..you run into the problem of scalability. Christian church meetings are supposed to invite active participation (1 Cor. 14:26-40), with people teaching one another many-to-many, not one-to-many as the "5000 people in an auditorium" model seems to imply.
I totally agree that the best teaching a learning and growth comes from a more intimate situation. A lot of these large churches have groups that meet on a regular basis that are no more than 20 adults that encourage this type of interaction. Some do it well, some don't.
If the Truth is being presented and taught, there is no stopping (nor would you want to stop) the growth. If you take a look at Acts 2:37-47, you can see that 3,000 people came to Christ in one day, which would imply that there were more that didn't receive Christ. And it is true, that the early Church was running into the problem of what to do with all those people.
People want to be where lives are being changed, no matter how large or small.
all of the regular members had a barcode that was scanned for attendance
For a large and growing church (5k+ members or weekly attenders), there is always the problem of organization and safety. For example, what do you do with childcare? Since there is 5k people there on a Sunday morning, you can no longer just say "that's my kid with the red hair" and everyone knows you are telling the truth. I've heard of a pair of bar codes given out when a child checks into the childcare just so that only the parents (or the person with the matching code) can retrieve the child from the classroom.
Another example is trying to figure out how to distribute funds. How many people are coming to that Saturday night service? Do we need more coffee for it? What has the trend in attendance been for members? Are we gaining/losing more members in one service over another? Do we get an extra amount of visitors at the 10:00 service and therefore need more greeters and information tables?
These are all just examples, but I can see the practicality of bar codes in a situation like that. But I agree that it is a little strange at first.
I realized that power lines were associated with bird droppings, but now they are associated with costs droppings as well. Hmm... Just another thing to wash off the cars I guess.
Trunk space?... Plenty of space for normal people.
And with the 500 miles off of a single tank of gas, there is no credit card trail at gas stations on the way to drop off the body. Efficient and practical.
I really like video games. My wife really doesn't like them. It even took me awhile to convice her that they were fun to play and actually ENCOURAGED some social interaction, especially between other guys. That being said, we have played a couple of games together -- something I REALLY enjoy.
The first one we played together was Escape From Monkey Island. Not really a two player game, but that was great because it didn't require quick reflexes or button mashing. Plus, it provided quite a bit of good humor. We still use lines from the game to make each other laugh. Instead of watching a movie any random night, we'd huddle around the computer and enjoy the story of Monkey Island at our own pace.
After we finished that, I was bummed. I had an Xbox and found that Sega was releasing a new ToeJam and Earl game. I had fond memories of the original game on the Genesis and thought it would be a great game for us. With the true co-op play, it's a little more fast-paced than Monkey Island, but still she enjoys it occasionally.
Finally, I bought Morrowind. I bought this for me to play solo, but my wife really likes to hang around and watch what's going on. Plus, it is an extremely satisfying, open-ended, huge game that I'm still just getting into.
I was in the beta and I can say that I have thoroughly enjoyed playing online. There were a couple of times that I had problems and their tech support was actually helpful.
Speaking of the gaming experience, I'm totally excited about it because one of the best things about games is talking trash and SHARING your experience. Unfortunately, my wife isn't a gamer at all (though I've gotten her into ToeJam and Earl III. That's our game.). But now, Xbox Live puts another person at the other end. They are holding a controller just like I am, make mistakes just like I do, and take crazy chances like me. They are not programmed, which is by far the best part.
The voice quality of the connection is actually quite good and the use of broadband is a much welcomed plus to keep out the high pingers. The voice masking option is a little annoying, however. During the beta, the use of it tapered off quite quickly after people got over the initial curiosity with it. I predict the same will happen with the full thing.
I guess I'm concerned about whether it's used when the vehicle isn't stolen at all. I'd be surprised if their weren't a few voyeurs (sp?) with access to the system.
>> I'm just glad that me speeding doesn't automatically alert them as I run through their zone.
But the scary thing is what if they start to use it for that purpose? They have been saying they haven't been using it to track at all, which was not the case here. This may be a precendence for tracking even speeders.
On one hand, I'm glad the bank robbers were caught. On the other, I'm cautious of how they were tracked.
Should we think of these ports as open or just unlocked? I can see a ton of doors driving down the street, but I don't use them until I try to walk through them.
If the ports are merely unlocked, then they should have no right to enter. If I go down my street trying to open every door and I find one that happens to be unlocked, should I be able to enter it? I don't think so.
What is the best email filter that you guys have found? The one that I am under is SublimeMail. It works great! It's pretty new, but it has hit some pretty important milestones for messages caught. Any other good ones?
Slashdot Mirror
..you run into the problem of scalability. Christian church meetings are supposed to invite active participation (1 Cor. 14:26-40), with people teaching one another many-to-many, not one-to-many as the "5000 people in an auditorium" model seems to imply.
