Tag Archive - online community

Is Online Community “Real” Community? Answer This Question Please…

March 31, 2009 in Technology-Social Media with 16 Comments

Asking whether or not online community is real community is really not even a good question, or the right question in my opinion, but it’s one that everyone seems to be asking.  Lots of people have already answered that question but many are continuing to wrestle with it.

I think online community is real community, and just by the fact that we are having that conversation, or asking that question tells me it does exist, otherwise it would be a moot point.

Now sure, we could go on from there and talk about what kind of community it is I suppose, but I believe it’s community.

This conversation recently was stirred up by Shane Hipps interview at National Pastor’s Convention where he says virtual community is virtual, but not community. Anne Jackson says it’s connection, not community. And Scot McKnight says it isn’t that simple to answer.

Tell us what you think: Is Online Community, Real Community? Why? Why Not?

Some Midweek Technology: Controversy, Convergence, Creativity and Fun

March 25, 2009 in Ministry-Theology, Technology-Social Media with 2 Comments

A couple of things in the area of technology and some of the social media tools we use–caught my eye this week. And I wanted to share them with you because I think they are of great importance for us as we think through and wrestle with the implications of our technology and our theology.

twittervoice3dscreenshot3-thumbFirst, as I have mentioned before, one of my favorite blogs is John Dyer’s, Don’t Eat The Fruit. I love his tagline, “technology is fast, but redemption is slow.”

Well, John in his free time decided to create a Twitter application for fun, but that also reflected in his creation what words could not. And his design has a very insightful theological approach. In the post TwitterVoice3D: Creativity, Chaos, and Order in the Online World, John says this:

Twitter is an amazing showcase of human creativity. Yet, as with all human creations, it needs to be ordered. If one were to fully join the conversation of Twitter, one would have to be on it all day, all the time, every minute. But to be creative as God intended us, we must order it, rather than let it order us. In a sense, we have to go against it’s nature as chaotic and discarnate and choose to make it orderly and use it for incarnate ends.

Continue Reading…

Tony Steward: What Are You Passionate About?

February 27, 2009 in Ministry-Theology, Technology-Social Media with 7 Comments

What Are You Passionate About?
I like all the creative things that different bloggers are doing online to help us connect and get to know others in the online community. I love Rick Smith’s “double popped” interviews and John Saddington’s chats or Friday 5′s, as well as the other creative things bloggers are doing.

One of the questions I’m constantly curious of is, “What are you passionate about?” It doesn’t matter if it’s in a therapeutic setting, church setting, or in a casual conversation with a friend, or someone I hardly know.

Locating your passion in life is of utmost value, especially when it correlates with what you do in life, whether that be your vocation, hobbies, service work, etc.

So I’m starting a new series where I plan on asking a different person online “What are you passionate about?” It’s my hope that it’s a great opportunity to get to know others better and see what drives them, and what things we can learn from them.

tonyWho is Tony Steward
Tony is the Online Community Organiser at LifeChurch.tv and someone who I have really come to know well over the last 6 months. And according to Scott McClellan at Collide Magazine he is the first person to hold the title of online community pastor. He is a great guy who I have learned a lot from and you can find his blog here, and his Twitter here.

Let’s begin…

What are you really passionate about?

I am passionate about what happens when the power of the Gospel touches someone and they are able to step into God’s call on their life – the results of that are so exciting. And what is incredible is how the emergence of online tools have allowed us to bring the gospel to people who are gathering online. There is also a tremendous opportunity in how online tools can be used in discipleship, leadership and extending the ministry of the church to the world.

How does what you are doing vocationally or volunteer wise serve that passion?

I am the Online Community Organiser with LifeChurch.tv on the team that brings church online. This both applies to preparing and bringing the gospel online through our experiences at http://live.lifechurch.tv as well as leadership and discipleship development for the people that are a part of our community.

How can those around you (friends, online community, etc.) best support you?

Ideas, Feedback and Prayer. Nobody has ministry online “figured out” and we are in a constant state of measurement, analysis and refinement. We love to partner with other churches and individuals who are passionate about the opportunities online – so getting connected and working together is always a big help and thrill.

But more than anything, prayer.

Anything else we should know about this passion?

