WOW what a week. I wished this week that there was a way for my mind to tweet and respond for me, as this week has been FULL and here it is Friday and I am just sitting down to try and put forward the thoughts that have been coming and going all week. Know that even though this post comes late, each day I read your posts. I could actually read your blogs all day long...
The question for this week has been social media and how it has changed or is changing the ecology of our faith communities. There are two pieces I wish to say more about here in regard to some of the conversations that have taken place on the ic2346 site and other blogs.
In our setting the table conversation a lot was said about not having the choice to do church or faith, but we do have a choice in how well we do it. Comments about how we refer to people who don't make church a part of something they "do" in their lives (the "nones", "unchurched")as well as what it means to be relevant. What does it mean to be relevant anyway? ksvennungsen001 says this "I also agree that being relevant is a misguided way of trying to be engaged with the rest of the world. Rather, the church is called to be real, and when they can be that, then they are able to be honest and talk about the tough stuff like poverty, addiction, depression, sexual orientation."
I would add that when a church moves out of this effort of relevancy and becomes real they can no longer just talk about the tough stuff, they are set apart of go out into the tough stuff. They are moved to be in the tough stuff with their neighbors, with their members and with one another. If we are real in what we do, how we worship, and who we proclaim that we are than it seems to me that naturally what God is up to is revealed and we are then free to faithfully respond.
The second thought from me this week is the hesitancy that is expressed in using social media. The fears and anxieties that go along with it. I wonder exactly what is behind these hesitancies. Is it really that some are just technologically challenged? Are people really afraid? Do some find nothing real about social media simply because it isn't physically relational? I wonder what the excuses are hiding or masking? I approach my social media life in a way that I think reflects my values in life. Just because some people use Facebook for instance as an open diary and we read of details of their lives we really didn't need to know, does not mean that we also have to participate in Facebook or other social media in that way. Just as in any other form of communication, presence, or conduct that we as leaders find ourselves, the same holds true for social media.
Why are we afraid that social media is going to take over our churches? Instead of being afraid, why not appreciate the opportunities that social media brings to the table. There was a conversation about women's circles becoming a thing of the past and who might be the new funeral ladies? I wonder if it is time for women's circles to take a new turn? Sometimes the old ways need to die so new life can be created. Are there other ways in which churches can be served besides through a women's circle? How about family circles? Neighborhood circles? Intergenerational multi-aged circles?
The church is in a unique time right now. This blog post describes a growing church as a dying church. Check it out. What do you think?
I'd say this pastor says many of the same things that I think. Pastors are not saviors!
ReplyDeleteCongregations who want to live have to be willing to die!
As for fears of social media - I'm not sure all the fears are related to change as much as personal fears of people seeing you for who you really are. I know that I walk at times in a lot of fear - fear of rejection being the biggest - and so social media stretches me because I place myself before a much larger audience and many whom I do not know and I have to acknowledge that yes, I can be rejected, but that does not mean I am not a child of God.
What I'm coming to learn is my fears are more often that not unfounded and that when I am willing to be vulnerable and real, that I am also able to connect with people I would never have connected with otherwise.