social media – Page 2 – Salvaged Faith

a time and a place (#1bread1body)

Posted on September 8, 2011Leave a comment

I am a child of my age. I carry my cell phone with me everywhere. I check facebook at least five times a day. In between episodes of my favorite streaming television shows on netflix, I hop onto an online forum to chat about what I just saw. I blog. I tweet. I sometimes play MMORPG’s.

All of that means I am connected to hundreds of people every single day. Sometimes superficially… but sometimes on a really deep and intimate level.

I got to thinking the other day that the only time and place that I do not have my cell phone by my side is when I am at the front of the sanctuary next to the pulpit.

First of all, it would be totally embarassing if my cell phone went off during worship. Egads!

But second of all, what would people think if the pastor, the one who is leading it all, casually glanced down to see what was happening in the twitterverse, or heaven forbid, played angry birds during the offeratory! (we actually have a really amazing pianist, and I would never dream of doing anything but listening to her play… really – she’s awesome)

It is a strange disconnect, however. For the rest of my life, I am connected electronically to other people, but for that small chunk of time it is just me and the people I can see/touch/smell in front of me.

75% of me thinks that is a good thing. We need to disconnect every now and then. We need to spend time with people in real and authentic ways – without being distracted by the next buzz from a phone. And afterall, worship is our response to God. The holy is the center of worship… not what my neighbor’s dog had for breakfast.

But the other 25% of me believes there is a time and a place for everything. That in the right way, under the right circumstances, with the right intentions, some things just work.

Like painting a mural during the reading of scripture to illustrate the creation story.

Or dancing wildly with hands clasped together with the children to tell of the perichoretic nature of God.

Or telling jokes for an entire hour as we laugh in the face of death.

Or cussing from the pulpit.

We have the entire globe at our fingertips through social media… and it would be a shame to let those connections sit idly by on a day like World Communion Sunday when we celebrate our unity.

A friend of mine, Sean McRoberts and I, dreamed up this thing called “One Bread, One Body.” For one morning, we want to hold our cellphones proudly and watch as the prayers of people all across the world are brought together in our times of worship. We are using the conferencing capabilities of twubs.com to create a live stream of these prayers and pictures that any congregation that wants to participate can use to join us.

There is a time and a place for many things… and I cannot dream up a better way to join together so that all may be one.

Knowledge and knowledge

Posted on July 18, 2011Leave a comment

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Many have been discussing lately social media monitoring of clergy and candidates/ordinands. A post by sheyduck on Everyday Theology got me thinking about my one hesitancy regarding the issue.As I posted there…

There is a tendency of some who do not understand social media, to use it as an evaluation method, rather than understanding online discussions as works in progress. 20 years ago if you were to publish something, it was final and complete and authoritative… Now, you push a button and your best understanding of something at a particular moment is out there… But it can be edited and critiqued and the knowledge can grow in comments and follow-ups. It’s a different way of thinking about what is true, and I worry that some who monitor ordinands conversations won’t understand that.

Earl Creps described generational differences in knowledge in his book, Reverse Mentoring: How Young Leaders Can Transform the Church and Why We Should Let Them. I heard him talk about the book to a small group at University of Northern Iowa’s Wesley Foundation.

One of the things that struck me most was an analogy he used regarding knowledge.

He described folks his parents age (60+) who saw Knowledge as something important, rare and treasured. It was kept inside of beautiful buildings that you had to have special passes to access, aka, libraries.

People in his own generation (40-60) started to have access in much more profound ways. At the library, a whole world of microfilm was available, the internet started making its way in and so the scope of Knowledge expanded. Tools helped you to access what you needed.

But younger generations see knowledge in a completely different way. Knowledge itself has become a tool. There is so much knowledge, and all of it at your fingertips, that it is almost a worthless, commodity. Instead, its about using the hacking the system, using the knowledge for other things like community, status, work, etc. It is chopped up into bits and bytes and reassembled in a thousand different ways on blogs and forums.

I understand that Knowledge isn’t one right answer out there, but the way that knowledge changes and grows and expands through conversation, exploration, experience, revelation, and any number of other means. That means my answers will never be complete. That means I will probably have more questions than answers. That means what I write or say or do might never end up in a vault of information we call a library.

And that means that there will be doubt, waffling, changing stories, confessions, errors, and growth shown on these pages… And similar pages from my peers.

My only fear is that someone “monitoring” our interactions will mistake our quest for knowledge through these forums as not living up to the standards of truth from another generation…

Social media, Artwork, and Annual Conference #iacartwork

Posted on June 3, 2011Leave a comment

First off, from our conference artist, Ted Lyndon Hatten:

My goal is always the same – dialogue. I think HyVee Hall works against that aim. It is not a space that lends itself to conversation. So, I’ve secured a room on the lower level and will be converting it into a gallery with dialogue-provoking images and installations dealing with hospitality and justice. It will be a place for conversation. Each piece will have a large post-it paper hanging near with idea that we could use it like fb posts. The conversation will accumulate over our time together. I’ve also made talk tags – think name tag, but instead of showing your name these tags show the issue(s) you’d like to talk about. I guess you could say that I’m asking the delegates to go trolling for conversation by wearing the bait. I don’t think that’s what Jesus had in mind when he calls us to fish for people.

Eh, maybe not exactly what Jesus had in mind… but what a good idea!

In addition to the face-to-face interaction, gallery dialogues, and conversations around our tables at our annual conference, I am attempting to help foster some electronic dialogue through social media.

It begins through facebook and twitter, the hashtag #iacartwork (Iowa Annual Conference Artwork)

By attaching #iacartwork to your posts, you will help us compile all of the thoughts floating around out there into one central location.

I imagine that this social media component will help us to focus on hospitality and justice through this artwork… even as we are sitting down around the tables in that HUGE room.

When your mind starts to wonder, think about what you have seen in the art gallery… think about what moves you… and instead of playing solitaire or doodling in your conference notebook or making snarky comments on facebook – share your thoughts with others.

Post from your cell phone.

Post from your laptop or Ipad or Kindle.

Post from whatever.

Just engage in the conversation.

Help us to keep hospitality and justice at the center of all that we do, say, think, and feel this Annual Conference.