Church Bells: A Parable

Listen, and I will tell you a parable.  The modern church is like a church bell.

Once upon a time, the large church bell in the steeple played an important role in the community. They drew the community together, and provided vital service for everyone in the neighborhood.

On Saturday night the bell rang at sunset, to let everyone know that there would be worship in the morning.

Important news in the community? The church bell rang to alert everyone.

A death in the community? Listen for the church bell - you would even find out how old the person was.

Sunday morning - the bell rang a few hours before worship, reminding everyone to start gathering together.

Everyone in the neighborhood heard and depended on the church bell as a part of life together.

And then things changed.

Silent church bells on display. 

The world became noisier. Cars and planes, cell phones and televisions and radios. Better insulated homes. The church bell couldn't be heard as well.

And once the church bell couldn't be heard as well, it started to ring less often.

Many churches still have bells. Most often they are rung right as worship begins, so that those inside the church already know that worship is beginning.

Once upon a time, the church bell was an important source of news and information for everyone in the neighborhood.

Now the bell only rings for those who are inside the church when worship begins.

Pope Francis, Children, and Worship

In many churches, there are very clear expectations for children (and there parents). Even if you have never attended the congregation before, you can quickly pick up on the expectation.

• The very clearly labelled cry room / nursery, far from the sanctuary. To separate noisy children from the worshipers. 
• The children being led out at some point for "children's church." 
• The judging looks at parents with young children who are laughing or crying. 
• Even the sign, "Small Children Should Be in the Nursery During Worship."

Yup. The expectation is clear. We do not want to see or hear children during worship. No wiggling, no laughing, no talking, no fidgeting. Take them out: to the nursery, to the cry room, anywhere but the sanctuary. 

I was greatly moved by the pictures this week of Pope Francis. As he was speaking to a huge gathering of families, a young boy joined the Pope on the stage. Despite attempts by those on the stage to remove him, the boy stayed. He wandered. He talked. He spent time in the places where he was not supposed to be. And no one seemed happier about the situation than Pope Francis. 

Love. Kid runs on stage during @Pontifex speech, hugs him, Pope sits him on his chair to continue the speech. pic.twitter.com/zxghWLpwtb
— PEG (@pegobry) October 29, 2013

The Pope seemed to have grasped an important truth: If you have a gathering of families, there will be children. And those children will behave like ... well ...children. 

If we continue to make it clear that we do not want to hear or see children in worship, we will get exactly what we want. We will not see or hear children -- Not now, and not in twenty years when they grow up. They will get the message loud and clear: They are not welcome.

Worship leaders: learn from the Pope. We want our worship services to be gatherings for families (all sorts of families). And where there are families, there will be children. (Rodger Nishioka wrote about this very idea yesterday on the NextChurch blog)

Worship leaders: let children be children. Give permission for them to wander, to talk, to color, to play. To do all the things that children do. Make it abundantly clear to parents and children that they are welcome.



Here is the welcome that we put in our bulletins at St. John - Prairie Hill

Parents of Young Children

We are so glad that you are here, and that you brought your children with you! Thank you! A few suggestions for your worship experience: 

• Relax! God put the wiggle in children; don’t feel you have to suppress it in God’s house. It can be helpful to sit toward the front where it is easier for children to see and hear. 
• Sing hymns loudly, pray, and voice the responses with enthusiasm. Children learn behavior by copying you. If you are excited about God, they will be too! 
• There are Story Bibles in the pew—your child is welcome to read, look at, and use this Bible! (If you would like to take one home, talk to Pastor David). 
• Teach children some of the basic prayers; being able to join in with the prayers helps them feel they are contributing too. Also, it can be helpful to explain to your child what is happening during the service. 
• Attend worship often, children like and need routines where they can participate. 

To those who are sitting near worshiping parents and children
A smile of encouragement is always welcome to parents with small, active children! Jesus welcomed the little children, and so do we. Whether talking, crying, laughing, or singing, the sounds of children in worship are joyful songs of praise.

