Slideshow Introduction to Social Media and its Global Impact
Posted on August 19, 2008
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Common Objections to Online Spiritual Community
Posted on August 18, 2008
Filed Under Community | 1 Comment
Carlos Whittaker of Ragamuffin Soul posted this on his blog today:
Barna states by the year 2010 over FIFTY MILLION AMERICANS will get rely on the internet for their religious experience.
Talk.
What does that mean for us?
Los
Carlos is a great blogger, and I’m glad he brought this up for discussion. His readers had some good thoughts and questions about online spiritual community.
People can be fake online.
Well, fake people attended offline churches too! There are lots of people who duck accountability and lead whatever lives they want outside the physical walls of the church. Truth is, you are as accountable in any community as you want to be.
You have to meet face-to-face to be in community. You have to be able to touch them.
Once again, the face that you can see or touch someone does not mean that you are in community with them. Community is more than sitting together in a physical room - or a chat room, for that matter. While community may be easier when you can meet physically, physical contact doesn’t make a community. We are going to have to really examine the elements of community and see if they can reproduced online.
What about the Sacraments?
I hope that you can agree with me that participating in the Sacraments of the church doesn’t make you Christian. They also don’t make you magically part of a community. Now, are they important? Yes! But were the Sacraments made for us or were we made for the Sacraments?
Many online communities eventually meet offline. This may be once a year, once a month, once a week, or more. Why can’t they celebrate the sacraments when they gather offline? Or, why can’t they celebrate the Sacraments via webcam? It won’t be easy to figure out what it will look like, but can it work?
Can you really build relationships online?
Yes! People who meet online get married all the time. Their marriages have the same chance for success that more traditional marriages do. If you can build a relationship online that eventually results in marriage, I think you can build relationships that result in community.
What will happen to brick and mortar churchs?
Most people who go to brick and mortar churches will still go to brick and mortar churches regardless of the existence of online churches. Online churches aren’t for everyone, or will they ever be. You have to have different churches for different people. That is why I see denominations as a gift from God. I couldn’t worship as a Episcopalian, but I don’t for a moment think that invalidates the worship of Episcopalians around the world! People are different, so we are going to have different kinds of church.
Does a physical gathering have anything to do with spiritual connection?
Not necessarily. There are physical gatherings that are not spiritual. Look at it this way - have you ever prayed with someone over the phone? Did God answer your prayers? Did you feel God’s presence in that moment? You couldn’t touch, so did you really experience a spiritual connection? What about the story of the Centurion?
The Faith of the Centurion
5When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 6“Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering.”
7Jesus said to him, “I will go and heal him.”
8The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
10When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. 11I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
13Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! It will be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that very hour. Matthew 8:5-13
Did the Centurion and his servant experience a spiritual connection with Jesus?
Here is the bottom line for me: online communities exist. Are Christians going to engage them with the Gospel and see what God does, or are we going to let them die without Christ while denying their existence?
Friday Prayer: Persons of Peace, Access Minstries, and Transitions
Posted on August 15, 2008
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My call to reach the Online Generation has unearthed more questions that I have answers. They fall into three categories:
Person of Peace
Here is a link to read more on the Person of Peace.
What does an online Person of Peace look like? Do we leave a social network or community when we can’t find a Person of Peace? Jesus told the disciples to shake the dust off their feet and move on to the next village. Online, however, you have a constant flow of new people in and out of communities and social networks. Do you maintain a presence in multiple social networks or do you move on? Right now I’m maintaining a presence, but is that the best use of my time?
Access Ministries
Here is a link for more information on Access Ministries.
Here is another link on Access Ministries.
What do Access Ministries look like online? How do we structure online humanitarian efforts to allow us to engage people in spiritual conversations and find Persons of Peace? Do online Access Ministries have to result in offline contact? How can we use the internet to organize a diverse group of people for offline humanitarian projects?
Transitions
Here is a link for more about Transitions.
How do we transition from participating in online communities to talking about spiritual things? How do we transition from finding the Person of Peace and engaging their community in Bible study?