Well, there is a lot to know – lol. I think the biggest learning for me right now is that the web is socially very awkward, like a junior high kid at their first dance. We are all still working through a lot of questions, we keep stepping on each others feet, and things are growing and we aren’t always sure what it means. But the dance is where everyone is at, and not being there just means nobody knows you. That and the internet isn’t going away, it isn’t a surprise to God, and we need to learn how be there appropriately to reach all the people that are gathering online.

Leave any comments, questions, thoughts or words of encouragement for Tony below….

#churchtechcamp:.Dallas is Here!

December 19, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 3 Comments

#churchtechcamp, which was pretty much hinted at, discussed and organized within about 5 minutes on Twitter a few weeks ago, is finally coming to fruition.

And instead of Los Angeles, this time it’s going to be in Dallas.

When:
Thursday, January 8

Where:
Irving Bible Church

Time:
9am-5pm

Cost:
$0…yes, I said $0.

Lunch:
Will be provided free by our great friends at Unifyer. (thx Matt and Lance)

What’s Happening:
Tony Steward sums it up succinctly this way–

First half of the day will be 4 conversations about ministry, technology and the internet.

Then Lunch.

During the first half of the day people can suggest and sign up for projects that we will work on together during the second half of the day.

Then we will leave.

That’s the gist, but watch as the specifics unfold over the next couple of weeks.

How Can You Be Involved:
We need one of you to design the stripped down, simple webpage for us. If we get multiple versions, we will put them all up on the site.

And we need a logo.

What If You Can’t Be There:
Well, like Los Angeles, it will be offered virtually.

What Do You Need to Bring:
Your computer of course. And we need everyone to bring an extension cord and power strip if you have one. We want to make sure that we are able to meet the power demands for the number of people who show up. We may not end up using yours….but we ask that you bring one.

Oh, and don’t forget to join our #churchtechcamp:.Dallas (Facebook Group)

Also, check out John Saddington’s Church Crunch post, ChurchTechCamp: Dallas – Let’s Start Now.

And also check out Tony Steward’s post, ChurchTechCamp:.Dallas.

If you have any organizational questions, please feel free to contact me by email or Twitter.

If you have any tech/conversation questions, please feel free to contact Tony Steward by email or Twitter and John Saddington by email or Twitter.

Online Community…Does it exist? YES! But I Think You Are Asking the Wrong Question

December 17, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 14 Comments

The Question?
It seems like people have been asking the question:

Can you have community online?

Or at least some form of this question is asked. Usually adjectives are thrown in front of the word community such as “true” or “real” or “authentic” or “quality”….and so you get the point.

I think what people are wondering is whether or not community can exist outside of a person to person, flesh to flesh encounter?

I have asked this question a lot before. But I’m not asking it anymore. I think community does exist online. And that it can exist just as fruitfully and vibrantly as it does in person.

Couple of thoughts:

  1. Just the fact that someone online is asking that question proves to me the fact that there is online community.  Otherwise, why ask?  And who are they asking that question to online?  Some community somewhere, because they are obviously expecting some response…from someone.

    2.  

  2. Just because someone doesn’t have, or hasn’t experienced community online, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist and isn’t thriving.

    3.  

  3. We have to be careful of what our expectations of community are.  Community is different things to different people.

    4.  

  4. Also, how long does it take community to build?  A long time.  We can’t just log onto Facebook and comment on blogs and expect instant community.

What is Community?
Depends who you ask…but one place I like to gain wisdom from on this issue is Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I think he really wrestled with the topic of community. And I think we can expand his ideas online.

Here are a few of my favorite excerpts:

Christian community is like the Christian’s sanctification. It is a gift of God which we cannot claim. Only God knows the real state of our fellowship, of our sanctification. What may appear weak and trifling to us may be great and glorious to God. Just as the Christian should not be constantly feeling his spiritual pulse, so, too, the Christian community has not been given to us by God for us to be constantly taking its temperature. The more thankfully we daily receive what is given to us, the more surely and steadily will fellowship increase and grow from day to day as God pleases.