An Usher at St. John

6 Objections to Online Church Communications

I have been privileged to be able to help congregations and pastors work on how they communicate. In particular, I often teach about social media and online tools for ministry. And in doing this, I have heard the same objections many times.

Here are the 6 most common objections to having an online presence that I hear from leaders in congregations, and my answers to them.

1) People just use social media to avoid real relationships.
This is far and away the most common reason I hear for churches avoiding an an online presence. It also comes in the form of "I don't care what you had for lunch."

It's true. People talk about some pretty inane stuff online. Things that we may not care about, or which we might think are pointless or meaningless. But this is true of every mode of communication!  Traditional print publishing has giving us both the works of William Faulkner and trashy romance novels. The same medium gave us both the Washington Post and the National Enquirer. And in the same way, along side the trivial conversations on social media are very deep and meaningful conversations about faith, community, and the world.

And even more importantly, some of the most important conversations are built on these "trivial" conversations. At the end of the day I spend time with my spouse, and we talk about our days: what we had for lunch, who we talked with, the things we did at work. Those so-called trivial conversations are often the mortar that bind together the relationships in our lives.

2) No one in our community is online.
I don't believe you. Period.

It's true, some communities are more wired than others. Communities that are near large cities tend to have better connectivity; younger communities tend to be online more than older communities. I get that. I live in a rural area. High speed internet access was not easy to come by when I moved to this community. But mobile connections have changed everything.

As of 2012, 78.6% of the North American population is online. 50% of all Americans have a smartphone. More people in your community are online than you think. The number of older adults online (and on social media) is growing exponentially.

Even if the people currently attending your congregation are not online, the rest of the community around your congregation are. The people that you want to invite into your congregation are online.

3) Social media is just a fad.
Next year, Facebook (the current social media leader) will turn ten years old, and it continues to grow every year. The world's first website is 20 years old (and still online, an archived info page about the CERN "world wide web" project). The first BBS (bulletin board systems, an early form of online community) came into being 40 years ago!

Social media will change. New platforms will become important, and others will fade away. But people will continue to use online media to build community and communicate with one another.

4) We can't afford to be online. 
You can't afford not to be online.

The days when you could just be listed in the phone book or put an ad in the newspaper and be done with it are over. 60% of people start their searches for information online. If someone in your community is looking for a new place to worship, the chances extremely good are that their first stop will be online - either a google search, or via a friend's recommendation on social media. You want to be there.

More to the point, it is very easy to develop an online presence with little or no budget. It is free to develop a presence on all of the major social media platforms. FREE. There are many ways to build a website for free, or on a very limited budget. FREE.

5) Social media is just for ________ (large, suburban, wealthy, young, etc) congregations 
Some of the best social media ministries that I have seen come out of smaller congregations. In truth, larger institutions often have trouble with new ways of communication - it has to go through the proper committees, and be voted on ten different times, etc. Smaller institutions tend to be more nimble and able to adapt to new ways of being.

In addition, smaller congregations need online media more. The large, wealthy, etc, institutions have lots of resources for building a community and raising awareness. It is smaller communities that are often looking for the low cost alternative (see #4).

6) Online interaction will never replace face-to-face interaction.
You are absolutely correct. There is no replacement for face-to-face interaction. But nobody is suggesting that congregations and pastors abandon face-to-face interaction! It is not an either/or choice.

Your newspaper ads do not replace face-to-face interaction. Your phone line does not replace face-to-face interaction. Your print newsletter does not replace face-to-face interaction. They are all tools to help facilitate good face-to-face relationships, and help your congregation proclaim the Gospel.

And the same is true of your online ministry. It is one tool (among many) to help facilitate communications in your congregation and your work of proclaiming the Gospel and building community. It does not replace anything. It works alongside other tools.


If you are just getting started using online communications for your congregation, I highly recommend the books The Social Media Gospel and Click2Save as a starting place. 

As you get online, I would love to connect with you on Twitter. 

