Brandon Cox - Rewired: How Using Todays Technology Can Bring You Back to Deeper Relationships, Real Conversations, and the Age-Old Methods of Sharing Gods Love

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REWIRED by Brandon Cox
Published by Passio
Charisma Media/Charisma House Book Group
600 Rinehart Road
Lake Mary, Florida 32746
www.charismahouse.com

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwisewithout prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked AMP are from the Amplified Bible. Old Testament copyright 1965, 1987 by the Zondervan Corporation. The Amplified New Testament copyright 1954, 1958, 1987 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, International Bible Society. Used by permission.

Copyright 2014 by Brandon Cox
All rights reserved

Cover design by Marvin Eans and Bill Johnson
Design Director: Bill Johnson

Visit the authors website at brandonacox.com.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013952033
International Standard Book Number: 978-1-62136-519-8
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62136-520-4

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers and Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication.

To Angie,
the love of my life,
whom God has used
to rewire me in
all the right ways

CONTENTS

by Rick Warren

S OCIAL MEDIA is the next big communication wave. I know this to be true because Saddleback is currently experiencing exponential growth as a result of our determination to stay in front of and use every technology and innovation at our disposal to reach people for Jesus.

Years ago I wrote in the first chapter of The Purpose Driven Church about the importance of surfing spiritual waves. We dont create the waves; God sends them. We merely catch them, and wise leaders are not only on the lookout for the next big wave, but they are also ready to catch that wave.

The social media revolution is definitely a tsunami wave that must be caught. Any leader who wishes to have an increased influence for the sake of the gospel in our present world must understand the vital role that social media plays in our surrounding culture. And any leader who fails to increase their effectiveness in this area is already on the backside of an important tool in our modern global environment.

In Rewired Brandon Cox motivates not only leaders to embrace the social media wave but also to harness it for its greatest power of allthe power to spread the gospel farther and faster than ever before. When Brandon served as one of our pastors at Saddleback, he taught our staff to lead innovatively using these key principles and how to apply new social technologies to effectively expand our ministry outreach. Now, as he plants a Saddleback daughter church in northwest Arkansas, hes seeing tremendous results from these principles as they are put into action.

As a leader, you can only influence those whom you can reach. If youre truly serious about making an impact for the kingdom with the gospel message, take a listen to what this young church leader has to say and join the wave to reach everyone for Jesus!

PASTOR RICK WARREN
FOUNDING PASTOR, SADDLEBACK CHURCH
THE PEACE PLAN

O N A PERFECTLY normal day in January 2010 I received an e-mail from David Chrzan, chief of staff at Saddleback Church, with an invitation to connect by phone. At the time I was the pastor at a smaller, established church in northwest Arkansas, filling a fairly traditional pastoral role in a fairly traditional church, so Davids e-mail caught my attention. I wondered why in the world the chief of staff at one of Americas leading churches would be contacting me. We talked by phone an hour later, and David invited me to attend an upcoming leadership conference at Saddlebackexpenses paid. OK. Sure thing!

A few weeks later I flew to Orange County and enjoyed the hospitality of Saddlebacks sweet-spirited volunteers. They shuttled me from my hotel to the church campus along with the conference speakers. On the opening morning of the conference I slid into the van and took the seat right behind Andy Stanley and Jeff Henderson. The casual conversation in the van was a little surreal for a bewildered young pastor from a small church in semi-rural Arkansas. The playing field was leveled only slightly when Saddlebacks faithful security team wouldnt allow any of us to enter the building without our conference lanyards. For some reason my explanation These two guys are speakers, and I have no idea why Im heredidnt smooth things over entirely, but Davids smiling face finally popped out of the green room, and he ushered us on back.

Hanging out backstage, I kept meeting people whose books and blogs Id read, and each would ask, So, what do you do here at Saddleback? To each I would respond, I have no idea.

At lunch David invited me to join him in a special meeting with some people from the world of publishing. I took my seat in a room with editors from Leadership Journal, Christianity Today, Outreach, and other well-known Christian magazines for a discussion about the direction of social media as it relates to pastors and ministry leaders.

The conversation taking place in the room was a thrilling one for me to be involved in. I had spent a decade and a half of my life in pastoral ministry and had always had a big heart for pastors in need of help and encouragement. And within the few years leading up to this conversation, I had also taken a keen interest in the world of social media. David had noticed my work as editor of Fuel Your Blogging, a site that was well respected within its field and was part of a larger conglomerate of online magazines for creatives.

I had also signed up for Twitter early on, before celebrities joined the game, so I was actively involved in the online conversation about church communications, branding, and marketing.

David kept batting questions in my direction in that meeting, and I kept speaking up in response to themabout trends in church communications, about social media and the way the church is (or isnt) using it, about the benefits of online networking. I often disagreed with others in the room, and since I felt I had little to lose, I shared honestly about the ways in which I felt American evangelicalism was falling behind in terms of communicating the gospel and connecting leaders together.

One of the theories offered by a participant in the room evoked an emotion-filled response from me. He postulated that pastors tend to escape the real world of their church ministry into the fantasy world of social networks, where they can find fulfillment in less-than-authentic relationships. I protested, I think you have it backward. Pastors often walk out of the time warp of church on Sunday, where everyone is wearing a mask, and engage the real world in real time on Facebook.

Im not sure if anyone in that room agreed with me, but I still think Im right. Social media isnt an escape from the real world. It