Friday Prayer
Pray for wisdom as I seek answer to the questions above. Pray Persons of Peace to be revealed and God to be glorified among the Online Generation.
Two Mistakes that Will Kill Your Minstry
Posted on August 14, 2008
Filed Under Kingdom | 3 Comments
Majoring on the minors will kill your ministry
I’ve been in so many conversations that go round and round because people focus on the minors. In fact, the major fires caused by focusing on minor things will consume your time and reduce your effectiveness.
Here are some of the majors that define the focus of the Reaching the Online Generation taskforce:
- There is an Online Generation who believes that online relationships are just as real as offline relationships.
- There are Christians in this Online Generation. Some attend offline churches. Some don’t.
- There are non-Christians in this Online Generation.
- We need to disciple Christians and non-Christians into obedient and reproducing followers of Christ.
- We have to use existing online social media to engage the Online Generation and disciple them.
- Some people will feel called to disciple Christians of the Online Generation. That is ok.
- Some people will feel called to disciple non-Christians of the Online Generation. That is ok.
- People who focus on Christians and people who focus on non-Christians need to get together regularly to talk about how they are obeying their call and using their gifts and resources to reach the Online Generation. This encourages creative thinking with results.
- We can work together and be part of completely different organizations and ministries, as long as we agree on numbers 1-8. In fact, the task is so big that we have to work together to fulfill our calls.
The only way to get diverse groups to work together is to have a very short list of majors. When people start chasing minor issues, someone has to bring them back to the majors and focus the conversation.
Defining yourself by what you are against, or what you are not, will kill your ministry
Most reactionary moments fail to reproduce and eventually die. At best, they struggle all the time and exert tremendous energy and resources to keep things going.
If you read Scripture and feel God calling you to do things in a different way, then do it. When people ask, your conversation should follow this pattern, “One day I read [insert passage]. God said [insert call] to me. So I am doing [insert action] to obey the Holy Spirit.” If your conversation typically goes, “Well, I didn’t feel comfortable with [them]. I didn’t feel [they] we doing things right. So we got together to do ministry the right way, the way God intends.” If you ask me, I’m not sure there is anything Godly about the second conversation. Talk about your call, not about your hate.
Never, NEVER, bash other ministries or followers of Christ. If they are obeying their call, are you the Holy Spirit to correct them? If they aren’t, the Holy Spirit will do His job, as long as they continually seek God’s face. Don’t waste your energy doing the Holy Spirit’s work for Him. (And don’t incur the wrath of God either!)
ooVoo Groups for Reaching the Online Generation
If any of the 9 majors of Reaching the Online Generation strike a cord, let me know. I’d like to start regular ooVoo Groups to talk about what God is doing, how group members are obeying God’s call, and how we can help each other. If you are interested, let me know in the comments or send me an email.
Managing the Mountain of Social Networks
Posted on August 12, 2008
Filed Under General | 5 Comments
As I wonder through social networks, I have to manage an ever-increasing number of relationships. When I don’t find a Person of Peace in one network, I move to the next. I don’t want to completely cut off things with previous social networks. God never stops working, and I want to be able to come back to social networks I passed through and join His work.
Ping.fm makes this possible.
Ping.fm is one website that connects with several of the most popular social networks. I can write one post in Ping.fm and it updates my Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, Plurk, Bebo, and Pownce accounts. I can even access Ping.fm from my Blackberry!
Now, when I update, I watch for any engagement. When I see activity, I focus on engaging people in that network. Now this only works with networks I’ve developed, but it significantly reduces the amount of time I spend reading and updating all my social networks.
Ping.fm is in beta and you need a code to get in. Email me or leave a comment and I will get you a code.
Four Ways I Avoid Online Affairs
Posted on August 11, 2008
Filed Under Accountabilty, Tools | 3 Comments
My father-in-law, a pastor, asked:
“You hear all the time about people starting online relationships that result in offline marriages and affairs. With all the online chatting and counseling you do, how do you protect yourself?”