In Defense of $700,000 Crosses

Earlier today, popular blogger Rachel Held Evans posted a story from her hometown of Chattanooga (which also happens to be my hometown). It was about a church in town which is erecting large set of crosses at alongside an extremely busy stretch of interstate. The reaction from the satirical "Stuff Christian Culture Likes" sums up the reaction I saw across my social media streams:

A church in Chattanooga is spending $700,000 on crosses but I'm sure the sick & widowed & orphaned will understand. http://t.co/0SmUfYHgi5
— Stephanie Drury—SCCL (@StuffCCLikes) August 8, 2013

What a waste! What about the poor! What about mission! No one needs that! What a perfect example of what is wrong with the conservative Christianity!

(From the Crossing Church FB Page)

My first impulse was to chime in. But I didn't, I sat on my hands and thought.

I thought about the time I spend helping congregations and other organizations think about communications. And they say to me - How can we spend money on that? It's so wasteful! No one needs a website! Every day, congregations around this country are spending money to share the Word of God. Newsletters are printed and mailed. Advertisements are bought in newspapers and radio. Mailers and invitations are sent out. This congregation may have spent a lot, but I bet you that the cost per impression - given the amount of traffic on that stretch of road - is significantly less than the average church newspaper ad.

One of the things I love about the church is that it has traditionally been the patron of the arts and other projects that would not have been possible in any other way. I am grateful that they church through history has paid artists (sometimes quite handsomely) to create art that tells the story, art that has been passed through generations. And this project - whether you like it or not - is a form of art, and stands in the long tradition of large-scale church-funded projects.

Could the money have been used to help the poor? Of course!
But the same could be said of each and every dollar spent by the church.

In fact this is precisely the argument used against any spending in the church that one disagrees with. It is a strawman argument, used only against those with whom we disagree. Unless a church has zero expenses and zero assets, it could be said that they are using money that should be used to care for the poor. And while there are some of those churches, there aren't many.

Frankly, I think we should become worried when we find the words of Judas in our mouths. "Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?" (John 12:5). Or, perhaps, with the Pharisee we pray "I give you thanks O God, that I am not THAT sort of Christian."

At the end of the day, though, it is not about the money. It is not about budgets or about roadside crosses.

It is about how easily Christians find it to criticize one another. The church is every bit as divided as the political sphere. And that is troubling.

There is criticism that comes from love. There is helpful correction within the Body. But that is not what we are doing. Both "sides" believe that the other are not "real Christians." Both publicly belittle, chastise, mock, and ridicule the other. Both are quick with the playground defense, "But they started it!"

In what way is that helping the Gospel?

I don't want to be a conservative Christian or a liberal Christian. I want to be a Christian. Period.
I don't want to criticize the choices of other Christian communities. I want to do what is best for the Gospel here in my context, and assume others are doing the same.
I don't want to try and knock other Christian leaders down a peg. I just want to do my best to care for the flock that has been entrusted to me.
I don't want to sit back and try and judge the orthodoxy of people I have never met. I just want to do my best to understand the God who has loved me and called me to love my neighbor. 

-------------

UPDATE: My friend Aric Clark wrote a wonderful response to this post, which offers some great pushback. Aric is - as always - insightful and gracious in his critique. You should go read it at Two Friars and a Fool.

The Social Media Gospel - Author Interview (& Free Book)

Do you like free things? Then have I got a treat for you! My first order of copies of Meredith Gould's new book, The Social Media Gospel, are arriving today, and I have two copies to give away. More about that in a bit.

First, a little about the author. Meredith Gould founded a weekly conversation on twitter about using social media for ministry, called Church Social Media (or #chsocm). Over the last two years, this conversation has continued and developed into a community of individuals who are passionate about the Gospel and about technology. She has also consulted with congregations, organizations, and synods/dioceses about their communications strategies.

It is my privilege to count Meredith as a friend and collaborator (co-conspirator?) and to have been able to have a hand in this project. I asked Meredith to share some of her insight about the book and about using social media in ministry on this blog. Here is my interview with Meredith:


With an ever-growing number of resources for using social media, what sets The Social Media Gospel apart?

