If I make one contribution to the field of preaching, I want it to be this revelation: one of the best things a pastor can do to sharpen their communication skills is listen to great comedians. The purpose is not to steal their material. You will not deliver it as well as they will. The purpose is to hear the way they play to an audience, how they deliver phrases, how they set up stories. No communicator can hold the attention of an audience the way a great comedian can.
To that end, I invited two of today's greatest comedians to sit down for an interview: Jim Gaffigan and Mike Birbiglia. Of course, neither returned my calls, even though I was very persistent, calling on their personal lines at all hours of the night.
You can follow both of these guys on twitter, and their stuff will be at least pg-13 clean. Mike is @birbigs and Jim is @jimgaffigan. And funny. Just stinking funny.
Since they wouldn't meet me in person, I sat down for a fake and in no way real interview with these two comedic geniuses over breakfast. The following is a fabricated transcript.
Me: Hey guys. Thanks for meeting me here on such short notice.
Jim: Yeah, sure. You got the goods?
Me: Um yeah....Mike, here's a whole box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. And Jim...
Jim: It's BACON!!!
Mike: (mouth full of Cinnamon Toast Crunch) This stuff isn't making it through the interview.
Me: That's fine, we'll go quick. First off let me just say that I am a huge fan of both of you. I listen to you constantly to gain insight.
Jim: That seems like a poor choice.
Me: No it's not so much about the content as the way you deliver it.
Mike: I wear sweatpants and slur my words.
Jim: I just constantly talk about food while being pale and chubby.
Mike: (to Jim) Wow...you really ARE pale! Does eating bacon make you see-through or something?
Me: Guys, no. Look, you are both great communicators. I mean, audiences hang on your every word. How do you do it?
Jim: I find it helps if the things I say are funny.
Mike: True. Laughter is a key part of comedy.
Jim: You probably don't want people laughing at your sermons.
Mike: I think the Jesus dying part is kind of a downer.
Jim: If the Passion of the Christ movie was supposed to be a comedy, I didn't get it at all.
Me: No, I mean, I get that. You need to be funny. But don't you think that your success as stand up comedians goes beyond your ability to come up with humorous content? Doesn't it also have a lot to do with your delivery, your timing?
Mike: You mean comedic timing?
Me: Exactly, but I think it translates easily into other areas of communication besides comedy.
Jim: I'm out of bacon, are we done?
Me: No, you guys have been no help whatsoever yet.
Jim: No worries. I'm packin'. *pulls out a baggy of bacon bits*
Mike: What exactly are we supposed to help you with? I'm really not much of a church guy, though I am brand-loyal to Jesus. And he (Jim) is just a non-practicing Catholic.
Jim: I do occasionally root for Notre Dame.
Me: It's not about the content! I can handle the content part. Its about communicating in an effective way with an audience.
Jim and Mike: *blank stares*
Me: Mike...you are a great story teller. "Sleepwalk with Me" is absolutely brilliant. The way you shape the story and really bring the audience into it. You leave pauses for reflection and raise your voice when things get intense. You almost whisper when things are serious or intimate.
Mike: *strange look on his face* I talk about dreaming of being in the dust buster olympics.
Me: I know! But it's the WAY you talk about it! It's the delivery! The timing! The nuance of your phrasing! How do you do it?
Mike: I try to make sure that the things that I say are funny.
Jim: Hey, what if in your next sermon you talk about Jesus loving to eat bacon? It's funny, because Jesus is a Jew and bacon isn't kosher.
Me: Why is that funny?
Jim: ....I don't know....I'm just always intrigued by forbidden love.
Me: Well, this has been absolutely useless. Here I have been obsessing over how brilliant you two are at communicating to an audience, and you don't even see it yourselves. The whole thing is a sham.
Jim: No Dan, it's not. You're right. Perhaps we can teach each other. There are subtle similarities to both the comedic and theological task. We both aim to inspire a certain feeling and greater understanding in others. Sure, I spend my time on stages in various arenas making a fool of myself for the masses. But I do it to bring a sense of joy to an otherwise depressed and anxiety-filled populace. And so I put passion behind what I say. I want people to TASTE how disgusting a Hot Pocket is. I want to free them from the oppression of their daily lives, if only for a short hour in a smoke-filled comedy club. But you...you my friend...you know the One who has the words of life. Perhaps the best thing any of us can do is put passion behind what we say, to deliver our words with a fervor that is palpable. Your message is of utmost significance. So when you speak, speak as if it matters. Not just in content, but in the way you say things. May people believe that you believe what you are saying. May you speak in such a way that even if I could not understand the language, the thirst of my spirit would be quenched with the sweet message of living water that is evident in your tone and expressions.
Me and Mike: *silence*
Jim: I bet if you put bits of bacon on a strip of bacon, you could travel back in time.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Slactivism
Like most people who have not been living under some sort of rock or in a cave, I was recently introduced to the Kony 2012 video. If you haven't seen it, this video highlights the human rights violations of a Ugandan warlord named Kony, who is basically the most wanted man in the world. At the end of the video, the watcher is stirred into a frenzy and a desire to do their part to get Kony arrested and tried for his crimes. So what can you do?
Repost the video. Ask celebrities and politicians to advocate for an American presence in the effort to capture Kony. Wear a bracelet. Hang up posters. Give their organization money to keep making videos and posters and bracelets.
Will any of these actions actually get Kony captured? Not directly. But by doing one of these things - most likely reposting the video - a desire to participate is fulfilled. I have now done something. I have shown my allegiance to the cause. I have added my two cents: "This is so wrong!!! It makes me SICK! How can people like this exist and we do nothing about it?!"
But has the reposter of the video really done anything? Have they made a difference? Have they saved the life of a single child?
This is a prime example of slactivism (a combination of the words "slacker and "activism"). Slactivism suggests that because little is required of you, your participation is less consequential. In the case of KONY2012, slacking comes in the involvement from both the creator (oversimplifying the story, potentially misleading facts) and the recipient (if you click a button, share something on Facebook, sign an online petition, change can and will happen).
Does this mean that slactivism is inherently bad? Absolutely not! In fact, I love it. You'll see these sort of things posted on my Facebook page all the time. I am constantly posting stories about the need for clean water in the world (one of my big passions) and other social justice causes. I love slactivism...
...as a means to moving towards activism. In fact, I believe it is a necessary step. You have to first be informed of the issue. It has to become engrained in your heart and mind. The problem arises when we stop with slactivism and never move on towards real action.
In Acts 2, Peter gives his great sermon outlining to the Jews who were listening who Jesus was and what Jesus was about. The first step was to make people aware. And Acts 2:37 says that upon hearing this from Peter they were "cut to the heart." It had an impact on their heart. But the people listening didn't end with just hearing the story. Instead they asked the question:
"Brothers, what should we do?"
The recognized there is a need not just for knowledge, but action upon that knowledge.
A WWJD bracelet is fine,if you aren't just using it to advertise Jesus, but also to live like Jesus.
Posting a Kony 2012 video is fine if you are also willing to take some serious action steps to help alleviate the problem. (Side note: don't just repost. Do some research).
Let me take it a step further: don't just be a slactive-Christian. Be can active-Christian.
Don't just post a Bible verse that you think people need to live by. Post it, then live by it.
Don't just tell others to come to your church. Go get them and tell them why they need Jesus.
Don't let a Facebook post be a substitute for right action and real love.
Repost the video. Ask celebrities and politicians to advocate for an American presence in the effort to capture Kony. Wear a bracelet. Hang up posters. Give their organization money to keep making videos and posters and bracelets.
Will any of these actions actually get Kony captured? Not directly. But by doing one of these things - most likely reposting the video - a desire to participate is fulfilled. I have now done something. I have shown my allegiance to the cause. I have added my two cents: "This is so wrong!!! It makes me SICK! How can people like this exist and we do nothing about it?!"
