Tribal Church

My friend, Ruth Everhart, reminds me that genius constellations have often formed. They are pockets of brilliance, where we can see how people worked together and fed each other with their creativity. Whether it was the Harlem Renaissance, the Paris Impressionists, or the Delta Blues musicians, there have been points in history where men and women have gained courage and inspiration from each other’s ideas. They have stretched each other, making their friends into better artists, writers, and professionals.

There is another sort of constellation now, one that connects our brilliant ideas and passions through vast space. Through the Internet and our ability to publish our theories, disseminate ideas, and organize people through it, community forms and friendships emerge, and people who were once segregated are able to hear one another and live together in a different way.

Speaking to one another face-to-face, seeing the expressions, and hearing the tremble in each voice has not waned in importance; it is just that we have various other tools that can enhance our personal expressions and make our interpersonal communication even deeper.

Just as the printing press revolutionized the printed written word with its ability to disperse information in an inexpensive and efficient manner, we are experience experiencing the same sort of transformation in our communication. Now, connections of like-minded people no longer have to congregate in one location to communicate, share ideas, organize, and spark one another’s imaginations, but can instead form constellations of thought no matter how far apart their geographical locations.

Even with the dangers of on-line communications, and even though such communication is unlikely ever to completely replace face-to-face interaction, we recognize the that blogging and social networking communities can be important avenues for ministry and pastoral care, empowering people to communicate freely their ideas, passions, questions, and doubts.

Right now, these constellations are forming, but the men and women do not have to sit around the same café table in order for the constellation of ideas to spark one another. Where do you see them? What effect do you think all of this will have on the church?

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Season Two of God Complex Radio has begun, and Bruce Reyes-Chow had a wonderful conversation with Diana Butler-Bass. Join us as we talk about civility and graciousness.

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Stories have always been important for humans, but they seem to be taking a new form and vitality in our culture. With our reaction to the information age and our longing for vibrant community, there is a revival of the narrative in our everyday lives.

I began to understand the importance of stories when I stood before the intergenerational group of men and women, leading a conference for an Episcopal Church diocese. I asked people in the crowd, “What formed your generation? What sort of music, technological developments, political events, religious movements and social trends helped to shape who you are today?”

It’s always a fascinating exercise, and that day was no exception. A journalist and church leader in her early twenties raised her hand, “Ever since I can remember, we’ve had the Internet. So, I’ve had every fact available—even news from around the world—at my fingertips.”

“Yes!” I yelled, with excitement. “Amazing things have developed.” I began to prattle on enthusiastically, until I noticed the concern on her face.

“No,” she stopped me. “You don’t understand. Every fact has been available,” she repeated, and this time I saw her furrowed brow. “It’s kind of scary.”

Her comment hides in the back of my mind, and every once in a while I invite it to the forefront so that I can roll it over, imagining the implications of growing up with news and data so readily available. How does this proliferation of information impact the ways in which we communicate? How does it affect our congregations and religious movements?

Looking across popular culture in a new generation, it seems that this crucial shift of information accessibility has made our stories more important. The business writer, Daniel Pink, makes the case in A Whole New Mind that with this inundation of data, facts have become cheap, and stories have more impact. We no longer vault our statistical information in ivory towers, waiting for some professor’s steadfast and dedicated assistant to set them free for the rest of us to consume in a scholarly journal. Now, research data can be readily procured, with a few keystrokes. “When facts become so widely available and instantly accessible,” Pink writes, “each one becomes less valuable. What begins to matter more is the ability to place these facts in context and to deliver them with emotional impact.”

I wonder if we’re learning about this important cultural shift in our preaching classes. In a time when much of our scriptural interpretation includes a long process of gathering facts and information, are we learning ways in which we can present them with emotional impact? Should that be a concern in our preaching? Or is too much emotionalism manipulative in the pulpit?

photo is by Bibimorvarid

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We just released the first episode of the new season for God Complex Radio! Bruce Reyes-Chow and I have conversations with Brian McLaren, Abby King Kaiser, and Fritz Gutwein.

Please, take a listen and tell us what you think. Bruce, Landon, and I are really excited about it.

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Last week, I helped to lead a Moderators’ Conference on the blessings and burdens of technology. There were so many things that were fascinating about the dynamics of the meeting. It was a conference for the moderators of middle governing bodies (Synods and Presbyteries, if you’re conversant in Preby-ese).

Usually, when I teach conferences, people show up because they want to know about the topic. But this was different. People needed the Moderator training, and that’s why they were there. The technology stuff had very mixed reviews.

It was invigorating in so many ways. There were people who did not know the possibilities that social media presented. So when we talked about evangelism, and how congregations are using web 2.0 to reach out through sermon podcasts, blogs, and review sites, a light went on for many. All of a sudden, that command to reach the ends of the earth became a palpable reality.