Yes, resources for using social media are ever-growing, but because most focus on “how to” use social media, they’re quickly obsolete. Digital platform design (i.e., what the social media looks like) and functionality (i.e., how the social media works) change quickly. I wanted to write something more durable, but that wasn’t my primary motivation.

I saw a more pressing need – a book explaining why these tools are valuable and when to use them. In The Social Media Gospel, I invite readers to think strategically and tactically before choosing tools. I invite them to think about the impact of context (e.g., demographics, learning styles, personality types) on social media adoption (or rejection). I also include questions for reflection, cleverly called, “Thought Bytes.” And more!

I was determined to write a book for newcomers as well as those already using social media. Comments from early reviewers and those who have already received pre-ordered copies assure me that I achieved my goals. I’m also happy to know that readers are having LOL moments. My favorite public tweet from today: “…what I’ve enjoyed most in your new book are the little cmts (sic) that highlight your personality; creates a sense of familiarity.”

What is the biggest blind spot congregations have when it comes to communications?

Great question. At first, I was going to respond with, “failure to see that communications tools must be integrated across digital platforms.” But the biggest and most dismaying blind spot? A persistent inability or unwillingness to see that communications is a ministry. What, pray tell, is evangelism if not communication?

In an earlier book, The Word Made Fresh: Communication Church and Faith Today, I wrote about structural and cultural obstacles to embracing communications (i.e., creating, producing, distributing content that informs, educates, and inspires action) as an essential ministry. The obstacles I identified six years ago have not been removed, so this new book builds on that point.

I could almost forgive local churches for not yet understanding that communications ministry is as important as, say, music ministry. But at the judicatory level? I’m appalled by how communications budgets and professional staff are being completely eliminated rather than reconfigured. Digital tools, used strategically, are very cost-effective. I could go on and on…shocker!

How do online communications move from broadcasting to community building?

Some online tools are perfect for broadcasting and that’s enough. Others can be used to build community. Whether you want or should move from broadcasting to community building is a strategic issue.

Key questions: Why to build community? What are the defining characteristics and parameters of that community? What do you want the community to do or be as a result of being built? Strategy before crafting tactics and choosing tools.

At the tactical level, community building requires ongoing, consistent interaction that’s stimulated, supported, and monitored by a community manager. To those who are unfamiliar with online social networking tools, this might seem like a lot of work but I think it can be easier than getting church council or vestry members to play nice!

One last question: How did you find someone to write such a brilliant foreword?
Social media, of course!

I am thankful to Meredith for taking the time to talk with us during this busy week of publication! Please visit Meredith's blog, learn more about the Church Social Media (#chsocm) community, or drop in on the book club discussion of The Social Media Gospel over at Patheos.

I am excited about this book, and think it is one of the best resources available for people who are thinking about how new technologies can help them to share the Gospel. Lutheran pastor and blogger Clint Schnekloth said of the book: "This brief and compelling book packs a punch, combining immense insight into the phenomenon of social media with practical wisdom on the how of communicating gospel in social media contexts. It has become my go-to book to share with anyone interested in a combination of the why and how of social media ministry."

I think this book is so good that I want to give you a copy. Here's how:

1. Share this interview publicly on Facebook, Google+, or Twitter. 
2. Add the hashtag #SocMGospel to your post
3. Come back here and leave a comment, letting me know that you have shared the post
4. In a week I will give away two copies of The Social Media Gospel, drawn from people who shared the post. The more you share, the more chances to win! 

Also, you can order your own copy - or two or three - right here. 

Can You Hear Me Now?

The constitution of the congregations of the denomination in which I serve (the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) include a chapter which lists the duties of the pastor. In most congregations, those duties include this charge:

The pastor shall speak publicly to the world in solidarity with the poor and oppressed, calling for justice and proclaiming God’s love for the world.

Public witness. That is an important piece of what the church is called to be (A city on a hill, the salt of the earth), and also what we who work for the church are called to do. And yet, far too often, our witness has consisted of "Come join us for worship!"