Every follower of Christ should ask this question. Here is what I do:
Covenant Eyes
If you are on the internet at all, you should use a service like Covenant Eyes. Covenant Eyes costs about $8 USD per month. After you install their program on your computer, Covenant Eyes emails a bi-weekly report of all your internet activity to your accountability partners. Covenant Eyes isn’t a blocker or a filter, it just reports.
My wife gets all my Covenant Eyes reports. Whenever I click on a link that takes me somewhere unexpected, I pick up the phone and call her. I want her to hear things from me, not from Covenant Eyes!
$8 isn’t too much to pay to guard my heart!
Talk About The Family
I tell everyone online that I’m married. I talk about my wife and my kids. Where possible, I use pictures of my wife and me in my profile. I even have pictures of my kids online. I talk about date night and tell funny stories about the kids.
This cuts out 90% of the unwanted advances and online flirting. I’m not available and never pretend to be. In my experience, if you make your family ‘real’ to people online, it creates a barrier that few are willing to cross.
Wife Participation
I have a ’spidey-sense’ (READ: Holy Spirit) about online intimacy. When someone opening up - if they are a woman - I immediately invite my wife into the conversation. I will say, “You know, my wife has gone through something like that. Do you mind if I share your story with her? Maybe she could read your blog and send you an email.” No one has ever turned down this request. If they did, I would take it as a red flag and back out of the situation as fast as possible. Bringing your wife into the conversation is a huge shield for your integrity.
HALT
I learned an awesome acronym while reading about someone’s struggle with alcoholism. They used HALT to identify their vulnerability to their addiction:
H = Hungry
A= Angry
L = Lonely
T = Tired
If you are any of the above, you are susceptible to sin of any kind. Combinations of these vulnerabilities are more deadly. Do your best to fill these needs. Avoid tempting situations at all times - especially when you experience one or more of the HALT indicators.
Affairs never result in anything good. Ever. They are not worth your time. They will destroy you. Take the time to protect yourself and your family from online affairs.
What Squidoo Lenses Have to Do with Church
Posted on August 6, 2008
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The church has a hard time contributing meaningfully to conversations online. Most church websites scream, “ME, ME, ME!” or “WE, WE, WE!” without considering the millions of people who don’t have a reason to care the church thinks. Consequently, most people tune the church out.
I believe the church can get back into meaningful conversation and I believe the internet can help them take the baby steps without spending a lot of money. I think Squidoo is a good place to begin.
What is Squidoo?
Seth Godin is the creator of Squidoo. People go to Squidoo and make lenses that focus on their heart’s desire. Here is a description of a Squidoo Lens from the Squidoo website:
Wait, so what’s a lens? A lens is…
- An insanely easy-to-build, single page online.
- Your signpost about something that matters to you.
- A place to recommend your favorite stuff.
- A popular way to get found more on the web.
- A free (yes, free) way to earn a royalty. For you or for charity.
- Word of mouth at your fingertips.
- Squiddylicious.
- Something you should have if you care about getting the word out, about selling something, about changing minds, about sharing info, or if you just love to create, express yourself, and play.
I love the ’signpost’ description. Squidoo is a way to point people to various resources about a topic, comment on those resources, and add ideas of your own. Squidoo is a great way to meaningfully contribute to the global conversation about a topic that interests you.
How Can The Church Use Squidoo?
Church members should make Squidoo lenses about their passions. If you are passionate about family, make a lens that points to a million different resources for families. If you want to help people with eating disorders, make a lens on the subject. If you like to build model airplanes, create a lens. Make a lens about anything that you feel that you can talk about for hours.
Here is an important point to remember: Do not make every resource a religious resource. I’m going to address talking about your faith in a little bit. Please remember that people come to your lens because they are interested in the topic, not because they want you to preach at them. Squidoo is not a place to preach, it is a place to talk. Preaching is one-way, conversation is two way.
If there is a spiritual component to your lens topic, address it. Address it in a separate section that addresses the spiritual aspects of your topic. This way you can talk with people who care about spiritual things, rather than bombarding someone with theology when they just wanted a new recipe for chicken. Use this section to talk about how flying model airplanes makes you feel close to God. There is a place for spiritual conversations. Just don’t have them with people who don’t care.