On innumerable occasions a whole Christian community has been shattered because it has lived on the basis of a wishful image. Certainly serious Christians who are put in a community for the first time will often bring with them a very definite image of what Christian communal life [Zusammenleben] should be, and they will be anxious to realize it. But God’s grace quickly frustrates all such dreams. A great disillusionment with others, with Christians in general, and, if we are fortunate, with ourselves, is bond to overwhelm us as surely as God desires to lead us to an understanding of genuine Christian community. By sheer grace God will not permit us to live in a dream world even for a few weeks and to abandon ourselves to those blissful experiences and exalted moods that sweep over us like a wave of rapture. For God is not a God of emotionalism, but the God of truth. Only that community which enters into the experience of this great disillusionment with all its unpleasant and evil appearances begins to be in God’s sight, begins to grasp in faith the promise that is given to it. The sooner this moment of disillusionment comes over the individual and the community, the better for both. However, a community that cannot bear and cannot survive such disillusionment, clinging instead to its idealized image, when that should be done away with, loses at the same time the promise of a durable Christian community. Sooner or later it is bound to collapse.

Every human idealized image that is brought into the Christian community is a hindrance to genuine community and must be broken up so that genuine community can survive. Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest, and sacrificial.

I’m about to tackle Bonhoeffer’s doctoral dissertation (which he wrote at age 21…geesh), Sanctorum Communio: A Theological Study of the Sociology of the Church….I think that there are some gems to be mined in the area of church and community, and practical, theological, ministerial implications for community online.

And What Are You Doing to Foster Community?
I think we are all quick to criticize community–The lack thereof…The clicks…The difficulty to connect. Judgmental…Non-existant. Etc.

But what are we doing about it.

The right question I think: Is what are you doing about the community you are a part of, and to participate and give to a community…not just take?

I love community, but sometimes I’m not very good at it. I love person to person, in the flesh encounters. I also love online community and think it’s a huge blessing and gift that previous generations did not have.

If I have my choice, most often I would rather meet in person, talking over a cup of coffee…sharing life. I love that. But sometimes that’s just not possible. I may, and most likely will never have the chance to meet everyone I’m friends with on Facebook, or who I follow on Twitter, or who I read their blogs. But that doesn’t mean community doesn’t exist, or that our online friendships can’t thrive into an amazing community.

But here’s what I’m going to do about it.

  1. I’m going to continue to connect with people online, communicate, collaborate when possible.


  2. I’m going to make attempts to also call, video chat, FB chat, email, etc. with those online…take it another level.  I talk with several Tweets on the phone that I’ve never meant in person.


  3. I mentioned this on Nov. 17 in the post, Taking Community Offline: What I’m Doing About It And My 2009 Goal. That goal is to “meet & have coffee with every person in the DFW metroplex that I’m connected to on Twitter, Facebook or my blog.  Cool?”  In fact, I’ve already got a head start and met with several others (about 10) and will meet more at churchtechcamp:.Dallas, and many other places. Sometimes in large groups, sometimes in small, sometimes one on one.
What are you doing to create, improve, strengthen, connect, community online and in person?  Please share. We can learn from each other.

Seeking Help Online…Intersection of Counseling & Social Media?

December 8, 2008 in Therapy-Psychology with 5 Comments

There is a lot I want to blog about this issue, but I am going to roll out a series of posts on this topic in the near future (probably in January 2009)….but I think there are some amazing counseling services/help lines, etc. that are beginning to pop-up online, and I only think they are going to increase.

We live more and more in an online world, and I think there is going to be some significant shifts in how counseling/therapy is delivered.

Here are just two services that I have my eye on, and that I have been in contact with in some form or another…seeing if I can get more involved with them as a volunteer.

I Am Second is one that has just emerged and in fact, hasn’t quite launched yet. I really love their video testimonies…POWERFUL. I love that it is happening in Dallas of which I am a new resident…and because I have been wanting to explore more of the intersection of counseling and social media. Just drove by one of their billboards the other day off the 75 (going north) that caught my eye. Take a look at the videos for yourself.

Heart Support is the other online support community that I first came into contact with about a year ago through a conversation with Rob Bell’s brother Jonathan. They have a very active site with lots of opportunities to share you story, find support and express yourself. They have truly been one of the pioneers I think in exploring online community support/counseling/therapy in a very effective way via social media.

Who to Hire on Staff of a Church in a New Media World?