But has the reposter of the video really done anything? Have they made a difference? Have they saved the life of a single child?
This is a prime example of slactivism (a combination of the words "slacker and "activism"). Slactivism suggests that because little is required of you, your participation is less consequential. In the case of KONY2012, slacking comes in the involvement from both the creator (oversimplifying the story, potentially misleading facts) and the recipient (if you click a button, share something on Facebook, sign an online petition, change can and will happen).
Does this mean that slactivism is inherently bad? Absolutely not! In fact, I love it. You'll see these sort of things posted on my Facebook page all the time. I am constantly posting stories about the need for clean water in the world (one of my big passions) and other social justice causes. I love slactivism...
...as a means to moving towards activism. In fact, I believe it is a necessary step. You have to first be informed of the issue. It has to become engrained in your heart and mind. The problem arises when we stop with slactivism and never move on towards real action.
In Acts 2, Peter gives his great sermon outlining to the Jews who were listening who Jesus was and what Jesus was about. The first step was to make people aware. And Acts 2:37 says that upon hearing this from Peter they were "cut to the heart." It had an impact on their heart. But the people listening didn't end with just hearing the story. Instead they asked the question:
"Brothers, what should we do?"
The recognized there is a need not just for knowledge, but action upon that knowledge.
A WWJD bracelet is fine,if you aren't just using it to advertise Jesus, but also to live like Jesus.
Posting a Kony 2012 video is fine if you are also willing to take some serious action steps to help alleviate the problem. (Side note: don't just repost. Do some research).
Let me take it a step further: don't just be a slactive-Christian. Be can active-Christian.
Don't just post a Bible verse that you think people need to live by. Post it, then live by it.
Don't just tell others to come to your church. Go get them and tell them why they need Jesus.
Don't let a Facebook post be a substitute for right action and real love.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Your Church's Facebook Page
Yesterday I talked about your Facebook page and what it should be like. Your church's Facebook page should be different, though follow the same principle - your church on Facebook should look like your church in real life.
If I knew your church well, then got on your Facebook page without looking at the title, could I still tell from the posts that it is your church?
I have seen a few church Facebook pages that have been totally hijacked by someone with a particular agenda. If every post on the page is about the women's quilting ministry or the youth group or some other ministry in your church, then the people who discover your church on Facebook are going to get a false impression of who you really are.
Does that mean they should post less? Not necessarily (though for the youth, maybe they want their own page). Instead, it probably means that there needs to be an increase in posting from the rest of the church, especially the pastor or person in charge of the page who can highlight what is REALLY going on in your church.
You may not know it, but you are already developing these posts, you just haven't put them out there yet. It's your bulletin. What's the big stuff that's going on? What's the upcoming sermon and scripture? What sort of outreach ministry is experiencing an urgent need?
Do you record your sermons? Using YouTube or Vimeo, you can easily give people access to them online. We've found at Anderson Hills that we have almost developed an online campus with the amount of people who log on to watch our videos on a weekly basis.
Whatever you do, keep your content updated. It's better to have no Facebook presence than an out of date Facebook page.
Also, be sure to use the information page to give a brief synopsis of you church. Who are you and what are you about. We have begun to discover that some people are finding our church first through Facebook.
Finally, make sure there is a link back to your webpage. One of the best things a Facebook page can do for you is just link back to your webpage and increase traffic there.
If I knew your church well, then got on your Facebook page without looking at the title, could I still tell from the posts that it is your church?
I have seen a few church Facebook pages that have been totally hijacked by someone with a particular agenda. If every post on the page is about the women's quilting ministry or the youth group or some other ministry in your church, then the people who discover your church on Facebook are going to get a false impression of who you really are.
Does that mean they should post less? Not necessarily (though for the youth, maybe they want their own page). Instead, it probably means that there needs to be an increase in posting from the rest of the church, especially the pastor or person in charge of the page who can highlight what is REALLY going on in your church.
You may not know it, but you are already developing these posts, you just haven't put them out there yet. It's your bulletin. What's the big stuff that's going on? What's the upcoming sermon and scripture? What sort of outreach ministry is experiencing an urgent need?
Do you record your sermons? Using YouTube or Vimeo, you can easily give people access to them online. We've found at Anderson Hills that we have almost developed an online campus with the amount of people who log on to watch our videos on a weekly basis.
Whatever you do, keep your content updated. It's better to have no Facebook presence than an out of date Facebook page.
Also, be sure to use the information page to give a brief synopsis of you church. Who are you and what are you about. We have begun to discover that some people are finding our church first through Facebook.
Finally, make sure there is a link back to your webpage. One of the best things a Facebook page can do for you is just link back to your webpage and increase traffic there.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Your Facebook Page
Something like half of the adults in the United States use Facebook on a regular basis. If we're being totally honest, there is a lot of vanity involved in this. We post pictures of ourselves, talk about our opinions, what we had for dinner, the cute thing our kids just did, YouTube cat videos, and endless requests for Farmville. Endless.
But somewhere in the midst of the foolish, ego-driven desire for public approval of the mundane things of our lives, there exists a beautiful, redemptive purpose for Facebook.
God uses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. Pretty sure it says that in the Bible somewhere.
When you get down to the nitty gritty of what Facebook really is, it is a sharing of the details of your life, a profile of who you are and what you think about and what you do and who you spend time with and where you go.
It's the cliff notes version of you.
So if I were to sum you up, what would I find?
In yesterday's post I talked about my last ten Facebook posts. Is that a summary of who I am and what I care about? What does it say about me?
My hope on Facebook is the same as my hope in real life: that when people see me, they see Jesus in me. They see love. They see grace. They see hope.
There is a way to do this, and a way not to do this. Here is a list of DOs and DON'Ts.
DO share a scripture now and then from your daily Bible reading. Include a link.
DON'T blast people with an out of context scripture status update used as a weapon against someone you are upset with.
DO post pictures of the beauty of God's creation, including your family.
DON'T post photoshopped pictures of God's hands pulling apart the clouds.
DO make sure you status updates are talking about the things you would talk about. Do you like football? Talk about football. Do you like music? Talk about music.
DON'T tell everyone that if they really love Jesus they will repost your generic status that says that you love Jesus, and that sadly 99.7% of people will just ignore this and only .3 percent of people really love Jesus enough to repost it. Apparently they are the only ones who really want to go to Heaven.
DO reply to posts from others with grace.
DON'T stir controversy just so you can show everyone how right you are.
DO remember that virtual doesn't mean fake. Your words on here matter.
DON'T assume that what you say to someone online won't have very real consequences.
DO post stuff about your church and when services are. Talk about how excited you are.
DON'T only use your Facebook page to advertise your church. There's another page for that. This one is about you. People are friending you because they way to know you.
DO provide links to an interesting array of websites with non-offensive, but thought-provoking and interesting content.
DON'T neglect to respond to people who contact you on Facebook. Be timely and keep your info up to date.
What other tips do you have? Share them in the comments section below.
But somewhere in the midst of the foolish, ego-driven desire for public approval of the mundane things of our lives, there exists a beautiful, redemptive purpose for Facebook.
God uses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. Pretty sure it says that in the Bible somewhere.
When you get down to the nitty gritty of what Facebook really is, it is a sharing of the details of your life, a profile of who you are and what you think about and what you do and who you spend time with and where you go.
It's the cliff notes version of you.
So if I were to sum you up, what would I find?
In yesterday's post I talked about my last ten Facebook posts. Is that a summary of who I am and what I care about? What does it say about me?
My hope on Facebook is the same as my hope in real life: that when people see me, they see Jesus in me. They see love. They see grace. They see hope.
