Tag Archive - Web 2.0

If You Use Social Media, Then You Have to Be Willing to Give Up Some Control

July 3, 2009 in Technology-Social Media with 8 Comments

So I wrote this post back in November of 2008, Community Organizer+Grasp of Web 2.0/Social Media=President Elect Obama.

And then I saw this on July 1, 2009.

And then this tweet by Tony Steward on July 2, 2009.

#churchonline political campaigns found leveraging online community wildly effective in finding and making “disciples” = Obama is president.

President Obama and his campaign did leverage social media technology like no other politician ever has…and I think that’s a huge part of their success, and eventual winning of the White House.

But I’m wondering if it will turn on him. And I don’t mean social media itself, but the people wielding it. People tend to come to social media loving the freedom and openness that it provides, along with the ability to empower everyone and to feel like you are giving them a voice. But sometimes eventually that freedom and openness is seen as a liability and threat, and eventually turns to control. I don’t know if this is happening in the Obama administration or not.

But I think it’s a lesson for all of us. When you invite social media to play a large role in your organization, you have to be willing to let go of some of the control as well. This is why I think many churches and leaders are skeptical…because they don’t want to give over control.

What do you think?

Community Organizer+Grasp of Web 2.0/Social Media=President Elect Obama

November 6, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 9 Comments

Last April
April 10, 2008: That is the date I wrote my post regarding an interview with conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt and the authors of Millenial Makeover: MySpace, You Tube, and the Future of American Politics. There were tons of points that the authors made that day, but three continue to stick out to me because I’m really interested in social media and I love working with this generation.

  • Communication to this generation via text, online, etc. is how they make decisions, rather than listening to authority. They make decisions based on their connectivity network, rather than make decisions based on authority.
  • You should have two different strategies to reach the Boomers and the Millenials. And they should be, and better be completely different. The Millenials can sniff out any in-authenticity in marketing. They don’t care about or watch TV, because they would rather be online and communicating and networking with people.
  • Interested in Peer to Peer, Bottoms-Up organizing styles, and not Top-Down, Command and Control style. You can appeal to them if you can talk to them about communitarian solutions that are self organizing.

The Millenials Take the Election
I think those are really great observations that Obama seemed to understand and McCain didn’t. I’m not a political analyst, but I think that’s fairly accurate. “Young voters preferred Obama over John McCain by 68 percent to 30 percent — the highest share of the youth vote obtained by any candidate since exit polls began reporting results by age in 1976, according to CIRCLE, a non-partisan organization that promotes research on the political engagement of Americans between ages 15 and 25.” (Youth vote may have been key in Obama’s win). In fact, the article goes on to say, quoting the authors of the Millenial Makeover, the following:

Through a steady stream of texts and Twitters, experts agree Obama has managed to excite young voters by meeting them where they live — online.

“This is a group of people who are constantly checking in with everybody else in their circle to make a decision,” says Morley Winograd, the co-author of “Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube, and the Future of American Politics” and a former adviser to Vice President Al Gore. He defines Millennials as ages 18 to 26. Continue Reading…

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?

Taking Risks…..

September 11, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 6 Comments

Saw this gem in The Dallas Morning News this morning.

It’s a quote by Alexander Muse who I have been following on Twitter.

“In Silicon Valley, it’s normal to quit your job and work at a start-up,” he said. But in Dallas, he sees many entrepreneurs “keeping their passion on the side.”

Locked into payments on 5,000-square-foot homes in the suburbs and tuition for private schools, these would-be entrepreneurs “go to work and trudge through their jobs and save their cool stuff for at night or on the side,” Mr. Muse said.

Great comment on so many levels.

I have been talking to more and more people who work crazy hours and pull late nights because that’s the only time for them to pursue their passion. I am guilty of that as well.

Whether it’s writing, blogging, dreaming (that’s me), or other things such as photography, web design, networking, etc. (other friends), there is often one BIG hitch. SECURITY.

All of us want security. So our day jobs often provide the security for us to live, but we would really love our passions to pay out.

But many take risks. Quit jobs. Move states. Plant churches. Launch start up companies. Cut expenses so one parent can stay home with children.

As I was talking to a friend the other day he encouraged me and reminded me about living a more risk-filled, adventerous life.

As a Christian, the Biblical story is definitely not safe. From the get go it’s about people throwing their faith and trust in God and going forth into new places, traveling through deserts, crossing seas, facing persecution.

But somehow, 2000 years later, we play it pretty safe.

One of the reasons my wife and I and daughter moved to Dallas was to be closer to family, but to also take some risks, not be tied to an expensive mortgage like we were in CA, etc. And it’s scary, but God is faithful, and it’s amazing the opportunities that have come our way since we have moved.

