I can never predict when I will have a ‘think digital first’ moment. Today, it happened again in church while singing a hymn. You might think it had something to do with music and digital accompaniment, but that wasn’t it.
Our closing hymn was the nineteenth century’s “Jesus Saviour, Pilot Me.” The words evoke the symbolism of the nautical pilot who has responsibility for navigating a ship into safe harbour. While on a cruise, I watched as the pilot boat came alongside the cruise ship, matched speed and then the pilot leapt onboard, made his way to the bridge and safely guided the ship into port.
Today in church a teenage boy sat in front of me mumbling the lyrics to the hymn. As I watched him, I wondered what he knew of Jesus being described as a pilot. In all likelihood a pilot for him is someone operating an aircraft. And certainly at 35,000 feet it’s no big deal for a pilot to keep a plane safe over a "tempestuous sea.”
Sure enough, when asked after the service, he had no idea what the whole pilot thing was about. And I wonder how many others who sing that hymn have a similar dissociation. Maybe if you read some Mark Twain in school and knew about the pilots maneuvering the boats and barges up and down the Mississippi you would have some notion. But that’s asking a lot from memory.
Our artistic expressions of faith are more likely to involve fields and streams, than factories, parking lots and computers. Most of this is no doubt because our Lord made many references to plants, farming, fishing and harvesting. Some may argue that these represent the ‘natural’ world whereas computers and machines are the result of man’s creation. However, humankind learned how to farm. History tells us that. And there are lots of simple machines used in fishing and agriculture. So that argument may not hold water.
The ‘think digital first’ question is: How does the church, in its preaching and teaching through both hymns and spoken word relate to our 21st century reality?
Is not baptism comparable to reformatting a hard drive. Everything old is wiped away, all is made new and clean?
Isn’t sin like a virus in your operating system, corrupting data?
And rather than a nautical pilot who knows the way, isn’t Jesus rather like a GPS, guiding us?
Prayer is a tweet to our Father in heaven. And we are assured He is following us!
I’m not trying to be sacrilegious or flippant. If we are going to relate our faith to a digital generation, we need to update our vocabulary.
Anyone care to write a hymn in a ‘think digital first’ mode?
Monday, July 27, 2009
Thursday, July 2, 2009
iPhone goes iNspirational
Some churches have broadcast their services on television for years. Now the trend is heading to streaming video for the mobile crowd. Check out this story http://cultofmac.com/
Know where you are going
Soon after Twitter became popular, one of Canada’s major corporations started sending out tweets. We ‘followed’ each other and then, after a couple of months the tweets stopped.
They resumed in June. I was curious about why they stopped, so I tweeted the question. The communications person responsible sent me an e-mail explaining that an enthusiastic employee had started tweeting before the organization was ready to do so. When the employee left, the tweets stopped.
Since then the company did “some serious thinking about social media.” It was a communication tool they wanted to use, but no one had sat down and figured out its use strategically.
When the tweets resumed you knew immediately they we part of an overall plan.
They are more focused and reflect good communication strategy and follower involvement.
The lesson? Don’t get into social media until you know what you want to do. Ask the ‘why’ question; work out the strategic direction; and decide what you want to accomplish.
I’m sure this company isn’t the only organization to retreat from social media and then re-enter when it’s answered the fundamental questions and mapped out its strategy. People get excited about the potential of social media and tweet first, ask questions later!
They resumed in June. I was curious about why they stopped, so I tweeted the question. The communications person responsible sent me an e-mail explaining that an enthusiastic employee had started tweeting before the organization was ready to do so. When the employee left, the tweets stopped.
Since then the company did “some serious thinking about social media.” It was a communication tool they wanted to use, but no one had sat down and figured out its use strategically.
When the tweets resumed you knew immediately they we part of an overall plan.
They are more focused and reflect good communication strategy and follower involvement.
The lesson? Don’t get into social media until you know what you want to do. Ask the ‘why’ question; work out the strategic direction; and decide what you want to accomplish.
