Calling all Filter Members: we recently mailed you David Putman's new book, Breaking the Discipleship Code. Have you dug into it yet? He has some great insights into Jesus' life and missional living. He writes:

"[it's] about bursting our religious bubbles and engaging the world. We can no longer look at missions as something we accomplish in a foreign country. The mission field has come home, and we are right in the middle of it ... [you are] that missionary to your own culture."

As we engage our culture with a missionary mindset, what are some things we do differently as missionaries to our culture rather than regular citizens?

Share your insights on this question, or other impactful nuggets from the book!
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What is your reaction to the Reveal Study?

The recent Reveal Study, from Willow Creek, has drawn negative press for Willow and the Seeker Sensitive movement. Reveal was a study they did on their own effectiveness. To their surprise they weren't being as effective as they thought - Greg Hawkins shares some of their findings in this video. Willow feels they were misrepresented in articles and blog posts from Christianity Today (here, here and here) - so they created a response video, which you can see below:

If you've watched the Greg Hawkins video, there is kind-of a feeling of repentance, that something is really wrong - the tone of the video, cinematography, music, Greg's passion - it gives that sense. But if you read the actual study, it's not the same feeling. So it makes sense that Willow would be misunderstood.

What's your reaction to the Reveal Study? What would a study of your congregation reveal about your church's effectiveness?

Many of you may have jumped on the twitter band wagon in the last month or so. If you're like me, you started with great excitement and compulsively twittered your status every 10 minutes to that addictive little website. But, as time went on, you tired of wading through all the updates from the people you follow, and now you check back less frequently and only tweet once or twice a day. You've wondered, "what's the point!"

Well, Westwinds Church, in Jackson, MI, has found a useful use for Twitter. They encouraged members of the church to twitter their experience during the service. They even projected the Twitter comments on one of the main screens, broadcasting everyone's comments - during the service. It gave members a way to interact with the service and each other. To some it was distracting, to some it was helpful.

Read John Voelz's recap of their Twitter Church

It seems you could also use Twitter to get live feedback from your congregation, like a live survey.

What do you think of this use of Twitter in church? Interesting? Heretical?
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So, while I keep changing the title, hopefully you've realized that interesting links get posted on Friday here at the Catalyst Leader Feeder. But I'm having a hard time deciding what title to use. Any suggestions?

How to blog - by Tim Stevens
Christian Font of the Month - from the Plow
CommonCraft explains stuff really easy - like Social Media in Plain English
Slow Motion Face Punching is AWESOME
TwitterFox - brings twitter updates to FireFox
Grand Openings are not so grand - helpful thoughts for church planters (sort of) from Seth Godin
ONE PRAYER - starts this weekend! Over 1,200 churches involved! 735,000 in attendance!

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: The world wide web is turning-out to be a totally revolutionary tool. It's connecting people like never before. Information is so freely available, distribution and marketing are changed forever. Things that the internet has made possible:

- Online collaboration between churches, churches sharing their content and illustrations!
- Communication between churches and Christians: blogs sharing ideas, ONE PRAYER connecting pastors and sermons, facilitating unity!
- PODCASTING! - sermons and content available in a simple format
- greater sharing of ideas

No doubt, the internet has changed our world tremendously in the last decade. As content proliferates, there will be greater need for content aggregators and a more level playing field for content providers.

What affects do you see this having on the Church?