Here Comes Everybody

Reading Clay Shirky‘s Here Comes Everybody gives me new hope for an old theory of mine. As a means to connect to people in middle school and highschool I really wanted to be socially accepted. I wasn’t that great at sports or all that book smart, so I found my place in humoring other people. To become relevantly humorous to a given person I used what I call the “shotgun effect.” I’d throw out all kinds of humor until I found a reaction to a particular thing (some of the shot would hit the target), then I would work around that idea, offering similar bits of humor until I really knew what would make somebody laugh. Call it a desperate measure for attention if you like, but it worked and I was generally accepted as a funny guy which gave me avenue to other more important topics.

I saw parallels with the shotgun effect throughout Shirky’s book, but particularly in his chapter, Failure for Free. With the relatively low-cost of producing and publishing that the internet now offers we are able to do a very similar thing with out ideas.

Trial and error, in a system like Meetup, has both a lower cost and a higher value than in traditional institutions, where failure often comes with some employee’s name attached. -Shirky

We can test out all kinds of ideas now on the web and get immediate feedback. I also like the potential for many people working together to come up with some amazing things (like Wikipedia, or Linux). As Shirky demonstrated several times over, everyone has at least a few good ideas, and when we work together on a given topic that makes for great potential. It gives me some hope to work on things like the potential for pop cultures interaction with the church. For some time I’ve thought why bother contributing because someone else like Mark Pinsky (author of The Gospel According to The Simpsons) has already done a better job, but Shirky’s examples give me hope that even the amateur has something to contribute and in such a way be bettered, and maybe even provide something useful.

The conversation that forms around shared photos, videos, weblog posts, and the like is often about how to do it better next time. – Shriky

Engaging Technology in Theological Education

Just finished up another gem of a book, Engaging Technology in Theological Education: All that we can’t leave behind, by Mary Hess. Perhaps what excites me the most as I read Hess’s book was that she finds value in the language that is pop culture media. Prior to my seminary education I was far more educated in pop-culture than I was in the Bible or theological ideas. Although I’d like to think that’s balancing out as time goes by, and hopefully tipping towards more familiarity with the Bible and theology, as the title suggests, there’s so much I can’t leave behind.

Among many, here are a couple of additional positives that come out of Hess’s book for me. On the relationship between witnessing Jesus Christ and digital technology Hess writes,

“Increasingly that witness has drawn me — compelled me, really — to think about the ways in which digital technologies engage the margins.” – Mary Hess

As Hess demonstrates throughout the book with several pop-media references, there is a base “language” so to speak that is well-known even among the margins of society. It is with this language that we can interact to bridge the language gap when it comes to conversing about theological ideas and the Bible.

Related to that same topic, Hess brings into this conversation racism and the influence of white supremacy. As a young white male I’ve often overlooked how privileged I am, most likely because my race and gender have caused next to no issues for me over the course of life. As I have a deep desire to work with media and pop culture in the parish, and am excited about the potential of it to reach the margins, a little voice has been planted in my head that has already begun to make me think twice about some of my choices for material to present.

I’m excited for how Hess’s book has shaped some upcoming projects for engaging pop culture in the parish and I could carry on more about her book, but if you have any interest for the potential of media use in the parish pick the book up for yourself and keep it handy as you venture out to encounter God in ALL aspects of life.

Tweet if you Love Jesus: Practicing Church in the Digital Reformation

Just finished up this wonderful treat by Elizabeth Drescher. Don’t let the title deceive you, it’s about far more than just Twitter. Although she does reference both Twitter and Facebook in her book, Drescher offers useful information that is applicable in any communication avenue. She provides an overview of the history of communication developments and how they affected/interacted with the church. From there she goes into some deeply interesting topics about how we can effectively put social media to work with in our ministries.

Having done social media in a couple different businesses, it’s easy for me to see how many of today’s churches use social media in a similar formula as businesses do. They use it as a means of free advertising so to speak, a chance to put your message in other’s feeds in order that it’s in their face on a daily basis rather than just when they’re in attendance at church. Drescher addresses this and points out how little of social media’s potential is used with this model. She also notes that over the course of time, this kind of approach will likely drive people away from giving any attention to what you or your organization have to say.

“If we get annoyed when the Facebook advertising automatons don’t know us well enough, imagine how it feels when our priest or pastor keeps posting or tweeting stuff that betrays no understanding of who we are or who we hope to be.” – Drescher

Instead Drescher offers a variety of ways in which we can use social media to learn more about the people in our communities in order to serve them better and how we can use social networks to invite conversation on several important topics, rather than force feeding people our own opinions. She suggests it’s far more important for leaders to be looking at other peoples pages and learning and commenting on the things they’re interested in than it is for us to be endlessly posting our own insights into life. For me, it’s a totally new approach to social network, and one that’s far more inline with how I so often talk about what it means to be a Christian in community.

Does your church use social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook? If they do, do the posts invite conversation or is it advertising for the church?