jordanpfowler

After much internal wrangling, I decided to put the Google +1 button for my blog at the end of each body of text. Why? I am not looking for easy +1′s but for people who have truly digested a post and think it contains content valuable enough to share. Placing the Google +1 script at the end of the text lends itself to being clicked after the full post has been read.

By the way if you need the script and are a non-programmer, simply post this into your WordPress or other content editor in html mode and the Google +1 button will automagically appear.

<!– Place this tag where you want the +1 button to render –>
<g:plusone size=”medium” annotation=”inline”></g:plusone>

<!– Place this render call where appropriate –>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
(function() {
var po = document.createElement(‘script’); po.type = ‘text/javascript’; po.async = true;
po.src = ‘https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js’;
var s = document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s);
})();
</script>

And without further adieu, here is…

Recently, I had an incident where I should have been 100% engaged with my family and caught myself posting a Facebook status update instead of being headlong in the experience itself. Soon afterwards a friend, Brian Hook,  preached a great message on the “Facebook us”–the outward ‘brand’ we manage–versus the “inner man”  of Ephesians 3.  And so, I decided I should suspend my Facebook account for an undetermined amount of time.

Why? I am in a place in life right now where I need the incredibly real and nothing superficial. I had 1044 “friends” on facebook. That isn’t a brag, it just shows my proclivity to check accept along with my frequent usage of friend finder. Like most of us,  I had to check who some of the requester’s mutual friends were to figure out how I knew them. And like a few of you, I took pride as a watched my friend number grow as it fed my ego. It is interesting that Facebook chose the term “friends.”  In a deep life crisis, the people I need do not number 1044, but more like 10 or possibly 20. Those same people would undoubtedly call me in their crisis. These are my lay-down-your-life-for-one-another friends.

Facebook can be used for good, but I found myself using it mostly for narcissistic purposes. A place to air out my “charming wit” and promote “brand me” ever so subtly. In a great article called What’s [Actually] on Your Mind? in Relevant magazine (scroll to page 82 of the digital edition for full article), Shane Hipps writes

There is a lot of exhibitionism on Facebook. Such exhibitionism has an unusual effect on us. We not only want others to see us, we like to see us. We are able to inspect and tweak what others are seeing about us. We become fascinated by the image we project. It’s like having a mirror on your desk or in your pocket.  . . .This kind of regular self-inspection eventually gives rise to a subtle narcissism.

Narcissism is a rather exquisite vice. It is very difficult to detect in oneself. And when something is hard to identify it makes it hard to dissolve. The real buzzkill, though, is how it affects relationships. (He argues how the more narcissistic we get the more we struggle in relationships). Facebook is the perfect cocktail; a medium that focuses much of the attention on ourselves, while appearing to focus our attention on our relationship with others. It is a mirror masquerading as a window.

A final word from his article solidified my need to take a hiatus.

We must step out of the stream of an experience to record it. The result is that we are no longer present in the experience in that moment. We are living as unpaid journalists who chronicle life as it passes by. This may seem insignificant. But our presence matters. Our brief but increasingly frequent moments of absence add up. Imagine a father who flickers in and out of his child’s life  every time he checks his iPhone (ouch-emphasis mine). He might be there physically but, but he may as well be at the office or on a business trip.  People can feel our absence and it is usually a loss. We become digital nomads, glancing around the globe, never fully present. It is a ghost-like condition. It diminishes one of God’s greatest gifts to us–a body. There is a reason God became a body in Jesus. (read this article!!!)

I do not think Facebook is evil. I think it can be used for good. But for me, in a season where God is doing some deep breaking in my life, I realize how much of the time I spend on Facebook is about the “outer me” and not the “inner me.” I need a season for God to work on the inner me. To separate myself from my self-created “brand” by which I try to orchestrate how others perceive me. To connect to people who will love me when they know the real Jordan, warts and all. To surround myself with people  I can call who can hear the joy or waiver in my voice, or even better, look into my eyes and really read me.  So, a hiatus is in order. I will keep posting on this blog as seems a place for me to more deeply process all that God is doing in me. I know most of my acquaintances won’t even realize I am gone. If you are a friend, you know how to reach me. Let’s talk over coffee where I can pat you on the back or give you a hug as we leave (I ain’t scared of a man hug, either). So for a while, Facebook, adieu.