If it’s not security, why do you play it safe?

If you don’t play it safe, what are you doing differently?

Framework for Chapter in Book: 5 Movements for Online Social Networking

August 21, 2008 in Technology-Social Media with 0 Comments

Just wrote my first blog post over at our book blog for The New Media Frontier.

My chapter is New Media Ministry to the Myspace-Facebook Generation:
Employing New Media Technologies Effectively In Youth Ministries. And the following is some of the framework I laid out in the chapter.

It’s hard to keep up on the social media scene as so many things have changed in the last year since I wrote the chapter, but I have learned so much and will continue to do so. Though I might think through some things differently I still like the general framework laid out in the chapter.

I tried to approach the chapter more from a spiritual/psychological/philosophical framework, then a how to tech manual. The technology is the tool, but how we approach and apply the technology and how it shapes us in the process is very important for us to think about.

Check it out.

5 Movement Towards Online Social Networking

Social Media Events, Church Ministry Conferences…Where are we going?

August 21, 2008 in Technology-Social Media with 0 Comments

Chris Brogan has a great post today, Social Media Events Are Fragmenting.

Read the whole thing, especially if you put on a conference, attend them, or are involved with social media.

Now, though he is talking about social media events (of which churches and church staff are involved), I was thinking of church conferences as well.

The list of conferences in either arena (and really in all fields) is growing, that it’s almost impossible to attend the ones you want to unless someone is paying you to go to all of them, or they eventually conflict with each other. And sometimes they eventually begin looking like each other.

He does mention Blog World & New Media Expo, which is the event which GodblogCon is a part of. This is a conference I have spoken at a few times and will be attending this year as part of our new book, The New Media Frontier. He says this:

Rick’s event brought diverse people like religious, military, sports, and political bloggers, and I liked that.


I like that too.

But I guess the questions remain:

Where are all these conferences going?

And are they all beginning to look a little like each other?

I have a few that I make every effort to attend every year, but keeping up is getting hard to do.

How many conferences do you attend a year?

Which ones?

Why?

ECHO Conference: Great from top to bottom

August 18, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 7 Comments




Last week I was debating on whether or not I should attend the ECHO Conference, mainly because I was pretty exhausted from just moving here. And second, I wasn’t quite sure if I wanted to pay the $329 for the conference.

I debated, but ultimately I felt like it would be a great opporunity to take part in this new conference. I thought I would make some good connections and hopefully some friends as well. And last, I hoped to really take away some valuable things from my time there.

Hands down, it was one of the best conferences I have been to, and I have been to a lot. I realized on Friday while I was looking at the snack table and pouring some more Starbucks coffee for myself, and for that $329 fee I was easily getting my money’s worth between the great speakers, the great food, the great connections, the challenges put forth, etc.

At this point, let me just state a few of the highlights for me and what really stuck out for me.

  • Hospitality: It was the most hospitable conference that I have been to.  It began on Friday when I swung by only to pick up my registration packet and head home. I wasn’t planning on staying since I had my daughter with me.  Two young women offerred to hold my daughter for me while I walked around the place too see what was going on and to find Cynthia Ware.  First, let me say that I would never just hand my daughter over to complete strangers, but there was something in these women that made you feel like you knew them personally as friends.  Great people to have at the front greeting conference attendees.  But I did.  I passed my daughter to the two of them and I walked around, only to come back and find my daughter having a great time playing with one of the women’s i-phones and smiling.  Thank you Haley Thomas.  That type of hospitiality continued all three days of the conference and it was one of the easiest conferences to mingle amongst not only the attendees, but the speakers and workshop leaders as well.  Great hospitality.


  • De-Centralized/Flattened Leadership: This is a really important ethos for what I want leaders to embody. And even though I knew who was putting the conference on and who was in charge, it was nice to watch them serve people all three days, and not be above setting up things, helping cars find parking spots and being there to resolve any issues that may have arisen.  You just don’t see that enough.  Most speakers and leaders are often the first to leave after they speak and never stick around to help with the day to day work.  So props to Rob Thomas and the people at Igniter Media, those at Worship House Media, and Scott and the crew at Collide Magazine.


