communicating the gospel in a digital age
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Communicating the Gospel: In a Digital AgeDr Bex LewisDirector, Digital FingerprintYMC Easter Schoolhttp://www.slideshare.net/drbexl/communicating-the-gospel-in-a-digital-age
Introducing
Dr Bex LewisResearch Fellow in Social Media
& Online LearningCODEC, St John’s College, Durham
Director, Digital FingerprintT: @drbexl
F: /drbexlW: drbexl.co.uk
God is a communicating God: “In the beginning was the word, and the word
was God…”. God is extravagant in communication –
he is not a silent God who has to be tempted into communicating with
people.Rev Prof David Wilkinson
Image Credit: Durham University
If an alien visited…
… and all they had to see was your Facebook page … or other ‘public’
profile …
What would their perception of your life be?
Image Credit: RGB Stock
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+12:1&version=MSG
A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil
man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth
speaks what the heart is full of.
Luke 6:45 (New International Version)
I’m a passionate believer that we need to be ‘incarnational’ in the digital spaces, whether those are
specifically ‘Christian’ spaces or not, but that we need to understand how
to be ‘resident’ in those spaces, rather than merely ‘visiting’ to do a
‘bit of reaching out’.Bex Lewis, http://www.threadsuk.com/redeeming-culture-in-a-digital-age, May
2014
Prof Sonia Livingstone, Children and the Internet: Great Expectations and Challenging Realities. 2009, p26
Even though in practice, face-to-face communication can, of course, be angry, negligent, resistant, deceitful and inflexible, somehow it remains the ideal against which mediated communication is judged as flawed.
The digital environment is not a parallel or purely virtual world, but is part of the daily experience of many people, especially the young. Social networks are the result of human interaction, but for their part they also reshape the dynamics of communication, which builds relationships: a considered understanding of this environment is therefore a prerequisite for a significant presence there.
Pope Benedict XVI (2013)
#DIGIdisciple•We all have something to contribute to the digital space:• Living 24/7 for God• Online/Offline, not
Virtual/Real•Are we the same person, living by the same values in both ‘spaces’?
Image Credit: The Worship Cloud
http://bigbible.org.uk/
What Biblical values do we want to see in our (digital) world?
Image Credit: iStockPhoto
Values?
What do the fruits of the spirit look like online?
Image Credit: Kezi
Human Beings
at machines, not
“are machines”
Image Source: Stockfresh
Who sees this?
1. God2. Parents3. ‘Kids’4. Newspaper5. Enemy
Relevance?
For many churchgoing is no longer the ‘cultural norm’. People don’t actively ignore the church: they don’t even think about it. Matthew 5:13-16 calls us to be salt and light in the world, and for thousands in the ‘digital age’, that world includes social networks such Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest. With literally billions in the digital spaces, the online social spaces presented by churches need to be appealing, welcoming, and not look like they are just an afterthought: they are now effectively the ‘front door’ to your church for digital users, and you ignore those spaces at your peril.
http://www.churchgrowthrd.org.uk/blog/churchgrowth/growing_churches_in_the_digital_
age
What do you associate with digital/social media?
http://i2.thejournal.co.uk/incoming/article6026679.ece/alternates/s615/clarke3main.jpg
Celebrity
“The fluidity and transience of online environments poses challenges to traditional authority structures, roles, and tools. The result has been that the internet is framed both as a threat to certain established roles and hierarchies and as a tool of empowerment by others.”
– Heidi Campbell 2012
Evangelism?
We are not selling something to the world that will make more people like us, believe in our story, join our churches. We are trying to be something in the world that invites connection and compassion, encourages comfort and healing for those in need, and challenges those in power to use that power in the service of justice and love
(Drescher, 127)
Relax, enjoy your friends. Enjoy their company along with the company of Jesus. Point him out, freely, without fear or intimidation. You’re not responsible to sell him to them. You’re simply saying what you’ve seen. You're not the judge. You’re the witness.Carl Medearis, quoted Spring Harvest, 2013
Preaching?
Global?
“I look
upon the
world as
my
parish.”
John Wesley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jwesleysitting.JPG
Second-Screening?
Time-Slipped?
http://www.youtube.com/user/lansdownebaptist/featured
Is Using an iPad in
preaching unholy?
• …If I am a true priest, I can be so with a telephone in my hand, with a Bible in the other and I can be so with a newspaper under my arm, because it isn’t these instruments that speak alone, but our faith which is made of flesh and which speaks to the flesh; that is why my flesh will be the true synthesis.
• http://www.hprweb.com/2012/07/enter-the-digital-continent-of-preaching/
• Digital Preparation Tools:
• http://www.benreed.net/index.php/2012/09/05/digital-sermon-prep/
Sermon (vs.) Blogging?
I loved working up a sermon in the lead up to giving it. Researching, looking at what others had to say on the topic, piecing together thoughts, looking for illustrations and examples (tangents) and then practicing giving it and making the last minute tweaksand additions in the day before Sunday arrived.
https://youtu.be/8j-Iy8fP0Ek
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/08/22/car-salesmen-preachers-and-the-art-of-persuasion/
The Big Questions
•Why
•Where
•When
•What
•Who
•To achieve what?
•How do the digital tools help achieve this?
http://pennystocks.la/internet-in-real-time/
With digital technology we need to cultivate an attitude of respect, rather than of risk-avoidance. The digital is a part of our everyday lives, and it’s not going to go away. There are huge opportunities available for those who have learnt how to be critical, constructive, and confident inhabitants of the digital environment.
BBC: Be Smart
“We’re doing this because all the research tells us that children and young people respond best to their peers. Whether they’re under pressure to take part in a dangerous prank, or to victimise someone, or whether they’re an online bully themselves, stories told by other young people are most likely to resonate and to help them cope, or change their behaviour.”Andrew Tomlinson, Executive Producer, Media Literacy, BBC Learning
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/entries/f1f50247-4902-4998-bf58-3e2d3c007587
@drbexl @digitalfprint @digidisciple
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