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Archive for September 2007
Preview the "Get Wisdom!" Study Guide
Posted on Friday, September 28, 2007 at 3:47 PM by Jason Barker
I've uploaded a preview of the free study guide for the first episode of Get Wisdom. Each episode of the program will also have available an accompanying study guide that can be used to follow along with the episode, or to use in group studies.
Posted in Get Wisdom!
This Week's CRTL Study Guide
Posted on Friday, September 28, 2007 at 10:12 AM by Jason Barker
The study guide for this week's episode of Come Receive the Light, How Can You Overcome Your Passions? is now available.
Edited on: Friday, September 28, 2007 10:36 AMPosted in OCN
New OCN Blog
Posted on Tuesday, September 25, 2007 at 8:25 AM by Jason Barker
The Orthodox Christian Network has a new blog; you can see a list of recent posts on the left side of the OCN homepage.
I have just posted on the OCN site an article I first posted on this blog last week, Religious Teens and Happiness.
Posted in OCN
This Week's CRTL Study Guide
Posted on Friday, September 21, 2007 at 7:35 AM by Jason Barker
This week's Study Guide for Come Receive the Light, How Has the Church Reached the Unreached? is now available.
Posted in OCN
Religious Teens and Happiness
Posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 at 6:32 AM by Jason Barker
A survey released several weeks ago by the Associate Press and MTV claims that religion tends to make teens happier. According to the survey, eighty percent of teens who claim to be religious also claim to be happy (compared with sixty percent who say that faith is not important to them). This is also significant because forty-four percent of respondents said that faith is very important to them, and twenty-one percent said faith is somewhat important.
These statistics are encouraging for youth workers, because they emphasize that - contrary to popular (and entertainment-industry fed) opinion - religion is important to a solid majority of teens. This means that there is a sizable group of young people who are at least potentially receptive at any given time to Orthodox Christian outreach (furthermore, those who are currently uninterested in religion may change their minds, and thus must be reached, and it is the calling of all Christians to reach out to others regardless of the immediate response). It is also encouraging, of course, that most teens who are currently involved in religion find at least some benefit in their faith.
At the same time, however, we must avoid placing too much emphasis on the linkage between religion and happiness. Christian Smith, head of the National Study of Youth and Religion, points out that the theological worldview of most religious teens in North America is "moralistic therapeutic deism." Two central components of moralistic therapeutic deism are the beliefs that:
- The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
- God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when he is needed to resolve a problem.
This self-centered worldview, in which God is far more a "resource" than omnipotent Deity, is antithetical to Orthodox Christianity. It is therefore imperative for Orthodox youth workers to emphasize the proper understanding of -and attitude towards - God, and the fullness of the Christian's relationship with Him. A true relationship with God should indeed be the source of happiness for a person, but this must never be confused with the idea that God exists solely to give us happy thoughts and feelings, or even more, conflated with feeling good about oneself. Such misunderstandings of what constitutes the Christian life will almost inevitably end in loss of faith and despair.
Posted in Miscellaneous
Thingamablog Problems
Posted on Monday, September 17, 2007 at 12:26 AM by Jason Barker
Those of you who subscribe to this blog may have received through the RSS feed an article announcing the new website/blog for Get Wisdom, the radio show I am creating. If so, you might also notice that the article is not on this blog.
Thingamablog, the blog software I use for this blog (as well as Get Wisdom's site), suffered a database problem and erased the custom template I use with this blog. I believe the problem is that the database entry for the style sheet became corrupted; when Thingamablog created the post about Get Wisdom, therefore, it could not access the style sheet. This caused Thingamablog to revert the format of the entire blog to a built-in template that does not require a style sheet, and thus the heavily formatted blog content became unreadable (also lost were all the graphics and site-specific code I'd inserted into the templates). The problem was compounded by the fact that something in this train wreck also caused Thingamablog to refuse to accept the backup I had made earlier today.
By going into the database, and laboriously replacing the default template with my custom template (minus a few bits of code that were not worth reconstructing), I was able to bring the blog back, minus the post I'd written just before the whole thing crashed.
