This is the webinar presentation

1. Evangelization in the
Digital Age
Sister Geralyn Schmidt, SCC

2. Learner Leader
• Digital Immigrant
• Wide Area Network Coordinator
for the Diocese of Harrisburg
• Master of Science in Instructional
Technology
• Educator in elementary education for 17 years
• Educator in high school for 11 years
• Artist

3. What is Evangelization?
• Pope Paul VI in Evangelii Nuntiandi
– “evangelization is in fact the face and vocation
proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She
exists to evangelize
• USCCB : Go and Make Disciples
– http://old.usccb.org/evangelization/goandmake/eng.shtml

4. What is Evangelization?
• Bringing the Good News of Jesus into every
human situation and seeking to convert
individuals and society by divine power of
the Gospel itself.

5. What is Good News?
• Loving God that is intimately involved with us
• Intermediary is Jesus
• Salvation through Jesus’ sacrifice
• God is with us still

6. Good News of Evangelization
• Evangelization is the deepest part of our
Catholic identity
– ENFLAME those who are already connected to
Christ
– INVITE others to join us – in doing so
– TRANSFORM the world

7. Good News of Evangelization
• Evangelization happens
– Jesus words
– “Catholic” vision of hope
– SHARED with others
• Community
– More than just showing up
– INVEST in a relationship

8. Community and Evangelization
• Community
– Assists in forging relationships
– God will use to transform lives
• Hospitality
• Sense of belonging
• Model Christian values – JOIN US
• Evangelization must affect the attitude of
our Catholic life from top to bottom

9. Evangelization and Culture
• Practices/beliefs/convictions/instructions
that expresses our collective identity
• At its best – what is GOOD, TRUE, and
BEAUTIFUL
• God is solely Good, True, and Beautiful
• Your story of hope , your story of love

10. Evangelization and Culture
• Evangelize the Culture
– Announce the Good News
• Loving God that is intimately involved with us
• Intermediary is Jesus
• Salvation through Jesus’ sacrifice
• God is with us still
• Jesus IS the son of God

11. Evangelization and Culture
• Jesus CAN forgive sins
– Spoke with authority
• Proof: Colossians 1:15 and Philippians 2:10

12. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of
all creation. For by Him all things were created, both
in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or
authorities— all things have been created through
Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him
all things hold together. He is also head of the body,
the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have
first place in everything. For it was the Father’s
good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him,
and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself,
having made peace through the blood of His cross;
through Him, I say, whether things on earth or
things in heaven.
Colossians 1:15-20

13. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled
Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross. For this reason also, God
highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name
which is above every name, so that at the name of
Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in
heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that
every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to
the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:10

14. Goals for Evangelization
USCCB
• To bring about in all Catholics such an
enthusiasm for their faith that, in living their
faith in Jesus they freely share it with others
• To invite all people in the US whatever the social
or cultural background to hear the message of
salvation in Jesus Christ so that they may come
to join us in the fullness of the Catholic faith
• To foster gospel values in our society promoting
the dignity and the common good of our society,
so that our nation may continue to be
transformed by the saving power of Jesus

15. Goals for Evangelization
• Steeped in Prayer
• Focus on everyday life
• Evangelize Church goers with a deeper faith

16. Vocabulary
• Wiki • Text messaging
• Blog • Photo share
• vBlog • Video share
• Facebook • Podcasts
• Social Media • Webinars
• New Media
• Personal Learning
• Twitter Network (PLN)
• Microblogging

17. How are people using New
Media?
• 80% of Americans use social media.
• 68% of churchgoers want to connect with their
Church via social media.
• 79% of all adults us the internet -- 95% of
young adults
• 80% of Americans use email
• 85% of adults own a cell phone
• 87% of teens engage in electronic
communication.