In fact, we not only talked about this, but we saw it happen. At one point in the conference, there were about 150 Moderators in the room, but we were Ustreaming the event, so 940 people were watching it over the Internet.

Other people were not learning as much, but they were sharing what they were already doing in their own congregations, giving me great insight into what’s possible.

When we talked about being able to communicate with each other, about the meeting possibilities, we heard how people used to drive three and a half hours for an hour meeting, and then got in their cars to drive another three and a half hour drive. Now men and women can use Skype to meet with each other, and they can save the seven-hour drives for special occasions.

Many church leaders are conducting Bible studies on Facebook, allowing for busy parents to get the faith formation that they need. And when a pastor found that the elderly women in his church no longer wanted to brave driving in the dark for a study, he taught them how to set up a Facebok page and talk about the Scriptures there.

And of course, we talked about the ability to form communities and tribes through social networking. How our face-to-face communication is enhanced by Internet contact. I certainly found that as I was leading the conference with two Twitter friends. I had never met Melissa DeRosia, but I felt like we were old friends, because of our online interactions.

Even though there was this very exciting part of the conference conversation, there was also a frustrating undercurrent. People were worried about not having control over photos, comments, and content. They wanted to know who had oversight over the Presbyterian gathering in Second Life. People wanted their Presbyteries to have social media policies in place before they experimented, and some were shocked that I hadn’t set up rules and regulations before I jumped in.

I shrugged and said, “Well, I guess we’ll come up with the policy when we run into problems.” (This is when I’m reminded that I was not born and bred Presbyterian. I was raised by an inventor, which makes me approach technology differently.)

Other people were very angry over what they perceived as a generational issue. There was an idea that this was all for the “young folks” and once you get to a certain age, there’s no reason to learn it. They were angry that I would even suggest these tools for people who were over seventy.

It reminded me that the digital divide is not only between the rich and poor, but can also be with people of different generations. But…actually…it’s not really about age. There are people much older than me who are very wired, and people who are younger who hate looking at a screen after having to look at one all day at work.

After all was said and done, I took great comfort in Byron Anthony Wade’s words. He kept reminding me, “We’re just sowing seeds here. Some will grow. Some won’t.”

Good words to hear.

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I’m over at the Faith and Leadership blog this morning. Feel free to join the conversation going on at Duke’s site!

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Good morning! I’ll check in later today, but this morning, I need to prep for our conversation with Bishop Will Willimon on God Complex Radio. I’m sure that I’ll have a lot to reflect on when I’m done….

The show is going really well. We’re learning a lot, and it’s been wonderful to work with the staff, talk to Bruce Reyes-Chow and interview some amazing people, like Frank Schaefer, Barbara Brown Taylor, and Margaret Sartor. Our audience is growing, mostly with people who download. And interest is expanding as well… including funding/sponsorship interest. So, I’ll have more details later, but for now, it’s an exciting time of transition for us.

I get a lot of questions about how to listen to it. It’s pretty easy. You don’t have to listen to it live. If you use iTunes, you can download it from there (just search for God Complex Radio in podcasts), or you can go to the Blog Talk Radio Site, look for the episode you want, and press play. Or, of course, you can always listen to the last few episodes by pressing on the one you want on the Blog Talk Radio widget on the right column of this blog.

It’s not too difficult, and if you need help, just let me know (teammerritt at mac dot com).

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I recently taught a Social Media Strategies webinar for Alban. Here are some of the questions that came out of our time together.

Q: I’m intensely busy as a solo pastor. Blogging sounds like it will take up a lot of time. How much time to I have to devote to blogging to make it effective?

It varies greatly, depending on how much you enjoy it. Right now, I spend about two hours a week on my blog. When I’m blogging more frequently, I spend five hours (but, of course, a lot of that has to do with my work as a writer). I did a quick twitter survey of other bloggers and they said that they spend about two to five hours on it (the person who spends five hours is Drew Tatusko at Notes from Off-Center, and he is very prolific).

Q: Does the “host” of my blog make a difference as to how much traffic we get, particularly surfers? (I’m hoping the blog might be an evangelism tool.)

Yes! If you would like for your blog to become an evangelism tool, then make sure that you are hooked into your local networks. For instance, your local paper might have a blog roll, or there might be a blog roll for your city or state, or blogging meetups.

You can blog about things going on in your neighborhood, what’s happening in the local PTA, or relevant news items. Link to local businesses and reflect on articles in your local paper.

The interesting thing about blogs is that they are not geographically specific, so you might be evangelizing around the world, but not necessarily in your neighborhood. If your intent is to reach out to people and draw them into your congregation, then you can makes sure that your posts are of local interest.

Q: Could we learn some of the ways pastors use blogs in sermon preparation? Or leadership development?