One of the spiritual disciplines I practice is modernizing classical text. Why do I do it?

1. It forces me to slow read classical texts that are rich in content but difficult in their language.
2. It provides an means to generate language to restate the thoughts which then ingrains their ideas in my brain and heart.
3. While the modernizations will never replace the original in richness, they do offer a reader who would, at first sight, not engage the difficulty of the original. Perhaps they can catch its concepts or, better, be compelled to wrestle with the original.
4. I don’t want some of the classic writings, particularly the lesser known puritans, to disappear from the modern believer’s view.

In all my modernizations, I leave the original in the left column and in the right column offer my modernized interpretation. If others desire to read the modernizations then can easily look at the original to check my meaning. In certain works, I modernize phrase by phrase. In others, sentence by sentence. Each writer’s style dictates my method.

If you desire to pass on any modernization, you have my permission to do that. Please provide  full credit, including the reference to this site,  and insure that no edits are made. Theses are primarily for my own spiritual growth and I pass them on to be used for the sake of the Kingdom.

Beta-ing this standard theme and just realized some bugs in it. (IE7 users, i apologize). Also pdf inserts are not working on some computers where they can pull them up. If they get the bugs fixed this will be a killer theme. If not, well. I’ll give it a go and if they get worked out stick with it. Otherwise, off to thesis or another theme. I have faith John the Standard guy will make it happen. HELP HIM JESUS!

Why move from the well traveled and greased worshiptrench.com? Because my role and life has changed. I am now the teaching pastor at NorthWood Church having handed the keys to Brent Minter for the daily driving of the worship ministry at NorthWood.  Since worshiptrench was a tips, tools and best practices blog for worship leading and leadership, I decided to leave all its free tools and leadership resources floating on the cloud. Feel free to grab any of the free tools, some which apply well beyond the worship ministry arena and could be used buy business people and others.

What will I deal with here? Whatever is clanging around in my brain. You might find it a bit eclectic but hopefully never boring or mean-spirited.

Welcome to what clangs around in my head. As a thinker and teacher, not all my thoughts and reflections have a platform of expression. This is a place to get them into the light of day where they can become uncluttered, critiqued, and developed into useful ideas.  Some might find the topics here a little eclectic for their tastes. Others might think, “I am not the only one who thinks in such a crazed manner.”  Whatever my thoughts, I will strive to write with a tone of love and respect, even when critiquing,  so that I don’t become another cymbal clanging out meaningless communication in an already noisy world (I Corinthians 13) . Here is a bit more about some things that make my neurons fire more rapidly . . .

Favorites in no particular order

author: Thomas Watson and other puritans

teams: Liverpool FC, Dallas Cowboys, Texas Longhorns, US Olympic

ride: my two runs down Innsbruck Bobsled track (see about page bottom)

preachers: Alistair Beg also John Piper

ancient preacher: John Chrysostom

exercise: rowing/sculling/erg-rowing

upscale restaurant: Saint Emilion, Fort Worth

downscale restaurant: Fuzzy Tacos, Baja Mexican/Taco H

rock music you’ve heard of: Ani Difranco, Radiohead, Alanis Morissette

music you might not have heard of: check out good listens section

jazzers: Avishai Cohen Trio

composers: Prokofiev, Shostakovich and other Russians,

classical piece: Sonata for Violin and Piano II: Lento (d.2 trck.2) (A. Copland)

futbol players: Fernando Torres, Landon Donovan, Steven Gerrard

guy who needs a beatdown: Pretty Boy Floyd Mayweather

Stats

family: Piper and three kids (girl, boy, girl)

current calling: Pastor of Teaching, NorthWood Church (11 years)

past callings: worship and communications pastor NorthWood, leader of dropknee worship band, singles minister, college minister

other jobs: swimming coach, distance runners coach, triathlete (back when the knees were young), driving range golf ball picker-upper