September 15, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 11 Comments

In light of much, much discussion about social media and ministry, and in light of many writing on online church community, I was wondering what you think of the post below, taken from Collide Magazine’s blog.

I Wouldn’t Hire You

If in some bizarro parallel universe I was an executive pastor (or whoever does the hiring at churches these days) and I was interviewing candidates for a ministry position that involved working with people between the ages of 12 and 30, I’d ask you about your vision and strategy for the ministry (youth ministry, college ministry, young adults ministry, whatever). I’d listen with great interest as you talked about discipleship, community, service, outreach, etc. I’d even ask you good questions about how you see those things fitting together and how you’d develop each of those initiatives. Then, when it was all said and done, and I’d heard your vision and strategy, I don’t think I’d hire you if you failed to mention your plan for leveraging social media. At the very least, I’d keep interviewing candidates in hopes of finding someone with similar passion and qualifications who was also social media-literate.

The ways in which 12-30 year-olds communicate and connect has radically changed in the last few years, and frankly, as someone who wants to minister vocationally to that demographic, I’d expect you to understand that. On top of that, there are too many free or inexpensive tools out there—ROOV, Twitter, Facebook Groups & Pages, MyChurch, Flickr, Vimeo, Ning, and on and on—for me to be enthusiastic about a job applicant who is unaware of them and their potential for ministry application.

If I’m choosing between several equally-qualified candidates, I wouldn’t hire you unless without a competent plan for leveraging social media in ministry to emerging generations.

What do you think? Am I overrating the importance of social media-literacy among would-be church staffers? If you are a would-be church staffer, have you thought through your social media strategy?

I was thinking about this issue and realized that there has always been criteria for employment in ministry.  Those requirements vary depending upon church, denomination, ministry, etc., etc.

For example, when I was hired as a college pastor they were looking for someone with a Master of Divinity which I was just about to complete.  Having that degree told the church hiring me that I was sufficient in areas such as Greek, Hebrew, Church History, Systematic Theology, etc.

But over the years I realized that things that weren’t required of me, nor my degree were necessary.  Money management.  Administrative skills.  Counseling skills.  Web 2.0 skills.

The questions for us are, “What is required for us to do ministry in certain contexts?” “What is required in the context of today’s ministry climate?”

Today, I think a certain proficiency in social media/web 2.0 tools is required for ministry, especially as we head into this new century.  Now we can debate which skills are required for which ministries, and do all ministries require a certain minimal skill set.

But all things being equal (as Scott noted in his post), I would hire the person who had more social media/web 2.0 skill set, or who at least was willing to experiment and learn in that area.  That may seem like a no brainer with all things being equal, but maybe it isn’t.

There are certain intangibles in ministry, and certain gifts that we all have that can’t easily be taught.  Preaching, teaching, writing, management, conflict skills, etc. But,

Can social media/web 2.0 skills be taught?

And do you hire based on the possession of those skills or not?

As we become a people that live more of our lives online, I think the expectation will be there in ministry for pastors and leaders to be able to navigate themselves in that world.  Just as pastors are to understand the context of the text and the culture of those sitting in the pew, they will be required to have as a language skill set that of social media/web 2.0.  It will be like taking Greek and Hebrew, though I have a feeling Greek and Hebrew will be less and less taught due to the availability of online tools.


What skills set are looking for today if you were to hire for your ministry? And is social media/web 2.0 skills one of them?

Kickstarting Your Church’s Online Community…Some Ideas

September 8, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 7 Comments

If you are thinking about having more of an online web presence for you church, but aren’t sure how to dive in…or even if you have a great web presence and are in need of some ideas, check out below.

First, Tony Steward has a great post How to Launch an Online Community. Here is the link to much of what Tony talks about in regards to the work of Jeremiah Owyang, Online Community Best Practices Final.

Second, Cynthia Ware has a post 10 Challenges Facing the Church in Cyberspace.

Third, here are My 9 Posts for Formulating an Online Strategy for College Ministry (and ministry in general).

Fourth, Chris Brogan has a fascinating post, Workflow–Social Media Pastor.

Hope you can glean something from these posts, and if you have any ideas, or other links to blogs, or your blog, please leave them in the comment section.