IS: Religious Communication and Digital Life
Since I have so much time on my hands, I’m taking an Independent Study this semester: Religious Communication & Digital Life. This will count as credit towards a MA in Communication at the Univ. of North Dakota, but mainly help deepen my understanding of the field of religious comm, particularly as it concerns cyberculture studies, new media, and digital life. (Actually, I have very little time on my hands, but I love studying this stuff so much it’d be silly not to make it official.)
I’m pretty pumped about the course which is supervised by both a communication and religion professor at UND. In independent study fashion, however, I’ll be working a lot on my own. In blogger fashion, one of the course requirements is that I post thoughts here from time to time including reviews of each of the books I’ll be reading. These include:
- Religion, Media and Culture: A Reader eds. Gordon Lynch and Jolyon Mitchell, Routledge, pp. 296, ISBN: 0415549558
- Morgan, David. The Sacred Gaze: Religious Visual Culture in Theory and Practice, Univ. of California Press, ISBN: 0520243064, pp. 333.
- Halos and Avatars: Playing Video Games with God, Craig Detweiler, ed., Westminster John Knox, pp. 222, ISBN: 0664232779
- Campbell, Heidi. When Religion Meets New Media, Routledge, 2010, pp. 232. ISBN:0415349575
- Wilkie, Rob. The Digital Condition: Class and Culture in the Information Network, Fordham University Press, 2011, pp. 272. ISBN: 0823234231
- Miller, Vincent. Understanding Digital Culture, Sage Publications, 2011, pp. 264. ISBN: 1847874975
Of course, that’s just a smattering of what’s out there, and I’m aware the core literature in the field is shifting/still being discovered/not yet written. So, I’d love to hear what you’re reading, and take suggestions as to what I should add to the list.
In related news: next week I’ll be attending the Digital Religion Conference hosted by University of Colorado at Boulder’s Center for Media, Religion, and Culture. I’m eager to make new connections, have some great conversations, and drink some delicious Boulder-area beer. If you’re reading this, and would be there and up for that, let’s connect. (Tweet @ajc123 email adamjcopeland at gmail)
Smartphones, Smart Pastor, Smart Church
WorkingPreaching.org recently published a column of mine at their site. It’s a great place for sermon prep, lectionary commentary, and church and culture discussion. Do check it out. My specific post is here, and below.
Next time you see a group of young adults dining together at a restaurant, take a closer look at the table. Nine times out of ten, you'll be able to glimpse at least one cell phone resting on the tablecloth or, just as likely, in someone's hand. In many cases, multiple phones will dot the table as if they were part of the place settings. One might deduce that young people today have a medical condition causing indigestion unless they eat with their phones near at hand. Come to think of it, that's dangerously close to the truth.
The dining scene hints at the fact that many youth and young adults today have a relationship with technology and social media that is core to their formation. With this access to the Internet and, through it, the world, their worldview is significantly different than that of previous generations.
In his article Preaching 2.0, David Lose explores how new approaches to preaching might address our changing cultural norms. But why stop at preaching?
Here's a list of five common phenomena among young people, and how the church might incorporate them into its worship, preaching, and communal life:
1. When young people have a question they ask it -- as a Facebook status, on Twitter, on a message board, perhaps in a text message. But, corporate worship is a time in which it is very difficult to ask questions of the people sitting beside you, let alone the leaders up front. What if worship leaders, after each scripture reading, left a time of silence followed by an opportunity for worshippers to share their questions about the passage? What if preachers invited spoken questions (and even text-messaged ones) and incorporated the questions into their sermons?
2. Social media culture invites young people to respond in some way to pretty much everything. For instance, we can "like" Facebook statuses, respond to text messages with a simple "K," and have the ability to comment on blog posts and news articles until our hearts' content. We can re-tweet a joke, share a music video, and quote a funny happening on Facebook (all while sitting in class). But then in worship, most churches shut down the sharing. The prevailing norm is to keep cell phones out of sight. What if we opened our worship culture and invited worshippers to respond with social media as well as corporate liturgy? What if, throughout our worship space, we placed art supplies that worshippers could use to respond to the Spirit's movement?
3. Young people, through the Internet, are accustomed to easily accessing huge swaths of information. Friends of mine, mid-conversation, will pull out a phone to research a curiosity. In later encounters we'll often find that each of us read further using Wikipedia and Google. But, in most worship services, it would be unusual to do something as natural as pulling up an e-Book Bible, or Googling a commentary on the scripture lesson. What if bulletins included web links and codes scanable with a smartphone (QR codes) to access more information? What if congregations posted videos of sermons on YouTube with links to further resources?
