I don’t like to jump on bandwagons very much (I mean, the name of this site is Be Deviant!), but I’ll grab a seat on Seth Godin’s bandwagon any ol’ day! Seth recently talked about “Jobs of the Future”, one such being “Online Community Organizer“. What the heck is that? The answer comes from Seth’s Blog, via Tony Steward: “Somebody to create and maintain a virtual world in which all the players in an industry feel like they need to be part of it? Like being the head of a big trade association, but without the bureaucracy and tedium.” (For those of you wanting to start Internet campuses at your church, you should pay attention to this job. You’ll need someone to do this. And do it well.)

ChurchMarketingSucks.com keeps blasting me with little fireballs like this one: “I regret the number of times I have ‘used’ people as a way to advance my agenda, regardless of how well-intentioned I may have been … We must continually ask ourselves how we add value to people and not how people add value to us.” Good grief. That one smarts!

BustedHalo.com has an extremely interesting look at why people, specifically younger people, are quitting the church: “‘The Christian world puts everyone in a little box and has no time for people who step outside it,’ she quotes one friend as saying to her over lunch. In general, people report that their spiritual needs are not being met at church. One problem is the marginalization of an increasingly educated laity by pastors who feel threatened by intelligent feedback.” There is a solution, according to the author of the article. What is it? “Get congregants more involved in church leadership.” De-centralization of church leadership anyone?

This made my day. “The Digital Pastor” appeared on the Chicago Sun-Times’ website today. Very cool.

You’ve got to read a comment left on “Can You Vote For Obama?” by reader Dave. This kid can throw! Needless to say, this is a heated topic and I must say, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the civility you’ve all shown! You guys rock. BeDeviant.com readers are classy folk.

Can you vote for Obama? Brett McCracken can’t. He cites a Princeton professor in part of his explanation why, “Barack Obama is the most extreme pro-abortion candidate ever to seek the office of President of the United States. He is the most extreme pro-abortion member of the United States Senate. Indeed, he is the most extreme pro-abortion legislator ever to serve in either house of the United States Congress…” What about you? Is this issue a deal-breaker for you? A deal-maker?

“A church is not an organization that surveys its demographic to find out what the market is demanding at this particular moment and then adjusts its strategy to meet that consumer need.” Rob Bell.

Is it just me, or is Rob Bell starting to sound a lot like he’s harboring Lutheran tendencies? Lutherans have long been comfortable embracing the paradox, the mystery of God. Consider the following from a RELEVANT interview with Robby B: “Master the art of doubt. Faith needs it to survive. Remember that the tax collectors and prostitutes loved to feast with Jesus and the religious establishment gossiped about him and dissected his teachings and questioned his commitment to orthodoxy and eventually had him killed.”

Don’t forget, we’ll be broadcasting my sermon for Immersion tonight, starting at (approximately) 8:15pm CST. Make sure you join us! Tonight is the second week in our series, “What Does the Bible Really Say About…” This week: Sex. Buckle up, it should be fun. Oh yeah! If you want to check out last week’s talk on marriage, hit us up on the Immersion podcast (link opens to iTunes).

Huzzah! BeDeviant.com made it out of the 1,000,000′s on Technorati! Our official rank is now 863,799, a modest position if there ever were one! That means out of all the blogs in all the entire known universe, BeDeviant.com is read by more people than 863,798 of them. Boy, we feel honored. Would you like to see BeDeviant.com climb the ranks of Technorati? Yes? Then favorite this blog if you’re already a member of Technorati. If you’re not, it’s high-time you sign up!