I’m sure this company isn’t the only organization to retreat from social media and then re-enter when it’s answered the fundamental questions and mapped out its strategy. People get excited about the potential of social media and tweet first, ask questions later!
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Generation gap within generations
There once was a time when the nature of generations could easily be defined by when people were born and what significant events impacted their lives. My family, all baby boomers, share the experience of our first colour TV and then cable TV even though there are seven years between my oldest brother and I.
With the dawn of the personal computer and eventually the Internet, I was the first to adopt the new technology, then the brother four years older and finally my oldest brother. I think I am the only one with an iTouch. Technology created a wedge in our family – all of the same generation.
The church used to find it easy to differentiate generations and life stages when it came to generations and life stages: youth, young adults, college and careers, senior citizens and any number of stages in family life. The introduction of technology into this mix is further complicating things. We can no longer assume the homogeneity of any generation.
Check out this story from the National Post http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=1718858.
As I read it, my inclination was to think that the church has the opportunity to provide stability and continuity amidst all the changes. The essential message of the gospel is changeless and therefore can provide a firm foundation.
Is that a viable role? How should the church relate to all the change in society? It has to go further than video projection in services and establishing a website. But what are those 'further' steps?
With the dawn of the personal computer and eventually the Internet, I was the first to adopt the new technology, then the brother four years older and finally my oldest brother. I think I am the only one with an iTouch. Technology created a wedge in our family – all of the same generation.
The church used to find it easy to differentiate generations and life stages when it came to generations and life stages: youth, young adults, college and careers, senior citizens and any number of stages in family life. The introduction of technology into this mix is further complicating things. We can no longer assume the homogeneity of any generation.
Check out this story from the National Post http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=1718858.
As I read it, my inclination was to think that the church has the opportunity to provide stability and continuity amidst all the changes. The essential message of the gospel is changeless and therefore can provide a firm foundation.
Is that a viable role? How should the church relate to all the change in society? It has to go further than video projection in services and establishing a website. But what are those 'further' steps?
Friday, June 19, 2009
Still wrestling with social media
Social media stretches the boundaries of older generations in interesting ways. Right now I have what I thought was a ‘personal’ page on Facebook. However, the line between personal and public is becoming blurred. For many of the younger people using social media their life is an open book. The distinction between personal and private; family and work isn’t always there. In his book Grown up Digital, Don Tapscott makes this point repeatedly, warning that at some point the digital generation may regret being so free with their personal information.
But social media is about conversations and relationships. You get to know someone as you share information. I have established some good relationships on Facebook with people who at first only knew me professionally. My life is richer for that experience. I must admit that at one time I was rankled at receiving ‘business’ messages in my Facebook inbox. (Part of that was fearing that if it didn’t appear in my business e-mail I would forget about it!) Now, although I’m not sure I would want all that kind of communication on Facebook, it doesn’t bother me as much.
This relates to a question I’ve always wrestled with regarding institutional social media and personal social media. Can the Church as an institution have a viable presence in the social media world when the nature of the media is so personal? If we need to put a ‘face’ to the Church so we can use the medium, whose face do we use? Our message is Jesus, who suffered, died and rose from the dead to reconcile God and fallen humanity. But the message needs a messenger and that’s every Christian not simply an institution. The essence of the Christian gospel is relationships, both between God and humanity and between people.
Is there a challenge here, or is it just me still trying to wrap my mind around the nature of social media?
But social media is about conversations and relationships. You get to know someone as you share information. I have established some good relationships on Facebook with people who at first only knew me professionally. My life is richer for that experience. I must admit that at one time I was rankled at receiving ‘business’ messages in my Facebook inbox. (Part of that was fearing that if it didn’t appear in my business e-mail I would forget about it!) Now, although I’m not sure I would want all that kind of communication on Facebook, it doesn’t bother me as much.
This relates to a question I’ve always wrestled with regarding institutional social media and personal social media. Can the Church as an institution have a viable presence in the social media world when the nature of the media is so personal? If we need to put a ‘face’ to the Church so we can use the medium, whose face do we use? Our message is Jesus, who suffered, died and rose from the dead to reconcile God and fallen humanity. But the message needs a messenger and that’s every Christian not simply an institution. The essence of the Christian gospel is relationships, both between God and humanity and between people.