4. Young people, like us all, yearn for community. In fact, a recent Pew Study found that people who use social networking sites actually have larger social networks and more close friends than those who don't. Many of us in the church assume that church attendance and worship is a social event -- and it is -- but then we require people to sit in long narrow pews ideal for looking at the backs of people's heads. Sitting like this does not make for easy community-building or social interaction. What if we replaced our church pews with movable chairs arranged in a way that encouraged a more communal culture of worship? What if churches became a hub for intergenerational social media education, online prayer practices, and community-building?
5. Finally, young adults have a different way of assigning authority. Whereas in another age, pastors could assume a certain respect by virtue of their connection with the church, nowadays authority is more situational. Through relationships, conversation, and careful listening pastors can share wise and helpful words but, then again, sometimes a quick Facebook post will do more than an entire sermon. What if congregations made efforts to make space in their church for dialogue among the wise voices of their community? What if pastors viewed social media as a medium for pastoral care and prophetic words?
The next time you view a cell phone in front of a young diner, hopefully you'll think about its implications for the church's ministry. There are many ways to answer the questions about young adult culture today, but one thing is certain: we must start asking the right questions. What would change if we did?
Don’t take “Christ” out of Christmas, but get the tree out of the church
It’s a wonderful tradition in my house: putting on Christmas music, lugging the tote full of Christmas decorations up from the basement, making hot chocolate, getting the blasted tree straight enough, and placing the ornaments procured over many years onto the bare tree. Afterwards, color fills the house and the fresh evergreen scent welcomes all. This year we decorated our wee house for Christmas just after Thanksgiving. It was great.
Churches often have their own Christmas (or, really, Advent) decorating traditions. I’ve happily participated in several, and I was sad not to this year. So, though I’ve been known to be a scrooge, know that I am not anti Christmas decorations. I am, however, firmly against Christmas trees in sanctuaries.
In many Christian churches, the symbols associated with worship are prominently displayed: communion table, baptismal font, pulpit/Bible, and often a cross. Each of these symbols has a deep meaning and clear connection to the faith.
Christmas trees, in the current-day United States at least, do not have a clear connection to the Christian faith. So why put them in the sanctuary with the other symbols?
Yes, I’ve heard many try to connect Christmas trees to Christian faith. Yes, there is plenty of history there — Norwegian, German, French, you name it — but it’s confused and from many divergent traditions. For me, the issue is less that there’s no historical precedence for cut evergreen trees sometimes having Christian significance, and more that any remnants of significance are lost today on the vast majority of the population.
Christmas trees adorn Times Square, my local bank office, mall atriums, and the White House. That’s fine and dandy. They are lovely to look at with their pretty colors and shiny lights. But those trees, certainly, are not Christian symbols. So why insist on stretching to make Christian symbols out of something that’s almost exclusively understood as secular?
Many years ago, Christians co-opted the Roman December 25th celebration of the sun god to be the time they would celebrate Christ’s birth (handy for the true Son of God, light of the world, and all that). So, indeed, Christians can be sneaky about the whole “whose symbol is whose?” thing. But I’m willing to give this one up without any fight, because I think we’ve already lost.
So, enjoy your tree at home. We love ours. But, if you have any say in the matter, why not consider refraining from putting one up at church, or at least keeping it well away from the symbols of worship. Consider it an early Christmas present yours truly.
image by Graham Soult
Friday free-for-all
So much is swirling around my already taxed mind these days I can’t seem to pop out a traditional post, so here’s some bullets from the swirl:
- The three state sanctioned executions this week greatly trouble me. Opposition to the death penalty is an issue deeply tied to my Christian faith, so much so that I admit my inability to understand those of differing perspectives. Lord have mercy.
- I join the chorus of those surprised that none of the GOP presidential candidates expressed concern over the boos from the crowd at last night’s debate after a gay solider serving in Iraq. I won’t even begin to imagine the uproar if a Democratic candidate had advocated against a policy supported by top military officials and failed to give thanks for a soldier’s service to our country.
- I enjoyed attending my first (ELCA) synod ministry conference at Fair Hills Resort recently. The three days for pastors in the region to meet, study, have sabbath, and learn from one another was a welcome respite from other tough tasks of ministry. I wonder if more Presbyterians might adopt a similar model of regional gatherings for pastoral support, encouragement, and rest.
- Marci Glass, a pastor friend in Boise, Idaho recently posted on her decision not to sign any more traditional marriage certificates until she might also do so for same-sex couples. I deeply respect her position. I’ve never been a fan of pastors signing state documents in the first place.
