Tensegrities

For some time now I’ve been feeling like I need to write about how to raise Catholics in a post-church world. This blog post is spurring that feeling even more! Jack Rakosky notes:

At this time, strengthening social networks is more important than strengthening culture. People who have social networks (families, close friends and small groups) in a congregation are healthier, happier and more willing to give of their time, talent and treasure. Beliefs and values acquired from sitting alone in the pews or childhood education do not seem to confer many benefits. The good news is that social networks spread and maintain culture; the bad news is we can no longer rely on Catholic family and ethnic social networks to grow and maintain themselves. The parish today has to build and strengthen social networks of families, friends and small groups.

I’ve been blessed to be a part of a small community of Catholics who gather once a month to nurture our own and each other’s faith. We also worship together nearly every week, but it’s the joy and irreverence of our monthly gatherings that sustains me. I think we’ve built a social network of the sort Rakosky speaks of, and I’m eager to share what we’ve been doing and hear from others about their own experiments.

A little bit of France in Minneapolis:

(Hat tip to The Heavy Table)

The Harvard Business Review has a great short video up, of Cathy Davidson speaking about “collaboration by difference.” I can’t find a way to embed it (no thanks to HBR), but here are the three tips she offers:

(1) air out differences democratically
(2) let non-experts speak first (flip the relationship between the expert and the novice)
(3) ask what you’re missing

She concludes by noting that:

Collaboration by difference is about shaking up your old habits, about structuring a way of listening to the quiet voice, and adopting methods that force you to examine what you think you know so that you can find the bugs. And you need a system, a structure to it, because unless you rig it, collaboration can lead to groupthink, not true innovation.

Here’s a list of great books to read for the summer. I loved reading the following on the list: Davidson, Richardson, Robinson, Weinberger, Rheingold and Collins. So I’m guessing I’ll enjoy the rest! I would add to this list, Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown’s A New Culture of Learning.

An eloquent testimony from clergy in NC as that state votes today on a marriage amendment. May we hear their words now, so that we are ready when the MN amendment comes up in November:

I love this! And can’t help thinking how much wonderful music we could do — live — on the Twin Cities trains…

I really like Howard Rheingold’s latest book, Net Smart, and here he is talking about it through an interview at Google:

This made me smile, even as I ached at the losses this woman has sustained and continues to face:

(Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan)

This is the first time I’ve ever done this — frankly, it’s the first time I’ve ever even heard of such a thing! — but all of this week I’ve been on a “blog tour” which was set up by the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg as a way to promote their new MA degree in media and religion.

Monday I blogged at the Odyssey Networks “On Faith,” Tuesday at Day1, Wednesday at the Cyberpilgrim, today at Uncle Sam’s Attic, and we’ll close my portion of the tour tomorrow at the Snake Charmer’s Wife. Next week Mark Vitalis Hoffman will take off on a tour of his own. Stop by and leave a comment!

Here’s a fun new adult ed series coming out of Sparkhouse, intended for young adults and beyond:

I’m looking forward to watching it unfold!