The main thing missing is the subscription form for Feedblitz. I didn't bother to rebuild the form because: 1) in the history of the blog, fewer than five people have subscribed to the blog using Feedblitz; and 2) Feedblitz is now inserting ads into the bottom of the articles it sends out. While I'm continuing to send the feed through Feedblitz for the handful of people who are currently subscribed through the service, the lack of popularity of this offering causes me to believe it isn't worth the trouble to rebuild and reinsert the form.
I think I have everything up and running again, but please contact me via email or AIM if you encounter a display problem or broken link on the blog.
Posted in Miscellaneous
This Week's CRTL Study Guide
Posted on Friday, September 14, 2007 at 11:47 AM by Jason Barker
This week's free study guide for Come Receive the Light, What is Keeping You From Evangelism? is now available.
Posted in OCN
iCal Woes
Posted on Wednesday, September 12, 2007 at 1:15 PM by Jason Barker
I opened iCal, and discovered that all my events had inexplicably vanished into the ether. This can happen to anyone, but it tends to occur most often to people who have another application sync with iCal (which I do with iGTD).
Fortunately, I backup my data regularly, and thus was able to revert to a database from a few days ago, but it's nonetheless disconcerting to open your calendar and have it be completely empty.
So, if you're one of those people who doesn't backup your data, don't say I didn't warn you!
Posted in Miscellaneous
Mac Freeware for Teens
Posted on Tuesday, September 11, 2007 at 10:06 AM by Jason Barker
From Thriftmac, I learned that macteens has a list of OS X applications for back-to-school. The list is pretty standard - including such apps as Adium and VLC, which I use, and GIMP and iProcrastinate, about which I've written - but it included one application that is new to me: Schoolhouse 2, a life-and-school management system that reminds me of iGTD (which I use heavily), and which seems to be much more full-featured (and also more complicated) than iProcrastinate.
Posted in Miscellaneous
New CRTL Study Guide
Posted on Friday, September 07, 2007 at 10:36 AM by Jason Barker
My new Study Guide for Come Receive the Light, How Can You Help People with Disabilities?, is now available.
Posted in OCN
Orthodoxy in Shreveport, LA
Posted on Thursday, September 06, 2007 at 10:47 AM by Jason Barker
The Shreveport Times has published an article, Local Orthodox Church Follows National Growth, about the growth of the Greek Orthodox parish in Shreveport.
I mention the article, not only because I'm always pleased to read about Orthodoxy in places far removed from traditional Orthodox centers in North America, but also because the priest of St. George, Fr. Brendan Pelphrey, is a personal friend (in fact, we met at a conference of the Evangelical Theological Society shortly before my wife and I entered the catechumenate).
Posted in Orthodox News
Study Guides for "Come Receive the Light"
Posted on Wednesday, September 05, 2007 at 11:36 AM by Jason Barker
Below is the current list of Study Guides I have created to accompany episodes of Come Receive the Light. I intend to post notices when I upload new Study Guides, but in case I forget (as I've done the last two weeks), the new Study Guide is available on the OCN website each Friday at 12:00 PM (EST).
- How Can You Experience Joy When You're Suffering?
- How Can You Talk to Your Kids About Sex?
- You Can Serve God By Serving Others!
These Study Guides are free to download.
Posted in OCN
Youth on the Impact of Digital Technology
Posted on Wednesday, September 05, 2007 at 9:51 AM by Jason Barker
Spotlight on Digital Learning posted a short entry - with a link to the full conference archives - about the April 2007 FOCUS: Teen Voices on Digital Media and Society. The comments in the article are not particularly illuminating, but it does give some perspectives on the perspective some teens have about the impact of digital technology - and particularly communication-related technology - on their lives.
Posted in Miscellaneous
1 Corinthians Application will Be Free
Posted on Tuesday, September 04, 2007 at 10:33 AM by Jason Barker
Related to yesterday's preview of the 1 Corinthians Bible study, I should point out that the Bible study application itself - as well as the group study handouts - will remain free, as they have been in the past.