There are some wonderful resources for sermon preparation. Christian Century has a regular Monday series called “Blogging Toward Sunday.” Here is the link for this week’s passage.

RevGalBlogPals discuss “Lectionary Leanings” on Tuesdays. They also have a Saturday sermon writing party, where I’ve gleaned ideas and last-minute inspiration.

On the Presbyterian Bloggers site, Wednesdays are typically the day for “Lectionary Ruminations.”

A forum for Methodists can be found here.

If you are on Twitter, we are beginning to use the hashtag #sermonprep. So, you can write a question about the passage and add #sermonprep to the question. Then people can search #sermonprep on the right sidebar and discuss the topic with you.

As far as Leadership Development goes, Alban has a lot of resources. I enjoy Jan Edminston’s blog. She is experienced, witty, and writes a lot about pastoring in the 21st Century.

I know there’s a lot more. What’s your favorite site? What else is out there?

Q: What if you do not want some of your responders’ Blog address affiliated with one’s own blog?

You can easily delete the comment, or even disconnect their link (although I probably wouldn’t do that).

I think that most people understand that a blogger is not condoning another site, because their comment is on your site, but I do understand the concern.

As the blogger, you can moderate all the comments (they only appear if you approve them). I haven’t found that I’ve needed to. I’ve only had a couple of inappropriate comments since I’ve been blogging.

Q: From the standpoint of a local church trying to communicate within the congregation, (not an individual who likes to write or publish), doesn’t a web page combined with email blasts, accomplish the same thing?

It could accomplish a lot of the same things. The differences would be that an email blast only goes out to those who are on your email list. And, unfortunately, email is becoming more and more of a bother for some people.

The other thing that a blog will do is that you can have a conversation among a large group of people, without it filling up people’s inboxes with responses. So, a blog is better for reaching out and for conversation.

Q: Carol said blogs are replacing websites. Our congregation is attracting many under the age of 35 and finding that (plus those who are over 35) are finding us because we have great website. Why would we consider replacing the website with a blog?

Yes, there are some instances when blogs are replacing websites, because they are much easier to set up, and a church does not need a webmaster to put one up. But, I still prefer a website with a blog page. If your congregation is attracting many people under 35 with your site, then GREAT! You definitely don’t want to replace a good site… except, of course, to update it, when needed.

Lynn Baab has a good discussion on this in her book Reaching out in a Networked World.

Q: Boundaries: can I have a truly personal Facebook page?

Yes, there are privacy settings that are helpful. Although… I generally don’t place anything on Facebook that I wouldn’t want to be public knowledge. I may be too cautious, I don’t know.

Q: What about putting pictures of congregants on facebook group – I assume there are legal issues?

We talked about this a lot when we set up our church page, but our discussions were more concerned about photos of children. We do not post children’s photos, but we assume that most of our congregation members will let us know if there’s a problem with putting their photo on the page.

Q: Could we hear more about the “why” a church would use Facebook or Twitter.

Many of your church members are already on Facebook, and some of them might be on Twitter. So, as Aaron Spiegel said during the webinar, it is a great way to reach people where they are. Facebook and Twitter are both ways to stay connected with your congregation throughout the week. You can let them know about upcoming events, share interesting resources, and learn more about their lives.

Q: Can you twitter from your computer or do you have to be able to textmail on a phone?

You can Twitter from your computer or your phone. I only Twitter from my computer.

Q: I had been sending out to congregants a weekly lesson who would give us their emails and would get in their email the article I wrote. I was thinking of doing a blog instead, but would that be as effective in getting the lessons out to people?

That sounds like a wonderful idea!

A blog would allow for more discussion and input. And, it would reach more people than the email list does. The one drawback that I see is that people may not check the blog. You could send out an email reminder with the link.

Q: How does Twitter compare with text messaging? Why Twitter as opposed to other venues?

Twitter is a lot like text messaging, but you are sending your message to a larger group of people. I think Twitter is attractive to people because it is so easy. It’s only 140 characters.

For instance, you can follow @albaninstitute, and they will inform you about new religious studies, relevant technology news, and interesting articles.

Another thing that it is helpful is hashtags (# and an abbreviation). For instance, if you have set up a Twitter account (go on, it’s easy!), you can write something and use the hashtag #albanisms (short for Alban Institute Social Media Strategies). You can write some more questions, or write something that you learned from the seminar, or your favorite blog. Then, you can search for #albanisms and share resources with other people who took the webinar.

Q: What is the role of facebook in the church as opposed to twitter or blog?

More people are on Facebook than Twitter. Sending a message on Facebook is a lot easier than sending an email because you don’t have to track down the person’s exact email address. Facebook is great for sharing photos, sending Birthday greetings, and sending an invitation.

The downside to Facebook is that it is more closed than a Blog. I also think that Blogs can be much more aesthetically pleasing (for instance, check out Jon Fogle’s blog, that he set up after the webinar. It’s beautiful!)