- I laugh every time Facebook changes and folks freak out, mainly because it so perfectly illustrates the struggle of many church leaders to bring about change in the church. That said, I do have one minor complaint regarding the recent changes: when working in a page I administer, I can no longer send a message to a group I’ve made out of personal friends. One can access groups Facebook automatically creates (such as friends from Fargo, ND) but not the Project F-M group I’ve lovingly groomed over the past six months. Oh well.
- I enjoyed speaking recently at a presbytery event, leading workshops on the church and technology and giving the keynote, “The Ten Commandments 2.0″ FYI, I’m always up for speaking invites — especially on fun topics
image by Henk L
Young adults are amoral heathens, but what’s new?
This week’s Theology Pub, a gathering of 20/30-somethings The Project FM hosts at a local bar to talk about God and life, tackled the topic “Is my truth better than yours?” Though it came out a few days too late, David Brooks’ NY Times Op-Ed yesterday, “If it feels right” would have been great pre-reading.
Brooks builds his column on the work of Christian Smith and colleagues. Smith’s previous book, Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults has been on my wish list for some time. Now I’ll have to add his latest as well, Lost in Transition: The Dark Side of Emerging Adulthood.
In his column Brooks opines that young adults these days apparently lack the wherewithal to speak about moral issues. As someone who hosts conversations for young adults to speak about moral issues, two responses immediately come to mind. One: young adults who attend Theology Pub absolutely love speaking about moral issues. Two: we are not particularly well versed in how to speak about them.
I could blame this all on standardized testing in grade schools. I could complain about colleges requiring too few philosophy and ethics courses (grad schools too, for that matter). I could lambast parents for not passing along resources for taking on moral subjects. But I won’t.
What I will do, however, is refuse to blame young adults themselves for not having been given the resources to take on moral questions — it’s not their fault that faith communities, schools, and parents failed them. Let me repeat that: it doesn’t do us any good to blame 20 year-olds for not having the moral sensibilities we wish they had. (And Brooks, by the way, does well to refuse to do so — mostly.)
I look forward to reading Smith’s book, but I’ll do so uneasily. When I somehow find the time to pick it up, I’ll do so with this question at the forefront of my mind: Is it that young adults truly have fewer moral resources with which to deal with moral questions than previous generations, or is it that today’s questions are so much more complex that young adults need more skills and understanding to just tread water in our consumeristic pluralized technologically-advanced globalized world?
After all, it’s much easier to teach and theologize that “murder is wrong” than it is to discuss unmanned drone strikes in remote border areas of Afghanistan/Pakistan during an unfunded “war on terror” lasting over ten years.
image by Linden Laserna
Expanding my worship culture
Strangely, in my current stage as mission developer of The Project F-M I don’t have regular Sunday morning commitments. So, in recent weeks I’ve taken Sunday mornings to visit several new church plants in the Fargo-Moorhead area. I’ll be perfectly honest: as vibrant as some of them are, I need a break from visiting such congregations. Fargo-Moorhead has several self-sustaining new churches with very young populations, but they are not my cup of tea. I say this in the spirit of open reflection, not wishing to denigrate at all. It’s just true: my personal worship culture is very different from that of the congregations I’ve visited recently.
I use that phrase, “worship culture” very intentionally. The 
way I think about it, each of us has a sort of way in which we find worship most, well, worshipful. For some folks worshipful worship takes high liturgy, for others it’s raising one’s hands in praise, others prefer silent meditation. Personal worship cultures can change over time of course, or adapt to different settings. But the point is that not all people find the same sort of worship service worshipful — duh, but it’s worth pointing out. And that’s great. That’s the beauty of the body of Christ.
With that careful prelude, let me now reflect on the three services I recently attended. Each of these was at a congregation in Fargo-Moorhead launched within the last 10 years. The average age of all three congregations was well under 40, and two were probably under 30. All took a much more conservative approach to Christianity compared to my personal views and that of the denominations with which I’m affiliated. This conservative approach was most clearly reflected in their very different way of approaching scripture. (In fact, at every service the pastor in some way or another distinguished their congregation from “non Bible believing” churches — as I took it, that seemed to include the ELCA and PC(USA).)
Now to specifics which I’ll bullet. They include both “wow, that’s spiffy” reflections and “boy, that’s as shame” points too.
- at each congregation someone made a point of shaking my hand and introducing themselves before I sat down. Love it!
- all three had coffee available beforehand that you then took into worship with you. (But, answer me this: why does everyone in the Midwest insist on making such crappy weak coffee?)
