Chick-fil-A, Mike Huckabee, and Rainbows

Yesterday I was leaving the grocery store, and I got stopped in a crazy traffic jam. I noticed police directing traffic, flares on the road, and a huge line of cars. As the cars inched forward, I realized that I was actually in the Chick Fil A drive thru lane, which extended about half a mile onto my road. On the corner of the street were about a dozen men in their mid twenties. They were wearing bright, rainbow-colored tie-dye shirts and holding signs that said things like, "Eat Less Hate." Some cars honked and waved to them. Some yelled insults.














Across the road in a parking lot a church bus pulled up, loudly honking its horn in celebration. Church members poured out and made it across the street, careful to avoid getting to close to the protesters. The line outside the restaurant to get in wrapped all the way around the building.

I pulled into a parking lot across the street from the restaurant to just watch. What were these people really buying? What were some really protesting?

On July 2, a story was posted in the Biblical Recorder magazine, a small North Carolina Baptist news journal. In the article, Dan Cathy, the COO of Chick Fil A talks about is company and their role in the faith community. Most of the article deals with being a missionary in the work place and some of the contributions they have been able to make to their communities through their faith stance. He talks about the positive influence they have been able to have on young men playing football in the SEC and ACC through the Chick Fil A bowl.

In the last couple of paragraphs, Cathy mentions the WinShape foundation invested in by his company. Then this line comes:

Some have opposed the company's support of the traditional family. "Well, guilty as charged," said Cathy when asked about the opposition. "We are very much supportive of the family - the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that."....."We know that it might not be popular with everyone, but thank the Lord, we live in a country where we can share our values and operate on biblical principles."

Rumors quickly swirled that money from Chick Fil A was being invested through WinShape into anti-gay activist groups and ministries.

I did some research, and according the public records, WinShape did in fact invest in Exodus International in 2010: $1,000.

They also gave $1.18 million to the Marriage and Family Foundation, which focuses on strengthening existing marriages and families by providing retreats and counseling. It's also run by Donald Cathy, who happens to be Dan Cathy's brother.

I'm not saying that Chick Fil A and Dan Cathy don't support anti-gay marriage groups. I'm just saying that when your restaurant makes $3.5 billion a year, this fight is happening over 0.05% of the money this company has made.

OK, now let me get to the point of this whole post. This REALLY blew up when for presidential candidate and governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee called on social media for people to respond to the backlash against Chick Fil A. Hundreds of thousands of people showed up for Chick Fil A appreciation day yesterday. 650,000 people on Facebook responded saying that they were going to participate in the event.

Therefore, I sat in a traffic jam.

Let me recap: This was like a group of people seeing a mosquito biting them and shooting it off with a bazooka, then a group of people who like mosquitos got upset with the bazooka people for over reacting, so they dropped an atomic bomb on them.

Remember back in the day when former governor's of Arkansas weren't exactly a model of the traditional American family?

I want to touch on another side of this whole thing: social media. None of this happens without it. No one hears about some tiny baptist journal in North Carolina. No one reads the article. It doesn't show up in Google searches and get shared. People aren't able to have quick access to public records of their philanthropic giving. No one bashes Chick Fil A on twitter or facebook. Huckabee and Santorum don't start online campaigns for Chick Fil A support. Hundreds of thousands of people DON'T go to Chick Fil A, no one protests outside, and most importantly...

... I get home in time for dinner. I had steak. With my traditional family.

I don't know what that last line means, but it sounds controversial.

Most of all, regardless of where you come down on this issue, let's please keep things in perspective. And for crying out loud, love each other. I'm pretty sure Jesus said something about that.

A picture that's worth 4 words

Note: names and places have been hidden to protect the incredibly guilty.

In my last post...and others before it...I said that your church Facebook page should look like your church. And I talked mostly about content and how the content of your page should be a microcosm of what your church really does.

This should also go for pictures.

A few weeks ago was invited to "like" the church facebook page for a local church. I clicked on their page to check it out. The first thing I saw was their banner picture at the top of the page. It was beautiful: a sunset scene over a picturesque mountain lake.

There was one problem: this church is in Indiana. This actual scene doesn't exist anywhere within a thousand miles of this church.


It's been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Sometimes a picture is worth 4 words: "that's not your church."

Please don't use stock photos. Its so easy to get good photos of your own stuff, there's no excuse.

Let me show you three pictures that are a dead giveaway that this picture doesn't belong to your church.