There is a way to do this, and a way not to do this. Here is a list of DOs and DON'Ts.
DO share a scripture now and then from your daily Bible reading. Include a link.
DON'T blast people with an out of context scripture status update used as a weapon against someone you are upset with.
DO post pictures of the beauty of God's creation, including your family.
DON'T post photoshopped pictures of God's hands pulling apart the clouds.
DO make sure you status updates are talking about the things you would talk about. Do you like football? Talk about football. Do you like music? Talk about music.
DON'T tell everyone that if they really love Jesus they will repost your generic status that says that you love Jesus, and that sadly 99.7% of people will just ignore this and only .3 percent of people really love Jesus enough to repost it. Apparently they are the only ones who really want to go to Heaven.
DO reply to posts from others with grace.
DON'T stir controversy just so you can show everyone how right you are.
DO remember that virtual doesn't mean fake. Your words on here matter.
DON'T assume that what you say to someone online won't have very real consequences.
DO post stuff about your church and when services are. Talk about how excited you are.
DON'T only use your Facebook page to advertise your church. There's another page for that. This one is about you. People are friending you because they way to know you.
DO provide links to an interesting array of websites with non-offensive, but thought-provoking and interesting content.
DON'T neglect to respond to people who contact you on Facebook. Be timely and keep your info up to date.
What other tips do you have? Share them in the comments section below.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Being Followable: Being Real on Facebook
There are three main reasons I have heard pastors give for not engaging in Facebook or other social media.
The first, though not many would admit to it, is that it is a way of hiding sins. If there is one thing that we have learned over the last several years its that social media is great at exposing the hidden sins, and pastors are not immune. Affairs come to light, compromising photos are leaked, and rumors swirl.
And look, all of us sin. I sin. You sin. We all sin. But if the amount of sin in our lives is so great that we feel like if others saw into it, they could never again respect us as religious leaders, maybe we're in the wrong profession. We are held to a higher standard. James says, "Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness" (James 3:1, NRSV).
There is going to be sin in our lives because we are humans, but as people who have the spirit of Christ dwelling within us and are moving on towards perfection, my hope and prayer is that the good within us far outshines the areas in which we still falter. If that's not the case, do Christianity a favor and stay off of Facebook.
A second reason pastors don't get on Facebook is that they are hiding non-pastory actions. We imagine that if our parishioners saw how we really live, they would say, "Pastor Dan does WHAT?!"
The other night I was meeting with a committee from our church and someone said, "Dan, one of the things I appreciate about you is that you are the same guy whether you are in the pulpit, at home, in Kroger, or on Facebook." For me, that was a huge compliment. I let people see a lot of things about me that aren't "pastory." I love stupid YouTube videos, and I share them on Facebook all the time. Will Ferrel cracks me up. I'm an internet news junkie. I love coffee (I may have already mentioned that). I love my family. The Ohio State Buckeyes consume my Saturdays in the fall. I can't get enough of the Bible. God has changed my life.
No matter where you see me...at church, at the store, in the coffee shop, at home, or even on Facebook...I am probably talking about these things. Scripture and my relationship with Christ frequently come up in my day to day conversations, and Will Ferrel quotes and YouTube videos are scattered throughout my sermons.
People are looking for pastors who are real, who have lives that aren't out of reach for them to attain, and who can relate to who they are when they aren't in the pews. Don't be afraid to show your "non-pastory" side.
I heard a pastor say they other day that they have two Facebook accounts. One is for their parishioners, the other is for their friends and family. Their comment was that they weren't doing anything wrong, but it was stuff that they just didn't want their church to necessarily see. When you do that, you are unwittingly making yourself unreachable and unattainable. You are no longer a regular person. If all your Facebook does is talk in your preacher voice, then you are missing a great opportunity to be real and transparent. That stuff you don't want your church to see may be exactly the kind of stuff that they need to see for you to become real and authentic to them.
The third reason I hear is that some pastors just want their privacy. I have no problem with privacy. I definitely have a private life. There are times when I need to just get away. However, there are other places in your life where you can have privacy. Staying off Facebook isn't protecting your privacy. People are still talking about you. But it IS keeping your voice silent in a realm that definitely needs truth spoken into it.
The great thing about Facebook is that people can have access to you, and you don't even have to be present with them! So you can disconnect from the world for weeks, but your Facebook page remains.
I'm talking mainly about Facebook because it is currently the dominant social media. There are 845 million active users on Facebook.
I'm friends with 675 of them.
So let me tell you how I use Facebook as a pastor. I'm not saying it's the only way, this is just what has worked for me (but if it works, it must be true, right?).
Here is a list of the last ten things I posted on Facebook. I think its a pretty good look into my normal Facebook activity.
- a link to a blog by Jonathan Acuff (author of "Stuff Christians Like" - the guy is hilarious. The article is about throwing away the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. It was really clever, and I just thought I'd share it.
- A link from Huffington Post (an online newspaper) about Jeremy Lin, an emerging NBA star, and his faith. It turns out he loves Christian "rap. I don't even like Christian rap. But the artist he likes is a favorite of our worship leader at church, so I shared it and mentioned him in post.
- the Bible verse from our family devotions last night with a link to find it in an online Bible.
- an independent review for a local burger joint that I mentioned the previous week in my sermon.
- Picture of an internet meme that illustrates the funny side of being a pastor
- A status update in which I mention that I think way more people wear yoga pants than actually do yoga
- A status update about finishing the ordination process (woohoo!)
- An Instagram photo of my wife and I from our vacation at the beach last summer. Just my little way of showing her some love on Valentine's Day.
- An Instagram photo of my new coffee mug.
- A link to video of my sermon from the previous Sunday.
So what does all of this do? Very little theological teaching, apart possibly from the Bible verse and the sermon video. Most of it is just showing Christianity in real life. I'm sharing what I'm going through and having conversations with people about it.
Facebook has really opened people up to understanding who I actually am. I'm getting ready to go to a new church, and I've encouraged those I've met with so far to find me on Facebook. If they want to get to know the real me, that's a great place to do it.
I know that if I put a profile of myself on Facebook that doesn't match up with Sunday morning me, it won't be authentic. So I'm very careful to make sure that I am as real in both places as I am in real life.
This helps keep me in check. Because I know my life is so transparent, it causes me to think carefully about what I am doing. Will it cause someone to stumble? Will a picture show up on Facebook? Will someone tweet what I just said? Chances are, yes. So Facebook helps keep me blameless.
As I friend parishioners, I am also able to do ministry with them on Facebook. I have had countless conversations in the message system with people who have something they want to ask but are too afraid to ask elsewhere. I see people whose status updates seem to indicate that they are going through a rough patch in life, so I give them a call just to check in.
Pastors have often lamented that they don't know what's going on with the people in their congregation if they don't call and tell them. Trust me, if something big happens anymore, it's on Facebook immediately. Through the Facebook feed I have discovered people from my church who were in the hospital, had lost loved ones, were having relationship issues, had lost their job, and countless other issues that needed pastoral care.
I got phone calls about virtually none of them.
A few months back, our church did a series called "It's complicated," based on one of the relationship status choices people can include in their Facebook profile. We talked about the whole family mess of Isaac and Rebekah. We created Facebook pages for each of the characters and started dialogue on Facebook about the sermons. People loved it.
Our church has a Facebook page on which we post sermon videos, announcements, and links to ministry information. Recently, several of our first time visitors have indicated that they found us first on Facebook.
When we launched a Saturday night service, we started by advertising it on Facebook and asking our church members to share a photo with the service information.
In a couple of short months, it has become one of our largest services.
During the message, you'll often find me or our contemporary worship leader tweeting our favorite points and providing links to scriptures that are mentioned.
