Future Shock

In my first semester at Luther, I was in the middle of a spirited debate with my RTA classmates about the church's shortsightedness regarding social media.  Traditionalist lamented the downward spiral of church attendance and felt that embracing social media was only going to make things worse.  They also stood on the idea that church was about community and with social media, all sense of church community would be lost.  I said their definition of community needed to be rewritten to keep with the times.  If people aren't in the pews the church needs to go where the people are.  If their online, then the church needs to get online.  In the future, churches that best adapted to this trend were going to be the churches that thrived.  

Much to my delight, I found someone who was talking my language in this regard.  In Elizabeth Drescher’s “Tweet If You (heart) Jesus,” Drescher takes us on a tour of the Digital Revolution like Willy Wonka takes his guests on a tour of his chocolate factory.  This is the world of social media where people are coming together in a way reminiscent of the early days of the church with a digital twist.  Websites, blogging and text messaging allow people to connect and stay connected in a very deep and interpersonal way.  This is giving rise to cyber groups, communities and cliques without spatial limitations.

Many are intimidated by this movement and see this a contributing factor to declining church membership numbers.  Drescher is encouraging the church to embrace this movement and take advantage in order to reach more people than ever before.

There are drawbacks.  It is not a perfect world, nor should we expect it to be.  Communication via cyberspace does not allow much for visual cues, which could easily lead to miscommunication and false representation or mistaken identity.  Learning new rules of online etiquette also has it hazards, which can unintentionally damage relationships.

As we get better using this technology and as this technology improves, I think we'll get better at reaching people who don't go to church and deepening our relationships with those who do.

If I Could, I'd Do It Like This

And Like This

Knowing My Purpose

I've been discussing and displaying different uses of media tech in the parish as I have seen and used.  I have never considered writing a blog as part of my arsenal of tools I could use to reach people within my congregation and, perhaps, reach people I have yet to meet or know.  This exercise has helped me to see how this could be a very effective tool to do just that.  However, I don't consider myself a writer.  It is not my most effective means of communication nor is it the means of communication that I am most comfortable using.  Therefore, I have trouble envisioning myself as one who would blog this way on any kind of consistent basis, certainly not for very long.  However, I could see myself using video and posting video as part of a blog, whereby the video does most of the talking.

It has been said that I would probably end up on TV, as in some type of televangelist.  I don't really see myself in that way, but I could see where video postings of my work in the pulpit, ultimately wind up in a blog or on a website.  The video example included in this post is an example of what most people think of when talking about preaching and using media tech.  I love TD Jakes.  I think he's a phenomenal speaker, preacher and teacher.  I will never be a TD Jakes.  I have to be the best Tony Fair I could be, therefore, even in using media tech, as TD Jakes uses it here, I hope to be very different.  And, by the grace of God, I'll be half as effective.

Chasing Community

This is yet another example of how I've used media tech in a parish setting.  This time we are at a Youth Retreat at Camp Wapo.  These are high school age kids who, after the bible study, were given the task of creating a video that expresses what they thought was the most important message they got from the bible study.  The kids were split up into four groups.  Each group had to write, direct, and perform in their own video.  The only thing we required was they had to have a cartwheel in the video somewhere.  The videos were shot and edited over the weekend and then shown at church the following Sunday.  The videos came out great.  They were very creative and the kids had a blast.  This is one of the videos:

Mickey Mouse Ministry

Most of the Lutheran church services I've visited follow a routine that has children spending a portion of the service, if not all of the service, in another room.  I'm sure you all have had this happen at your church services too.  Mary Hess posted this article by Sharon Pearson called, Is Sunday School Theological Child Abuse?, which was critical of churches who have this practice.  

My colleagues and I produced this video as part of our discussion on the topic: 

 

I maintain a view that is unpopular around Luther and contrary to what is taught in my CYF classes.  I can't help but think about my experience on Sunday mornings with my sons, my youngest son in particular.  More often than not, Maddox, who's 8, gets much more bang for his buck when he goes away with kids his age to learn about Christ.

If he stays with me, invariably he will be asking me every two minutes about where we are in the service.  He's sitting there checking the church bulletin to see how much more we have to go before the service is over.  Now I love my son and his behavior doesn't bother me in the least, but it is distracting and takes away from my experience during the service too.

So I ask my colleagues as I ask Ms. Pearson, couldn't your problem really be with the quality of your Sunday school?  I've been to places where my son had fun and still can tell me about what he learned in his "kiddie side session" with other kids.  I don't see why someone would think that delivering the message to children in a format in which they better understand is a bad thing, as a mater of principle.  The long term affects of this practice are also debatable and in there I also disagree. 

The Rapumentary

This is a video rapumentary of a video workshop I did with kids at the Redeemer Center For Life after school program.  The place where the after-school program is run is called, The Peace Palace.  This was an exercise where the kids were shouting their praise for the place and the program.  They did all the work behind the camera, including the music.

It is yet another way I used media in the parish.  In this case, we were teaching kids the art of video production so they may be able to express themselves.  Our goal was to encourage the kids to use the genre to talk about their faith and show aspects of their relationship with God.