Is there a challenge here, or is it just me still trying to wrap my mind around the nature of social media?
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Tweeting in the pew
I know it’s a while since Saturday’s Stanley Cup final, but not only was it an exciting game, but I followed and participated in the ongoing tweets by fans of both Detroit and the Pens. It’s the first time I’ve tweeted during a live event and it was a lot of fun and an interesting experience. It was like sitting in a room full of fans, listening to their comments, reacting, giving advice to the coaches...cheering and booing appropriately.
Time magazine did an article about tweeting in church. I’m not so sure about that. While it could have some benefit by sharing thoughts and comments, it would detract from the vertical focus of worship and over-emphasize the horizontal. In the Lutheran tradition, our understanding of what goes on in a Sunday gathering of believers involves God serving us with His gifts of forgiveness and His Word, and the congregation responding in word and song. To introduce one-to-one commentary from one pew to the next is like making an aside comment while in conversation with the Queen.
Even if the pastor tweets as part of his sermon, it still creates a fragmentation because not everyone is able to receive the communication.
I’ve also seen instances where someone in the worship service gives play-by-play tweets. “Wow, the praise band is hot today” is likely a good thing, but I’m not sure what it accomplishes. Perhaps 140 character quotes from the sermon would be more worthwhile.
I am not a technophobe by any stretch of the imagination. If the audience for in-service tweeting is to those not in church, then I can see some value. But that poses another issued. I’ve done a lot of technical work during church services—directing video, working audio etc—and by so doing, I have never felt part of the service. Maybe organists feel the same way.
So what do you think? Is there a place for Twitter in Sunday activities?
Time magazine did an article about tweeting in church. I’m not so sure about that. While it could have some benefit by sharing thoughts and comments, it would detract from the vertical focus of worship and over-emphasize the horizontal. In the Lutheran tradition, our understanding of what goes on in a Sunday gathering of believers involves God serving us with His gifts of forgiveness and His Word, and the congregation responding in word and song. To introduce one-to-one commentary from one pew to the next is like making an aside comment while in conversation with the Queen.
Even if the pastor tweets as part of his sermon, it still creates a fragmentation because not everyone is able to receive the communication.
I’ve also seen instances where someone in the worship service gives play-by-play tweets. “Wow, the praise band is hot today” is likely a good thing, but I’m not sure what it accomplishes. Perhaps 140 character quotes from the sermon would be more worthwhile.
I am not a technophobe by any stretch of the imagination. If the audience for in-service tweeting is to those not in church, then I can see some value. But that poses another issued. I’ve done a lot of technical work during church services—directing video, working audio etc—and by so doing, I have never felt part of the service. Maybe organists feel the same way.
So what do you think? Is there a place for Twitter in Sunday activities?
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Publisher looks to digital solutions
It's exciting to see a 140-year-old company think outside the printing press box!
CONCORDIA PUBLISHING HOUSE FUTURE-FOCUSED,
ADDS RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT TEAM
Saint Louis, MO—Concordia Publishing House (CPH) has added a Research and Development (R&D) team to its Editorial division. The newly formed Emergent Products Department is focused on developing technology and Web-based products and services for use in Christian churches, schools, and homes.
“Our 140-year history demonstrates Concordia’s value for product innovation,” says Dr. Bruce G. Kintz, President and Chief Executive Officer at the company. “With incredible change occurring across the publishing industry and within mainline religious church bodies, we must be intentional about developing products and services that are driven by technology to meet the range of usual and emerging needs of our customers.” The R&D approach is familiar for Kintz, whose professional background includes executive leadership in the aerospace industry. “This team has been charged with keeping one-step ahead of trends and technology, and will take innovative ideas to a development-ready state. Then, they pass them along to our developing editors and marketers, and start working on the next new thing.”
Among the projects in development, the Emergent Products team will design innovative tools for Christian curriculum and Bible resources that will complement more traditional resources with technology-driven applications.
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