Our daily Bible reading plan goes out automatically by Twitter every morning.
The possibilities for doing ministry are growing rapidly. If we as pastors do not embrace this technology, we will be losing an opportunity to reach out to the millions of people who are living in these realms and need love of Christ in their lives.
People are looking for someone to follow. If they can't follow us, they'll follow someone else
The first, though not many would admit to it, is that it is a way of hiding sins. If there is one thing that we have learned over the last several years its that social media is great at exposing the hidden sins, and pastors are not immune. Affairs come to light, compromising photos are leaked, and rumors swirl.
And look, all of us sin. I sin. You sin. We all sin. But if the amount of sin in our lives is so great that we feel like if others saw into it, they could never again respect us as religious leaders, maybe we're in the wrong profession. We are held to a higher standard. James says, "Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness" (James 3:1, NRSV).
There is going to be sin in our lives because we are humans, but as people who have the spirit of Christ dwelling within us and are moving on towards perfection, my hope and prayer is that the good within us far outshines the areas in which we still falter. If that's not the case, do Christianity a favor and stay off of Facebook.
A second reason pastors don't get on Facebook is that they are hiding non-pastory actions. We imagine that if our parishioners saw how we really live, they would say, "Pastor Dan does WHAT?!"
The other night I was meeting with a committee from our church and someone said, "Dan, one of the things I appreciate about you is that you are the same guy whether you are in the pulpit, at home, in Kroger, or on Facebook." For me, that was a huge compliment. I let people see a lot of things about me that aren't "pastory." I love stupid YouTube videos, and I share them on Facebook all the time. Will Ferrel cracks me up. I'm an internet news junkie. I love coffee (I may have already mentioned that). I love my family. The Ohio State Buckeyes consume my Saturdays in the fall. I can't get enough of the Bible. God has changed my life.
No matter where you see me...at church, at the store, in the coffee shop, at home, or even on Facebook...I am probably talking about these things. Scripture and my relationship with Christ frequently come up in my day to day conversations, and Will Ferrel quotes and YouTube videos are scattered throughout my sermons.
People are looking for pastors who are real, who have lives that aren't out of reach for them to attain, and who can relate to who they are when they aren't in the pews. Don't be afraid to show your "non-pastory" side.
I heard a pastor say they other day that they have two Facebook accounts. One is for their parishioners, the other is for their friends and family. Their comment was that they weren't doing anything wrong, but it was stuff that they just didn't want their church to necessarily see. When you do that, you are unwittingly making yourself unreachable and unattainable. You are no longer a regular person. If all your Facebook does is talk in your preacher voice, then you are missing a great opportunity to be real and transparent. That stuff you don't want your church to see may be exactly the kind of stuff that they need to see for you to become real and authentic to them.
The third reason I hear is that some pastors just want their privacy. I have no problem with privacy. I definitely have a private life. There are times when I need to just get away. However, there are other places in your life where you can have privacy. Staying off Facebook isn't protecting your privacy. People are still talking about you. But it IS keeping your voice silent in a realm that definitely needs truth spoken into it.
The great thing about Facebook is that people can have access to you, and you don't even have to be present with them! So you can disconnect from the world for weeks, but your Facebook page remains.
I'm talking mainly about Facebook because it is currently the dominant social media. There are 845 million active users on Facebook.
I'm friends with 675 of them.
So let me tell you how I use Facebook as a pastor. I'm not saying it's the only way, this is just what has worked for me (but if it works, it must be true, right?).
Here is a list of the last ten things I posted on Facebook. I think its a pretty good look into my normal Facebook activity.
- a link to a blog by Jonathan Acuff (author of "Stuff Christians Like" - the guy is hilarious. The article is about throwing away the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. It was really clever, and I just thought I'd share it.
- A link from Huffington Post (an online newspaper) about Jeremy Lin, an emerging NBA star, and his faith. It turns out he loves Christian "rap. I don't even like Christian rap. But the artist he likes is a favorite of our worship leader at church, so I shared it and mentioned him in post.
- the Bible verse from our family devotions last night with a link to find it in an online Bible.
- an independent review for a local burger joint that I mentioned the previous week in my sermon.
- Picture of an internet meme that illustrates the funny side of being a pastor
- A status update in which I mention that I think way more people wear yoga pants than actually do yoga
- A status update about finishing the ordination process (woohoo!)
- An Instagram photo of my wife and I from our vacation at the beach last summer. Just my little way of showing her some love on Valentine's Day.
- An Instagram photo of my new coffee mug.
- A link to video of my sermon from the previous Sunday.
So what does all of this do? Very little theological teaching, apart possibly from the Bible verse and the sermon video. Most of it is just showing Christianity in real life. I'm sharing what I'm going through and having conversations with people about it.
Facebook has really opened people up to understanding who I actually am. I'm getting ready to go to a new church, and I've encouraged those I've met with so far to find me on Facebook. If they want to get to know the real me, that's a great place to do it.
I know that if I put a profile of myself on Facebook that doesn't match up with Sunday morning me, it won't be authentic. So I'm very careful to make sure that I am as real in both places as I am in real life.
This helps keep me in check. Because I know my life is so transparent, it causes me to think carefully about what I am doing. Will it cause someone to stumble? Will a picture show up on Facebook? Will someone tweet what I just said? Chances are, yes. So Facebook helps keep me blameless.
As I friend parishioners, I am also able to do ministry with them on Facebook. I have had countless conversations in the message system with people who have something they want to ask but are too afraid to ask elsewhere. I see people whose status updates seem to indicate that they are going through a rough patch in life, so I give them a call just to check in.
Pastors have often lamented that they don't know what's going on with the people in their congregation if they don't call and tell them. Trust me, if something big happens anymore, it's on Facebook immediately. Through the Facebook feed I have discovered people from my church who were in the hospital, had lost loved ones, were having relationship issues, had lost their job, and countless other issues that needed pastoral care.
I got phone calls about virtually none of them.
A few months back, our church did a series called "It's complicated," based on one of the relationship status choices people can include in their Facebook profile. We talked about the whole family mess of Isaac and Rebekah. We created Facebook pages for each of the characters and started dialogue on Facebook about the sermons. People loved it.
Our church has a Facebook page on which we post sermon videos, announcements, and links to ministry information. Recently, several of our first time visitors have indicated that they found us first on Facebook.
When we launched a Saturday night service, we started by advertising it on Facebook and asking our church members to share a photo with the service information.
In a couple of short months, it has become one of our largest services.
During the message, you'll often find me or our contemporary worship leader tweeting our favorite points and providing links to scriptures that are mentioned.
Our daily Bible reading plan goes out automatically by Twitter every morning.
The possibilities for doing ministry are growing rapidly. If we as pastors do not embrace this technology, we will be losing an opportunity to reach out to the millions of people who are living in these realms and need love of Christ in their lives.
People are looking for someone to follow. If they can't follow us, they'll follow someone else
Friday, March 23, 2012
Follow Friday: Fake Interview with Jon Acuff
In the Twitterverse, it is a tradition that on Fridays you send out a tweet with the hashtag #ff, which stands for "Follow Friday." You then include in your tweets the Twitter handle for your favorite people to follow on Twitter that you think others would enjoy following as well.
So each Friday, I'll give a suggestion and have a totally fake interview with someone to follow on social media who I think has really mastered a mix social media and authentic Christian living.
The first mention has to go to Jon Acuff. Jon is active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and his blog - www.jonacuff.com. Four years ago, Jon found the internet meme "stuff white people like," and started a parody called, "Stuff Christians Like." If you grew up in the church or have been a part of the church for any significant period of time, Stuff Christians Like is pure gold comedy.
