I was a social media atheist

Ok, let me start with a bit of a confession…

I was a social media atheist.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my Facebook account, I thought Twitter was ok, even though I was pretty much just a lurker, I never got into LinkedIn, but I didn’t feel they were really effective means of community and that any ‘community’ created there was in some not authentic and not as ‘real’.

I just didn’t believe.  These were toys and time wasting activities.  Facebook was nice to use to keep tabs on people and make sure that folks you had somewhat lost touch with over the years were still ‘ok’, but it was a toy, not a tool.  And certainly not a spiritual tool.

But I’m changing my mind…

I just finished ‘Click 2 Save’ by Elizabeth Drescher and Keith Anderson and they lay out a very convincing argument and provide concrete examples of how social media can be used to unite people into, effectively, a digital congregation, how it can be used to provide ministerial support to people all across the world, and how it can invigorate church.

It’s actually rather odd that I didn’t fully believe in the power of social media, I’ve been online since 1991 (yay for Prodigy!), been a part of multiple groups that really only knew each other via the internet and am currently part of a Distribute Learning Cohort in Seminary.  Plus I wholeheartedly endorse a model of learning that acknowledges that more effective learning occurs when all participants are acknowledged as having something valuable to contribute and learning is an active event of sharing, and not a passive event where students receive without question and without regard to their own personal experiences.

So even despite all of that, I still viewed social media tools like Facebook and Twitter as being yet another way for a person or an organization to ‘push’ information to people, not as a vehicle for conversation.  In the terms of Drescher and Anderson, I saw it as another form of broadcast media (34-35).  I failed to understand how these tools can, if properly used, draw people into a community and strengthen existing communities by providing another opportunity for connection.

It’s easy to dismiss the effect that a short message, a ‘like’, or a retweet can enrich somebody’s day, but when I think about how I feel when those things happen to me, I know it to be true.  And that is part of what Anderson and Drescher are saying, social media provides a way for people who may normally only interact with each other for a few minutes before or after a worship service to stay in contact throughout the week.  They learn more about each other and their sense of friendship with each other grows even while they are physically apart.  This effect happens multiple times over and soon the entire congregation is a stronger community. 

But what great about social media is that it expands the boundaries of the conversation by letting friends who may not be a part of the congregation, but are friends with me, to see interaction occurring within the congregational community and participate in them, effectively becoming part of the community themselves.

What’s great about Drescher and Anderson is that they not only set the stage with a great argument for ‘why’ social media is a good tool, they effectively demonstrate ‘how’ to go about using several of the more popular platforms and provide good goals and milestones for brand new users, moderate users and advanced users.  They take the ‘new’ and make it less intimidating.

They also talk a lot about the importance of maintaining a clear and consistent identity, of not assuming a voice or identity that is decidedly different from who you are outside of the internet (41-43) and how you might look to one of several areas to find a focus for communicating your interests and gifts in the world of social media.

The important thing in all of it is to see social media as another of creating relationships, not marketing, not trying to get more offering donations, but a way to create and strengthen real relationships.  The discuss the ‘LACE’ model of social media practices to quickly outline what should be kept in mind as engagement occurs (126-128).  The practices are Listening, Attending, Connecting, and Engaging and they, rightly so, are very focused on the larger group, there is not an aspect that focuses on ‘me’, but it is all geared to making others feel welcome and appreciated.

And I like all of that.  It takes principles that the church is supposed to encompass (welcoming, attentive, caring, focused on the needs of others) and provides another means of doing all that.  So I’ve become a believer (cue ‘I’m a Believer’ by the Monkees).

But what does that mean?  Well, I have begun to try and tweet at least once a day (@JonTrapp), I’m trying to be more consistent about my Facebook time and in engaging in that community more and more.  I’ve also begun a conversation with the rest of the worship team in my contextual congregation, House of the Rock, to talk about how we might use our hashtag #hotr2013, to have an ongoing notion of ‘prayers in community’.  Prayers in community is an activity that we often engage in during the time for ‘Prayers of the Church’ where we ask people to get in small groups and share their prayer requests with each other, and then pray together.  It’s actually quite powerful in creating relationships during worship, so it might be a good step in creating a more active digital ministry.  This idea is based largely on the examples provided on pages 139-141.

Are you already using social media in your ministry?  Is it working?  Leave a comment and help us all grow!