One reason that I advocate for clergy and other church leaders to get involved in social media is that it gives us a voice in the public square in a way that we have never had before. The Rev. Evan Dolive is a great example of this. Perhaps you have heard of Victoria's Secret's new line, aiming at ever younger girls? Chances are, you heard of it because of Pastor Dolive, a Disciples of Christ pastor in the Houston. He wrote an open letter to Victoria's Secret and published it on his blog, and to date it has been viewed 3.7 million times.

I've had the opportunity to ask Evan a few questions about his experience.

David Hansen: How long have you been blogging? Why did you start?
Evan Dolive: I have been blogging for a little over a year now. I started when I began writing for a local paper. I wanted a place to host all of my writings. After a few posts, I began to write pieces just for the blog. My goal was twice a week and some weeks I did that and some weeks I didn’t. I wanted my blog to be a place where Christianity was seen as multifaceted and rich not bland and boring. When I was in seminary at Lexington Theological Seminary we were taught that we were not being trained just as ministers, but rather ‘public theologians.’ I use this mind set when I approach a topic or situation that I am blogging about.


DH: Prior to this post, who was the primary audience of your blog? 
ED: My primary audience were Christians, non-Christians and those disenfranchised with the modern church. I wanted to provide a place where the public life seen in a different lens and Christianity was not viewed as a literalist, legalistic religion. I wanted people to know that a life lived for Christ didn’t have to look like the 700 Club. :-) The primary readership were my Facebook friends and Twitter followers.


DH: What was your traffic like before?
ED: Not all that great... a deemed a success a post that received more than 50 hits :-). The best post I had before this one was a reflection on the “Chick-fil-a Day back in August 2012- it received 2500 hits in two days.

DH: At what point did you know that this was going viral?
ED: I would say when I hit 60,000 page views in a day and then the next day I had 60,000 page views before 8 am.

DH: Tell me about traditional media reaction.
ED: I have been interviewed by four local Houston stations- CBS, Fox, NBC, CW. I have been interviewed by two national news organizations- CNN and HLN (Headline News).
I know of about 20 print articles that talk about my post -- I would say that is a low ball number.

DH: What advice would you offer to pastors about social media?
ED: Don’t think it is waste of time. Social media is the ONLY reason why my letter went viral. I once had someone tell me that they didn't use social media because “they didn't care when I went to the bathroom.” (implying that only useless information is posted on social media outlets). While is true for some people, it not for the majority of people using social media. The world is changing and more and more people are using social media. It is a valuable resource for connecting people together. In the emergent and younger generations (the ones that every church says they want to target) the understanding of community is vastly different than the “Baby Boomer” and “Greatest” generations. In these particular generations, people will take spirituality and community where ever they can find it and that includes the internet.  Social media is not going away it is only going to become more integrated into our lives like the new Facebook phone. Social media connects people from around the world and in the same congregation and therefore should be used effectively.


Most of the commentary I have seen has been debating Evan's criticism of Victoria's Secret. Is Victoria's Secret out of line, or is Pastor Dolive over-reacting?
Such questions absolutely miss the most important point. 

With one post, Evan got us all talking. Church people. Non-church people. News commentators. Cultural commentators. All asking the same questions. Whether or not you agree with "An Open Letter to Victoria's Secret," it changed the conversation.

Facebook is the new public square.Twitter is the new public square. With the click of a mouse, Evan Dolive changed the focus of the public conversation. He was not a celebrity blogger. He was not a nationally known theologian. He didn't be a full page ad in the local paper or a tv spot during the SuperBowl.
Just a pastor, striving to be a public witness. Just a pastor, who one day clicked "publish" on his blog.

And what about you? What about your church?
Will we speak publicly to the world?

(I am grateful to Evan Dolive, whom I have gotten to know on various social media prior to this, for taking the time to answer my questions and provide some background. Bookmark his blog to keep up with his fantastic posts.) 

Seen & Not Heard

Here's my frustration: I want to encourage the church. I want to point out all of the things that are going great, all the things that we are doing right. I want to praise the way we are bringing Christ into the world. But.

