you can share with us to learn from? From that we talked about email adoption (and overall the speed of tech adoption) in some churches, to what constitues a tech strategy, to the effectiveness of Facebook and Twitter when groups are cross-generational, to Twitter Lists. Overall, a nice suite of topics and some of which we need to circle back around to and share best practices.
The ended in prayer and basically the same kind of fellowhsip and connecting that had been happening throughout the night. I came out of Digital Disciples Charlotte encouraged and challenged. Personally, I’ve been mulling over a number of things, and Monday night just kind of put me in a place where God filled me up some, and now I am challenged to live out another testimony. I’d like to say that in the next meeting that I’ll have a solid success story to share of a faith-technology encounter. Hopefully, everyone else who shows up will as well.
In terms of the next meeting, the first Monday in December (Dec. 7th) is most likely going to be the date. However, that’s not firm just yet. I asked the question about what other days would be suitable (and proposed Saturday, but I know how packed Saturdays in December can be). If you have some suggestions, please respond to this post, on Twitter (use the hashtag #ddclt), or at Facebook. We’d like to get a firm date as soon as possible so that people can start planning. This Monday we had one person come from Columbia, SC (about 75min south of Charlotte), so we want to be respective to distance and time where possible.
Other than that, let’s continue to connect. If you would like to connect with any of us who have met at Digital Disciples Charlotte, catch us on Twitter (@susanjspaulding, @BrettQ,@itybtyctykty, @faithandhealth, @JustWarrenC, and @mobileminmag) or Facebook. Hope to connect with you next time, and stay tuned to these connected spaces for updates towards the next meeting time.