The only thing for which parishes will need to pay - and this only if you choose to participate - is the personalized email program, where we send a weekly email (with that week's group study handout attached) to each member of your parish youth group. A small (and yet to be determined) fee will be necessary for us to pay for the service through which we will send the personalized email to individual teens.
Posted in Bible Studies
1 Corinthians Preview
Posted on Monday, September 03, 2007 at 4:49 PM by Jason Barker
Below are screenshots from the basic template for screen in Life Together: An Interactive Study of 1 Corinthians, scheduled to launch November 1st. Please note that, while the design is largely complete, there will still be small changes made between what you see in this initial design and the final application as I have new ideas for design elements within these templates, as well as needing to adjust the templates to better accomodate the content.
Click the small graphic to see a full-size screenshot of that screen.
SPLASH SCREEN
This splash image will stay onscreen for a few seconds before automatically forwarding to the home screen. This splash screen gives basic identifying information - title and creator - and presents the user with the design theme of a coffeehouse.
HOME SCREEN
The home screen is the main index for the application. It is designed to look, obviously, like a bulletin board, a central source for community information in a coffeehouse. Each of the fliers on the bulletin board links to a different content index: e.g., "Join Us on the FULL TOUR" links to the index linking to the home screen for each chapter, "Read the Bible" links to the index linking to the biblical text for each chapter, etc.
INDEX SCREENS
The index screens link to individual articles, and are organized by content type: e.g., the "Bible Chapters" index links to the biblical text for each chapter. The screens are designed to look like the menu board in a coffeehouse. This is one of the types of screens that will probably appear a little differently in the final version, but this gives you a general idea of the look & feel of the screens.
The "Back" button will take users to the previous screen.
CHAPTER SCREENS
The chapter screen is the main screen for each chapter. The screens are designed to appear as if you're looking down at a tabletop in a coffeeshop, with the standard things that would appear in such a place, e.g., coffee cup (obviously), laptop, mobile phone, etc.
My intention at this point is to create a small Flash movie that will play in the phone's screen. When the user first comes to a chapter screen, the phone will ring. Clicking on the phone will bring up a short Flash video with photos from the chapter, and a voiceover by me telling the user about the main points of the chapter. If, however, creating this is too time consuming, I will simply use the Isight camera built into my Mac to record a quick video of me saying the same thing. I'm reluctant to use this option, however, because few things scream "NOT YOUTH" more than a low-res video of a chubby middle-aged guy talking.
MAIN MENU
You can see at the bottom of the chapter screen a box saying "MAIN MENU." Clicking this box - which will appear on all chapter and article screens - will pull up the main menu, which links to the specified index screen. The main menu is designed to look like the handwritten guest check you still receive in some restaurants.
ARTICLE SCREENS
The article screens are the most common screens in the application, because every main article - biblical text, commentary, life application article, etc. - appears on one of these screens. They are designed to look like a person is holding up a menu to read. Clicking on one of the tabs to the right of the article will take the user to that article for the current chapter, e.g., clicking "LIFE" will take the user to the life application article for that chapter. This enables the user to easily move between articles within a chapter.
SUBARTICLE SCREENS
Subarticles - such as explanatory notes about persons or places mentioned in the text - will appear on screens like this.
PERSONALIZED EMAIL
I am currently pricing and trying out email programs that will allow me to mail personalized email to each member of a participating youth group. This email - which will be sent each week for sixteen weeks (there are 16 chapters in 1 Corinthians) beginning the week of November 1st - will have attached to it a PDF document (the same one users can download by clicking the "Handouts & Quizzes" tab on an article screen), and will contain an overview of the chapter being studied and an encouragement to participate in that parish's youth group.
I will announce the price plan and subscription information for the program as soon as the Department of Youth Ministry has decided precisely how we will handle this new feature for our Bible studies. If you would like to be notified of developments regarding the personalized email program, or if you are interested in learning how your parish youth group can participate, please contact me via the email or AIM buttons at the top of the left sidebar of this blog, or contact Fr. Joseph Purpura at the Department of Youth Ministry.
Edited on: Monday, September 03, 2007 4:54 PMPosted in Bible Studies