John Ortberg on Monvee and the Future of Spiritual Formation

"God is a handcrafter, not a mass producer," says John Ortberg a video promoting monvee.   Monvee is a innovative use of technology providing customized spiritual growth plans that take into account your learning style, your personality, your spiritual pathway, your stage of life and your signature sin.  Monvee allows church leaders to actually come along side their congregations and say "we want to help you become like Jesus in the way that will work best for you" rather than measuring success on how many people have been cajoled into participation in their discipleship class or small groups.  Prominent churches across the country will be launching monvee this Fall.  The video below includes some of the themes in Ortberg's newest book, The Me I Want to Be, quite possibly his best yet.


Find out more about monvee at www.monvee.com and watch this preview video.

John Ortberg's The Me I Want to Be and Monvee

John Ortberg at his best, describing God's way of developing people. "God is a hand-crafter not a mass producer." The video below is Session One from the DVD curriculum for his new book titled The Me I Want to Be: Becoming God's Best Version of You. While the title smacks a bit of self-help (ala Joel Osteen's Your Best Life Now) I'll tell you that I've read it and it is solid gospel.
The book is being released in conjunction with the most exciting use of new technology for the Kingdom I'm aware of: monvee. You can read my earlier post on monvee, or suffice it to say that monvee generates customized spiritual growth plans for users based on unique characteristics such as spiritual maturity, learning style, personality type and spiritual pathway. Recommendations come in the form of suggested devotional practices, books to read, and ways to plug into community or serving through your church. If you're a pastor who wants to help your congregation "go deeper" and find cookie-cutter programs lacking, I suggest you explore monvee.

You can watch the Monvee preview video here.
Below is a sample session from the DVD curriculum with The Me I Want to Be.

Monvee: The Intersection of Technology and Spiritual Formation

Have you heard about monvee? If not, you're in for a treat. You want to become like Jesus. So you ask a pastor, or a friend what your next step is. And they tell you what worked for them. But after two months of journaling, you feel like it's just not working, so you give up on that. You go to the Christian bookstore. You see one book prominently displayed that promises to help you grow spiritually. Then you seen another, and another, and 1000 more. You can't decide which one to buy, so you go home. You go to Google.com. You type in words like "jesus" and "spiritual growth" and you see millions of links. It's the blessing and curse of the information age: there is almost endless access to resources for spiritual growth - and virtually no unbiased, customized help for individuals like you to figure out where to start. What if you could get advice about your next step toward Christlikeness from the combined feedback of hundreds or thousands of people just like you. People who have your learning style, your spiritual pathway, folks at your stage of maturity who share your personality temperament and struggle with the same stuff as you? Welcome to monvee. It's still in developing stages, but it promises to be the most revolutionary use of internet technology for spiritual formation yet. Which is why folks like Dallas Willard, John Ortberg, Bob Buford, David Loveless, Tom Wilson, Mike Breaux and me are talking about it. (Like how I slipped myself in there?) If you're familiar with Dallas Willard's acronym for the process of spiritual growth: V.I.M. (Vision - Intention - Means) then think of Monvee as the bridge between the INTENTION to grow and the MEANS what will open you most effectively to the forming work of the Holy Spirit. It's no silver bullet, but there's nothing like it. Want to know more? Explore.

New Monvee Video

Monvee is for people who have a desire to grow spiritually, and could use some help making a plan that takes into consideration what is unique about how they were wired to learn, connect with God and bless the world.



To see my other posts on monvee click here.

The Sociology of Catalyst Conference Pt 1: Anonymous Evangelicalisms Hip New Hub

In October of 2010, 13,000 zealous Christian leaders gathered and talked about changing the world. This study applies some of the tools of the sociology of religion to an understanding of the organization behind this gathering, Catalyst. The research that informs this work includes participant observation at the annual Catalyst East Conference in Atlanta, Georgia on October 5-7, 2010, analysis of Catalyst’s presence on the internet, attention to participant comments via Twitter and relevant written sources. The primary questions pursued in this research center around the posture of Catalyst and those who affiliate with it toward the wider culture. In this respect, the work of Christian Smith and others on American evangelicals has proven immensely helpful.

This is Monvee

Ok, so I work for them. But it's still cool. Even better, if you're serious about becoming like Jesus, monvee can help.

John Ortberg on The Future of Spiritual Formation

"We've got to find a way to measure spiritual growth that doesn't have the Pharisees coming out on top."

Lines like this are worth remembering in this talk he gave at the Story Conference lunch sponsored by monvee. Ortberg begins at 4:00.


