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Tonight I got to experience a celebration and gathering for LifeChurch.tv's volunteers and leaders. It was their annual "Big Show". This year's theme was "Hero". I have some screen shots that I want to share with you, but honestly, the worship/music time was so moving and wonderful that I didn't have the presence of mind to capture any screen shots. I was all in - totally engaged. It was awesome!
I'm intrigued by the data and information from Forrester Research so I love reading the blog of Jeremiah Owyang. So many of the concepts explored in the world of social media seem to me, (am I the only one?) to be directly tied to all the changes in business models, political strategies, economic developments (vis-a-vis digital divisions), and communication/mass media practices.
Over the summer, Jeremiah posted this: Trends, Corporate Adoption of Social Media: Tire, Tower and the Hub and Spoke. It's come up in so many discussions, at conferences, etc. I thought readers might be interested in the details.
Using three basic metaphors, a tire, a tower and a hub and spoke, Jeremiah identifies three social media adoption styles. Here's an excerpt:
The Tire
Common to grassroots movements within corporations, adoption happens at
the lowest levels at the company, rather than from a centralized group.
You’ll see individual business units define their own strategy, pick
their own tools, engage their own vendors, and communicate with the
market on their own terms.
Common to companies that haven’t put a strategy in place, depending on culture, this could be detrimental as resources are not used efficiently, data is spread on multiple systems, and the right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing.
The Tower
Common in organizations where power is centralized, we may see a
central team formed to organize social media. This team defines the
policy, best practices, vendors, and tools. This team which will
commonly found in corporate communications and supported by PR will
often dictate the direction of social media. Expect a dedicated role or
sub-group to appear either experiential marketing, new media, or
interactive media to eventually be born out of the group, where social
media is centralized.
Social media is a grassroots movement, so common dangers can be gagging the natural voice of conversations of product experts with customers using these tools, so a centralized team needs to be more of a support organization to the enterprise, not a controller.
The Hub and Spoke
This coordinated model has a central organizational unit that provides
best practices, sets policy, supports infrastructure but encourages
conversations at the edges of the company. More about empowering
business groups to partake in natural social media discussions without
hindering, this group will be more of a coordinator, and less of a
controller. Expect to see this model to occur as social media
infiltrates every nook and cranny of a business, and at a certain
point, a company as an enterprise can’t ignore the raging groundswell.
Cautions to this model, as overly coordinated programs will be difficult to achieve, and may be ineffective to different unique markets that a large company may have. Like the tower, having a centralized group at a large enterprise is always going to slow down natural conversations so focus on empowerment, rather than control.
Can you identify your church's leadership style? If so, you'll be able to determine it's strengths, weaknesses and the value social media may play within your staff and congregation.
-- Cynthia Ware, The Digital Sanctuary
In the coming weeks, we're inviting Internet campus pastors from a different churches to answer commonly asked questions.
For this edition, I asked Brad Singleton, Internet Campus Director at Seacoast Church to respond to this:
How do you do 'the ministry stuff' at an Internet campus, e.g. small groups, discipleship, baptism, communion?
Here's Brad's response:
"Wow, that’s kind of the tough one. It’s easy to get a website with some streaming video going or even have a chatroom on the page, but ministry online is the kind of stuff people write mean blog posts about. Even so here are a few things we are doing and plan to do.First of all its important to know that one of the earliest and most ongoing responsibilities of an internet campus pastor is to be a translator. I’ve felt very strongly about this since I started about a year ago. My job is to translate the DNA of Seacoast Church into an online campus. That means that the values, convictions, purposes, mission, and even the environmental feel of Seacoast should be felt at the Internet Campus. For us that is most evident in our response time. It also happens to be the one thing that make us most different from the other great internet campuses out there.
When it comes to ministry online, it’s the same mission, different means. For instance, we just recently launched our first online small group. Small groups are a big deal for us so it was important to start doing small groups online as well. Our “real life” groups usually seem to accomplish two things: connection with other believers and personal growth, so I’m pushing that online as well. I’ve set up a private network on Ning, to help with the connection element. Online groups need a little prodding so I post questions (kind of like icebreakers) to our forum so everyone can get to know each other. Then when we meet we are using a video based curriculum, so Mogulus has provided the playback control I need and the chat window for us to talk.
In addition to discipleship through small groups we also have a church wide online learning tool, mynextsteps.org (under redevelopment).
In dealing with early church traditions like baptism and communion we have to really take a step back and look at what is important about these elements of our faith. With baptism we see the important thing is a public profession of faith, the symbolism found in immersion, and the celebration of a new life in Christ. That means it doesn’t have to be me in the water with them. It could be a local pastor or even another Christian friend in the area. So far we have done baptism through our Seacoast @Home groups, but I think Flamingo Road really led the way with Alyssa's Online Baptism. That’s a good model to follow.
With communion, the important thing is that believers come with a pure heart, they remember what Christ did for us, and understand the symbolism of the elements. So we free up people to take communion at home. It’s not like Seacoast is buying a special “holy bread” to use at the campuses. We buy bread that some people might serve with lasagna. So I believe internet campus Seacoasters can use whatever bread/cracker along with wine/juice that will help them to remember what Christ did for us.
Of course, like Mark Batterson says, ”It’s all an experiment.” We will keep having church online until we find out that it doesn’t work, but for now it comes down to this: reaching people, and helping them become fully devoted followers of Christ. We have the Internet Campus because people are online. It’s really that simple." [nb: emphasis added is mine.]