18. What is “New Media”
• On-demand access to content any time,
anywhere, on any digital devise
• Interactive user feedback
• Creative participation and community
formation
– Creation
– Publication
– Distribution
– Consumption

19. What is “New Media”
• Digital
• Content manipulated
– Networkable
– Dense
– Compressible
– Interactive

20. New Media
• Websites
• Computer multimedia (video/audio)
• Video Games
• CD-Roms
• DVD
• NOT
– TV, feature films, magazines, books, paper-based
publications unless digital interactivity
Source: Wikipedia.com

21. Social Media
• Web-based and mobile technologies
– Turns communication into interactive
dialogue
– Easily accessible

22. Social Media
• Internet Magazines
• Internet forums
• Weblogs
• Social Blogs
• Microblogging
• Wikis
• Podcasts

23. Social Media
• Photo sharing sites
• Video sharing sites
• Social bookmarking sites

24. Social Media
• Six Different Types
– Collaborative projects (Wikipedia)
– Blogs and microblogs (Twitter)
– Content Communities (YouTube)
– Social Networking (facebook – Linkedin)
– Virtual Game Worlds (World of Warcraft)
– Virtual Social Worlds (Second Life)

25. Social Media Technologies
• Blogs • Instant messaging
• Picture sharing • Music-sharing
• Vblogs • Crowdsourcing
• Wall-postings • Voice over IP
• Email

26. Why use social Media?
• St. Paul evangelized according to the media
of his time
• Bishop Sheen did the same with TV.
• Current Pope? (video)

27. Our Media
• Go where the people are
• Reaches new audiences
• Provides information in the manner that we
are used to finding it
• Available and accessible

28. New Media – Authentic Voice?
• How can I remain confident that we are truly
communication THE Catholic faith and my OWN
versions of the Catholic faith? My solution is to
saturate my writings with Scripture and the
Church Fathers – but especially the Church
Fathers. If I am to write an article or post about
the Sacraments of Baptism, I have to begin by
admitting the following: What did the great
Fathers, theologians, and saints say about it?
Therefore I try to constantly glean authoritative
passages from Church history.
Taylor Marshall– Church in the new media – Brandon Vogt

29. The New Media -- TODAY
• We are expanding the message of Christ and
the apostles become or own
• NOT changing the message … but making it
relevant to our time

30. New Media – Right Tool
• Technology use
– General public
• 2% innovators,
• 14% early adopters
• 34% early majority
• 34% late majority
• 16% laggards

31. New Media – Right Tool
• Technology Use among Catholics
– estimate 1% are innovators,
– 9% early adopters,
– 20% early majority,
– 30% late majority,
– 40% laggards
• Fr. Roderick Vonhogen – New Media

32. Helping Catholics to Embrace
New Media
• Educate
– Presentations, seminars, YouTube TRAINING
videos, newspaper columns, one-to-one witness,
Pope Benedict’s call to adopt new media
• Encourage
– Improve current modes of technology use
• Email
• Website

33. Helping Catholics to Embrace
New Media
• Encourage
– Adopt current modes of technology
– http://www.xt3.com
• Expose Excellence
– SHARE what you find

34. Helping Catholics to Embrace
New Media
• Evaluate
– Where are we now?
– Where we need to go?
– PLAN with experts
• Execute
– Build the idea of what “users” want
– Does not have to be expensive
– Use Guidelines by USCCB
– Social Networking Policy by Diocese of Harrisburg

35. Helping Catholics to Embrace
New Media
• Extend
– Catholic TV
– Homilies through podcasts
– Parish blog, Facebook fanpage, twitter accounts
• Evangelize
– Go and make disciples – words of Christ
– Media is NOT the message

36. Experience of Church
• According to Matt Waner
• We need to evangelize the way our audience
wants to listen
– 80% use some form of social media
– 68% want to connect with church using social
media
– Most regularly use email and text messaging to
communicate – most of these people do not read
parish bulletin – most are not registered with
parish – most don’t think about parish in
between Sundays.

37. Experience of the Church
Pope Benedict XVI, message for the 44th World
Communication Day – May 2010
• Priests stand at the threshold of a new era: as new
technologies create deeper forms of relationship
across greater distances, they are called to respond
pastorally by putting the media ever more effectively
at the service of the Word. ….
• Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by
employing the latest generation of audiovisual
resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs,
websites) which, alongside traditional means, can
open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization
and catechesis.

