Our on-line live chat-in show Tech Steward Tuesday kicked off today, and it’ll continue every week on Tuesdays at 2:00pm (Pacific) until July 11th, leading up to the conversations we’ll have on-site at MediaCon 2011 @ National Worship Leader Conference on July 18-21 in Kansas City. [update: watch the 1st episode on-demand]
These weekly shows leading up to MediaCon are designed to grow our understanding of how new media technologies are shaping worship communities and changing the job of worship leaders. And when it comes to new technologies, leading means learning.
Here’s a funny video of how someone familiar with old media ran into a learning curve with new media:
Mark your calendar and join our weekly live chat-in show starting Tuesday, June 7th at 2:00pm Pacific Time (4:00pm Central / 5:00pm Eastern) to jump-start our conversations about MediaCon 2011.
The MediaCon 2011 theme is engaging with God through technology and explores more thoughtfully about what happens when worship meets the digital world, and how will new technologies shape worship communities and change the job of the worship leader.
Each week we’ll cover topics from the forthcoming white paper by Worship Leader Magazine titled: “12 Principles for Worship Leaders: New Media Technologies in the Service of Worship“. See you on the Tech Steward live chat-in show on Tuesdays at 2:00pm Pacific!
Hearing about social media left and right, on the news and in the coffee shop, can be quite overwhelming for many. And in the church context, challenging to make decisions on what to do and where to start. Let me share this visual to give your church’s leadership an overview of how to begin defining your social media strategy and what you can do:
Starting from the bottom of the chart and working our way up, this shows a fairly common progression of how to use more technologies to facilitate effective church communications.
Announcing. First, the very basic of church communication is sharing announcements and making information available to the congregation and to the community. Most if not all churches already use printed business cards, brochures, and flyers. The digital version of that is to use email for sending out announcements, either as an email message or email attachment. Communication in the social media age is to make information available in multiple channels and communicating in the way that different individuals prefer. This means in addition to email, your next step can be to use one or more of these: (a) email newsletter (i.e. Mailchimp, Vertical Response), (b) announcement on a blog (i.e. Posterous, WordPress) (c) announcements on Twitter, (d) announcements on Facebook. Since tutorials are widely available for how to use these web tools, this article will not go into the details for each.
Archiving. Churches already produce teaching through its teaching and classes. These can be easily recorded and uploaded onto a website. In the same way that someone manages the books and recordings in a church library, someone can be managing an archive of content online.
Authoring. With this step, your church leader(s) will produce new content that are shared online. This can be a (a) blog, (b) podcast, (c) video. A blog is great for publishing articles; for example, a weekly devotional, sermon transcript, book reviews, class notes, personal testimonies, and/or study guide. A podcast or video may take more effort to produce, but they’re great if you’re a better communicator when you talk or when you are visual. Recording a video can be very easy using the Flipcam that you can buy at a retail store — read how – Flip camera: an ideal tool for ministry.
Conversing. The real potential of social media is conversations, where people are talking with each other. This is notably different than traditional church communication, where messages are shared in a controlled and/or authoritative. In the online world, anyone and everyone has a voice and platform where one can say anything, positive or critical, and it gets posted instantly and potentially available globally. This requires thoughtful consideration of how a church might use social media in a conversational manner. This may require guidelines for both church leaders and members. For reference, check Adam Hann’s blog for the social media guidelines from LCBC church.
Interacting. This ventures into new territory and opens up new possibilities of online community as social media can be used in a live and/or relational manner. A more understandable way to use the internet is online education, like the website at www.biblicaltraining.org . The most innovative use is holding a church worship service online. Over 50 churches are doing what’s being called “internet campuses” and thousands regularly attend these online worship experiences. Not every church should be online in this manner, but this is to illustrate what the possibilities could be.
After you’ve evaluated which of these steps are useful in your church, identify someone or a team of people who can be responsible and committed to step into this important role. Then you can work together on refining your social media strategy with goals and guidelines as you extend the ministry of your church on the Internet.
Please add a comment and share what your church is using and how it’s working for you, or ask a question on something I can explain in more detail here. Look forward to your response!
In a recent Breakpoint commentary titled, This is My Father’s Digital World, a seminary professor shared these 4 principles of how we can use technology with Godly wisdom [emphasis added]:
As Dr. David Murray, Professor of Practical Theology at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary notes, technology has changed the way we “study, play, socialize, shop, and even apply for jobs.” Believe it or not, one out of eight couples married in the US met on a social networking site.
Murray, the father of four, is a firm believer in the good of technology. He is also well aware of the dangers—especially the dangers to children. After thinking through how to best teach his own children how to thrive in the digital age, he produced a short video: “God’s Technology: Training Our Children to Use Technology to God’s Glory.” In it Murray shares biblical wisdom and applies a Christian worldview to kids and technology.
He begins with four biblical principles. First, God created technology. He made the physical elements like silicon that we use to make digital devices. He made the forces of electricity and magnetism that allow technology to work. And he made human minds and gave them the creativity to build computers, cell phones and iPads.
Second, because God created technology, it is not inherently sinful; instead (principle three) it has many good uses—including bringing BreakPoint to you every day. Finally and tragically, Murray notes, technology has been abused because we are sinners.
Workshop slides and website links will be posted here for all 3 workshops in the Stewarding Technology track — Technology Steward 101, Top Online Tools to Connect to Your Community, and Leading Your Team Through Technology.
And, here’s the “road map” for how a typical church adopts various online tools and technologies. I hope this can serve as headlights to light the way of what could be next for your worshipping community.
Thanks to everyone for attending and engaging actively at the Stewardship of Technology Pre-Conference at #nwlc10!
We mentioned a bunch of resources, and I’m hoping to list them here so you can easily share them and refer to them. Please add a comment with additional resources and more questions and comments and we’ll respond, as we continue the conversation on being better tech stewards.
And here at this blog, we will continue to host a conversation exploring the stewardship of technology in the service of worship. Please browse the past blog posts and jump in any time with what you’re learning (or would like to learn) about how new media technologies can be better stewarded to serve the worshipping community.