Recently, Jon listed his most popular posts from the past four years. The titles include:
1. Understanding how metrosexual your worship leader is.
2. Booty, God, Booty
3. Saying, “I’ll pray for you” and then not.
4. The Jesus Juke
5. Leg dropping elves.
6. Running into famous Christians. (AKA “The Michael W. Smith” incident.)
7. Hand raising worship – The 10 styles
8. Surviving church as a single.
9. The side hug.
10. Thinking you’re naked.
I have read all of these. They are hilarious, with an added dose sometimes of a spiritual gut punch that makes you re-evaluate how you live your life authentically as a Christian.
I sat down for a completely fake and in no way real interview with Jon Acuff this morning in the coffee shop. The following is a totally fabricated transcript.
Me: Thanks for coming to be interviewed on such short notice.
Jon: It's my pleasure. Anything to help get your blog up and running.
Me: Wow. That's really generous of you. I figured I'd have to at least pay you or something.
Jon: Nope. Pro bono fledgling blog interviews are one of my great passions.
Me: So how did YOU get started?
Jon: I noticed in my church growing up that people liked to put a "God spin" on secular things. Especially on tee shirts. Burger King became "King of Kings." Adidas became "Add Jesus." It weirded me out. So I decided to start a blog about some of these things.
Me: How did you decide on the format?
Jon: Well, at that time "Stuff White People Like" was becoming a huge internet meme. So I thought I would make a blog that parodied that called "Stuff Christians Like." My first post was called "Putting a God Spin on Popular Secular Ideas."
Me: *blank stare*
Jon: What?
Me: But...isn't that what you were doing? Taking a popular secular idea and putting a God spin on it?
Jon: Exactly. That's why it's funny.
Me: Oh, because you ARE a Christian and you DO like it?
Jon: No, I hate it when Christians do that.
Me: So you aren't a Christian?
Jon: What? No, I'm definitely a Christian.
Me: But I thought you said that putting a God spin on secular ideas was something that Christians like?
Jon: It is. But I don't. It's satire. The irony is what makes it funny.
Me: Ah, gotcha. It's ironic.
Jon: Exactly.
Me: Like rain on your wedding day?
Jon: No. That's just unfortunate.
Me: So what happened after that?
Jon: It totally exploded. I couldn't believe the response I got. I now have over a thousand Stuff Christians Like posts, a book on that topic, and have written several other things. I joined Dave Ramsey's team in Nashville and have been going strong ever since.
Me: Wow, that's awesome. Do you think this blog I'm doing has the same chance to go viral like yours?
Jon: *long pause* Sure....sure little buddy! You'll do a swell job!
Me: Really?! Thanks, Jon!
Jon: *stares*
Me: Any advice on how Christians should use social media?
Jon: Just let me say this. Don't let your social media life define you. It is important, but not more important than your family. It's not more important than your relationship with Jesus. And if you let the people who comment on your blog and the number of Twitter followers you have define your self worth, you will be very sad.
Me: Really? I figured by next year with the few thousand followers I have that it would bring me a lot of happiness...
Jon: *leans in and looks me dead in the eye* You will be very, VERY sad.
Me: I'm feeling like you were less than sincere in your optimism about my blog.
Jon: ...
Me: I think this interview is about over. Anything else you want to say?
Jon: Buy my new book: "Quitter," only $9.99 on the Kindle!
Me: How is it that you get to do a book plug in a fake interview?
Jon: Don't ask me. It's your weird subconscious. Can I please leave it now?
Me: Fine. Settle up at the counter though. I didn't pay for our coffee and I have no money.
Jon: Financial issues? You should check out daveramsey.com...
Me: Just leave.
(30 minutes later I get this on Twitter)
I take this as validation that the Jon Acuff in my subconscious would have actually said those things.
So each Friday, I'll give a suggestion and have a totally fake interview with someone to follow on social media who I think has really mastered a mix social media and authentic Christian living.
The first mention has to go to Jon Acuff. Jon is active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and his blog - www.jonacuff.com. Four years ago, Jon found the internet meme "stuff white people like," and started a parody called, "Stuff Christians Like." If you grew up in the church or have been a part of the church for any significant period of time, Stuff Christians Like is pure gold comedy.
Recently, Jon listed his most popular posts from the past four years. The titles include:
1. Understanding how metrosexual your worship leader is.
2. Booty, God, Booty
3. Saying, “I’ll pray for you” and then not.
4. The Jesus Juke
5. Leg dropping elves.
6. Running into famous Christians. (AKA “The Michael W. Smith” incident.)
7. Hand raising worship – The 10 styles
8. Surviving church as a single.
9. The side hug.
10. Thinking you’re naked.
I have read all of these. They are hilarious, with an added dose sometimes of a spiritual gut punch that makes you re-evaluate how you live your life authentically as a Christian.
I sat down for a completely fake and in no way real interview with Jon Acuff this morning in the coffee shop. The following is a totally fabricated transcript.
Me: Thanks for coming to be interviewed on such short notice.
Jon: It's my pleasure. Anything to help get your blog up and running.
Me: Wow. That's really generous of you. I figured I'd have to at least pay you or something.
Jon: Nope. Pro bono fledgling blog interviews are one of my great passions.
Me: So how did YOU get started?
Jon: I noticed in my church growing up that people liked to put a "God spin" on secular things. Especially on tee shirts. Burger King became "King of Kings." Adidas became "Add Jesus." It weirded me out. So I decided to start a blog about some of these things.
Me: How did you decide on the format?
Jon: Well, at that time "Stuff White People Like" was becoming a huge internet meme. So I thought I would make a blog that parodied that called "Stuff Christians Like." My first post was called "Putting a God Spin on Popular Secular Ideas."
Me: *blank stare*
Jon: What?
Me: But...isn't that what you were doing? Taking a popular secular idea and putting a God spin on it?
Jon: Exactly. That's why it's funny.
Me: Oh, because you ARE a Christian and you DO like it?
Jon: No, I hate it when Christians do that.
Me: So you aren't a Christian?
Jon: What? No, I'm definitely a Christian.
Me: But I thought you said that putting a God spin on secular ideas was something that Christians like?
Jon: It is. But I don't. It's satire. The irony is what makes it funny.
Me: Ah, gotcha. It's ironic.
Jon: Exactly.
Me: Like rain on your wedding day?
Jon: No. That's just unfortunate.
Me: So what happened after that?
Jon: It totally exploded. I couldn't believe the response I got. I now have over a thousand Stuff Christians Like posts, a book on that topic, and have written several other things. I joined Dave Ramsey's team in Nashville and have been going strong ever since.
Me: Wow, that's awesome. Do you think this blog I'm doing has the same chance to go viral like yours?
Jon: *long pause* Sure....sure little buddy! You'll do a swell job!
Me: Really?! Thanks, Jon!
Jon: *stares*
Me: Any advice on how Christians should use social media?
Jon: Just let me say this. Don't let your social media life define you. It is important, but not more important than your family. It's not more important than your relationship with Jesus. And if you let the people who comment on your blog and the number of Twitter followers you have define your self worth, you will be very sad.
Me: Really? I figured by next year with the few thousand followers I have that it would bring me a lot of happiness...
Jon: *leans in and looks me dead in the eye* You will be very, VERY sad.
Me: I'm feeling like you were less than sincere in your optimism about my blog.
Jon: ...
Me: I think this interview is about over. Anything else you want to say?
Jon: Buy my new book: "Quitter," only $9.99 on the Kindle!
Me: How is it that you get to do a book plug in a fake interview?
Jon: Don't ask me. It's your weird subconscious. Can I please leave it now?
Me: Fine. Settle up at the counter though. I didn't pay for our coffee and I have no money.
Jon: Financial issues? You should check out daveramsey.com...
