This presentation was a keynote address that I gave for the annual Episcopal Church in-house meeting. It explains the current converged relationship between faith in the "real world" and in the digital space. I also address issue of brand hijacking and content marketing.

1. Converging faith on- and off-line:
What the church can learn from the “real
world” to aid in missionary work
Episcopal In-House Meeting
January 15, 2014
Mara Einstein, PhD
Queens College, City University of New York

2. “And Jesus said to Peter…”
2

3. Today: No separation between media
& religion
Religion and the media seem to be ever more connected as
we move further into the twenty-first century. It is through
the media that much of contemporary religion and
spirituality is known….The realms of ‘religion’ and ‘media’
can no longer be easily separated.
-- Stewart Hoover,
Center for Media, Religion and Culture
University of Colorado, Boulder
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4. Agenda
 Changing relationship between media and
religion
 Special impact of digital media in changing
relationships between producers and
audiences
 Case studies integrating media and religion
 Best practices – What sacred can learn from
the secular
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5. Convergence of Media and
Religion
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6. Convergence of Media and Religion
Religion
Media
• Advertising, websites and social media are used to
communicate with followers
Media
Religion
• Remains a popular topic across media platforms
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8. Non-Fiction/Reality Series
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9. Digital Media Has Changed the
Relationship between Producer
and Audience
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10. Digital media impact
 Digital natives move fluidly from online to offline
 Need to find a way to fit into people’s lives, not
disrupt it
 Millennials expect to “come as you are”
 How is church going to help me live my life?
 Content producers—sacred or secular—no longer
control the message (“brand hijacking”)
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11. #Fitchthehomeless
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12. I'm Joy. I'm The 2008 Longboard Champion, Love Jesus Christ & I am a Mormon
Video
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14. 14

15. Mormon.org
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16. Ex-Mormon
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17. Mormon response: More content,
more online missionaries
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19. Video
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20. Video – Spiritual Technology
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22. Catholicscomehome.org
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23. But….
 None of these insert themselves into people’s
lives
 The perspective is from the POV of the
institution, not the audience served
 Producer-to-audience mentality
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24. Online Communities
 Create ways for people to come together
 People spend time with things they love and
care about
 And, they tell others
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25. Nutella
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26. Media as Competition, or is it?
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27. Media is Pervasive
 1.19 billion monthly active users on Facebook
 73% of American adult Internet users use at least one
social networking service
 42% use multiple sites, including FB, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest
and LinkedIn
 78% watch videos online
 1-2 hours/day one mobile devices*
* Little agreement about exact figures
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28. (Religious) Media as Competition
 Convenient
 Provides choice
 Anonymity
 Democratized
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29. Questions to consider:
 What are religious institutions doing or not
doing that makes people turn elsewhere for
this content?
 If religious institutions can present their
message via a converged media-religion
hybrid is that necessarily a bad thing?
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31. 31

32. 78% of Protestant churches have a
website, less than half use them for
interactive purposes (Lifeway, 2011)
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35. 35

36. LifeChurch.tv
Case Study
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37. LifeChurch.tv
 LifeChurch.tv, also called Life Covenant
Church or "Life Church“
 Multi-site evangelical church (14 + Second
Life)
 32,000 members
 Stream services over 50 times each week
(audience: 80,000 unique computers).
 Shares content with 52,000 other churches
(open.lifechurch.tv).
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38. LifeChurch and Media
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40. LifeChurch.tv on Second Life
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41. YouVersion—Bible App
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43. Hillsong
Case Study
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44. HillsongNYC
 Pentecostal megachurch started in Australian
 NYC “satellite” church founded 3 years ago
 Approximately 6000 weekly attendees over 6
services
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48. From presentation to practice
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49. Best Practices
 On and off line are not mutually exclusive. Find
ways to enable this rather than fight against it.
 Find ways to engage current members and
prospective congregants instead of talking at
them
 If members become online missionaries, support
them in their passions.
 Stick to your knitting; find out what your provide
that no one else does and do it—really, really
well.
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50. Questions to ask:
 Who are you?
 Who do you want to be?
 Who do you want to join you?
 How can you reach them?
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51. The question of marketing
 Little separation between media and marketing
(branded video and branded journalism are the
biggest trend for 2014)
 Are marketing and branding consistent with
religious values?
YES – Marketing = Evangelizing
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52.  Book: Brands of Faith: Marketing religion in a
commercial age
 Email: mara.einstein@gmail.com
 Twitter: @MaraEinstein
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53. THANK YOU