Tribes by Seth Godin

I recently purchased and read Tribes by Seth Godin, because the term Tribe is becoming one of those fad terms and I was interested in seeing what all the fuss is about.  The book was a quick read with an interesting layout that I was not fond of (i.e. No chapters.  Somewhat random thoughts sprinkled together).

All in all Seth provides encouraging words for people to rise up and lead their tribe, which encouraged the writing of this post.

What is a Tribe?

Seth defines a tribe as,

…a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea.  For millions of years, human beings have been part of one tribe or another.  A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate… (pg. 1).

When reading Christian oriented blogs, the most obvious way that tribes is used is when referring to the group of people that the leader has influence over or a bloggers regular readers.

The Size of our Tribe is Determined By God

In further defining tribe, Seth goes on to emphasize,

You can’t have a tribe without a leader – and you can’t be a leader without a tribe (pgs. 1-2)

Every ministry leader and blogger has a tribe.  That’s a given.  Why else would you be considered a leader or a blogger if you didn’t have a tribe?

My personal concern is not with something that leads a tribe; my concern within the Kingdom of God is that we get caught up in increasing the size of our tribe for the sake of doing so.

As a blogger I find myself constantly checking my “stats” to see how many visitors I’ve had and think of ways that I can expand my tribe. When I consider the future in serving as a Pastor, Teacher, Church Planter, or whatever, my thoughts at times revolve more around being worldwide in my reach, rather than tending to those that I can touch.

In the midst of this self-seeking, self-exalting, sin tainted moment, the LORD is gracious to pull me out of this pit and remind me of something from His word (1 Cor. 2.6-7):

You are responsible for the depth of your tribe, not the size of your tribe.

Regardless of the role and responsibility that we have in the Kingdom of God, our responsibility is never for the size of our tribe, but the depth of our tribe.  As we tend to the current tribe the LORD has given us the responsibility to lead, He’ll take care of the size of the tribe that we lead.

Along with me, I encourage you to graciously examine yourself to see what your motives our for not only leading a tribe, but for expanding the size of your tribe.

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Have you ever disagreed with someone on anything?  Well, if you haven’t, you’re probably lying.  There is an art to disagreeing and disagreeing well.  I think this is especially important for some of the most opinionated people in the world: bloggers and their tribe (i.e. regular readers).

Some time today, tomorrow, or next week, you will be placed in a position where you disagree.  There’s not only a way to say your disagreement, there is a manner that your disagreement can be said in as well.

Today I would like to equip you with the 6 keys to disagreeing well and improving your blogging and commenting etiquette.

The following 6 keys stem from Gordon Fee’s New Testament Exegesis (pg s. 33).  Even though he was writing these in regards to disagreeing with commentators on a passage from the Bible, I believe they can be tweaked to equip bloggers and their tribe

6 Keys to Disagreeing Well:

1. Understand what is being said

If you’re not sure what is being said, then do this first:

Ask clarifying questions.

Immerse yourself in what they’re saying.  See it as they mean it.  Don’t disagree with someone until you know that you’re disagreeing with what they’re actually saying.

WARNING: If you neglect this key and apply the rest of what I have to say then you’re going to be rude and annoying.  I figured I should go ahead and let you know

2. Show where the person is misinformed.

People at times will right with misinformation.  That is, they have cited incorrect evidence or have misinterpreted the material they’re talking about.

Instead of attacking someone with a barrage of verbal assaults and angry emoticons, I would recommend that you first begin with asking a question like this,

“Based upon the information, how did you come to your conclusion?”

At this point, just sit and wait for a response

If you hear back from them and they say something you disagree with and their adamant in their position, don’t lambast them or burn them in effigy.  Just ask them a question to get them to consider another perspective, like this, “Have you ever considered ____?”

3. Show where they are uninformed.

Nothing like talking to someone that’s a “know-it-all.”  You know who I’m talking about; the person that knows everything about everything.  Other than being annoyed, I usually just ignore them and don’t say anything unless I’m bored and want to ruffle their feathers.

Obviously everyone that is uninformed is not a know-it-all, so there is a different way that we should disagree with these folks.

Personally, I would approach this person in the same way that I would approach someone that is misinformed.  There may be information they’re lacking and don’t even know.  This is especially true in fields like technology, medicine, and archaeology that have constant changes, findings, and discoveries.

Besides, this approach is still best in leading the person to reconsider their conclusion on a lack of information.

4. Show where they are inconsistent.

Is someone using inconsistent logic in their writing?  Sometimes this is hard to find, but other times it’s fairly simple.

