This is not theological, but rather news-about-my-job related: I just pressed the launch button (if only there were a real launch button) on the first piece of my first large project: Virtual Attendance for InterVarsity’s Multiethnic Staff Conference.

When I came onboard, the idea was to offer recorded versions of the main sessions of the conference for staff to view after the fact. Thinking back to my (oh-so-long-ago) time as campus staff, I pushed for livestreaming (which they had considered) for the sake of getting non-attending staff involved right then, rather than “when I get to it.”

Well, it morphed into the entire concept of “virtual attendance”, replete with a registration form, special videos, a Twitter hash tag (#MESC12), and an entirely separate schedule and packet of handouts. We’re recruiting viewing party hosts and virtual attendees and just trying to get this whole virtual attendance concept up and running.

So, today we launched the actual informational site. It’s currently only viewable by InterVarsity staff, but I’ll link it up here if the decision is made to make it public.

Whew. That’s a big project, unloaded. Next step: Recruit viewing party hosts, recruit virtual attendance participants, cast the vision for all staff in InterVartity to participate, develop the virtual attendance schedule, and make plans for how social media and the web site will be structured and will interact during the conference itself.

After March 9 (the day the conference is over), I’ll start an entirely new set of responsibilities, and I’m equally excited about them. There will be plenty of web and social media, but there’s also the opportunities to network with thinkers and doers, edit memoirs and treatises (not really treatises, but I just like the word), and write/videotape/create. This is the good, meaty stuff.

For now, though, I’m going to rest–just for a few days–on the joy of having launched this portion of the site, and then it’s back to the grind.

One quick note: This project was not only “my project,” but was a collaborative effort of the entire Communications team. It wouldn’t have happened without the work that was done prior to my arrival, the group brainstorming sessions, or the videos and other materials produced by other members of the team.

Have you ever heard someone tell you to replace the phrase “the world” in John 3:16 with your name? (Don’t judge me–I stole this illustration from several sermons I’ve heard about communal Christianity) “For God so loved Matt that he gave his only son…”

This is a great technique to help children and new believers understand God’s personal interest in and love for them, but it also reveals a dangerous tendency we have when reading Scripture: to see God’s interests as pertaining only to us as individuals. It’s a common malady in the American Evangelical and Fundamentalist church, especially in Charismatic and Pentecostal circles. We excel in seeking intimacy and communion with God, but we tend to fall a little short in walking out our faith outside of the quiet place and worship gatherings.

It has been powerfully transformative for me to learn, slowly, how God desires each of our faiths to be both communal and public. I’ve learned that my narrow view of God’s purposes for my faith have affected my understanding of mission and salvation, limiting them to ”God came to save me, and now I should be good until Heaven (and maybe tell some other people God wants to save them too).” Instead, I’m learning, he has plans for using me (little old me) as a part of his work in the world.

The communal aspect of God’s intention for our faith is made very clear in Biblical language (for which reason I will forever advocate the incorporate of the word “Y’all” into the formal English language; how many times does God address a group of people and yet we read the word “you”, hear a singular word, and think it’s directly to us?). This is also the case in most liturgical language, which is filled with “we” and “us”–one of the reasons I love that my Charismatic upbringing was rooted in the Lutheran tradition. So even if I struggle with that at times, it’s been the easier jump.

But the big jump for me has been learning how to have a faith that is also public. By “public”, I mean a faith that is not separate from the rest of my life–perhaps the word “integrated” would be more fitting. It’s not God or school, it’s God and school. It’s not God or the workplace, it’s God and the workplace. It’s not God or my non-Christian friends, it’s God and my non-Christian friends. And, more recently, it’s not God or Twitter/Facebook/Internet, it’s God and Twitter/Facebook/Internet.

So, in each of these contexts, the question becomes: How do I combine both honor and love God so much that his presence saturates my every word and movement, and also understand and relate in contexts that aren’t inherently Godly? What’s the right place between being that guy on Facebook who never posts anything but the Bible verse he read that morning (self-righteously, often enough) and being someone whose Twitter presence has no indication whatsoever that they follow the LORD? How do I become a light and a blessing in my workplace? How do I both seek to be the “cool Christian”, meaning my friends know they can talk to me without being trampled upon, and yet avoid being the “cool Christian”, meaning I’m so afraid to stand up for anything that I might as well not be a Christian at all?

I think my constant desire for integrity plays a huge role here, because the question I’m asking here is really, “How do I find a way to act, believe, think, relate outside of church the same I do in church (or in my prayer time or with all Christian friends or whatever)?”

How do I insure that I’ll never act in a way that I’d be embarrassed about when viewed from another context? How do I maintain integrity?

Lots of questions. LORD, help me be a man of character and integrity.