technology – Salvaged Faith

With Careful Intention

Posted on January 9, 20141 Comment

I have a nasty smart phone habit. Every commercial break, every need to stretch, every chance I get, I check my phone. I browse through Facebook posts. I glance at tweets. I absorb a lot and pay little attention to what is happening right here, right now.

I realized that I often do not interact, therefore, with much intentionality. I don’t really take the time I need to engage, because I’m just giving content a skimming glance. By the time I have time to sit and think and reflect and engage… well, something else new and shiny has distracted me.

So I reorganized the apps and widgets on my smart phone so the notifications and alerts and temptation to take a quick glance is less prominent. I put all social media into one folder that isn’t so easy to get to. I have a whole page dedicated now to “self-improvement and edification” that includes writing, prayer, health, finances, etc. I’m trying to take give myself just a little bit more sense of organization, time management, and focus.

What this means, is that I also need to take intentional time each day to truly interact and engage through social media. No more hit and runs but prayerful, thoughtful engagement. That hasn’t been too difficult so far and I’m actually finding I have MORE time because that effort is focused.

I would often check posts as I was stirring at the kitchen stove or walking up stairs or between episodes on Netflix. I have more time to be present in the moment, to breathe, and I think I’ve tripped a few less times.

I’m also a lot less anxious.

When I have constantly been flooding my presence with news and disaster and debates and provocative posts then my senses are on high alert all the time. Before Christmas, with the flood of Duck Dynasty and Schaefer Trial posts I was on edge, all day long, feeling agitated, frustrated, and not sure how to really respond. But to pull back a little bit allows space for engagement and time for processing. I’m not worried about the sinking ship all the time.

Philippians reminds us that fretting and worrying push God out of the center of our hearts. I’m not necessarily only going to focus on the good posts people share and ignore the struggles and trials of life… but being intentional about how I read and respond is giving me the opportunity to transform my engagement into something good, rather than crude and ugly.

a day in the life…

Posted on September 21, 2011Leave a comment

7:00am – alarm goes off

8:10am – start thinking about getting out of bed

8:30am – phone conversation with Trustee chairperson about the new shingles for the parsonage roof

8:50am – arrive at church, small talk with folks gathering for the Tuesday morning small group.

9:05am – phone call with Memorial chair about some checks that came in

9:10am – check emails, put checks into envelopes to pay some church bills

9:30am – Tuesday morning small group: food, devotions, prayer, conversation

11:00am – check in with some members of our co-missioned coordinating team to plan event on October 1

11:15am – scripture reading and exploring commentaries to get ready for Sunday

12:00pm – time spent thinking about hymns for Sunday interspersed with facebook (seeing what is going on in colleagues and members lives)

12:15pm – phone call with congregation member about an upcoming wedding

12:50pm – head home for lunch, heat up leftovers and watch an episode or two of Dr. Who

3:30pm – back to church to meet up with a youth… visit with a member and help transport some items being donated to Women at the Well (prison congregation)

4:45pm – conversation on the side of the road to coordinate a visit with some church folk

5:00pm – back home to make dinner: chicken, sauteed musrooms, wild rice

6:45pm – back to church for Lay Leadership meeting

7:10pm – start our meeting with devotions, discuss calling all who serve and changes in our organizational structure

8:10pm – head home. pajamas. computer.

9:30pm – movie with the husband

11:45pm – bed

Facebook parenting = 21st century coffee klatch

Posted on September 15, 2011Leave a comment

Whenever we went back to my grandma and grandpa’s house for holidays, the family gathered together in the living room and we told stories. Or rather, as the babe in the room I listened to stories, while my aunts and uncles and my mom told about the adventures and misadventures they found themselves in growing up.

Many times, their stories ended like this: “We thought we would get away with it, but by the time we got home, mom had already heard the news from her coffee klatch.”

Stay-at-home moms gathered together for coffee and swapped stories about parenting, shared news, offered encouragement, and yes, told their own stories. They shared when there was a problem. And all of your friends’ moms knew your business. They were out there looking out for you. Your mom did have eyes in the back of her head, and they belonged to Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Fields and Mrs. Rodgers down the street.

My parent’s generation grew up and when they became parents, both of them typically worked. My own family lived out in the country and there wasn’t a neighborhood so to speak of for us to run around in. Not that my mom would have time to be a part of a klatch anyways. The closest they got was the parents that hung out together on the sidelines of soccer games and t-ball games and football games. They became their own little community, but their interaction wasn’t on a daily basis and as children, we didn’t worry so much.

I am not a parent… and watching what kids in the world today deal with I’m not sure I want to be… but as I have watched over my youth and interacted with their parents, I have been intrigued by a new form of community parenting. Facebook.

As our preteens and teenagers explore the world and interact with eachother, facebook has become an intergenerational site. Moms and dads and grandparents are all online now in ever increasing frequency. And as our kids post about the dumb things they have done, they now get lectures from all sides. Even if they are not friends with their parents online, they are with other adults who look out for them and try to push them in positive directions.

I watched with great interest the other day as one youth recounted how he had crashed his moped. His mom posted something about being more careful and instantly she was backed up by three or four other parents who also were concerned and had their own advice to offer.

For parents who are at work during the day, but have access to the site through their cell phones or computers, Facebook is a way of keeping in touch with their kids wherever they may be. They daily talk with other parents. They stay up to date on what is happening all around them.

