6 Questions for The United Methodist Church could have been improved greatly by clearer named and expected outcomes. It was not sufficient to simply seek to “change the conversation” within the denomination. The project would have had much clearer outcomes from the beginning, if I were to do it over.

6 Questions for The United Methodist Church was an exercise in social media for me. My hope was to use social media to spread the word about the opportunity throughout the denomination. It didn’t quite live up to the lofty expectations as far as numerical participation, but I did learn some keys about social media:

• Initial buzz and word of mouth is an excellent catalyst for growth. In a campaign that lasted 98 days, over half the participants had joined in the first 6 days.
• Sustaining traffic over a long period of time is difficult. If I had it to do over again, I would have ended the project after two weeks.
• While participants at http://bit.ly/6qumc grew slowly. There was not much interaction on the Facebook Page, but fans continued to grow steadily throughout the entire project. I have no idea why.

Will you please share your thoughts, feelings or opinions about social media initiatives?

My apologies for a lack of regularity in blogging. I have been in the midst of ending my role in Congregational Care and beginning my new role as Internet Campus Pastor at The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection. I am excited about the possibilities of building a Christian community online where non religious and nominally religious people are becoming deeply committed Christians. You can worship with us at http://live.cor.org – a site which will be continue to be updated in the months ahead.

Will you please send me an email at andrew.conard@cor.org with “Resurrection Internet Campus” in the subject line if you have ideas to share about  shaping the future of church online within The United Methodist Church?

I hope to hear from you soon.

I learned the value of focus from 6 Questions for The United Methodist Church.There were a large number of topics which diluted the focus and made it more confusing to participate. For a similar project in the future, I would change the topics to less than seven.

I could have learned this lesson from Simple Life and Deliberate Simplicity – two books which I have read recently. Simple is most often better.

Earlier this year, you were invited to join in a conversation which sought to raise questions for The United Methodist Church. This effort was called 6 Questions for The United Methodist Church (6qumc). 6qumc officially closed on September 30.

I am working on compiling the top 6 questions in each category into a book which will be available for print or download from lulu.com. I hope that these questions will be distributed as widely as possible throughout The United Methodist Church to help shape the conversation within our denomination.

Will you consider being a part of the spread of this conversation?

Check back here a week from Friday to access the final product

Simple Life: Time, Relationships, Money, God by Thom S. and Art Rainer is a follow up to Simple Church: Returning to God’s Process for Making Disciples with the focus shifting from church to one’s personal life. Rainer and Rainer suggest moving through action steps of clarity, movement, alignment and focus in the areas of time, relationships, money and connecting with God. Common sense principles are mixed in with interview from individuals who were experiencing stress in these areas.

I appreciate the idea of simplifying one’s life. Simple Life offers practical steps to moving forward. However, I experienced the content as a bit fluffy. The meat of the content could have been produced in a book half the length. This book would have been more effective if the authors would have taken on the challenge of editing to a more concise length.

The connection to the successful book, Simple Church, seems contrived and a mechanism to market a nominally effective book. I recommend http://unclutterer.com over Simple Life for simplifying one’s life.

I believe that it would be valuable for United Methodist annual conferences to mandate any new church construction be LEED certified. While this may lead to increased building cost, over time it yields positive benefits in energy and cost savings. This is a benefit for the denomination’s witness in the world and a positive benefit in the area of climate change.

I am taking a blogging hiatus for the rest of the week.

I will be traveling to a Kansas West residency event in the first part of the week and to visit Nicole’s family of origin in North Carolina in the latter part of the week.

In the meantime, I am looking for your guidance.

What would be most helpful for you in future blog posts?

Email me at andrew dot conard at cor dot org with “Blog Idea” in the subject line or leave your comments below. I am ready to hear from you.

These are the final days for 6 Questions for The United Methodist Church. If you have not already, add your voice and vote at http://bit.ly/6qumc.

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to verticut and seed our lawn. This was a first for me as Nicole and I are homeowners for just over a year. I learned some things that have application in life.

• Choose the right seed – What you choose to plant will determine what will grow
• Mow the lawn before verticutting – Some experiences in life require preparation to receive the most benefit.
• Make sure to water after planting – Like choosing the right seed, follow up care matters for growth in our life.
• Be patient – Not all the seed will take and that is okay.
• Chopping up the yard can be helpful for its health – growth can come through change and pain

I pray that I continue to sow seed through my life that will produce fruit for God’s kingdom in my life.

I pray that others will sow seed in me that will find good soil.

I pray that God will continue to shape my life even if it means chopping up my desires.