I totally agree that the best teaching a learning and growth comes from a more intimate situation. A lot of these large churches have groups that meet on a regular basis that are no more than 20 adults that encourage this type of interaction. Some do it well, some don't.
If the Truth is being presented and taught, there is no stopping (nor would you want to stop) the growth. If you take a look at Acts 2:37-47, you can see that 3,000 people came to Christ in one day, which would imply that there were more that didn't receive Christ. And it is true, that the early Church was running into the problem of what to do with all those people.
People want to be where lives are being changed, no matter how large or small.
all of the regular members had a barcode that was scanned for attendance
For a large and growing church (5k+ members or weekly attenders), there is always the problem of organization and safety. For example, what do you do with childcare? Since there is 5k people there on a Sunday morning, you can no longer just say "that's my kid with the red hair" and everyone knows you are telling the truth. I've heard of a pair of bar codes given out when a child checks into the childcare just so that only the parents (or the person with the matching code) can retrieve the child from the classroom.
Another example is trying to figure out how to distribute funds. How many people are coming to that Saturday night service? Do we need more coffee for it? What has the trend in attendance been for members? Are we gaining/losing more members in one service over another? Do we get an extra amount of visitors at the 10:00 service and therefore need more greeters and information tables?
These are all just examples, but I can see the practicality of bar codes in a situation like that. But I agree that it is a little strange at first.
costs droppings
I realized that power lines were associated with bird droppings, but now they are associated with costs droppings as well. Hmm... Just another thing to wash off the cars I guess.
-g
Trunk space? ... Plenty of space for normal people.
And with the 500 miles off of a single tank of gas, there is no credit card trail at gas stations on the way to drop off the body. Efficient and practical.
I wonder if this would work for other things than food as well.
Have you tried playing Polybius?
=)
-g
I guess he needs it for something simpler - such as skydiving
I know that whenever I skydive, I strap on my parachute, a reserve, and a 500GB raid pack. Makes the free-fall go just a little bit faster.
I really like video games. My wife really doesn't like them. It even took me awhile to convice her that they were fun to play and actually ENCOURAGED some social interaction, especially between other guys. That being said, we have played a couple of games together -- something I REALLY enjoy.
The first one we played together was Escape From Monkey Island. Not really a two player game, but that was great because it didn't require quick reflexes or button mashing. Plus, it provided quite a bit of good humor. We still use lines from the game to make each other laugh. Instead of watching a movie any random night, we'd huddle around the computer and enjoy the story of Monkey Island at our own pace.
After we finished that, I was bummed. I had an Xbox and found that Sega was releasing a new ToeJam and Earl game. I had fond memories of the original game on the Genesis and thought it would be a great game for us. With the true co-op play, it's a little more fast-paced than Monkey Island, but still she enjoys it occasionally.
Finally, I bought Morrowind. I bought this for me to play solo, but my wife really likes to hang around and watch what's going on. Plus, it is an extremely satisfying, open-ended, huge game that I'm still just getting into.
Hope those help!
I was in the beta and I can say that I have thoroughly enjoyed playing online. There were a couple of times that I had problems and their tech support was actually helpful.
Speaking of the gaming experience, I'm totally excited about it because one of the best things about games is talking trash and SHARING your experience. Unfortunately, my wife isn't a gamer at all (though I've gotten her into ToeJam and Earl III. That's our game.). But now, Xbox Live puts another person at the other end. They are holding a controller just like I am, make mistakes just like I do, and take crazy chances like me. They are not programmed, which is by far the best part.
The voice quality of the connection is actually quite good and the use of broadband is a much welcomed plus to keep out the high pingers. The voice masking option is a little annoying, however. During the beta, the use of it tapered off quite quickly after people got over the initial curiosity with it. I predict the same will happen with the full thing.
Overall, I give it an A! Great experience.
-ElectricMayhem
(GamerTag: DrTeeth)
Well, I can see that.
I guess I'm concerned about whether it's used when the vehicle isn't stolen at all. I'd be surprised if their weren't a few voyeurs (sp?) with access to the system.
>> I'm just glad that me speeding doesn't automatically alert them as I run through their zone.
But the scary thing is what if they start to use it for that purpose? They have been saying they haven't been using it to track at all, which was not the case here. This may be a precendence for tracking even speeders.
On one hand, I'm glad the bank robbers were caught. On the other, I'm cautious of how they were tracked.
Should we think of these ports as open or just unlocked? I can see a ton of doors driving down the street, but I don't use them until I try to walk through them.
If the ports are merely unlocked, then they should have no right to enter. If I go down my street trying to open every door and I find one that happens to be unlocked, should I be able to enter it? I don't think so.
This business is a little sketchy if you ask me.
What is the best email filter that you guys have found? The one that I am under is SublimeMail. It works great! It's pretty new, but it has hit some pretty important milestones for messages caught. Any other good ones?