Me: Just leave.
(30 minutes later I get this on Twitter)
I take this as validation that the Jon Acuff in my subconscious would have actually said those things.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Being Followable: Preacher Voices and Vulnerability
The other night I was playing "Words with Friends," a Scrabble-like game for the iPhone. I have several games going at once, and I was playing with a guy from our church. There is a chat feature in the game, and I noticed that I had a message from him. He was asking if he and I could sit down and talk at some point. He is going through some hard times in his life, and he needs someone to talk to.
Would he have sought me out otherwise? Maybe. But the reality is, it happened in Words with Friends. It is another place that I have made myself available.
Availability though seems to be a sticky issue. How available do we want to be as pastors? How available SHOULD a pastor be? We're pastors, but we're human. We value privacy and sometimes need to be able to "turn it off." The more you are available in the public realm, the more you have to be "on."
Truthfully, I need time when I can be "off." Even Jesus would take time away and go be on his own for a while. I need to refresh my batteries. I need to recharge. I need to be able to step out of the pulpit and into real life for a while.
I've only been a pastor for the last 6 years, but I have begun to realize something. The more my "off" life looks like my "on" life, the less energy it takes for me to be "on."
I remember in college when I began to realize my call for ministry, I noticed something about the pastors that I got to know. Some of them have a "preacher voice." You know what I'm talking about. Outside of church they talk just like everyone else, and then they get behind the pulpit or put on a robe, and their voice turns into a mixture of Billy Graham, the King James Bible, and hymn lyrics. The tone changes. Their persona changes. They turn it on and it is something totally different than their regular, day to day life.
I've done no studies to prove this, but I have a theory. I'm going to guess these people are tired. I'm going to guess they are intensely private when it comes to revealing their everyday lives to their congregants. I'm going to guess that they hate Facebook.
I understand that we all have different gifts and strengths and personalities. I'm very relational. I'm not an avid reader (most books are over 140 characters, so I immediately rule them out). People are going to connect with others in different ways. However, I have seen a trend that I believe is only gaining strength. People are interested in what is transparent. People are interested in what is real. People don't want to be told how to live, they want to be shown.
Things haven't always been this way. This is a paradigm shift that has really only seen significant growth in the last decade. My parents and other previous generations grew up in an age where they believed "If it is true, then it works." Importance was placed primarily in figuring out theories on how to live life. Books were written with suggestions of how to live, how to raise your children, and how to be a Christian. If you had a valid, logical argument, it would be accepted at face value. The things said were true, so it must work.
Today, the belief has shifted to "if it works, then it is true." I can make a great argument for something, but if people don't see evidence of it being lived out, they don't care. In fact, many have moved past even looking for an argument that has been proved. They instead look for their desired outcome, and then try to figure out how someone got there. Obviously they did it right. Finding the path to living a Christ-like life is no longer the goal. Instead, people are seeking out those who are living a Christ-like life, and asking them what path they took.
What that means for the Christian faith is that our greatest arguments can no longer be made in books and tracts and pamphlets. Our greatest arguments can only be made with the evidence of our lives. We have to live lives that are worth living. Lives that are compelling. People must want what we have.
The result is this: if we are unwilling to share our lives, then we are unwilling to preach the Gospel in the way that people hear it best.
So in this reality, we can no longer afford to have a "preacher voice." We can't be someone different in the pulpit then we are when we are home by ourselves.
Our kneejerk reaction is to try to force our pastor-selves into our day to day. We imagine wearing our robes everywhere. Maybe we break Red Lobster cheddar biscuits like communion bread. We pray lengthy, well thought out prayers over everyone we come into contact with, laying hands on them and speaking in tongues. When we order a coffee, we say "Wouldst thou pourest unto me a venti decaf mocha?"
If not these things, we at least are always quoting scripture to others. Anyone who talks to us for even a short amount of time knows we are pastors. We constantly espouse wisdom, have a twinkle in our eye, and walk with an air of grace about us.
In other words, we are perfect.
Maybe more perfect than Jesus.
I would suggest that this approach just doesn't work. Instead of trying to force our pastor-selves into our real selves, maybe our real-selves should be what our pastor-selves look like.
I am not trying to force high-level, idealistic preaching into my every day life. I'm instead forcing my every day life into my preaching.
I'm not the most theologically savvy pastor you will ever meet. Other pastors will likely know more than me. But the one thing that people tell me they appreciate time and time again is that I am genuine. What you see is what you get. I'm not afraid to show my imperfections.
Imperfections. In the past, pastors weren't allowed to let their imperfections show. If they did, it was either something that happened way in the past before they were saved, or it was something like, "I forgot to pray over my club sandwich at lunch. See? I'm human just like the rest of you."
Times have radically changed. If people don't see imperfections from their pastors, they are immediately suspect. What they preach becomes unattainable. To reach a generation that is no longer looking for the path, but instead is looking for someone they can relate to who has walked it, our preaching must change. Theological ideals and three main points will move no one apart from evidence that this has been lived out in the lives of the preachers themselves. It must be shown as messy and real and worthwhile and attainable.
It's a delicate balance though. How do you present a life that is flawed while also presenting a life that is desirable to attain? I believe it is fear of this balancing act that keeps many pastors from being vulnerable and transparent in their preaching and their interactions with congregants.
This fear may also reveal another dark truth: we don't believe our lives are
desirable to attain. We are depressed. Our self confidence is low. We aren't seeing the results now that we were used to seeing. We feel father away from the collective consciousness than we used to be. Maybe we're in the wrong profession. The struggles are getting harder and harder. Is it really all worth it?
I'm wondering if these issues could be connected. If there is not a realization of the importance of transparency and vulnerability, I believe that your ministry will begin to struggle. As your ministry begins to struggle, you begin to question yourself. As you question yourself, your self esteem is lowered and you want fewer and fewer people to see the real you.
If you believe this, you have forgotten the truth of who you are in Christ.
What you are is a beautiful, loved child of God. Your life is compelling because the presence of Christ is within you. As we grow closer to Christ and seek to live more like him, our lives continue to gain intrigue. Not because of who we are, but because of who we are in Christ.
This is the truth I am trying to live into. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, I'm just saying it has worked for me (see what I did there?).
No realm in our society amplifies our transparency and vulnerability like social media. The extent to which we are ok with that says a lot about the role our private life plays in our pastoring.
Would he have sought me out otherwise? Maybe. But the reality is, it happened in Words with Friends. It is another place that I have made myself available.
Availability though seems to be a sticky issue. How available do we want to be as pastors? How available SHOULD a pastor be? We're pastors, but we're human. We value privacy and sometimes need to be able to "turn it off." The more you are available in the public realm, the more you have to be "on."
Truthfully, I need time when I can be "off." Even Jesus would take time away and go be on his own for a while. I need to refresh my batteries. I need to recharge. I need to be able to step out of the pulpit and into real life for a while.
I've only been a pastor for the last 6 years, but I have begun to realize something. The more my "off" life looks like my "on" life, the less energy it takes for me to be "on."
I remember in college when I began to realize my call for ministry, I noticed something about the pastors that I got to know. Some of them have a "preacher voice." You know what I'm talking about. Outside of church they talk just like everyone else, and then they get behind the pulpit or put on a robe, and their voice turns into a mixture of Billy Graham, the King James Bible, and hymn lyrics. The tone changes. Their persona changes. They turn it on and it is something totally different than their regular, day to day life.
I've done no studies to prove this, but I have a theory. I'm going to guess these people are tired. I'm going to guess they are intensely private when it comes to revealing their everyday lives to their congregants. I'm going to guess that they hate Facebook.