Social media sometimes is blamed for increasing depersonalization, but in this little small town, it just might be the coffee klatch of the 21st century.

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.

best customer service ever…

Posted on August 27, 20111 Comment

For the Iowa Annual Conference this year, our conference artist created a gallery in our meeting space. It housed a collection of works from various people and each piece connected with our theme of Radical Hospitality with Justice.

The room itself was a conversation space. Chairs arranged for discussion, room to move, room to reflect, post-its on the wall to share thoughts. The art grew and expanded as we interacted with it.

But our artist, Ted Lyndon Hatten, wanted it to move beyond that room. So we were provided with nametags that indicated we wanted to continue talking about an issue.

And he asked if I would help the conversations continue via social media.

Of course, I jumped at the opportunity. And the first place I looked was twubs.com

You see, Twubs takes conversations that are happening on twitter and brings them all to one place. By using a hashtag, you can make a page, a bulletin board, embeddable widgets… it is a fantastic way to gather together the various thoughts. The best part is that it also then can live stream those tweets for display on something like the HUGE screens we use for worship.

Its a great idea… but due to my experimentation, I somehow messed up my initial twub. And linked to the wrong account. And then changed the hashtag. In about 25 minutes, what I wanted to create was now in three different twubs and I couldn’t figure out how to change/merge/edit any of them.

Problem, right?

I tweeted in frustration – someone who has used these twubs before… HELP!

And five minutes later, I had a phone call.

It was the guy who created Twubs.com. He called me, on my phone, and asked how he could help. He quickly fixed the back end issue, merged my accounts, closed the one I didn’t want, and it was exactly how I needed it… in less that two minutes.

I was having an awful experience with the site and probably never would have turned to the media again. But because of that personal, helpful, compassionate response, I would recommend it to anyone in a heartbeat.

I had a similar experience with our local McDonald’s. After getting my food, it was cold, sloppy (who leaves the cheese off of a double cheeseburger?!), and the workers were rude. So I complained via their online comment form and got a personal letter of apology, gift cards, coupons for free samples come every couple of months, and they have worked their butts off to keep me as a customer. It worked.

In this world, negative feedback can destroy a company. All it takes is one person having a bad experience and suddenly that comment is all over facebook, twitter, angie’s list, you name it. Reviews make or break someone’s future usage and purchases. But when you shower someone with service, quick responses, and personal care, suddenly a negative experience can turn into a fantastic walking advertisement.

Having that amazing experience with twubs made me think long and hard about life in the church.

As a pastor, I am glad that people don’t run home and write on facebook or on twitter “Wow, I had a really bad experience at church today!” Because that is AWFUL press and if someone made those kinds of comments, you probably wouldn’t ever see them again.

On the other hand, most people don’t give any feedback. They just stop going to church. As a pastor or a visitation minister you don’t know what the problem is, and so it is hard to be quick to respond. If someone actually made a post like the one above, I would be able to ask what happened, I would be able to clear up questions. But when you don’t know, you can’t respond.

There is a gray line that I face in ministry between being pushy and being pastoral. When I notice that someone hasn’t been in worship for a while, my first instinct is to send a little note, telling them we miss them. But if a response isn’t heard, do you make a phone call? Do you knock on the door? Do you guilt someone into coming back?

In these customer experiences with twubs.com and McDonald’s, I think the message is to kill them with kindness. Be available. Be personal. Let them know they are loved and precious to your ministry. And don’t forget them… even if they don’t respond right away. I am always impressed that I keep getting coupons for McDonald’s. I know that I was probably just added to some mailing list of disgruntled customers, but when those coupons arrive, I feel special and I remember that experience and that someone took the time to listen to me.

I absolutely hate comparing ministry to the world of business, but I wonder what else we might learn in pastoral care from twenty-first century customer service.

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.

hiatus

Posted on April 23, 2011Leave a comment

I have had a really difficult time getting myself into the headspace to blog lately. I’ve been in these funks before, when I just need a break from technology, and in some ways, that has been true of this past one.

But I also think that things have just been moving at such a break-neck speed lately that I really don’t have the mental energy to sit down, stop, and reflect. I just keep doing…. and then zoning out… and then doing some more. Self-care lately has been more about stopping than processing.

A sure sign of the chaos has been my office spaces. The church office… my pastor’s office… and my home office. Piles of stuff, accessible when it is needed. But the time for processing just hasn’t been there. I keep telling myself that after Easter and School for Ministry I’m going to really stop and deal with it all… organize, toss, file, connect pieces, put things in some kind of order so that others can find them.

But it’s not “after Easter.” In the smack dab of the waiting, I sit. Christ has been laid in the tomb and the disciples hid away somewhere. They didn’t process. They didn’t sort through their feelings. They locked the door and huddled together. That’s kind of how this past month has been. Working my butt off, and then cuddling under a blanket in front of the television when the meetings stop and the work is done. Waiting… numb… not wanting to think about what comes next – at least for right now.

The disciples were shaken out of their stupor by the amazing announcement on that Easter morning. Their work wasn’t complete… their lives were not over… they need not be afraid… Their hopes were resurrected, their engagement was reignited.

My prayer is that the spark might blaze again for me. That my spirit will be reignited. That I can lay aside those burdens that keep me huddled under blankets and that with the daffodils and the lilies and the tulips I can throw off the cold and say – here I am. I’m ready. Nothing can hold me back. Try and stop me.