1. The perfectly diverse group of young people




I want diversity. I love diversity. But don't advertise your church as diverse if it's not. I won't meet any of these people at your church. This is not your youth group. Your youth group is full of awkward white kids with pimples. And that's ok. If you want to work towards racial diversity do it in real life, not with stock photos.

2. The ridiculously beautiful scenery




I'm pretty sure that has to be the hill from the sermon on the mount. One problem: that happened in the Middle East, not the Midwest. This is not where your church is. The scenery around your church is strip malls and cornfields.

3. The unbelievably perfect Jesus picture




Yes, people should encounter Jesus at your church. But at no time in history did the above picture actually happen. Jesus didn't hang on a perfect cross with perfect lighting and pose for iconic pictures. And he probably wasn't white, because that would have freaked out absolutely everybody around him who also was not white.

Ok, so what pictures should you use?

1. Your people. Ask them first. Most people are totally cool with it.

2. Your place. Take a picture of your sanctuary. Your people are really proud of it.

3. Your events. Is something big happening? Are the kids everywhere? Are your people serving? Snap a pic.

Doing a church Facebook page right

I've noticed a growing trend where churches finally have understood the importance of having a church Facebook page, but have no idea what to put on it.

While I firmly believe that your personal Facebook page is a much better tool for reaching people, your church Facebook page will also play an important role. we've even found that for some, this is the first place they discover our church. Here's a list of 4 things you need to know to do your church Facebook page right.

1. This is not just for youth.




Our statistics show that women between the ages of 25-54 make up almost 50% of all of our page's likes. I've seen this to be pretty common across the board. So don't gear your page towards the youth. If they ARE posting on there a lot, give them their own page. Because...


2. Your church Facebook page should look like your church

If the Facebook page only contains info on the youth group, or some other group, you're doing it wrong. Your page should be a microcosm of what your church actually does. If I get on and only see info about the quilting committee, that's all I'll think your church does. One certain way to fix that...


3. Have several page managers.

People post what's important to them. So if the youth leader or the quilting committee chairwoman are the only managers of your Facebook page, that's all you'll see. Make the heads of different ministries managers and allow them to post as the church. This will provide a nice diverse range of info on the page.


4. Your Facebook page matters to your web page

A referral is when someone finds a link for your website on another page and clicks on it. Statistics show that for church web pages, over 50% of referrals come from their Facebook page. Have your link for your web page everywhere. As long as your web page is good. Don't send them there if it stinks. Your web page should have the more permanent information about your church, but it must also be updated and fresh. I don't want to see past advent stuff in March. It makes it seem as if your church is behind.

Pastoring My Twitter Community

Being a pastor on Twitter has a couple of very important things in common with being a pastor in my community. 1) Christian love is of the utmost importance. 2) It still takes boldness and faith to reach out to others

Let me tell you a story. Yesterday morning, as is my custom, I checked my Twitter feed just to see what was going on. I follow a lot of different people, including athletes. One of the athletes I follow is Chris Spielman. If you don't know who he is, I'm not sure why we're friends, but he was a great linebacker for the Buckeyes, as well as in the pros, and is an incredible man of faith.

I saw a retweet from him from a guy asking him to let others know about a website where they can donate to help raise money for his son who is in the hospital with stage 4 cancer.

Out of curiosity, I clicked on the link and read the short story about this boy, 1 of 6 siblings, who two weeks ago was diagnosed with neuroplastoma. He's only 2. I noticed that in the original tweet, this man had his location service turned on, which shows a map of where he tweeted from. He was only a couple of miles from my church.

I decided to reach out, and I sent a tweet to this guy letting him know that I was about to head to the children's hospital where his son was for another visit, and could I visit him.

He replied quickly and asked if I had left yet, because he needed a ride. In trying to pay for his son's medical care, he had lost his job and his car and had no way of getting to him. So I went and picked him up. What ensued was a 20 minute car ride of sharing and ministry.

His son was surrounded by family in his room, and so I left them to themselves, making my own visit, and praying for the family.

Later, I gave him and the boy's mother and one of his brothers a ride back home. We talked about church, about parenting, about struggles that we go through.

They thanked me as we pulled into their driveway and they exited the car.

I pulled out and said my own prayer of thanks. Thank you God for allowing our paths to cross. Thank you Chris Spielman for the retweet that brought us together. Thank you Twitter for allowing us new ways to connect. Thank you Jesus for never ceasing to amaze me in how your work in our lives.