When you demonstrate that you have valuable input into the global online conversation, people take notice. When you are open to spiritual discussions but do not ambush people or bombard them, you earn their respect. If you do this long enough, you earn the right to be heard.
I’m going to work on some lenses to meet some needs I’ve identified as I work with the online generation. I need help. If you want to help, email me. My address is pwatson at cityteam dot org.
One Thing Leads to Another
Posted on August 5, 2008
Filed Under Community, Evangelism | Leave a Comment
Tonight I’m participating in a chat with members of a community I found on Plurk. The group leader read my blog, asked questions, and liked what I had to say. This is the second time I’ve interacted with them in a private chat environment. I participate in the discussion as I have things to contribute.
The conversation hasn’t turned spiritual, but I’m hoping and praying that God opens the door.
How are you engaging the online generation?
Being Missional Online
Posted on August 4, 2008
Filed Under General | 1 Comment
Being Missional Online
A woman in an online community just had her baby. She was only 24 weeks into her pregnancy (a normal pregnancy is about 40 weeks). The baby, a boy, is only 1 pound, 7 ounces. He could fit into the palm of your hand – no exaggeration. He is in a NICU unit at a hospital 2 hours away from their home. Since she has a 5 year old son, she makes the two hour drive to the hospital and back home everyday. She and her husband will likely repeat this trip everyday for at least three months.
At this point, they seem more concerned about the cost of gas, than the cost of having a baby in intensive care. In fact, when people asked what they could do to help, she told them that donating money for gas would be the best thing anyone could do.
I get asked all the time, “How can you be missional online? What difference does online community make in the ‘real world?’ (I have a problem with their definition of ‘real’ but I will post on that later.) Here is an example. I don’t believe this family should have to pay for gas the entire time her baby is in NICU. Their hospital bills will be enough. Someone should set up a website, tell the story, and help take donations via PayPal. Someone should demonstrate extravagant love, the kind that can never be paid back. Someone should actually be missional rather than sound trendy by talking about missional. (Sorry, pet peeve.)
I plan on contacting the family as soon as I get back in the office (I’m out of town at the moment)and seeing what I can do to meet a very real need of an online friend. If you are interested in helping this family, send an email to pwatson at cityteam dot org.
Friday Prayer: Deep Wells
Posted on August 1, 2008
Filed Under Evangelism, Kingdom, Prayer | Leave a Comment
In ‘The Shaping of Things to Come,’ Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch create a vivid illustration that captures an important part of Reaching the Online Generation. In Australia ranches have to be enormous for cattle to roam and find the food they need. They are so large, in fact, that fencing is completely out of the question. To keep the cattle from straying too far, rancher dig deep wells. These wells are the only source of water for miles. Even though they roam, cattle always return to the well. They need what the well offers - water - to survive.
I believe blogs should be like this. You and I should hike through the internet, doing what Christ commanded the disciples,
As you go, announce this: the kingdom of heaven has come near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those with skin diseases, drive out demons…Greet a household when you enter it, and if the household is worthy, let your peace be on it.
Unfortunately, people nowadays have no idea what ‘kingdom of heaven’ means. So we have to show them. Blogs are a great way to show people how faith works in life. People want to know how you believe before they are ever interested in what you believe.
i use my blog to tell stories - stories about my life. I confess my failures. I model asking forgiveness. I talk about how i love my wife and kids. Non-Christians are drawn to my blog because something about it resonates with them.
My blog is a well. I want it to be deep and the water to be the sweetest they’ve ever tasted. I want them to feel comfortable hanging around and talking about spiritual things. Eventually, when the Holy Spirit says they are ready, I want to introduce them to Christ.
Today, pray for two things:
- Pray that more Christians would walk among the Online Generation in obedience to Matthew 10:1-15.
- Pray that more Christians would drill deep online wells that nourish the spirits of the Online Generation and make them long for more.
-
ooVoo Paul