38. Parish Website
• YOUR WEBSITE MATTERS!
• Official Presence
• Primary presence of WHO you are. Similar to
the sign out front.
• UP TO DATE
• Collaborative TEAM
• Engage target audience
• Create a “brand”
Opensourcecatholic.com

39. Parish Website
• Two fold purpose
– Visitors EASILY find information
– Connect with parishioners
• Mailing lists
• Email, phone number, registration information
• ENGAGE them on facebook or twitter
• ALL OF THE ABOVE

40. Parish Website
• Seek the guidance of professionals
– Really knows about building websites
– Spend more money on website than doughnuts
– Less than a car
– Within 4 seconds – find into
– EVERY director of ministries should update their
own page

41. Parish Website
• WHY SHOULD SOMEONE VISIT YOUR
WEBSITE?
– Build the site around that
• Confession times
• Mass times
• On-line parish registration
• Parish ministry information
• Tell story of your parish
• LINK TO THE DIOCESE SITE

42. Parish Website
• Reach people where they are
– Early missionaries WENT OUT to the people
• Email
– Unsubscribe
– Every subscription to ministry lists
– PRUDENT in use

43. Parish Website – Reach people
• Text messaging
– Bulk texting
– NEVER late at night
– Opt our of messaging for individual users
• DON’T give up

44. Parish Website – Engage People
• Engage their hearts FIRST
– "If your mission is to be truly effective—if the
words you proclaim are to touch hearts, engage
people's freedom and change their lives—you
must draw them into an encounter with persons
and communities who witness to the grace of
Christ by their faith and their lives," he said.
Pope Benedict XVI
http://www.americancatholic.org/news/report.aspx?id=2682

45. Parish Website – Engage People
• Communication PLAN
– Serious budget
– Hire someone
– Take notice of free services
– Leadership within the parish
– Catholic websites
• http://the-american-catholic.com/2009/04/20/googles-top-25-
catholic-websites/

46. Blog
• What is it?
– A personal journal published on a the Web
consisting of discrete entries or “posts”
– Displayed in reverse chronological order – recent
appears first
– Themed on a single subject
• Because of the interaction, part of social
networking

47. Blog
• Not only produce content but also build
social relations with their readers
• Different than newspapers – viewers can
comment on what is being written

48. Blog
• Post regularly
• Record talks presentations (podcasts – only
audio)
• Record homilies (video and/or audio)
• Viewers can access from home
– Church comes home
– More than Sunday

49. Blogs and Community
• Fuel true conversation
• Builds community
– Virtual choir
• while previous generations of moms gathered for
Rosary groups or play dates at catholic school
playground, today’s mothers tend to supplement
their “real world” friendships with the vibrant
communities that have cropped up around the
Internet in places like catholicmom.com – builds
mutual trust, true dialogue, and lasting friendship
Lisa Hendey

50. Blogs and Community
Entering cyberspace can be a sign of an authentic
search for personal encounters with others,
provided that attention is paid to avoiding dangers
such as enclosing oneself in a sort of parallel
existence, or excessive exposure to the virtual
world. In the search for sharing, for “friends”,
there is the challenge to be authentic and faithful,
and not give in to the illusion of constructing an
artificial public profile for oneself
MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS
POPE BENEDICT XVI
FOR THE 45th WORLD COMMUNICATIONS DAY

51. Community Beliefs
• Contributions of each person are valuable
• Share openly and honestly.
• Be supportive
• Believing that we all have something to
contribute - perspectives, talent,
• Be grateful for contributions and for
participation. for the - just being there
• There are those you can help and those you can
learn from.
• AND Encourage more sharing

52. Community Beliefs
• My blog post

53. Facebook
• Huge part of lives
• 500 million users (2010) – 70 languages
• 73% of 12 – 17 years olds have at least one
profile
• 7.5 million kids under 13
• Used by businesses, organizations, and
governments

54. Facebook
• Chat
• Share photos (100 million every day)
• Post videos
• Share personal news
• 30 billion pieces of content monthly

55. Why use facebook?
• Socializing or “hanging out”
• Day-to-day news about their friends,
acquaintances, relatives, and peer groups
• Collaborating
• Validation or emotional support
• Self-expression and the identity exploration
and formation

56. Why use facebook?
• “Informal learning,” or learning outside of
formal settings such as school, including
learning social norms and social literacy
• Learning the technical skills of the digital age,

57. Why use facebook?
• Discovering and exploring interests, both
academic and future professional interests
• Learning about the world
• Civic engagement – participating in causes
that are meaningful to them.

