The last post on this blog was the end of May. For June and July, the Hacking Christianity blog was silent, even though our social media accounts were as active as ever.
Here’s what’s going on, and what’s coming next.
1. Rebrand
Our logo and site design is from 2014, and little has been invested in the blog beyond a webhost move in 2019. A rebrand effort is underway to better clarify what the website is about. It’s not a redirection: you’ll still find as much geeky, progressive, and United Methodist commentary as before. We’ve kept that focus for 12 years, not turning away now! Just more focused and clear for the next 12 years. Fun stuff, just taking longer than I expected!
What this means is that a lot of content is written, but being held back until the rebrand is done. But it’ll start leaking out next week because I can’t bear to hold back any longer! 🙂
If you and I are connected on social media, send me a message if you want to be part of the beta-testing team for the rebranding.
2. COVID-19 and Local Church
This should be obvious: every church in the world is dealing with how COVID affects local churches and denominational systems. So the majority of my creative thinking has gone to my local church and region, as they get my first priority.
This blog has articles about virtual church and technology dating back to 2011, so it’s a great topic for Hacking Christianity, but the part I didn’t know before was how exhausting virtual Christianity is. While I’m doing well, I’m not as able to multitask creative outlets as my congregation needs more of my bandwidth.
This summer, in some ways, has been a recovery to my creativity and energy, thanks to my local church, so I’m glad to be turning the corner from reaction to initiation.
3. Black Lives Matter!
The world didn’t need another white man writing about race this summer, as people who identify as black, indigenous, and persons of color were rightly centered after the murder of George Floyd and the demands for accountability to policing and justice systems around the United States, with protests nightly in my region of the northwest (Seattle and Portland). I support these efforts but didn’t feel it was right to distract people from listening to BIPOC voices by adding my own to the mix, so I shared many of their stories and articles and calls to action on social media directly.
Many Christians of all ethnicities now have frontline experience at protest, or are more engaged in conversations around racism and anti-racism. This is now a season when protest Christianity is becoming more well known (it’s always been there), so nurturing that form of Christianity that “hacks” unjust systems will continue to be a focus going forward, including my own and others continued learnings on how to become anti-racist and develop that lens to better examine church and society.
Let me know how I can better do this work in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in the comments.
Coming soon!
So much is at stake in the coming months for church and world, and I’m excited to be back in the thick of it. Thank you to the community for this respite, and I’ll earn your readership and engagement again in the coming weeks.
As usual, if you are wanting a place to send your own content to engage a new audience, send me your submissions here.
Blessings, ~Jeremy
I would like to participate in the beta testing. I have greatly enjoyed and benefited from reading your posts. I am a member of Burke UMC in Burke, VA, an inclusive church which cannot accept the decisions made at GC 2019.
Looking forward to your “re-do”.
Similarly, do you know what’s happened to UM Centrist Movement? Like you both very much.
In the second quarter and the first half of 2020, 30.8 million people were affected by COVID-19 pandemic, including 2.4 million workers who became unemployed. The ratio of unemployment rose 2.73 percent in the whole country and 4.46 percent in urban areas. About 17 million people suffered from income reduction due to the pandemic. Amidst the effects of the second wave of COVID-19, the PM required the Government to outline policies for the remaining five months of 2020, especially those in social welfare and labourers.