Trust: The New Knowledge

I have way too many feeds in my reader. Just when I'm about to delete one, though, something really meaningful comes through.

This happened last week with the following quote.

Knowledge Is No Longer Power
Knowledge is and will always be valuable, but Power has moved. It has moved from Knowledge to Trust. In any situation, the person who is most trusted by others is the person with the most power. In Social Networks you are able to build your connections, strengthen your reputation, and expand the number of people who feel comfortable communicating with you. You can begin by simply communicating and exploring, then when appropriate, contribute something you feel they will value. Before long you will be known and trusted. Soon after, you will find people seeking your advice, input and recommendations.

Build Trust Before You Need It
By cultivating these relationships you will be accumulating a relationship “bank account” from which you can make withdrawals (asking for something) later on. At first though, you will need to make plenty of “deposits” by seeking ways to share useful information, offer encouragement, and take an interest in others. Get known and liked in the “neighborhood” by being a good neighbor and friend. --Jim Cathcart

I think this has SO MANY IMPLICATIONS for SO MANY SITUATIONS today.

Evangelism, for example. When we lived in the north of Brazil, people listened to us because (a) we were Americans and (b) we knew stuff--we had read books. We could present the gospel and they would simply listen and believe us. We could tell them how to plant churches and they would assume we were correct.
Now, down here in the south, we're in a post-modern mindset. They are not impressed with our US passports and bizarre accents, actually they laugh at us for talking funny. These folks require a relationship before they will listen to us. They want to know we'll still be here next month. They want to know we care about them as people. Trust.

Discipleship is another example. I have a dear Christian friend who really wants a ministry. But, she views informal time spent with people as wasted. I keep trying to tell her that you can only minister to people whose needs you know, and you can only know their needs by getting to know them.

I think there may be some implications here also for the current misunderstandings we see in the SBC between the Old Guard and the Younger Leaders. One values knowledge (experience), the other trust.

The original context of the above quote was neither of these situations. The author was advocating a strong internet presence for businesses on social networks such as facebook, myspace, twitter, etx. (YES, I KNOW I have Way.Too.Many.feeds in my reader...just hang with me here...)

I found myself wondering how twittering builds trust and then I realized it's really something that these networks feed on -- SELF-DISCLOSURE. While there are elements of exposure, empathy, common interests, the most outstanding feature of these "communities" is self-disclosure. What are the younger leaders screaming for? Transparency, or self-disclosure.

I know the quickest way to gain my trust is to trust me first. When someone chooses to place their trust in me, I recognize them for the excellent discernment they show. When someone chooses to mistrust me, I figure they must really be seriously dishonest to be suspicious of even little ol' me.

Anyway, just a snippet found in a long list of RSS feeds that may be another piece of a puzzle you've been working on.

HT for quote:Ted Demopoulos

Laminin

This video is 8 minutes long, but WELL WORTH IT!!

Steven Wiley We Need You Now!!

In 1986 a man named Steven Wiley recorded the first Christian Rap song released on Brentwood records and then promptly disappeared.

I'm here to say now:
Steven, if you're out there, the teenagers of 1986 have grown up. We have kids now. We're trying to teach them the books of the Bible. WE NEED YOUR HELP!!

Everybody chant together:

RE-RELEASE! RE-RELEASE! RE-RELEASE!

Note to feedreaders: click on over and watch the video--it's worth it, especially if you're a child of the 80s like me.

Helpless

This video is a great portrayal of how sometimes we missionaries feel at the task looming in front of us that is so much bigger than ourselves.



In the end we just have to hold to God's promise in Isaiah 52:15
Those who have never been told of Him will see and those who have never heard will understand.

Will You Watch and Pray?

Recipe: Simply Baked Apples

This is another non-recipe recipe.
Core and quarter 2 apples. Place in microwave-proof baking dish.
Nuke on high for 3 minutes. Cool slightly.

Recipe: Roasted Vegetables

This is really a non-recipe recipe.
I took a bunch of vegetables, washed them really well, chopped them into 1-inch chunks and put them in a big bowl.
Then I whisked 1/3 cup of olive oil with 1 teaspoon of salt and some ground pepper and tossed it in with the vegetables.
I spread them out into 2 9x13 casserole dishes, covered them with foil, and baked at 400 F for 40-50 minutes. Then, I took off the foil and let them brown for 10 minutes.
I turned out really yummy.

I used:
1 large tomato (or 5 cherry tomatoes cut in half)
2 sweet potatoes
2 large white potatoes
3 carrots, peeled
2 large zucchini
2 portobello mushrooms
1 HUGE red bell pepper

I think the only 2 items that were indispensable were the tomatoes and the red bell pepper. They really gave the other veggies a good flavor.

This isn't as much work as it sounds, since you're not peeling (except for carrots) and the chunks are big. It's a quick put-together and one person can get 3-4 FULL meals from it if they aren't eating anything else. I would think that as a side dish it would feed 8-10.

I will try to add a picture tomorrow.

May 11 -- Day of Prayer and Fasting for World Evangelization

May 11 is a big day this year.
If you're following what's going on in Lakeland, you know it's a big day.
If you're a participant in a church that follows the liturgical church calendar, you know it's Pentecost Sunday.
If you're a Mommy Blogger, then you already KNOW it's REALLY BIG. (PSST -- you, clueless Dad there: It's Mother's Day).
It's also the single biggest day of the year for the US restaurant industry.

It's also the Day of Prayer and Fasting for World Evangelization, with a special focus this year on South America.

Since Mother's Day, restaurants, and fasting don't go so well together (if only they would just consult ME before they go planning these things!), I have decided to invite you all to join me in a week-long fast (type of your choosing) PRIOR to the Big Day.

So, while you're praying for an outpouring of God's glory on our nation, or your moving, contempletive worship service, or your Mom, or My Mom (who gets really bummed on Mother's Day because her children ran off to South America), you can also pray for the Unreached People of the Amazon Basin.

Let's start on Sunday, May 4th at 6 a.m. and end Saturday, May 10th at 6 p.m.

I haven't yet answered the question of whether Daniel would be drinking Diet Coke.