For instance, in Christian blogs you can observe this in someone’s argument for abstinence from alcohol.  Their logic typically goes like this:

Alcohol itself is not bad, but people abuse alcohol; therefore, we should abstain from drinking it.

Where people become inconsistent at this point is if they refuse to apply this same logic to other categories, say women.

Women are not bad, but people abuse women; therefore, we should abstain from women.

Although people abuse women, this doesn’t mean that we have to become celibate.

5. Show where they misinterpret information with either faulty assumptions and procedures

One thing that we as human beings can never avoid is our presuppositions.  Our presuppositions do influence the way that we see the world and interpret information.  It’s important that we’re aware of our presuppositions and how they influence the information that we’re looking at.

If we’re not humble in our procedures – the steps that we take – in coming to our conclusion, then our presuppositions may wrongfully influence our conclusion.

To determine if someone is falling victim to this, then I would encourage you to ask questions to get a better idea of their personal beliefs, which will lead you to better understand how they interpreted any given information.

6. Show where they make valuable contributions to the discussion at hand.

There are countless bloggers in the world and the vast majority of them spend time writing and developing their blogs.  If you come across something that you like, then by all means let them know.  This is a great way to encourage and support their work.

Not only would I leave an encouraging comment, but I would also suggest referring them to your friends (Shameful plug?  Perhaps).

On another note, if you’re new to someone’s blog and are commenting a disagreement for the first time, I would suggest refraining from saying anything negative until you establish rapport with the author.

I will admit that I don’t follow this to a “t” myself.  What I like to do if I have a disagreement with someone and am commenting for the first time, I like to provide a brief introduction and attempt to phrase my words in a cordial manner (see Comment 71).

3 Steps to Becoming Skilled at Disagreeing

Since you will inevitably disagree with someone in the near future, it will be important to engrain these keys to ensure that you disagree well.  To help you become skilled at disagreeing, I recommend the following 3 steps:

1. Save this post as a bookmark and use it as a template when disagreeing with someone.
2. Browse my own site, find something you disagree with and let me know.
3. If you blog, share this with your own tribe and have them disagree with your own work.

Thanks for reading and I hope that this article was helpful to you

[Question:  Are there other keys that you would add to disagreeing well?]

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From Eric Carpenter at A Pilgrim’s Progress.  Wise words for those of us in the blogosphere who are Christians, especially of the Reformed bent.  I’ll look to heed his words, what about you?

I just ran the A Pilgrim’s Progress numbers for the past couple of months. In November and December, I have posted 85 times. Some of the posts have been extensive essays, while others have been little more than links to other blogs, webpages, etc.

Of the 85 posts, 56 of them lean toward the positive. In other words, they have a positive feel to them. The other 29 posts leaned toward the negative. This does not mean that I was being mean or nasty; it just means that the tone of those 29 posts was negative.

 

Those numbers are not quite where I think they need to be. As a follower of Jesus Christ, I want this blog to lean more heavily to the positive. There are plenty of other non-Christian writers out there with a lot of negative things to write about. If anyone has anything positive and substantial to say, it should be Christian bloggers.

This is not “pie-in-the-sky” naiveté. There are certainly some issues that need to be addressed that will necessarily (if we look at the issue or situation from a biblical perspective) have a negative tone. Whenever we deal with sin, for example, this happens.

 

My goal from this point forward is to have at least a 2-to-1 ratio of positive to negative blog posts. Since the beginning of November I’ve been just under this goal. I’m going to strive to move up a few percentage points.

 

Christian blogs should be edifying to Christian readers. They should be challenging to non-Christian readers. They should speak the truth in love to all. I believe this is done most effectively by presenting a largely positive blogging atmosphere.

 

My goal from here forward is more positive-bent blogging. 

Today there are countless websites and within this sea of information, many people tend to navigate these waters by following a select few.  Instead of fishing for our favorite websites every time we log onto the Internet, wouldn’t it be nice to automatically receive updates from your favorite sites?  This is where RSS comes into play.

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syn-di-cation.”  Personally, I’m what you would consider, “technically declined.” So if this definition doesn’t help you any, don’t worry, it doesn’t do anything for me either.  This is why I liked the definition for RSS found on Back in Skinny Jeans, “Ready for Some Stories.”

What I found – and what I am growing to love and appreciate – is that an RSS subscription to websites and blogs – such as Pre-em-i-nence (shameless plug) – provides the subscriber with automatic updates.  Instead of having to remember website and blog addresses, bookmarking them, or manually typing in their address, you can subscribe to them via their RSS feed and receive updates.  This way you save time sailing the expanse of the ocean in search of your favorite websites and blogs.

I know this is great and all, but how do you actually use RSS?  Read the rest of this entry »