Story Conference - Monvee Lunch from Heartland Community Church on Vimeo.

John Ortberg and Jud Wilhite Video

John Ortberg and Jud Wilhite commenting on the 12-steps as a Christian way of life.

Monvee Perspectives: John Ortberg & Jud Wilhite from Monvee Video on Vimeo.

The Sociology of Catalyst Pt 5: Trying to Change the World

While all “religions create action orientations,” one of the most striking, and for some alarming, facts about Catalyst is its undeniable attention to impacting, engaging and changing the world.[38]  As Smith notes in Christian America?, evangelicals are the most “most intensely distinctive and most publically oriented subgroup of conservative Protestants.”[39]  Furthermore, as Smith documents repeatedly, the language used by some evangelicals has caused media and society generally to view them as organized and poised for a rather aggressive campaign to change the nation.

Purpose Statement for Practical Theology PhD

Two rising streams within Western Christianity seem to be flowing in opposite directions. Missional ecclesiology and spiritual formation are significantly shaping the course of the Christian church but they are rarely understood as tributaries of the same great river, whose vitality depends upon their fusion. Thus, missional ventures without spiritual currents dry up and spiritual formation efforts stagnate when disconnected from the missio dei. My interest in a PhD in Practical Theology, with a concentration in Mission and Evangelism and a minor in Spirituality, is in drawing these divergent movements into conversation, through a robust academic research project and an applied ecclesiological framework characterized by missional and formational practices in vital symbiosis.

In my research, I will explore ecclesial practices of outreach and spirituality, seeking those that promise to give shape to a fundamentally missional and formational ecclesiology. Theologically, I intend to locate the church within the biblical redemption narrative, and historically I will mine for exemplar communities that have been at once contemplative and service-oriented, such as missionary orders.

My zeal and qualifications for this course of study stem from my academic background and ministry endeavors. While earning a Bachelor of Arts in Christian Education and Ministry from Wheaton College, I provided philosophical leadership to an evangelistic ministry on Europe’s hostel circuit. This degree, along with a Master of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary, has given me firm grounding in theological, historical, biblical and educational disciplines and granted me language skills in biblical Hebrew and Greek. Burning questions about the nature of the church led me to an in-depth study of Lesslie Newbigin’s missional ecclesiology, and to missional praxis in a local congregation through a course in Church Based Urban Research. My leadership in local churches since 2002 has granted me experience as a small groups minister, church educator and mission leader. Finally, I am actively engaged in the spiritual formation movement as a member of the Renovare International Institute of Christian Spiritual Formation and as a contributor to the development and implementation of Monvee, an innovative spiritual formation webtool.

The primary catalyst for my desire to pursue doctoral study is my mounting distress over the two-headed failure of the American church: typical congregations neither bless their communities nor produce Jesus-like people. These realities, not falling attendance rates, are together a true crisis in American Christianity. My experience in two mega-churches has led me to suspect that this idolized model is complicit in the scandal. I am compelled by a sense of personal calling to present a viable alternative. To this end, I currently serve as a board member with an emerging church plant in urban San Francisco and am in discussion with Anglican Bishop Todd Hunter, founder of Churches for the Sake of Others. Bishop Hunter has expressed interest in the prospect of my research partnership as he initiates a massive missional church planting effort.

I am convinced that Boston University School of Theology’s unique collection of initiatives and faculty members make it the ideal academic environment for this course of study. The Center for Practical Theology, Congregational Research and Development Project and Spiritual Formation and Church Life Project are hubs for precisely the kind of research and praxis that give birth to original work, such as I intend to produce. The surfeit of faculty expertise in missiology, ecclesiology and spiritual formation, approached as subjects for practical theology, is unparalleled. Dr. Stone’s exceptional work in post-Christendom evangelism and new church development provide a substantial foundation on which to build. The expansive expertise in missiology of Dr. Robert and Dr. Daneel would supply the rich insight of cross-cultural praxis that informed Newbigin’s corpus. The depth and originality of Dr. Wolfteich’s contributions in spiritual formation, particularly on its intersection with justice and social action, would provide an essential element to this integrative work.

I am eager to serve the church and academy as a professor, author and congregational practitioner, believing that these roles would apply my best gifts to the highest cause: equipping churches and their leaders to facilitate transformation in individuals, congregations and their local communities. Specifically, I aspire to teach and lead in a local congregation, advise denominational leaders and teach academic courses in Ecclesiology, Practical Theology, Missional Theology, New Church Development and Revitalization, The Emerging Church, Mission in the West, Spiritual Formation and the Theology of Lesslie Newbigin.