- none of the services were limited by time: no rushed sermons, no songs cut, worship lasted at least one hour and fifteen to an hour and a half, and that was cool
- there was an enormous emphasis one one’s personal relationship with Jesus, whether we were saved ourselves, and the import of bringing others to Christ’s salvation
- the songs (all led by praise bands) were 90% about adoration, praise, and devotion (most contemporary Christian genre but a few old hymns thrown in too)
- the sermons were 30-45 mins long, thematic, and mentioned many New Testament passages but only one Old Testament reference (Psalms)
- obvious, but should be noted: scripture lessons were not based on the Revised Common Lectionary (in fact, there were no scripture readings per se, just sermons), none of what ones thinks of as liturgy, no creeds, no confession/forgiveness sequence
- Communion was held at one service in a laid-back understated way
- No candles in sight. Lots of talk of Satan.
- people were dressed in casual clothes, worship leaders included
- all the worship locations were rented spaces in public buildings; each had a screen up front and rows of movable chairs
Suffice it to say: some aspects of these worship cultures were lovely, some were unfamiliar to me but positive, and some aspects were just painful (mostly theological statements that I consider blatantly wrong). But, I am very glad to have worshiped in these communities, in these new ways, and gotten a glimpse of some of the worship cultures in Fargo-Moorhead. Next week, who knows where I’ll go…there’s always worship at St. Mattress with the gospel of Sunday Times.
image by Carter Perrier
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics…in the Pews
When I served as a parish pastor, every week the bulletin reported how much money was collected during the previous week’s offering. It also noted “total offering collected for the month” in relation to the budget. Reporting these numbers was a tradition in our congregation and is common in this area, but I always felt a little uncertain about this practice.
On the one hand, it’s really helpful for members to know the state of the church’s budget. Noting as much each week might also remind the less assiduous folks to bring their pledges. But on the other hand, I wondered what that line in the bulletin communicated to visitors, especially those without much money. We didn’t report each week how many times we served Jesus, or fed the hungry, or glimpsed the Kingdom. We reported how much money we collected, or not.
Numbers matter, but they’re not the point. Interpreting numbers can get pretty tricky pretty fast.
I recently read with great interest an article on the Online Conference Dashboard instituted by Bishop William Willimon of the Northern Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church. Each Monday pastors supervised by Willimon report statistics on the online “dashboard” about membership, attendance, baptisms, professions of faith, outreach (people serving), outreach (people served), and apportionment dollars paid. Willimon checks out the stats each Tuesday, but it’s all public. You can see the reports here. It’s no great surprise that the approach has reportedly generated its fair share of controversy (though Google turned-up relatively little).
As a mission developer, I make monthly online statistical reports to supervisors at the national church, but the questions are such that I can’t imagine the data is any help whatsoever in interpreting our ministry at The Project F-M. As a former student of Florida’s schools where the statewide standardized test (the FCAT instituted before No Child Left Behind) is often the tail wagging the dog, I have a natural aversion to bureaucrats and statistics. But…
But when people ask how our ministry is going, I often say how many people attended our last event. But when I give my monthly report to our Board, I dutifully report exactly who I met with the previous month. And, if we ever were to the point where someone wished to be baptized, you better believe I’ll take note.
So though I admit a natural skepticism towards Willimon’s dashboard, though I insist it tells too little a story, I do give the conference credit for taking note, for (literally) taking account of their ministry — and for doing so especially in the context of what was (but, I understand, is no longer) a declining conference in terms of overall membership statistics. And, sure, the speed, the public nature, and the frequency of the reports might help combat pastoral laziness and burnout.
[On a side note, I'm not convinced all churches need to grow numerically. I do think, though, they should support other new church plants and innovative ways of ministry even if they themselves are an ideal size.]
The Mary Jacobs article gives a good quick take on some other issues — not all positive – associated with the dashboards, but the whole thing has me thinking: what questions might I like to ask other than the basic membership, giving, and service stats? What questions might I consider particularly telling for congregations? Here’s a few of my ideas, and I’d love to read some of yours in the comments.
Alternative Questions for the Conference Dashboards
- For how many of your enemies did you pray in the last week?
- How many times did you push yourself to an uncomfortable place for Jesus’ sake?
- How often did you find yourself closed-off to the Spirit doing a new thing?
- How many Bibles have you worn out from study?
- How often did you pray your Facebook feed?
- How often do you respond to a sermon with a specific question or action?
- Is your faith static, or are you pushing for new ideas, new activities, new insights of the Spirit?
- How often did you make numbers and statistics your idol?
- To how many people did you show and tell that Jesus Christ is Lord?
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