  • Great Challenges from the Speakers: I’m sure if I were to poll the people at the conference everyone would have something different to say about each speaker.  I didn’t attend all keynote sessions, but I did attend Donald Miller’s and Mark Batterson’s.  Mark had me thinking all weekend about the quote he shared by Martin Luther: “It is wonderful’ proclaimed Luther, ‘how at this moment in history all the arts have come to the light…like the art of book printing, God’s highest and extremest act of grace, whereby the business of Gospel is driven forward.”  His challenge that Christians and churches should be on the leading edge of innovation, and who of us in the room would develop that tool to drive the gospel forward has been echoing in my mind a lot.  And Donald Miller’s message on “Story” was amazing.  It held special importance to me because my wife and I were listening to that message about 6 months ago (he had given it at Mars Hills in Michigan; check here for it) as we drove from Los Angeles to Phoenix to visit my family.  After his message all we could think about was the story God had given us and were we truly living in it.  That message gave us courage to continue our move to Dallas, and to hear Miller give it on Friday night was confirmation of God’s grace in my wife, daughter and I’s lives as we had safely made the journey from Los Angeles to Dallas…desiring to live a different story than the one in LA…desiring to live the story God had given us.  I know many of us are still chewing on that talk as it continues to resonate with us.


  • Networking: This is probably one of my favorite things to do at conferences.  But there was something different about the networking going on here.  It wasn’t the typical, here is my card, and if you can meet my needs, then we should hang out more.  Rather, I genuinely felt like that the people I networked with are people I want to spend time with.  Over dinner, drinking coffee, going to church, dreaming, etc.  The networking had a sense of humility and friendship, and I think it was evident that people’s connection with Christ and ministry is what motivated them, and not money and power.  That is a very different feel.  So at the end of the day, networking was about friendship and dreaming together, not money and fitting a peg along someone’s ladder of success. I have to believe that that tone was not only set and embodied by those putting on the conference, but also those who came through the door.  I am looking forward to the new friendships, and the times we will eat together, play together, and dream big dreams together.


  • Innovation and Creativity: Truly the keynote speakers, lab leaders and workshops were led by people doing very innovative things in their field. So no matter what breakout you attended or speaker you heard, it was always challenging and refreshing.  Who saw the creative work of Barton Damer and was amazed?  Everyone.  Those are the type of people doing ministry that a conference needs and ECHO had plenty of them.


  • Christ, Church and Ministry: No matter who I came into contact with during my time at the conference, I was impressed with which everything came back to Christ.  It is Christ who has given us our gifts, our talents, our relationships, and it is Him that we glorify when we use our gifts, and so in humility, always pointing towards Him who has given us such grace.  I was excited that not only was Christ evident during our time there, but people were concerned about ministry.  How does what I’m doing affect ministry?  How does it spread the gospel and enhance ministry?  So the talents and gifts and creativity were embedded in the local church of these people and they all came together to learn from each other.  Obviously not everything must be tied to ministry and church, but when it’s a conference on media arts and church, well, it’s nice that it lived up to its billing.

I learned a lot, made a lot of new friends and was encouraged by the passion in others. And I’m looking forward to many coffee times and Mexican food lunches and dinners here in Dallas with many of you.

You can find some of the notes from ECHO here.

Why Twitter? How About California Earthquake To Name One Reason

July 29, 2008 in Marriage-Family, Technology-Social Media with 9 Comments

There are many reasons to Twitter which I have chronicled on this blog.

But today was a perfect example. When the Southern California earthquake hit today at approximately 11:41 (Twitter) or 11:42 (CNN) Twitter was buzzing like crazy. I had numerous reports from numerous sources of the quake almost before it ended.

And when the phone lines wouldn’t work, it was Twitter that allowed my wife and I, as well as other family members and friends connect to make sure everyone was okay.

Great tool. And no matter what complaints people levy against Twitter’s latest technical problems, it’s days like these that make you thankful for Twitter.

UPDATE:

Twitter beats the AP and other new sources by 4-9 minutes. Gees…how slow is the MSM.

Sort of reminds me of churches, church staffs and denominations that put out “official” news days, weeks and months after everyone else knows about it.

Why aren’t you on Twitter?

POST: Re-Structuring and Moving Collective Muse

July 22, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 2 Comments

We define the four-step POST process for creating strategies–people, objectives, strategy, and technology–and reveal why starting with the technologies is a mistake.

That is the advice I wish I would have read 6 months ago as I was thinking about creating the college ministry network Collective Muse.

I came across it in the must read book Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff.

In it they have developed the acronym POST which stands for the following:

P=People
O=Objectives
S=Strategy
T=Technology

When creating strategies for social media this is the process they recommend. Most of us think about the technology first, rather than thinking about the people who may use it. At least I do that. Hopefully not any more though.

But to create a community one was must think about the people first, and what objectives and strategies will help you accomplish your goal. Will your people create content, or do they prefer to respond? Do they respond, or do they just like to read? Lots of things to think about. I just thought about technology because I love college ministry and wanted to gather college leaders from around the country…not taking into consideration if it was/is the right tool for them, and whether or not there is something already available for them.

With that in mind I also realized through reading this book that fostering online community takes time, of which I don’t have tons of with two jobs, a family and lots of interests.