Of course, you can have the best of both worlds. You can connect your blog and church facebook page together.

Q: My experience is that this is all very time-consuming! How much time per week on social networking sites have you found to be effective? Also How much time do you spend on these tools? When we have so much to do, what is reasonable?

There are a lot of questions about the time it takes. Yes, it can be time-consuming. I just find that for many people, social networking is just a part of their rhythm of life.

I guess it would be like asking my mother, “Why do you use the telephone? It is so time-consuming!” The fact is, she is on the phone to socialize, and network, and do business all the time, and no one questions it. These are just different tools to do the same sort of thing.

Finally, if Social Media feels like an energy drain or a chore that you don’t feel like doing, then you don’t have to do it. Right now, it is a wonderful tool for reaching people, but my personal guideline is that I’ll do it as long as it is fun. When it quits being fun, then I’ll stop.

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When I was a teenager, I was good friends with this guy. He used to ask me out. A lot. After a while, I said yes (I’m not sure why. I think my brother talked me into it…).

We met, I got into the car, and then we drove. Not to a restaurant. Not to the movies. But to a grocery store 24 miles away from my home. I was completely confused, and I was even more bewildered when we went into the store, and he didn’t buy anything. We just sort of wandered the aisles without a cart, then we went outside, until he found what he needed. It was another girl, who was gathering carts in the lot. She was worn-out, and at the end of her shift.

He introduced me to her. And, after a couple of moments of painfully awkward conversation, I realized that she was someone that he had just broken up with, and he wanted to make sure she knew that he had moved on.

Or was he trying to make me feel jealous?

Who knows. It was just one of those weird things that people do when they are in high school. Whatever it was, the ex looked crushed and I thought it was quite cruel that he went out of our way to make sure that she saw me. Not to mention a waste of my night. Clearly, in my mind, any “date” that might have occurred that night was over as quickly as it began.

My friend was not so eager to give it up though. In the midst of that long, miserable “you’re just not the guy for me” month, I found him, late one night, outside of my window, hiding in the shadows, watching me.

I’m not sure how often he did it. That may have been the only time. But, it wasn’t the only time that I was stalked. Usually, it was in the midst of adolescent angst, when we had all of those heightened hormonal emotions and feeling of rejection.

I bring all of this up because I just led a webinar on Social Media Strategies for Alban, and there were questions from a woman who identified herself as single. She had concerns that were particular to her context, and they made me wonder…. Plus, my husband was out of town, and so I found myself less willing to Twitter my every move. I would write down what I did after I was done, but not beforehand.

I guess it made me aware of the vulnerable position we put ourselves in, as women and/or as pastors.

I wonder if we need to think about these things a bit more. Put together a Smart Women’s Social Media Safety Guide or a Clergy Cyber-Stalk Protection Policy. ‘Cause, face it, whether we are women or men, we’ve all had one of those parishioners who takes a little too much interest in what we’re up to.

Maybe that’s going too far, but I guess we could at least talk about the potential dangers. If you feel like you might be cyber-stalked, what do you do? What do you leave out of your updates? Do you have any general guidelines to keep you safe?

photo by O C E A N

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I was leading a conference, and I asked a question. The people in the room answered it, and an academic guy twittered the question to his followers.

His wife hit him. Just on the arm. Then, she told him to put the iPhone up because he was being rude.

Academic guy came up to me during a break, and asked if he was being rude. Although I don’t often like taking sides in marital disputes, I had to say. “No.”

I like it when people twitter during conferences, and even worship. This is why…

There is always a bit of tug-of-war going on with me when I’m doing presentations. Especially when they’re short ones. You see, it’s proven that most people don’t really remember things unless they have had a chance to talk. Think about it, the next time you attend a lecture or a workshop. The facts that I always remember the most are the ones that I have engaged with, through discussion or even an argument.

So I try to make sure that there’s a bit of space for people kick certain topics around. Discuss them, explore how they apply to their situations. I usually encourage disagreement.

But then I can get feedback that people did not come to hear the pastor down the road talk, they came to hear the presenter talk. If I don’t get through the material, participants get frustrated and feel cheated.

But, twittering gives people an opportunity to write down what I say, ask me questions, talk to other people, without necessarily disturbing the flow of conversation at the moment. So it’s like we can have the best of both worlds: discussion and the processing of information, as well as a presentation.

Not only that, but many events use hashtags (that’s # plus a code), so anyone who might be interested in the event can read about. I love searching hashtags. When I can’t make it to something, I follow the highlights, find out what people are saying.

But there are plenty who don’t agree with me. They still think it’s rude. In fact, most people who don’t Twitter can’t comprehend why it’s so fascinating. After all, “The one thing you can say for certain about Twitter is that it makes a terrible first impression.”

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