But sometimes, the church is just ridiculous. And to be clear, I am not talking about the congregation where I serve, although we have our moments, too. I am talking about the church - all of us - the body of Christ. 

In almost every church I that I have had any sort of contact with, I have heard some variation on the same concern: "There aren't enough children. We need more kids in Sunday School. The Youth Group is too small." Sound familiar? Church councils sit around, thinking of what the pastor needs to do to get kids in church. The older members complain about parents who don't bring their kids to church. We talk about all sorts of things ... none of which is actually the problem.

Want to know the problem? Here it is, in a nutshell. A few weeks ago, I walked into a church to preach and saw this sign:

I don't post this to shame this one congregation. The truth is that many congregations, without being as explicit about it, still have this attitude lurking under the surface. The people who complain about the kids who talk during the sermon. The stares we give to the parents of fidgety children. We want kids in the church, but "Children should be seen and not heard" ... and we aren't too sure that they should be seen.

Come on, church! We can do better!

We wonder why our churches are graying. We wonder why our Sunday School rooms sit empty. We wonder what happened to all the families with young children. It's really simple: they got the message. They heard us loud and clear.

We need worship services where children are free to be ... well, children. That means sometimes they will be loud, sometimes they will need to move around and play and fidget. Because that is what children do.

We need churches where parents feel comfortable coming with their little ones; not ashamed or nervous. 

If we are going to have churches that have children in them, then those children and their parents should be made to feel welcome. Totally and completely welcome, just as they are. 

Let's be clear: if we don't change this, there will not be a church in a generation. 

Why I Love (Hate) Social Media

Those who know me, know that I am a fan of social media. I use social media in my own life in a variety of ways: in my personal life to stay in touch with family and friends, to keep connected with members of my congregation, and to discuss ministry with colleagues. My real passion for social media comes among colleagues, talking about how this resource can be used by the church to further the kingdom.

The potential of these new forms of media was brought home to me in a surreal way this last week. Late Wednesday night, I logged on to Facebook, only to discover that they had changed up the appearance of the newsfeed. I saw a couple of complaints from friends about the new look, and I new how this would go. By morning there would be a flood of complaints about the new timeline. So I looked through my pictures, and found an image from someecards that I had posted from the last time Facebook changed the look of the feed, reposted it, and went to bed.

Now, I have had a few things I have posted become popular before. Mostly among other church folks, I've had a couple of posts from this blog get shared by as many as 100 people on Facebook (I thought that was pretty impressive!). Thursday morning I woke up, and the image had been shared 2,000 times. I was shocked. By the end of the day, it had been shared 5,000 times. It even had been shown on the Houston afternoon news and WGN in the evening. Yes - my post to Facebook was on the news from Houston to Chicago.

Let's do some quick math. Round down the average number of Facebook friends to 100. At 5,000 shares, this image was seen by at least half a million people. To put that in perspective: On an average Sunday, I preach to around 170 people. I serve a congregation of about 500 members, in a town of 14,000 people. With one post, I had reached 1,000 times more people than there are in the congregation I serve. By the next morning, I had friend requests from across the US, from Britain and Ireland, Germany and Austria, Australia and New Zealand.

I love the potential that social media has for reaching people. The church is called to carry the Gospel to all nations - to all corners of the earth. Just over five hundred years ago - the printing press made that mission more feasible than ever. Now social media has made it more practical, possible, and probable for the church to carry the message of the kingdom to the ends of the earth.

And yet ...

What gets shared on social media? I have posted about ministry, about politics, about the Gospel - about all sorts of things. Out of all those posts it is a silly post, about Facebook that went viral. Some of the most popular Twitter feeds are the ones that dole out sarcasm or pop culture commentary. Social media shows the truth of who we are: it is not the meaningful, deep conversations that move us. As a species, we are infatuated with the inane. And I hate that social media exposes our shallowness.

How do we, as people of faith, overcome our infatuation with the inane and use social media's potential for communication to share the good news?