58. Risks involved in Social
Networking
• Young people who behave aggressively online are
more than twice as likely to be victimized online, so
children’s own behavior in Facebook or any social site
is key to their well-being on the social Web.
• The most common risk young people face online is
peer harassment or aggression – in other words
hurtful, harassing, or defamatory behavior.
• A child’s psychosocial makeup and environment (for
example, home and school) are better predictors of
risk than any technology that the child uses, so...

59. Risks involved in Social
Networking
• Not all children are equally at risk online, and the
children who are most at risk online are those who
are most at risk in “real life,” or offline.
• Although, for the vast majority of youth, online social
networking is largely a reflection of offline life, it can
also amplify, perpetuate and widely distribute real-
life problems or conflicts – very rapidly. Something
posted in anger or on impulse is extremely difficult to
take back, so it has never been more important for
users (of any age) to think before they “speak,” post,
or send a text message.

60. Specific Risks
• Posting information
– could help strangers determine their physical location
– could be used to manipulate them
– whether posted by them or others, could cause psychological
harm or jeopardize reputations and future prospects
• Harassment or online bullying (“cyberbullying”) on the
part of your children or others’
• Spending too much time online, losing a sense of balance
in their activities (“too much” is subjective, which is why
parents need to be engaged)

61. Specific Risks
• Exposure to inappropriate content
• Potential for inappropriate contact with
adults
• Damage to reputation or future prospects
because of young people’s own behavior or
that of their peers.

62. Twitter
• Twitter is an online social networking service
and microblogging service that enables its
users to send and read text-based posts of up
to 140 characters, known as "tweets".
Wikipedia

63. Visit to Twitter
• Username
• Tweets
• Hastags
• Following people
• Direct messages
• Shortened URLS

64. Podcasts
• Digital media consisting of an episodic series
of audio files
– From "broadcast" and "pod" from the success of
the iPod, as podcasts are often listened to on
portable media players.
• http://catholicboard.com/utspodcast/introduction

65. Podcasts
• www.SQPN.com – Star Quest Production
Network
• www.CatholicAudio.blogspot.com Sonitus
Sanctus
• www.CatholiciCast.com Catholic Cast

66. In Summary – 7 keys to use
Media as a Catholic
• Balance
– View
– Use
– Why it matters?
• Fuller and more accurate understanding of media –
the “good”, the “bad”, and the “ugly.”
– How to?
• Don’t accept or reject any form
• Limit the amount of time purely for entertainment
• FAST from media

67. In Summary – 7 keys to use
Media as a Catholic
• Balance: How the Church says it
– must take into consideration the entire situation or
circumstances, namely, the persons, place, time and
other conditions under which communication takes
place and which can affect or totally change its
propriety” (Inter Mirifica, No. 4).
– Media consumers “should exercise self-control. They
must not allow themselves to be so beguiled by the
charms of the media’s products or by the curiosity
that these arouse that they neglect urgent duties or
simply waste time” (Communio et Progressio, No.
52).

68. In Summary – 7 keys to use
Media as a Catholic
• Attitude
– Critical awareness of the message
– Why it matters?
• Message affects us for good and for ill
– How to?
• Research and observation
– Who makes it
– Look for behaviors that are encouraged, discouraged,
rewarded, or mocked. Ask, “Does the use prompt Christian
behavior?”

69. In Summary – 7 keys to use
Media as a Catholic
• Attitude: What the Church Says
– “The means of communication ... enrich men’s
minds if their character and function is
understood. On the other hand, men who do not
sufficiently appreciate their importance, may
find their liberty diminished” (Communio et
Progressio, No. 64).

