A friend who blogs techreligiously about his work as university chaplain called my attention to a “blogference” (never heard that term before either) being put on by some folks involved in Campus Crusade for Christ. While I can’t vouch for any of the content yet (just getting familiar with this group), I share it more as an example of a religious community employing social media to share resources and encourage one another in ministry. The blogference plans to span three days, addressing five campus ministry-relevant topics like “Evangelistic Engagement”, “Self-Directed Leadership Development” and “Social Media and Ministry”. Each topic will have three authors posting their thoughts for blogference participants to respond to. Check out the blogference RE-Think, here. I’ve check in a few time already – in the social media and ministry discussion – and found some great resources being traded along with some useful comments.
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Read this interesting article from Paul Lamb and though you guys might be interested in reading what he has to say: “Looking even further out, as the technology becomes smarter and more interactive still, the church is likely to become highly portable and always on via mobile phones or wearable computing devices. Hopefully, churches will begin to see the advantages of these trends too, leveraging a tremendous opportunity to be always available, instead of just during formal church activities and through slightly more interactive Web sites, blogs, and social networks.”
http://www.scienceandreligiontoday.com/2010/03/26/how-should-mainstream-churches-be-using-social-media-paul-lamb-answers/
A friend wrote me last week with a snippet from an interview Father James Martin of AMERICA Magazine gave on NPR in an “All Things Considered” segment entitled “What Would Jesus Blog?” or, more cynically, “WWJB?” But Father Martin doesn’t miss a beat in his intelligent and interesting reply. have a read.
I have to admit, I’d been remiss in not reading “The Dumbest Generation” by Mark Bauerlein since it was published two or more years ago. I’d heard the segments on NPR, the talk show interviews, reviews in popular newspapers, and I felt I knew the premise and the end-of-society-as-we-know-it tone of the book. Since most of my work involves Facebook and other social media sites, I was hesitant to read a book I’d heard decries the use of such sites, and proclaims the effect of long-term exposure to Web 2.0 to be increased narcissism and insularity.
Bauerlein writes of the use of Facebook by the young, “Maturity comes, in part, through vertical modeling, relations with older people such as teachers, employers, ministers, aunts and uncles, and older siblings, along with parents, who impart adult outlooks and interests. In their example, they reveal the minor meanings of adolescent worries, showing that the authentic stakes of life surpass the feats and letdowns of high school and college. The Web (along with cell phones, teen sitcoms, and pop music), though, encourages more horizontal modeling, more raillery and mimicry of people the same age, an intensification of peer consciousness. …the screen becomes not a vein of truth but a mirror of desire.”
Bauerlein is correct in his assessment of the use of Facebook by not just the young but most adults as well. We are enticed through the RSS-ification of online content to intake only those tidbits that are most likely to fit our own interests, and to skip over anything that does not. We are also more likely to skim through pages, especially long ones, rather than reading as we would in print. And our only interactions are with people who are already our “friends,” virtually eliminating the chance encounters that happen with amazing and stimulating people in public environments. So, yes, Bauerlein is correct and makes many good points in his book.
And the Web described by Mark Bauerlein is an accurate picture of the one we know today. His arguments are based, however, on the web staying the way it is right now, or the way it was three years ago when he was writing the book. He doesn’t address the Web 2.0 outreach being done by thousands of social, humanitarian, and religious organizations on sites like Facebook. He doesn’t propose ways to reach those kids online, where they are, and he argues against researchers and academics who try to point out — allbeit without much solid evidence — that the use of new media may be developing new skills and new ways of being that will contribute to society and culture. Instead, Bauerlein closes the book with a dire warning that the youth of the current generation will “cease being dumb only when it regards adolescence as an inferior realm of petty strivings and adulthood as a realm of civic, historical, and cultural awareness that puts them in touch with the perennial ideas and struggles.”
In the end, I enjoyed the book, and at moments considered closing my Faceboook account and reading the classics again. But we’ve all seen a hundred films about the end of the world, and that plot is overused and increasingly unappreciated. I wish Bauerlein had attempted to focus on positive solutions to the problems he describes, instead of leading his readers down a path the the end of society as we know it.
Here is a, ahem, creative use of technology in a church setting as reported by the National Catholic Reporter.
via CSI meets the catechism? | National Catholic Reporter.
photo: swinkart.com
Mike Hayes is doing it again over at Googling God. That is, he’s making a case for being techreligious. This time he’s discussing a post by Michele Nuzzo-Naglieri at Headline Bistro, a blog I’ve never come across (which is not saying a whole lot), but one that looks like it should be a quick add to my regular circuit. Mike quotes Michele paraphrasing Mike explaining how and why young people today are looking for God. Mike asks the next logical question: once the Google search return a bazillion answers to a spiritual seekers’ queries, what does the seeker find? How are we – the techreligious – creating helpful, meaningful, credible places to continue the exploration? And how are we prepared to make connections and follow through on those connections. As Mike puts it, are we ready to “hustle”? Are you?
Just days after news spread that the Vatican had begun tweeting, it turns it may have been a case of mischief or worse. Looks like no one at the Vatican actually knows anything about it. CNS has the story. Another good reason to be proactive when it comes to securing your online identity, lest someone else use it for things other than spreading the Good News.