Two new must have iPad apps for church people

I just found two new apps I wanted to share with people who work in churches.

The first is for pastors and is called "Sermon Design for Preachers." can you guess what this app does?





I forget how much it is (maybe $5) but its worth it. Does everything that Notability does, but also categorizes your sermons for you by both title and scripture automatically. You can audio record and time your sermons while you preach and insert them in outline or manuscript form. It's pretty sweet. Apparently, they're looking to attach a Bible app to it to import scripture from. Hopefully YouVersion.

The second app is for worship leaders and is called OnSong.





Also around $5, but this thing is legit. If you are a worship leader and have an iPad, you need to have this. Connects with your Rockin' with the Cross account to import songs, amongst other sites. Allows you to edit, add notes, transpose, and even creates slides for you for the songs. IT MAKES THE SLIDES PEOPLE. And you can share this stuff with your whole band. Great, great app.

If you find any other good ones, let me know.

Have you ever had a bad technology day? For me, it ruins almost everything.

I rely heavily on using my iPad. I hardly ever use my work computer. And the other day, my iPad crashed. They aren't supposed to do that, right?

But it did. It's technology. It has flaws. It messes stuff up. When it works, it saves me a bunch of time and helps me get even more done. When it doesn't work, I'm paralyzed.

Every now and then I say jokingly, "How did people do ministry before the internet?!" Well, half jokingly. The honest truth is, when I run into these technology issues, I feel like it hampers my ability to do ministry.

I'm still working out in my mind whether or not this is ok. Is it ok that I'm at a level of technology usage that I rely on it to do ministry, and when it doesn't function, I am less effective?

Truth is, we've ALWAYS used technology in our ministry. It was just at different levels. What if Paul's courier had dropped the parchment carrying the letter to the Romans in a puddle? What if Gutenberg's printing press ran out of ink? What if John Wesley's horse died? What if your church's electricity goes out on a Sunday morning?

To me, this shows the beauty of the Gospel. It is incredibly flexible. It can be distributed well when technology is used, and when technology dies, it is no less effective. So why is technology necessary if the Gospel can be proclaimed without it?

My argument would be that it is only partially because you can be more effective in communicating the Gospel, and mostly because it allows people to receive the Gospel in a familiar way. Speaking someone else's language is vitally important in communicating with them, and it has almost as much to do with the means by which communication happens as the actual language you are speaking.

What do you think? Is it ok for technology to take such a prominent role in sharing the Gospel?

Location:When Good Technology Goes Bad

Why Twitter

"I don't see any need for Twitter. Why does everyone need to see what I'm doing every second of the day?"

"Twitter is just reposting my Facebook status somewhere else."

"I don't know how to use Twitter. Facebook is enough."


I've recently heard all of these things said about Twitter. I've talked about Twitter on here before (April 11th) but it was more from a church point of view. As individuals, and as Christians, I find Twitter to be incredibly important. There are over 300 million active Twitter users, and it is imperative that the Gospel is visible in the Twittersphere.

Let me dispel some common myths about Twitter.

Twitter is not just sharing about what you are doing every second of the day. That's what a Facebook status is used for: discussing your "status." Here's where I am and what I am doing. Twitter is more about sharing ideas. Here's what I'm thinking about. It's a place for dialogue and discussion.

Twitter isn't just for you and your friends. While on Facebook you interact with those you "friend," on Twitter you can interact with anyone. I can send a tweet to Rick Warren. I can send a tweet to Chris Perez if he blows a save for the Indians. I can send a tweet to anyone I want who has a Twitter account.

Will they always answer? No. And I can only send public tweets, unless we both follow each other. Then we can send private direct messages to one another.

Another brilliant part of Twitter is the hashtag. So if I am watching an Ohio State football game, I might say, "Watching the #buckeyes beat the snot out of Michigan." When I put a # in front of the word, it makes the word searchable. So anyone who searches for #buckeyes will see my tweet. Maybe they respond. Maybe they re-tweet it.

Hashtags allow you to talk about events and ideas with everyone else who is talking about those same events and ideas. It's a means of sharing information.

In major cities, Twitter is already starting to outpace Facebook. It's the pill-form, idea sharing forum that everything is moving towards. And Christians need to be there to be followable as we follow Jesus.

So here's my challenge to you: make a Twitter account. Give it a try. I'm @pastordan23, so find me on there. Let's figure out how to do this together and I'll help you along the way. Post your new user name in the comments below and I'll look for you on there!