I understand that we all have different gifts and strengths and personalities. I'm very relational. I'm not an avid reader (most books are over 140 characters, so I immediately rule them out). People are going to connect with others in different ways. However, I have seen a trend that I believe is only gaining strength. People are interested in what is transparent. People are interested in what is real. People don't want to be told how to live, they want to be shown.
Things haven't always been this way. This is a paradigm shift that has really only seen significant growth in the last decade. My parents and other previous generations grew up in an age where they believed "If it is true, then it works." Importance was placed primarily in figuring out theories on how to live life. Books were written with suggestions of how to live, how to raise your children, and how to be a Christian. If you had a valid, logical argument, it would be accepted at face value. The things said were true, so it must work.
Today, the belief has shifted to "if it works, then it is true." I can make a great argument for something, but if people don't see evidence of it being lived out, they don't care. In fact, many have moved past even looking for an argument that has been proved. They instead look for their desired outcome, and then try to figure out how someone got there. Obviously they did it right. Finding the path to living a Christ-like life is no longer the goal. Instead, people are seeking out those who are living a Christ-like life, and asking them what path they took.
What that means for the Christian faith is that our greatest arguments can no longer be made in books and tracts and pamphlets. Our greatest arguments can only be made with the evidence of our lives. We have to live lives that are worth living. Lives that are compelling. People must want what we have.
The result is this: if we are unwilling to share our lives, then we are unwilling to preach the Gospel in the way that people hear it best.
So in this reality, we can no longer afford to have a "preacher voice." We can't be someone different in the pulpit then we are when we are home by ourselves.
Our kneejerk reaction is to try to force our pastor-selves into our day to day. We imagine wearing our robes everywhere. Maybe we break Red Lobster cheddar biscuits like communion bread. We pray lengthy, well thought out prayers over everyone we come into contact with, laying hands on them and speaking in tongues. When we order a coffee, we say "Wouldst thou pourest unto me a venti decaf mocha?"
If not these things, we at least are always quoting scripture to others. Anyone who talks to us for even a short amount of time knows we are pastors. We constantly espouse wisdom, have a twinkle in our eye, and walk with an air of grace about us.
In other words, we are perfect.
Maybe more perfect than Jesus.
I would suggest that this approach just doesn't work. Instead of trying to force our pastor-selves into our real selves, maybe our real-selves should be what our pastor-selves look like.
I am not trying to force high-level, idealistic preaching into my every day life. I'm instead forcing my every day life into my preaching.
I'm not the most theologically savvy pastor you will ever meet. Other pastors will likely know more than me. But the one thing that people tell me they appreciate time and time again is that I am genuine. What you see is what you get. I'm not afraid to show my imperfections.
Imperfections. In the past, pastors weren't allowed to let their imperfections show. If they did, it was either something that happened way in the past before they were saved, or it was something like, "I forgot to pray over my club sandwich at lunch. See? I'm human just like the rest of you."
Times have radically changed. If people don't see imperfections from their pastors, they are immediately suspect. What they preach becomes unattainable. To reach a generation that is no longer looking for the path, but instead is looking for someone they can relate to who has walked it, our preaching must change. Theological ideals and three main points will move no one apart from evidence that this has been lived out in the lives of the preachers themselves. It must be shown as messy and real and worthwhile and attainable.
It's a delicate balance though. How do you present a life that is flawed while also presenting a life that is desirable to attain? I believe it is fear of this balancing act that keeps many pastors from being vulnerable and transparent in their preaching and their interactions with congregants.
This fear may also reveal another dark truth: we don't believe our lives are
desirable to attain. We are depressed. Our self confidence is low. We aren't seeing the results now that we were used to seeing. We feel father away from the collective consciousness than we used to be. Maybe we're in the wrong profession. The struggles are getting harder and harder. Is it really all worth it?
I'm wondering if these issues could be connected. If there is not a realization of the importance of transparency and vulnerability, I believe that your ministry will begin to struggle. As your ministry begins to struggle, you begin to question yourself. As you question yourself, your self esteem is lowered and you want fewer and fewer people to see the real you.
If you believe this, you have forgotten the truth of who you are in Christ.
What you are is a beautiful, loved child of God. Your life is compelling because the presence of Christ is within you. As we grow closer to Christ and seek to live more like him, our lives continue to gain intrigue. Not because of who we are, but because of who we are in Christ.
This is the truth I am trying to live into. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, I'm just saying it has worked for me (see what I did there?).
No realm in our society amplifies our transparency and vulnerability like social media. The extent to which we are ok with that says a lot about the role our private life plays in our pastoring.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Being Followable: Like the Facebookers to Win the Facebookers
Rick Warren tweeted before Twitter was invented. I remember as I was first reading "The Purpose Driven Life" in college that I was drawn to the short, well-put phrases that filled the book.
"We are products of our past, but we don't have to be prisoners of it."
"You were made by God and for God, and until you understand that, life will never make sense."
"The best use of life is love. The best expression of love is time. The best time to love is now."
Critiques of the book at the time often centered around these short phrases. Pastors and theologians warned that Warren was simplifying things too much. The quotes were cute and memorable, but that didn't mean they were something to order your life around. It didn't go deep enough.
But what Warren recognized was that this type of communication was catching on in the collective consciousness. The days of people sitting down to read a long, well thought out essay on a particular truth were fading fast. We are a society that likes things in pill form, and we had begun to believe that if you couldn't say it in one or two sentences, then it wasn't important enough for us to read, let alone remember.
In March of 2006, Twitter was born, and over the last 6 years, it has become imperative for thoughts to be shared in 140 characters or less. Today Twitter is used by over 300 million users, and is growing rapidly. One of those users is Rick Warren himself. As of this morning, the pastoral master of the quirky quote has 529,003 followers on twitter.
I have 151.
However, my guess is that my experience as a pastor on social media is a way more likely scenario for most pastors than the Rick Warren experience.
The truth is this: the emerging generations have grown up and gone through their formative teen years with social media. They don't know a world without Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Foursquare, Tumblr, Flickr, Instagram, and MySpace. As Christians, I believe we have a choice. We can either stand up against and try to turn the tide of the culture away from these growing online cultures, or we can embrace them and do our best to live out the Gospel even in these places.
The choice many go with is to combat social media. Whatever happened to kids playing outside? What about REAL relationships? What about face to face interaction? While I don't disagree that there is some validity in asking these questions, the reality is that for many, online relationships ARE real relationships. Honestly, with the amount of time that people spend on social media, there HAVE to be real relationships formed. They may look different from relationships in the past, but they are real in that they begin and end and induce emotion. It is human interaction.
Also, face to face interaction isn't going away. It is still the supreme form of communication and the one most often practiced. But to think that it will ever again be the ONLY way people communicate is a false hope.
Instead of rejecting social media, Christ followers must embrace it. It is a reality we need to live in to. Jesus was the ultimate example of what this looked like. It was called the incarnation. Humanity was dirty and broken and ugly, and yet Christ took on our form and walked with us and talked as we did, living among us.
Paul later explained how he practiced incarnationalism in spreading the Gospel.
"Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. (1 Corinthians 9:19-23)
The places Paul went and the people Paul witnessed to were unclean and untouchable. They were outside of Paul's social norm. But Paul realized that if he wanted to reach them, he couldn't be an outsider. He had to be in and amongst them, becoming like them in every way he could while still remaining blameless in character. He had to be willing to give up the norm he was comfortable with, taking on a way of life that didn't make sense to him, in order to share the Gospel in the most effective way possible.
Our task today in the realm of social media is the same. There is nothing inherently evil about Facebook or Twitter or any other social media. For us today, I wonder for the Facebookers, how can we become like the Facebookers, to win the Facebookers? For the Twitterers, how can we become like the Twitterers, to win the Twitterers?