In his annual address marking the 44th World Communication Day, Pope Benedict XVI encouraged Roman Catholic priests to make use of “new media.” Not surprisinlgy, the Catholic blogosphere is abuzz here and here, just to point out a few. Full text here. Here’s a highlight.
Using new communication technologies, priests can introduce people to the life of the Church and help our contemporaries to discover the face of Christ. They will best achieve this aim if they learn, from the time of their formation, how to use these technologies in a competent and appropriate way, shaped by sound theological insights and reflecting a strong priestly spirituality grounded in constant dialogue with the Lord. Yet priests present in the world of digital communications should be less notable for their media savvy than for their priestly heart, their closeness to Christ. This will not only enliven their pastoral outreach, but also will give a “soul” to the fabric of communications that makes up the “Web”.
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
I came across this NY Times piece thanks to its mention of one of our newest Facebook fans and her web development firm. It gives a few interesting examples of churches that are exploring ways of incorporating Twitter into their services.
The story features examples of tweeting during a church service, but what about actually tweeting the service itself? That’s what a group of about 75 Twitter users have been doing each Sunday since late last year. Led by Bruce Reyes-Chow, pastor of a Bay Area church, writer and avid web 2.0 advocate & user, the group tweets prayers and thoughts throughout the day guided loosely by a traditional order of worship. Participants identify themselves as part of the tworship service by using the hashtag: #tworship and indicate various parts of the service with others like #calltoworship, #prayer, #confession, and #offering. See for yourself here. Here’s how Reyes-Chow first issued the invitation on his blog:
Okay, so here is a crazy idea: what about the Body of Christ “gathering” together each Sunday to worship God 140 characters at a time?
Oh why the heck not?
If you’re game, here’s how it will work:
* Every week on Friday or Saturday, I’ll tweet an invitation to join for “tworship” the following Sunday.
* You should Retweet the invitation in order to let your followers know what you’re up to and that they’re welcome to participate or can simply follow along via #Tworship.
* On Sunday, you should then contribute tweets to our worship experience. Tweets could be anything from scripture readings to prayers to any words of insight, thanksgiving, care or challenge. Be sure to use the hashtag #Tworship so we can all follow along. You may also want to include other hashtags such as #prayers #confession #peace #song etc to help spread the word.
* Lastly, as you have time, click on #Tworship and respond and reflect upon what other may have offered to the community that Sunday.A few assumptions and comments about Tworship.
* #Tworship is mean to gathering self-identifying Christians, but is non-denominational. We will try to refrain from forming any committees, electing any bishops or issue any encyclicals
* #Tworship does not replace any face-to-face relationships you may already have with a local congregation. It should enhance our understanding of the breadth and depth of the Christian worshiping community.
* #Tworship is open to all people and while there is no way to filter and monitor how folks interact, it is my hope that people’s offering will be challenged with care, affirmed with joy and received as God intends.
I have yet to take part in the actual tworship service myself. I have only eavesdropped (tweavesdropped?) after the fact. Nevertheless, what strikes me about the whole thing is the sense that it has a cumulative, if unintended, effect of framing the whole day in the framework of collective prayer and worship. While no one has suggested that it replace “real” church for any of its participants, I wonder if its lingering impression outlasts the typical hour-long Sunday service simply because the tworship service lasts all day. The #call to worship is initiated around 9:00 a.m. and the final #prayer this past Sunday, for example, came after 9:00 p.m. While I don’t imagine anyone obsessively refreshing their twitter client waiting for the next #tworship-tagged message to appear, I suspect that in a subtle way the tworship service might result in a sustained sense of engagement in the act of worship and in prayer with others. By regularly, if inconsistently, turning tworshippers minds and hearts back to the theme or scripture of the day with each new tweeted prayer or hymn suggestion, the tworship service keeps stretches out the experience of corporate worship, perhaps somewhat lazily, throughout the day.
Another essential dimension of this twitter experiment is the fact that, as far as I can tell, this tworshipping community is made up of people that already have some kind of relationship with each other. They may not all be friends and certainly are not all members of the same faith community, but they seems to all be connected, through a few key leaders or interests. The tworship service is not, therefore, being offered by a tech-savvy upstart church as a gimmick to evangelize young people via Twitter. Nor is it a marketing tactic designed to gain an audience for the pastor or even to “do” church in a creative way. It reinforces my belief that social media employed by faith groups is most effective when used to strengthen existing communities, helping people who already know each other – even if just a little bit – get to know each other better. Most of the hype around using Facebook and Twitter among faith communities parrots what we hear from brand marketer and knowledge experts: acquire new followers; make new friends. This makes sense if you need to reach generic masses to sell them a new phone, but it doesn’t make as much sense when you’re trying to cultivate authentic relationships based on mutual care with an identifiable group of people. Sharing honestly around a common set of ideas and concepts is what authentic communities do. Reyes-Chow and his community of tworshippers are doing just that. No one is selling anything, including religion.
These are my impressions. It would be great to actually hear from them. I plan to reach out to them and get their take.
Jonathan Sullivan, the IT director for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield offers an introduction to Facebook, MySpace, and Linkedin for teachers in his diocese, here. He also covers Digg, del.ico.us, Twitter, and a few social games. He ends with some Free Advice for anyone considering getting involved along with advice for teachers. If you’re a complete newbie, Sullivan’s presentation is worth the time.
