At the 2009 UUMA Ministry Days I attended an excellent workshop by the Rev. Nate Walker, of 1st Unitarian Philadelphia, about our relationship with technology, especially emerging communication, presentation and social networking tools on the web. I made a last-minute decision to attend this one instead of my pre-registered choice, hoping that it would not make me feel bad about my slow adoption of new technologies and overwhelmed by all the new stuff coming out. His workshop met my hopes with grace and inspiration.
In the “introductions” segment, we all spoke about our relationship with tech as if it were a person. It helped to see the range of comfort levels and that as many of us are late adopters as are early adopters. He noted: we are all in this together.
He said we should not forget our spiritual natures, roles as spiritual leaders and commitment to spiritual practice. Given all the other things ministers must manage and navigate, we do have it in our power to have an intentional and not harmful relationship with new technologies.
Some people have a rule of not looking at email sooner than 12 hours since the last time they read or wrote emails. Before we knew what had happened, Nate swore all us ministers to give up email for Lent next year. We will need to alert and remind parishioners and colleagues well in advance of Ash Wednesday. This doesn’t mean we can’t phone people and ask them to phone us or to meet with us in person. (And, I might add, handwritten notes are still gratifying.) I’m writing it here so I can remember my commitment.
He gave examples of how he and his church have used YouTube for pastoral messages (as when he was out of state last July when news came of the shootings in the Knoxville UU church), as well as for worship and religious education presentations. They replaced their membership photo directory with an online directory (with Flicker, I think); this can be password protected as well as more easily updated.
The most exciting project: they provided video cameras and mikes to church children and youth, who conducted a series of interviews with church elders and other adults, asking questions like “What religion did you grow up in?” All the clips were brief, which kept every one interesting. This was a great tool for connecting children to adults in the congregation.
He showed us the opening scene from the movie “Crash,” which was used for a dialogue on race and ethnicity. Notable line: ”We miss the touch so much tha twe crash into each other just to feel it.”
Of course, many churches now post and podcast sermons and other parts of worship services.
The Mail Chimp program shows who comes to the church web site and why. Google can track which pages of a web site are visited most frequently. First Unitarian gets visitors from all states as well as 77 other countries.
His own Netiquette guidelines:
Real life does apply online. Practice deep listening and loving speech, just as we try to do in person. No expectations for a timely response on email. Put out “flames” and do not participate in conflict by email. Recognize conflicts but don’t try to resolve them online unless there is no other way to reach someone or have a conversation with them. Respect people’s privacy. Avoid sarcasm.
We need to use the technology to help us enhance our ministries and not become slaves to technology for its own sake. Hence, he asked us to identify and articulate our own sense of purpose. When we are clear on that we can avoid being buffeted by all the new options and tools.