"We are products of our past, but we don't have to be prisoners of it."
"You were made by God and for God, and until you understand that, life will never make sense."
"The best use of life is love. The best expression of love is time. The best time to love is now."
Critiques of the book at the time often centered around these short phrases. Pastors and theologians warned that Warren was simplifying things too much. The quotes were cute and memorable, but that didn't mean they were something to order your life around. It didn't go deep enough.
But what Warren recognized was that this type of communication was catching on in the collective consciousness. The days of people sitting down to read a long, well thought out essay on a particular truth were fading fast. We are a society that likes things in pill form, and we had begun to believe that if you couldn't say it in one or two sentences, then it wasn't important enough for us to read, let alone remember.
In March of 2006, Twitter was born, and over the last 6 years, it has become imperative for thoughts to be shared in 140 characters or less. Today Twitter is used by over 300 million users, and is growing rapidly. One of those users is Rick Warren himself. As of this morning, the pastoral master of the quirky quote has 529,003 followers on twitter.
I have 151.
However, my guess is that my experience as a pastor on social media is a way more likely scenario for most pastors than the Rick Warren experience.
The truth is this: the emerging generations have grown up and gone through their formative teen years with social media. They don't know a world without Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Foursquare, Tumblr, Flickr, Instagram, and MySpace. As Christians, I believe we have a choice. We can either stand up against and try to turn the tide of the culture away from these growing online cultures, or we can embrace them and do our best to live out the Gospel even in these places.
The choice many go with is to combat social media. Whatever happened to kids playing outside? What about REAL relationships? What about face to face interaction? While I don't disagree that there is some validity in asking these questions, the reality is that for many, online relationships ARE real relationships. Honestly, with the amount of time that people spend on social media, there HAVE to be real relationships formed. They may look different from relationships in the past, but they are real in that they begin and end and induce emotion. It is human interaction.
Also, face to face interaction isn't going away. It is still the supreme form of communication and the one most often practiced. But to think that it will ever again be the ONLY way people communicate is a false hope.
Instead of rejecting social media, Christ followers must embrace it. It is a reality we need to live in to. Jesus was the ultimate example of what this looked like. It was called the incarnation. Humanity was dirty and broken and ugly, and yet Christ took on our form and walked with us and talked as we did, living among us.
Paul later explained how he practiced incarnationalism in spreading the Gospel.
"Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. (1 Corinthians 9:19-23)
The places Paul went and the people Paul witnessed to were unclean and untouchable. They were outside of Paul's social norm. But Paul realized that if he wanted to reach them, he couldn't be an outsider. He had to be in and amongst them, becoming like them in every way he could while still remaining blameless in character. He had to be willing to give up the norm he was comfortable with, taking on a way of life that didn't make sense to him, in order to share the Gospel in the most effective way possible.
Our task today in the realm of social media is the same. There is nothing inherently evil about Facebook or Twitter or any other social media. For us today, I wonder for the Facebookers, how can we become like the Facebookers, to win the Facebookers? For the Twitterers, how can we become like the Twitterers, to win the Twitterers?
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Define "Followable"
I believe that one of the main jobs of a pastor is to be followable. This means that people both CAN follow you and they WANT to follow you. You should make it easy for people to follow you, and you should want to lead them.
Now, before any of you start throwing rocks at me, understand this: the only good reason anyone would ever have for following me is that I am following Jesus. At least, I'm trying to.
Of course it is way better to follow Jesus than to follow me, but my experience has been that I began by following those who were following Jesus until I figured out how to follow Jesus on my own. Still following me?
As a friend of mine used to say, a pastor isn't really a leader. They are just the lead-follower.
Moses was a lead-follower. He looked at God's people and said, "Ok everybody...follow me!" Then he turned and said, "So God...which way do we go?" That's what a pastor is supposed to do. They hold God's hand like a child, and call the rest of the children to come hold your hand also. We're the line leader, and we're following the teacher.
But sometimes, the line leader gets so far out ahead because they are afraid they can't keep with with God that the leave the rest of the class behind. You look over your shoulder and no one is there.
Have you ever driven in a long caravan where only the car in front knew the way? Then you get out on the highway and car #1 just takes off at 100mph. The most important car is now car #2. And trust me, if you are driving car #2, you feel the tension. You have 3 possibilities.
A) Floor it. Forget the losers behind you and keep car #1 in your sights at all cost.
B) Forget car #1. The people are looking to you now. Just drive and hope for the best.
C) Stay in communication with car #1, and drive in such a way that the rest of the pack can follow you.
Of course, C) is the best option. Its the only one that assures that you and everyone else gets to the destination.
In ministry, sometimes we just take off and leave the church in our spiritual dust. After all, if you can keep up with God, they should be able to. If they really want to follow they'll get their rear in gear and go. Why should you have to hold their hand?
Sometimes we do just the opposite and slow to a snails pace so no one gets left out. The result is a shallow, infantile faith that wanders without purpose.
We must learn to live in that tension between leading and following and leading in such a way that we are followable.
Now, before any of you start throwing rocks at me, understand this: the only good reason anyone would ever have for following me is that I am following Jesus. At least, I'm trying to.
Of course it is way better to follow Jesus than to follow me, but my experience has been that I began by following those who were following Jesus until I figured out how to follow Jesus on my own. Still following me?
As a friend of mine used to say, a pastor isn't really a leader. They are just the lead-follower.
Moses was a lead-follower. He looked at God's people and said, "Ok everybody...follow me!" Then he turned and said, "So God...which way do we go?" That's what a pastor is supposed to do. They hold God's hand like a child, and call the rest of the children to come hold your hand also. We're the line leader, and we're following the teacher.
But sometimes, the line leader gets so far out ahead because they are afraid they can't keep with with God that the leave the rest of the class behind. You look over your shoulder and no one is there.
Have you ever driven in a long caravan where only the car in front knew the way? Then you get out on the highway and car #1 just takes off at 100mph. The most important car is now car #2. And trust me, if you are driving car #2, you feel the tension. You have 3 possibilities.
A) Floor it. Forget the losers behind you and keep car #1 in your sights at all cost.
B) Forget car #1. The people are looking to you now. Just drive and hope for the best.
C) Stay in communication with car #1, and drive in such a way that the rest of the pack can follow you.
Of course, C) is the best option. Its the only one that assures that you and everyone else gets to the destination.
In ministry, sometimes we just take off and leave the church in our spiritual dust. After all, if you can keep up with God, they should be able to. If they really want to follow they'll get their rear in gear and go. Why should you have to hold their hand?
Sometimes we do just the opposite and slow to a snails pace so no one gets left out. The result is a shallow, infantile faith that wanders without purpose.
We must learn to live in that tension between leading and following and leading in such a way that we are followable.
A New Format
I've been doing a lot more now with church social media strategy and other such fiddle faddle. Some of my thoughts are becoming longer and more complex. Too long for 140 Twitter characters, not photogenic enough for Instagram, and too involved for a shallow Facebook post. So, here we are with a blog. Its just another format for me to throw out some thoughts.
I really believe that social media, when used effectively, is (currently) one of the greatest tools for evangelism. You don't have to be an expert, a web designer, or even very smart (I am a case in point) to do this stuff. You just need three basic things.
1) A device with an internet connection
2) Basic computing skills
3) Authenticity
Be watching for updates as this blog gets up and running. Feel free to send any suggested topics for discussion.
I really believe that social media, when used effectively, is (currently) one of the greatest tools for evangelism. You don't have to be an expert, a web designer, or even very smart (I am a case in point) to do this stuff. You just need three basic things.
1) A device with an internet connection
2) Basic computing skills
3) Authenticity
Be watching for updates as this blog gets up and running. Feel free to send any suggested topics for discussion.
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