Professional Amil baba, Kala jadu specialist in Multan and Kala ilam speciali...
The Church in the Digital Age. Keynote for URC. July 2014
1. THE CHURCH IN THE A
DIGITAL AGE
Dr Bex Lewis
Research Fellow in Social Media and Online
Learning, CODEC, St John’s, Durham University
Director, Digital Fingerprint
3. “There is a revolution sweeping across the globe, driven by the
massive growth of the internet and internet related
technologies. Known as the Digital Revolution it is on par with
other great global shifts such as the Agrarian Revolution and
the Industrial Revolution. And it is completely changing the
landscape of how we communicate, how we influence, how
we relate. This isn’t simply about coming to grips with a new
technology to assist us in our work, but requires of us a
fundamental shift in our processes, our structures and
approaches. If we don’t respond then as Eric Hoffer states, we
will find ourselves, ‘beautifully equipped to deal with a world
that no longer exists.’”
Event Publicity, 2010
The Digital Revolution?
4. 15th C: The Printing Press
Image Source: Wikipedia
6. “Before the press … information was passed mouth-to-ear,
scribe-to-scribe; it was changed in the process; there was
little sense of ownership and authorship. In the five-century-
long Gutenberg era, text did set how we see our world:
serially with a neat beginning and a defined end; permanent;
authored. Now, we are passing out of this textual era and
that may well affect how we look at our world. That may
appear to change how we think. But it won't change our
wires.”
Pew Report, 2012
quoting Jeff Jarvis, Journalist
7. “Technology should not dictate our
values or our methods. Rather, we
must use technology out of our
convictions and values.”
John Dyer, From the Garden to the
City, 2011,p5
11. "If you want to build a presence in the social media
platform, then you need to be present."
- @unmarketing
12.
13. 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.
Prof Sonia Livingstone, Children and the
Internet: Great Expectations and Challenging
Realities. 2009, p26
14. A moral panic may be
defined as an episode, often
triggered by alarming media
stories and reinforced by
reactive laws and public
policy, of exaggerated or
misdirected public concern,
anxiety, fear, or anger over a
perceived threat to social
order.
http://www.ashgate.com/pdf/SamplePages/Ashgate-Research-
Companion-to-Moral-Panics-Intro.pdf
Image Credit: Stockfresh
16. Right back to Socrates…
This discovery of yours will create
forgetfulness in the learners' souls,
because they will not use their
memories; they will trust to the external
written characters and not remember
of themselves…you give your disciples
not truth, but only the semblance of
truth; they will be hearers of many
things and will have learned nothing.
(Phaedrus, Benjamin Jowett trans.)
http://bigthink.
com/learning-
from-the-
past/socrates-
wouldnt-trust-
the-web-
should-we-
trust-him
Image Credit: Wikipedia
17. Tweeting in Church?
• Good Thing?
• Bad Thing?
• Why might/might
not people tweet
in church?
• What might
encourage more
‘engagement’?
Image Credit: Stockfresh
18. The Church Front Door?
For many churchgoing is no longer
the ‘cultural norm’. People don’t
actively ignore the church: they
don’t even think about it. … 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
Image Credit: freeimages.com
19. Dr Sara Batts (2013)
http://phdinprogress.wordpress.com
20. Mission opportunities are very different…
when to step over the church threshold is
an unknown experience - compared with
attitudes when there is a known church to
which they can return.
Rev Lynda Barley, Head of Research and
Statistics for the Church of England (2007)
25. Those starting churches must do so from within
the cultures they are trying to reach … so that
those who respond face only the challenge of
Christian faith … and not that of having to adopt
a foreign church culture. Such new Christians are
thus able to remain within their own culture as
change-agents.
Graham Cray, Fresh Expressions
26. 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)
27. 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
MediaLit, 2010
Image Credit: Durham University
28. #DIGIDisciple
those who seek to
live out their
Biblically-informed
Christian faith in the
digital space,
exploring both what it
means to be a
disciple in the digital
age, and also how
the digital age affects
or alters discipleship.
30. What does it mean to ‘love your neighbour’in a world
in which a ‘friend’might as easily be the kid from
down the street you grew up with as a woman in
Botswana whom you’ve never seen in person and
only know in the context of Facebook status updates,
photos, and notes? … How can we negotiate spiritual
interaction in these contexts without losing sight of basic
elements of Christian faith expressed in traditional
embodied and geographically located practices of prayer,
worship, and compassion towards others?
Elizabeth Drescher, Tweet if You Heart Jesus
(2011, 127)
31. 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.
Elizabeth Drescher, Tweet if You Heart Jesus
(2011, 127)
32. [If we are…] means by which God
communicates and reveals himself through his
Spirit, then our blog posts, status updates,
tweets, artistic images, and online comments
should be products of a life transformed by Christ
and indwelled by his Spirit.As restored image
bearers, our online presence and activity should
image the Triune God.
