Jul 06 2009
The Tweeting Church?
[NY Times]
Things went smoothly for the first hour of the Twitter experiment at Trinity Church in Manhattan on Good Friday in April.While hundreds of worshipers watched the traditional dramatization of the Crucifixion from pews in the church, one of New York’s oldest, thousands more around the world followed along on smartphones and computers as a staff member tweeted short bursts of dialogue and setting (“Darkness and earthquake,” “Crucify him!”).
The trouble began in the second hour.
Twitter’s interactivity — its essence — made it easy for an anonymous text-messager to insert an unscripted character into the Passion play: a Roman guard who breezily claimed, “I’ve got dibs on his robe.” When another texter introduced a rogue Mary Magdalene, the intrusion only confirmed the obvious: Twitter’s trademark limit of 140 characters per message is no bar against crudity.
Religious groups from Episcopalians to Orthodox Jews have signed up for Twitter, Facebook and other social media networks with the same gusto that celebrities and politicians have, and for some of the same reasons — to gain a global platform and to appeal to young people.
Still, many clerics admit to an uneasiness about the merger of worship and electronic chatter.
In online debates and private discussions, leaders of all faiths have been weighing pros and cons and diagramming the boundaries of acceptable interactions: Should the congregation have a Facebook page, or should it be the imam’s or priest’s? Should there be limited access? Censoring? Is it appropriate for a clergy member to “friend” a minor?
Some recoil at the informality and unpredictability of the crowds marshaled by social media, and at their seeming immunity — even hostility — to the authority of established institutions. More deeply, some in the clergy see a basic tension between the anonymous world of online life and the meaning of religious community.
“In Judaism, we believe that God resides in the community — among people in the same room at the same time, hearing each other’s voices and looking in each other’s eyes,” said Rabbi Gerald C. Skolnik of the Forest Hills Jewish Center in Queens, who also wanted it known that he carries an iPhone and a laptop and is talking with his congregation about a Facebook page.
“But can you tweet a minyan?” he asked, referring to the quorum of 10 people required for most Jewish devotions. “I don’t think so.”
Religious groups are answering many such questions for themselves — and, for the most part, signing up for interactive media, said the Rev. Bill Reichart, a Presbyterian minister in Atlanta who leads an informal network of Web consultants who work with people of a broad spectrum of faiths.
“If total control is what you want, social media will frustrate you,” he said, reprising his advice to the clergy. “But the trade-off is the ability to hear and learn, reach out in new directions.” Many clerics, desperate to connect with young people, have been like radio dispatchers using the wrong bandwidth, he said. “The young don’t do e-mail anymore,” he said. “They do Facebook.”
Evangelical Christian ministers were among the earliest Web networkers, and today, popular preachers like Rick Warren and Joel Osteen have thousands of followers on Twitter. At Christ Tabernacle Church in Queens, Pastor Adam Durso and his brother Chris, the youth director, keep in contact with their flock, sometimes hourly, on a half-dozen social media sites.
Leaders in other faiths are catching on, but moving slowly, said Monique Cuvelier, a Web consultant in Boston who attributes some of the resistance to the conservatism of any established institution, and some to a sense of privacy: Gossiping about the rabbi’s wife may be common in temple parking lots, “but having it end up on the Internet — that freaks some people out,” she said.
Read more here.
[From me]
I hear people lamenting the evils of technology. Sure there are bad elements to it. But you had better get on board or be left behind. The world is changing whether we like it or not. Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, My Space, texting, Looped, etc…. are the way people communicate. Some can say it is impersonal but they have probably not tried it.
I have reconnected with people I haven’t seen in 20+ years through social media. I have met people online and then actually met in person at conferences later because of social media. I pray for people and they pray for me. Are they relationships? Yes. Maybe not in the same way as the past but they are relationships. People can complain or chose to adapt. The church had better adapt or be swept away in the technological tsunami.
What do you think?
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
I think there is a significant difference between individual Christians pursuing relationships using new media and the Church as a whole jostling alongside other brands (like Michael Jackson) for a bit of attention via new media.
The personal uses of new media you describe are sensible and can even lead to offline face-to-face interaction. (I speak from experience.) There seem to be too many churches, though, trying to do too much through the Internet, not understanding its limitations and buying in to too much of the hype as to its strengths.
As for the Church “getting on board or being left behind” or “being swept away in a technological tsunami”, the Church is a counter-cultural movement. Its message is conveyed from human weakness, not human strength. The Holy Spirit does not seem to find much use for the power structures of the World (including their preferred media outlets) in exercising His kingdom powers in our midst. See 2 Corinthians 4.
I’ve RT’ed a couple of your twitterings and read through “the tweeting church?” I like your framing of the issue. As an oblate in the Antiochian Eastern Orthodox Church I’m oddly into twittering. To a few in my church it is wrong. For most of us it’s seen as a path which a few can rightly tread.
I wish on us twittering fools that we become as kids. We don’t know what will come of twitter, let alone facebook and all the rest. How else are we to discover whether there is anything to it of which God will make use?
As a parent I didn’t create what my adult kids have become. Each progressively discovered that self. As a dad I worried, early on, about the possible bumps, bruises and perhaps broken bones while watching them do most everything. Only a smattering of their choices made me run over to rescue them, though. Fewer of those occasions came with each year. So then, are we willing to become as little kids playing at twittering with no idea of what’s next? Are we willing to let the Spirit treat us as little kids?
My kids, also, reinforced the need to let mistakes happen. Exclusively getting some thing right gave them no depth to their grasp of that thing. Their mistakes coupled with getting other things right progressed well ahead of my anticipations.
In their mistakes what they needed was loving discipline. My imperfectly focusing on them rather than what went wrong encouraged each to look at the mistake and not hide from it. Far too often repentance has been learned in a negative fashion. How many of us were encouraged to look at our sins, without shame? Quickly repenting and then pretending the problem is gone means that the sin will be repeated. Others, who, by repentance, keep their attention locked on the problem will repeat the sin. Either way, then, all that has been accomplished is the fastening of a ball and chain to the ankle.
During my now 40 or so year of walking with Jesus, the Spirit has been working at getting me to lay aside parts of my needing to be right. The Holy Spirit has made use of that point about letting my kids make mistakes. Imperfectly, I’m learning to let the Spirit loving pick me up in my pain, discomfort, anger and frustrations without demanding an explanation of why “It” let that happen to me. This has been so difficult!
With all that said, I’m willing to twitter knowing that the Spirit may well have to kiss a scrapped knee.
.-= Br. David´s last blog ..Perspectives =-.