70. In Summary – 7 keys to use
Media as a Catholic
• Dignity of the Human Person
– Creating and using media that upholds, reflects,
and promotes and defends the dignity of the
human person
– Why it matters?
• Media exists to serve human person:
– To enlighten us about:
» Who we are
» To spread information
» Build human community
» Love more fully

71. In Summary – 7 keys to use
Media as a Catholic
• Dignity of the Human Person
– How to?
• Pornography
• Online communities treat real people like objects
• When face-to-face ONLY answer cell phone or
respond to text messages when necessary
• Don’t post intimate details about family
• Use technology to spread gossip

72. In Summary – 7 keys to use
Media as a Catholic
• What the Church Says:
– The human person and the human community
are the end and measure of the use of the media
of social communication; communication should
be by persons to persons for the integral
development of persons” (Ethics in
Communication, No. 21).

73. In Summary – 7 keys to use
Media as a Catholic
• Truth-filled
– What it means?
• Conform to reality and lead others to reality
– Why it matters?
• Connects with people on level of emotion
– Truth more compelling
– Lies more believable
– Pope Paul IV – teachers of faith are the witnesses to faith –
how are we using media?

74. In Summary – 7 keys to use
Media as a Catholic
• Truth-filled
– How to?
• Use facebook to post links interesting to faith
• Don’t avoid difficult discussions on-line
• Never pass another work as your own
• Exercise same charity with folks on-line as with face to
face

75. In Summary – 7 keys to use
Media as a Catholic
• What Church says
– “Every communication must comply with certain
essential requirements and these are sincerity,
honesty and truthfulness. Good intentions and a
clear conscience do not thereby make a
communication sound and reliable. A
communication must state the truth” (Communio
et Progressio, No. 17).

76. In Summary – 7 keys to use
Media as a Catholic
• Inspires
– What it means?
• Can help us in our journey to heaven
• Pointing us in the right way
• Inspire us for the good
– How to?
• Avoid media that inspired in the wrong direction
• Feature on blog or facebook songs that inspire
• Don’t use media to “kill time”

77. In Summary – 7 keys to use
Media as a Catholic
• What Church says
– “Today it takes no great stretch of the
imagination to envisage the earth as an
interconnected globe humming with electronic
transmissions — a chattering planet nestled in
the provident silence of space. The ethical
question is whether this is contributing to
authentic human development and helping
individuals and peoples to be true to their
transcendent destiny” (Ethics in Internet, No. 1).

78. In Summary – 7 keys to use
Media as a Catholic
• Skillfully Developed
– What it means?
• The media that Catholics develop should be GOOD –
as compared to the secular media
– Why it matters?
• Packing matters
– Increases credibility and believability as well as hold
attention
– How?
• Do your research – visit websites

79. In Summary – 7 keys to use
Media as a Catholic
• What the Church Says:
– :“*Catholic communicators+ have a duty in
conscience to make themselves competent in the
art of social communication in order to be
effective in their work. ... People today have
grown so used to the entertaining style and
skillful presentation of communications by the
media that they are intolerant of what is
obviously inferior in any public presentation”
(Communio et Progressio, Nos. 15, 130).

80. In Summary – 7 keys to use
Media as a Catholic
• Experienced – based
– Related to human experience
• Rooted in realities of the world
• Appeals to our senses
– How to
• Embed videos on blog or social networking page
• Incorporate stories about self and life on blog
• You have a sense of you

81. In Summary – 7 keys to use
Media as a Catholic
• What the Church says:
– “While he was on earth Christ revealed himself as
the Perfect Communicator. Through his ‘incarnation,’
he utterly identified himself with those who were to
receive his communication, and he gave his message
not only in words but in the whole manner of his life.
He spoke from within, that is to say, from out of the
press of his people. He preached the divine message
without fear or compromise. He adjusted to his
people’s way of talking and to their patterns of
thought. And he spoke out of the predicament of
their time” (Communio et Progressio, No. 11).