Byers, A. Theomedia (2013, 196)
33. It’s something about the informality and
distance; the ability to pause and think,
which can be difficult in a conversation;
and the way discussions can pick up
where they left off several hours, days or
weeks later.
Emma Major, BIGBible Post, 2012
36. The conspicuous and centralProtestant sermon is one of
these. It made sense in a education- and resource-poor
(and frankly, entertainment-poor)age,but if I held forth
for twentyminutes or more everySunday, I expect to be
regularly challenged (perhaps mentally, and in an
unspokenway) by people who wouldGoogle for facts
during my oratory.
Scott Wells
http://boyinthebands.com/archives/new-church-small-sermon-long-sermon/
37. "The digital age isn’t killing off preaching, but what the
survey suggests is that too much preaching is doing too
little to motivate people to look at the world
differently and therefore live in it differently," said Paul
Johns, a director at the College of Preachers. "If that’s
so, we have to question what we preachers are actually
saying about the Bible and about contemporary issues,
and how well we’re engaging with our congregations.”
(2009)
http://ministrytodaymag.com/index.php/ministry-tools/main/18801-are-my-sermons-making-a-difference
40. On the Emmaus Road, Jesus was recognized in
the breaking of bread rather than in the exegesis
of Scripture. That’s an intriguing lesson to learn
when so much of the web and so much of digital
communication is about proclamation rather than
reception.
Pete Phillips et al, 2013: 10
41. "If you want to build a presence in the social media
platform, then you need to be present."
- @unmarketing
42. “We should not overlook the fact that those who
for whatever reason lack access to social media
run the risk of being left behind,” with a reminder
that communication is ultimately a human
rather than a technological achievement.
Pope Francis, World
Communications Day, 2014
44. Saint Teresa of Avila (adapted by Meredith
Gould, 2010)
Christ Has No Online Presence but Yours
Christ has no online presence but yours,
No blog, no Facebook page but yours,
Yours are the tweets through which love touches this
world,
Yours are the posts through which the Gospel is shared,
Yours are the updates through which hope is revealed.
Christ has no online presence but yours,
No blog, no Facebook page but yours.
http://churchsocmed.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/christ-has-no-online-presence-but-yours.html
45. References
Ashworth, J. and Farthing, I. (2007) “Churchgoing in the UK: A Research Report from Tearfund on church attendance in the UK”, [online], Tearfund,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/03_04_07_tearfundchurch.pdf
Batts, S. (2013) “Informing, inviting or ignoring? Understanding how English Christian churches use the internet”, [online], Unpublished PhD,
http://phdinprogress.wordpress.com/2013/02/26/informing-inviting-or-ignoring-understanding-how-english-christian-churches-use-the-internet
Baym, N. (2013) Personal Connections in the Digital Age, Cambridge: Polity
Benedictus XVI (2013), “"Social Networks: portals of truth and faith; new spaces for evangelization."”, [online], 47th World Communications Day,
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/communications/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20130124_47th-world-communications-day_en.html
Booth, R. (2012) “Census reveals decline of Christianity and rise in foreign born to one in eight”, [online], The Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/dec/11/census-religion-
decline-rise-born-abroad
Byers, A. (2013) Theomedia: The Media of God and the Digital Age, Oregon: Cascade
Campbell, H. (Eds) (2012) Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media Worlds, New York: Routledge
CODEC, (2009), The National Biblical Literacy Survey, Durham: CODEC
Cray, G. (2009), “Fresh Expressions: An Introduction by Graham Cray”, [online], http://www.freshexpressions.org.uk/about/introduction
Drescher, E. (2011), Tweet if you Heart Jesus: Practicing Church in the Digital Reformation, New York: Morehouse
Dutton, W.H. and Blank, G. (2013). “Cultures of the Internet: The Internet in Britain”, [online], Oxford Internet Surveys (OXIS),
http://oxis.oii.ox.ac.uk/sites/oxis.oii.ox.ac.uk/files/content/files/publications/OxIS_2013.pdf
Dyer, J. (2011) From the Garden to the City: The Redeeming and Corrupting Power of Technology, Grand Rapids: Kregel
Francis I (2014), “Pope Francis: Communication must promote culture of encounter”, [online], Vatican Radio
http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2014/01/23/pope_francis:_communication_must_promote_culture_of_encounter/en1-766566
Goodhew, D. (2012) Church Growth in Britain: 1980 to the Present, Farnham: Ashgate
Gould, M. (2013) The Social Media Gospel, Minnesota: Liturgical Press
Heim, T. and Birdsong, T. (2012) @StickyJesus: How to Live Out Your Faith Online, Nashville: Abingdon
