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In our worship service this Easter, our pastor had a few people show a simple response to a question. The question was “What were you before you encountered the risen Christ, what are you now?” At this point of his message, he had about 20 people on stage that had shown white pieces of tag board and on one side they had their ‘pre Christ’ message and then after they had all shown that aspect of their lives they flipped it over and showed the ‘post Christ’ message. Message such as ‘Ego Centered/Christ Centered’ or ‘led by me/led by Him’ or ‘addicted to alcohol/freed from slavery’. It was absolutely powerful with not many dry eyes in the place. To those sitting in the seats you could see them thinking about what their statements would be. However, then things took a step up. Then Pastor Mike had people text their message/statements to a certain number. As these texts flooded in, they were displayed on the screens. The whole community was sharing what Christ meant to them. For the person who has yet to have that experience it was an awesome message of the gift that is available. It was a very emotional experience for all people involved. Technology has now given us low barrier approaches to people’s lives. People are able to share, are able to get involved, in a nonthreatening way. As I study church and culture, I am excited to see how we can continue to gather people through technology around the message of Christ. Social Media, when used correctly, can have a very positive effect on our church community. The church I am serving at now has more hits to their facebook page than to their webpage. Over 3500 people are fans of the facebook page and rather than just providing information (website) the facebook community can interact with one another. It can give information but also gather people and point people to different things. It is a huge opportunity for us to take advantage of.
Jeremy, I like the example of texting as a "low-barrier approach" in inviting community into the community's own meaning making process. I think it's important to offer ways for both non-threatening ways to contribute (like your example) and ways to contribute that allow people to claim their own ideas. Facebook works for that.
ReplyDeleteThat story gives me chills just thinking about it! What a neat way to engage a congregation and also connect people... without knowing to whom they are connected!
ReplyDeleteI can't help but think about the people that didn't text in, yet saw something on the screen that encapsulated their thoughts. Imagine the validation of people's thoughts that happened through such a simple (yet creative) way... and during worship! Awesome!
There were two of your posts that I really found interesting. I loved the post titled A New pastoral Trend and also the Post on Effective tools for ministry. The first post the new pastoral trend was very helpful in providing me with a better understanding of the tools that are available in the social media space. I got chills when I read your Easter post. How awesome this most have been to be sitting in God's sanctuary and at the same time reading about how Christ has had an impact in their lives. We don't have a screen in our main sanctuary but I am wondering if this is something that I can do with the youth in my church. I use the computer a lot for PowerPoint presentations and games. Thanks for sharing.
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