So I have decided to move Collective Muse to a Christian site that is built around gathering people around their passions…ROOV. What is ROOV? ROOV is:

Roov.com is an online community that connects like-minded individuals around shared experiences and passions within their church and cities.

You can now find Collective Muse on ROOV by going to ROOV and searching for Collective Muse, or clicking on this link when you are logged in.

I hope by moving Collective Muse to ROOV several things can be accomplished:

  1. I don’t have to be responsible for maintaining a whole network (coding, providing content, fixing bugs, etc.)


  2. The network doesn’t revolve around me, but is decentralized on an already existing site. I will still have to work part of this out though as I created Collective Muse on ROOV. But for now, I suggest people just add Collective Muse as a friend and we begin to gather around our passions related to college ministry.


  3. You will find lots of people interested in college ministry who never would have joined Collective Muse, and you will find other things you are passionate about.


  4. We are joining a new and exciting network (ROOV) which is devoted to gathering Christians around their passions, and moving them towards action. So it’s a good base to start with.


  5. By being a part of ROOV, hopefully it will be more than a group that people simply join because they are interested, but that our interests and passions drive us towards actions, and opportunities to gather.


Last, I know that there are many groups that you can join, and that by doing so takes time that you sometimes don’t have. So I apologize for moving Collective Muse off a Ning, a site which you spent time joining, but I appreciate your interest, and I know that in the long run that making this move is much smarter than staying on a site that is not very active.

Sometimes we so much want to create something new, but often there are already tools and sites that exist. And so sometimes it’s better to join those that are already doing a great work. ROOV is doing a great work and has a lot of potential. So those of us who love college ministry I hope we can gather around Collective Muse on ROOV as well as others who are passionate about this topic.

And hopefully, the more I do this, the better I get at it, and the less mistakes I make.

Practice, Participation and the Art of “Remixing” Church and Community

July 3, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 7 Comments

In class my adviser, Ryan Bolger, often tells a story about a pastor of a mega-church in Arizona. One day the pastor, while walking with his son across the campus of the church he built, said, “Son, this is all going to yours someday,” and his son took a step back and responded, “I don’t want anything to do with this kind of Christianity.” It was then that this pastor realized his church was rooted in a boomer culture phenomenon (and has since gone on to rethink their mission as a church). This “mission-station” approach is rooted in a different time and sensibility than that of our younger generations. Theirs is a do-it-yourself culture: sites like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Wikipedia and open-source community-based software need community cooperation in order to work. These sites represent a rejection of powerful top-down hierarchies where the flow from producer to consumer maintains control, predictability and efficiently. Those influenced by the participatory culture, actively participate in creating where they see need and they do it with or without permission from those in power, they share information and welcome low levels of control, they are highly energetic and creative and they want to be active in shaping their future through a variety of grassroots means. (From the article, Remixing Faith in the 21st Century by Wess Daniels)

Recently I have been thinking a lot on two terms that author/consultant/professor Clay Shirky used in his book Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations. He discusses, among many other things:

  1. An “architecture of participation” (coined by Tim O’ Reilly)


  2. Communities of Practice

Both embody what I think are two important necessities for the Church. That we create an environment that allows for and encourages participation among everyone. Not just pastors, directors, paid staff, or those that we often single out as having special gifts. Rather it is a community that everyone brings something to the table. And that we foster a community environment that encourages practice, which allows for mistakes, failures, successes…everything that comes along with practicing.

Churches are often bad at these two things. We don’t allow for failure, and therefore we inhibit a participatory community.

That’s why you rarely see anyone up front during worship on Sundays unless it is the paid staff. That is the way that we minimize mistakes, which therefore limits total participation. It’s a vicious cycle which eventually leads us to being consumers of Church, the community and all that is offered.

I have great hope for the Church as I see many new communities and Churches embracing some of these values of participation and practice, while also moving away from being consumers of the Church and worship. Many are also moving away from top-down hierarchies that maintain command and control. I think these moves are a step in the right direction.

Wess Daniels has got an amazing post over at Barclay Press, Remixing Faith in the 21st Century. I leave you with another great quote from the article. Then go read it for yourself because it is well worth the time.

This past April Radiohead did another thing that sparked imaginations and challenged the preexisting structures of the music industry, yet again. They setup a website and invited people to remix one of their singles, “Nude.” Along with the invitation, they released the audio tracks containing the guitars, strings, drums, bass, and vocals through the iTunes music store. They invited people to participate in a contest to see who would make the best remix of their song, all the votes would be made by Radiohead fans (the winning remix received 38568 votes). By looking at remix culture, I think the church can learn something about how creativity and imagination interacts with existing ideas and structures and builds off those resources while also moving beyond them in new ways.
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