Hill, D. (2012), “Posts, Promises and Perenniel Issues”, [online], The BIGBible Project, http://bigbible.org.uk/2012/11/posts-promises-and-perennial-issues-darrenrhill-digidisciple/
Hutchings, T. (2013), “The Bible and Persuasive Technology”, [online], The BIGBible Project, http://bigbible.org.uk/2013/08/digital-bible-persuasion/
Hutchings, T. (2013b), “Is piracy stealing? Thoughts on ethics and the Internet”, [online], The BIGBible Project, http://bigbible.org.uk/2013/12/ethics-and-the-internet-2/
Keen, D. (2013), “2-Faced Facebook”, [online], Opinionated Vicar, http://davidkeen.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/2-faced-facebook.html
Lewis, B. (2014) Raising Children in a Digital Age: Enjoying the Best, Avoiding the Worst, Oxford: Lion Hudson
Lewis, B. and Rush, D. (2013) “Experience of developing Twitter-based communities of practice in higher education”, [online], Research in Learning Technology,
http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v21i0.18598
London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (LICC), (2003), “Imagine Church: The Big Picture”, [online], http://www.licc.org.uk/imagine-church/the-big-picture/
Major, E. (2012), “Seeking God Online”, [online] http://bigbible.org.uk/2012/02/seeking-god-online-digidisciple-emmauk74/
McGrory, R. (2014), “UK Social Media Statistics for 2014”, [online] , http://www.rosemcgrory.co.uk/2014/01/06/uk-social-media-statistics-for-2014/
McLuhan, M. (1964) Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, Whitby: McGraw-Hill
Office for National Statistics (ONS), (2011) “Full story: What does the Census tell us about religion in 2011?”, [online], http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/census/2011-census/detailed-
characteristics-for-local-authorities-in-england-and-wales/rpt---religion.html
Phillips, P., Lewis, B., Bruce, K. (2013) “Digital Communication, the Church and Mission”, [online] Church Growth Resourcing Mission Bulletin,
http://www.churchgrowthrd.org.uk/UserFiles/File/Resourcing_Mission_Bulletin/June_2013/Digital_Communication_the_Church_and_Mission.pdf
Skinner, S. (2012), “UK Christians turning to Facebook to share their faith”, [online], New Media Centre of Excellence,
http://www.newmediacentreofexcellence.org.uk/resources/onlineevangelism#sthash.DAZBquIu.dpuf”
Smith, P. (2014), “Lead like Hezekiah”, [online], The BIGBible Project, http://bigbible.org.uk/2014/02/lead-like-hezekiah-revpamsmith/
Sutherland, R. (2013), “What does it mean to be a digital disciple with @changingworship”, [online], Audioboo, https://audioboo.fm/boos/1577833-what-does-it-mean-to-be-a-digital-
disciple-with-changingworship
Taylor, B. (2014), “How are people sharing their faith online?”, [online], Infogr.am, https://infogr.am/how-are-people-sharing-their-faith-online
Turkle, S. (2011), Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, New York: Basic Books
Vogt, B. (2011) The Church and New Media: Blogging Converts, Online Activists, and Bishops Who Tweet, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor
Jennifer Fulwiler (in Vogt, 2013: 45-53) writes of her experience growing up in a culture where a worldview of non-belief was considered the norm, with known Christians appearing simplistic in theory and lukewarm in practice. In the early days of blogging, she discovered thoughtful and educated Christian bloggers who challenged her fixed thinking through their colourful daily lives, challenging her worldview. She has since come across Christian bloggers who are caustic, sneering, and dismissive, which effectively closes the door on communication for others. The Internet more commonly has a reputation as an echo chamber, with a heavy emphasis on self-promotion.
Turkle (2011) refers to ‘photoshopped selves’ that we produce online – a deliberately created self in which we share only those things that make us look good, or part of a crowd. We have to argue, however, that we exhibit different ‘social selves’ in different situations, and the online environment is simply another social situation in which we are learning what is appropriate to share, and what would be better reserved for a different social situation or a different technological medium, with questions as to whether the convergence of digital media is making it harder or easier to be ‘digitally in disguise’ and how easy it is to wear our ‘digital skin’.
If Christians are seeking to be strong representatives of the Christian faith, then aspects of their daily living in a digital space will come under scrutiny – words and actions. Hutchings (2013b) questions how theologically and ethically we figure out what is right or wrong with regards to piracy in a new cultural context, and how Christians should address this question to encourage more ethical behavior online. In a previous post, commentators had noted that the line from the pulpit typically drew upon Bible verses such as Exodus 20:15 (Do not steal), and Mark 12:17 (Render unto Caesar), which supports rather than challenges the interests of big business, when more creative approaches could be encouraged.