insider info

I don’t like to slow down, but I’ ve had to for a stomach flu or food poisoning. I’m feeling a bit better now, enough to blog and make mention of 3 things:

LightsTogether.com is a new Christian social networking web app in the works, with some notable backers and funders supporting it. There’s more than a dozen of these Christian MySpace alternatives. They’re keeping a tight lid on things right now, as they continue working on the software, and run WebEx demos for church leaders to walk them through the features, and invite private beta sign-ups. The only thing in the open now is the sign-up box at LightsTogether.com – you could maybe get in on a demo before the launch anticipated for April 2007.

Visited with Lindy Lowry, the editor of Outreach Magazine, when I was in San Diego a few weeks ago. This embargoed raw photo of the current cover with Dan Kimball was shot in a hallway where they pin-up all the magazine’s pages for preview, review, and feedback. Cool to get a behind-the-scenes look at a magazine’s content in process; other photos were not released and promptly deleted. Kimball’s feature article, I Like Jesus… Not the Church, is an excerpt from his new book.

I’m not unaware of the hub-bub with the racially-offensive skit material recently published by the Skit Guys, and commend Soong-Chan Rah for being an advocate and voice to call them to corrective actions. My involvement has been to work the back channels to build relationships so that this kind of thing will not happen again. Without relationships, we’ll have endless cycles of shouting matches and misunderstandings, and nobody wants that. [update] Youth Specialties’ President has issued a public apology and corrective actions