Thank you, Brad, for sharing about how Seacoast is using its Internet campus to minister to people online!
To be sure, there are many other ways to do ministry at an Internet campus, and this is just one working example. What I've found so far is that every Internet campus has its own customized way of presenting the worship experience and doing additional ministries. There's not a cookie-cutter solution (yet?).
Any additional questions you'd like to ask about this topic?
-- DJ CHUANG, Director at Leadership Network
In Alban Institute's Congregations magazine (Fall 2008, Number 4), Andrea Useem's article, "The New Connectivity: How Internet Innovations Are Changing the Way We Do Church," she examines the latest Internet innovations and how they are changing the landscape of religion and congregational life today. Here's a few excerpted highlights:
... To make sense of how technology and church intersect, it’s important to understand how the newest iterations of the Internet—collectively known as “Web 2.0”—dramatically expand our ability to connect with one another online. This new generation of Internet tools—including blogs, wikis, social networks, and video- and photo-sharing sites—has accelerated and enriched the online interaction ...
... most religious congregations continue to plan communications “based on a written culture when we’re in a digital age.” The result is a culture clash in which religious congregations are having debates—Should we be online? Do social networking sites have anything to offer?—that individuals in the wider society have already resolved.
The essential challenge for congregations is this: In a digital world where community is possible online, what is the relevance of a brick-and-mortar congregation? The Internet’s success springs from a powerful longing for community—the very same force that drives congregations.
... The good news here, says Campbell, is that congregational life and online life are not competing in a zero-sum game. [ed.note: emphasis mine] If people go online to connect with other believers or deepen their faith, this activity does not mean a net loss for the congregation that those individuals might have turned to had the Internet not been available.
... Mark Brown, the New Zealand-based pastor of the Anglican Church in Second Life, a community that meets in the virtual world of Second Life, has found similar patterns in his own community. Through a survey, he found that 17 percent of those who attend the Anglican Church in Second Life attended no other church service offline.
... “People are looking for relationships,” says Campbell. “They’re looking for places where they can care about people and feel cared for. They want a sense of connection, and not just on a Sunday. They want a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week connection to other people. They want an intimate community where they can be transparent with others and others can be transparent with them.”
The article is a very carefully researched and thoughtful reflection, and goes on to describe how Web 2.0 technologies allow people to organize themselves and to foster a "networked individualism", and explores other related topics; read the article in its entirety.
I find it reassuring to know that research has shown that an online congregation and a brick-and-mortar congregation serve different individuals, and that online tools can also help connect people more deeply and/or frequently in a traditional congregation. What do you think?
[The Alban Institute is a resource for American congregations that cross-fertilizes many perspectives. Alban has its roots in mainline Protestantism, works across a variety of denominations and traditions, and open to interfaith dialogue.]
-- DJ CHUANG, Director at Leadership Network
LifeChurch.tv has been in active development of a brand new internet campus tool to run their online experiences. Today, they roll out the first live version. Online Community Pastor, Tony Steward, while testing Google video out with me, reminded me that today, Sunday, November 14th, 1pm Central Time, is the launch.
Since
they haven’t gotten a chance to get real universal feedback yet or to
test out how it handles with a large number of participants, they'd
like to invite us to beta test it. Let's invite our blog readers,
twitter followers, etc. to be in the first group of people outside of
LifeChurch.tv staff to interact with the new tool. Our feedback before launch will be important. Here's how you can help:
If you have any questions, observations or comments, today will be the time to let 'em know.
Here is the link to view the experience and to send people to:
http://new.icampus.lifechurch.tv
-- Cynthia Ware, The Digital Sanctuary
Thanks again for all who joined us on the Internet campus webinar this Wednesday. I wanted to take a moment to debrief with you. Of the 139 participants, 57 responded to the opening poll question: "Which of these best describe your interest in internet campuses?" Here's the results:
I've grouped the questions submitted into these categories:
We'll be inviting internet campus pastors to answer these questions in the coming weeks right here. There's certainly a whole range of answers to these questions, and from what I can tell in looking at the 19 internet campuses I've found so far, every one is unique.
One partial solution for online community was posted by Tony Steward a while ago. His basic strategy outlines how churches can connect with those attending through Facebook. Tony calls it an internet campus "starter kit." The name of this kit can be confusing or misleading, since it doesn't give instructions for launching an internet campus from the ground up. [by the way, the webinar was recorded and may be viewed / downloaded here]
While the webinar covered mostly practical issues of "how to", I've heard many ask whether an internet campus is really church. See the Digital post, "rethinking internet campuses", which also links to a blog series by Andrew Conard on theological questions about an internet campus.
Curious about how Internet campus are reaching thousands? Trying to figure out how to put all the pieces together for launching an Internet campus? Already running an Internet campus and looking for fresh ideas?
Join us for a free webinar about Internet campuses next Wednesday, November 12th, at 10:00 a.m. Central Time. (11:00am Eastern | 9:00am Mountain | 8:00am Pacific)
You'll hear from two pioneering Internet campus pastors, Brian Vasil (Flamingo Road Church) and Brandon Donaldson (LifeChurch.tv).
Each of them will share about how their Internet campuses started, what impact it's had, and what it takes to run one. Plus, we'll have ample Q&A time for you to ask your questions throughout this one-hour webinar -- hosted by Leadership Network. Over 100 people have already registered, so this is looking to be a very exciting time!
Register online to get the webinar link and the dial-in info >>
