The question for a group or organisation (like church) is no longer whether or not to use social media – but how social media will be used in relation to it.
We don’t have a choice on whether we DO social media, the question is how well we DO it. Eric Qualman
As a ps. Thanks so much to those who have been helping through some of the different digital difficulties this site has been experiencing. We seem to be moving well back to people being able to find what they find useful here, with over a thousand daily visitors (before the difficulties averages of four thousand visitors a day was not unknown). If you place a new link to this site, do let us know in the comments – I would encourage people in this community to visit your site. Also, if you let me know, I will tweet your site’s URL to my 75,000 followers on twitter.
Update: if you want to receive alerts about new comments, that aspect of this blog is not working currently – sorry.
Thanks Bosco, thinking of the links between social media and christchurch rebuild.
It seems disappointing to me that we are still largely thinking in terms of buildings and not looking at the strategic issues of whether buildings can enhance mission and if so what kind of buildings.
I am interested for instance in social media explosion and how church will interact creatively in that building free space.
Thanks for those thoughts, Rosemary, they connect with some of the thoughts I am having and will feature in a future post. Church was very much focused on communication, but appears to have become so used to doing that in one way that social media, the new way of communicating, has generally caught it by surprise. Blessings.
Hello All,
Perhaps it’s my age (61). Even though I have a good measure of computer/internet understanding, I’ve resisted most social media interactions–I continue to avoid Facebook and the others.
As I watched the video, words from Dietrich Bonhoeffer came to mind. They might provide a foundation of thought regarding how and when the Church uses this form of communication. I quote them below.
Blessings to all,
Michael
“To understand reality is not the same as to know
about outward events. It is to perceive the
essential nature of things. The best-informed man
is not necessarily the wisest. Indeed there is a
danger that precisely in the multiplicity of his
knowledge he will lose sight of what is essential.
But on the other hand, knowledge of an apparently
trivial detail quite often makes it possible to see
into the depth of things. And so the wise man will
seek to acquire the best possible knowledge about
events, but always without becoming dependent
upon this knowledge. To recognize the significant
in the factual is wisdom.”