spirituality

social media

Church uses vandalism for social media message

What do church leaders usually do when someone vandalizes the side of a church with graffiti? Cover it up, repaint, or remove the vandalism. A church in Randolph, New York was recently vandalized with the words, “Can I still get into heaven if I kill myself?” The church responded in a remarkable and unconventional way.

Grace Episcopal Church allowed the vandalism to stay, but the church added their own reply:

The above picture circulated around Facebook and Twitter with folks generating a conversation about spirituality and community.

Elizabeth Drescher at Religion Dispatches covered the story and found out why the church responded in this way and how it relates to modern religious expression:

Rather than approaching the tagging as a criminal act, however, church leaders decided to take the graffiti seriously as an expression of something spiritually meaningful—a cry for help.. They approached it relationally, using the church building itself as a social media platform, and responding with their own message of hope.

It’s the story of a fairly traditional church actively recognizing that religious doubt, religious critique, and all manner of theological questioning that once would have been seen as belonging squarely within the clapboard walls of a village church unfold in a much wider, much more broadly networked universe.

What started as a process to respond to church vandalism turned into a broader conversation on social media. With hundreds of shares, likes, and comments on Facebook and Twitter, this church’s vandalism response sparked mostly positive reaction. Some of the replies on the church’s Facebook post tell of the conversation around suicide, religion, and young people:

“As a pastor who has lost a young adult son to suicide, let me add that the forum is 100% appropriate and the response is as well. Song lyrics or no, any indication that an individual might be contemplating suicide needs to be taken with the utmost seriousness.”

“I’m not of this faith, but I really respect and admire this response. It goes beyond religion for me. It comes down to basic, good old-fashioned human kindness, which, sometimes, is the one thing a desperate person needs.”

“This is what I got from this message (go ahead and kill yourself God loves you) should have been worded differently indeed! And so as long as I ask for forgives before I kill myself its all good right.”

“I think the response was great — people in that much pain need to know that not only does the Church love them, but that God loves them. Who knows, this might be just the turning point that this person needs to know that people and God cares”

“my experience working with suicidal people is that the thing that might encourage someone to get help is the sense that someone has heard them. We also don’t know if the person who painted the original message is suicidal or whether the are in profound grief after someone else’s suicide… or if something completely different is going on. You can’t really counsel an anonymous message written on a wall – sounds like the parish is doing the best they could have done under the circumstances”

This story is a lesson in leadership. Rather than react with, “Who would dare do this!?!” The church was proactive and asked, “Why is this person hurting so much to do this? What can we do to reach out in an equal response?” Many Christians and churches are quick to judge, but we must find creative responses to brokenness — as Jesus did.

social media

Social media can change spiritual habits

Even though 89% of American households have a Bible, the number of those who read it daily is very low. A new study released by Lifeway Research revealed what may be one of the many a sources of church attendance decline. Only 19% of church goers read their Bible daily. About 18% said that they never read their Bible.

The study found that:

While the majority of churchgoers desire to honor Christ with their lives and even profess to think on biblical truths, a recent study found few actually engage in personal reading and study of the Scriptures.

The hot religious craze now is spiritual individualism, which has had a direct impact of the spiritual development of Christians. Though Christians or non-church going Christians may claim they are very spiritual, they most likely have not grown spiritual at all. You may be able to read a Bible at home, but how can you learn without guidance? The spiritual but not religious moment is focused on how individual trumps the religious community.

So how are we to draw these spiritual folk back to a religious community?

front, new, sub1, Unvirtuous Abbey

A Bunch of (un)virtuous Monks

Church and religion doesn’t have to be stuffy and boring. Several monks prove that. Enter the Unvirtuous Abbey. A bunch of monks give us everything regrettable about Christianity, culture, people, and Facebook but make us laugh at it… in a good way. The Unvirtuous Abbey ministers to people from their Facebook and Twitter page with funny and some serious tweets and updates. Some proclaim them virtuous and others unvirtuous. I took some time to sit down with these humorous monks to see what makes them tick. You be the judge:

You monks have some very funny and very serious prayers on Twitter and Facebook. Where do you receive inspiration?

What’s become evident is how many people have been hurt by religion/church. We wondered, “What if there were unapologetic monks who actually stood up to religious bullies? And what if we threw in a bit of ‘snark’ just to make it fun and interesting?”

Humour has incredible power. Religion has the capacity to be hurtful, and many people have used it was a weapon. It’s fun mashing up cultural references with Jesus. Of course Jesus didn’t have a magic sword, but it’s interesting to put him in that scenario:

Jesus held aloft his magic sword and said, “By the power of Grayskull!” And they spake unto one another, saying, “He has the power.”

The truth is, he does.

Your prayers mention WiFi, beer, fanny packs, Harry Potter, tattoos, and Joel Osteen. Is this what makes the monks “unvirtuous”?
Continue Reading…

Lent

Dude Lives Off Beer During Lent

For most of us, giving something up for Lent is tough. Chocolate, sweets, or even Facebook are popular choices for the Lenten discipline. Some give up alcohol but one man is adding alcohol to Lent. Not only that, but he is only drinking beer for Lent!

CNN’s Belief Blog recently reported that J. Wilson, a 38 year-old author of the blog brewvana, gave up food and is only drinking beer (and water) The practice was also observed by Bavarian monks hundreds of years ago.

Wilson is newspaper editor and beer enthusiast. His motto of his blog is, “An ideal condition of harmony, beer and joy.” He proclaims himself a non-denominational Christian who avoids denominational labels. His decision to drink only beer was a seriously one and required a lot of preparation: Continue Reading…

Facebook

Giving up Facebook… for Lent?

Kristi Gustafson, social media strategist/staff writer for the Albany Times Union, recently asked me about a growing trend: giving up Facebook, Twitter, and other social media for Lent. I was glad to hear that Kristi was very familiar with the practice of Lenten fasting in the 21st century. Check out her article and my comments:

Chocolate, swearing, eating out. These are things Christians have given up for Lent for decades.

Now there’s something new to sacrifice.

Facebook.

The average Facebook user spends 4 hours and 35 minutes a month posting updates on their relationships, checking friends’ vacation photos and playing games like Farmville on the social networking site, according to a January report from Experian Hitwise, a New York City-based global research firm.

That’s more time than most of us spend doing anything other than sleeping, exercising or being at work.

In an age in which Facebook sees more monthly traffic than Google, some Lenten observers are leaving their “friends” behind as part of their commitment to the 40-day fasting.

“Giving up the same things year after year gets boring and you have to freshen it up,” says the Rev. Alan Rudnick with the First Baptist Church in Ballston Spa. “With the popularity of social media, people will say, ‘I like Facebook or Twitter just as much as I like chocolate.’ “

Read the rest…

spirituality

So you want to be spiritual? Try this:

With so many Americans calling themselves “spiritual” rather than religious, many in the Christian community have asked, “How can we make Christianity more spiritual?” That is a laughable question because Christianity is inherently spiritual. Prayer, baptism, worship, singing, communion, fellowship, reading scripture, and the list can go on. Sure, Christianity does not have rocks, stones, and other “new age” objects or artifacts, but there is a steady diet of spiritual things in Christianity.

For hundreds of years mystic, monastic, and ascetic Christians have sought to have a deeper connection with God. St. John of the Cross, Francis of Assisi, Julian of Norwich, and Thomas Merton are a few names that Christians may have heard before. Sometimes their stories are bizarre, but often many mystics simply wanted a prayerful spiritual life.

Some Christians may run the other way when they hear the word “mystical”, but believe it or not every time we pray we are being mystical. When we pray, we are praying to a transcendent God to ask or praise him for supernatural works. When we Christians use the word “mystical” we are talking about the spiritual life and we do not have to speak in tongues to be spiritual either.

One the most transformational components of the spiritual life is reading scripture. However, many find the Bible boring and need a guide when reading. One the most spiritual things we can do when we read scripture is to participate in lectio divina. What the heck is that?

Transfiguration

Facebook or Facetime?

I started using Facebook.com shortly after I entered graduate school in 2003. Facebook is a social networking internet webpage that connects people, organizations, families, and business. Some of my college friends began to use Facebook and I saw it as a way to stay in touch with people. Facebook was confusing. Why I could see everyone’s business: who they talked to, what they posted, what they said, etc… Now, Facebook is ubiquitous. My parents, who are retired, even have a Facebook page!

Facebook is a great way to connect, but have we replaced Facebook with true “facetime?” Have we replaced what we would do with our friends and family with what we should do in person? Have we lost a sense of personal touch with the use of Facebook? A social networking website cannot replace what we experience in real life.

In our scriptures for Sunday, so much is made about “facetime” with God. In the Old Testament lesson, Moses is face to face with God. After the experience, Moses’ face changes. Moses puts a veil over his face to hide it from the Israelites. In our Gospel text, Jesus’ face and complexion change during the Transfiguration.

Why all this attention to the Transfiguration? The Transfiguration is important and Darrell Jodock in the Christian Century explains why:

twitter

I’m Not Sold on Twitter in worship

A variety of news outlets have commented on the growing trend in churches: Twitter Worship. Time, New York Times, and Switched have covered the movement. If you do not know about this trend, I’ll try to explain it in two sentences. Using the social networking site, Twitter, worship attendees interact with the sermon, worship, and music.

Some churches even display “tweets” on their projection screens and the pastor interacts with the micro comments during the sermon. The UMC Board of Discipleship has a good overview of the pros and cons of using twitter and other technology in worship. Even Josh Harris questions the use of Twitter during worship. Despite the popularity of Twittering, many have asked the question, “Is Twittering during worship really worshipful?” I am a pretty technology dependent person, but I’m not sold on Twitter worship.

This is a difficult question to answer because there are some things to consider:

Twittering in worship attracts younger worshippers. A segment of the population that is greatly prized by churches.
A Twitter worship service can attract the unchurched or non-Christians.
Using Twitter creates more of an interactive worship experience, which is something that people want need.
People are quickly becoming more connected through technology, thus connecting through technology can be a way to reach people for Christ
Twittering during worship is encouraging people to be reflective about God.

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