Those that have been following my socials know that I’ve experienced some big changes lately, and URLoved will need to adapt to meet those changes.

Most of you came to URLoved when I created my first business by that name in 2010. Back then, URLoved helped churches with their marketing and websites. Yet again, Most of you stuck around when I founded Aboundant in 2014 and transitioned URLoved to be my personal blog where I talked opinionatedly about digital ministry and other topics. For years I tried to drag churches kicking and screaming into the internet age, only to see everyone suddenly “get it” after COVID forced them to. If you regularly read this blog, then chances are you were more prepared for COVID than most. However, the need to talk theoretically about digital ministry has mostly passed; and unlike when I started, there are hundreds of resources for practical help, including at Aboundant.

There are two big changes I want to tell everyone about:

Leaving the Ministry?

In September, I officially left the Order of Deacons by withdrawing my membership in the Iowa Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. My primary impetus for this change was/is the continued discrimination of LGBTQIA+ people, which will continue even under the framework of the new “plans” and “protocols” that have been proposed as the way forward. I will continue to support my friends who are doing the hard work to change this from the inside, but will officially be “on the outside”.

Vocationally, my work won’t change much, I just wont be doing it as a representative of the United Methodist Church. I still see my calling as trying to figure out how to leverage technology to help build the kin-dom of God here and now. That work will look secular in nature but will be rooted in faith.

Launching Helpspring

Helpspring in a massive project currently in the early development stage. Imagine a social media network, but instead of posting media, you can create groups that post actions people can take with their friends. Upwards of a million people search Google for volunteer opportunities each month! Yet with the dozens of volunteer systems out there, none of them cater primarily to the needs of the volunteer, to the grassroots. We hope Helpspring will empower volunteers and movements like never before.

We recently incorporated as a Public Benefit Corporation and are looking to celebrate this milestone with friends, family, partners, and clients. We’d like to tell you more about what we’re up to and reconnect. We’re not selling anything, we just want to celebrate, we promise.

Let us know if you are interested in attending one of these gatherings, either in-person or online.

What’s Next

I’ll continue to put effort into both Helpspring and Aboundant, and hope to blog in both places. I’ll continue to use URLoved as the place where I blog about personal topics I have opinions on, just don’t expect as much digital ministry content. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions, and I’ll have no qualms if you wish to unsubscribe from my mailing list. We can stay connected through other channels. Thanks for your continued support.

I had the pleasure of talking with Ryan Dunn on the “Pastoring in the Digital Parish” podcast from Resource UMC, which recently dropped. We talk about digital ministry in the olden days, how COVID changed everything, and how I think your church can continue to engage in digital ministry after COVID.

Listen Here

Hello everyone, My name is Wil and I am a white person who benefits from racism; and even though I’m a lot better about it today than I used to be, I still have racist tendencies, some of which operate deep within my subconscious, but not so deep I can’t find them.

A little over a year ago I did a Tedx talk called Civility on the Internet is Overrated. It was a call to prioritize Justice over a forced sense of unity when operating in online spaces. In some ways racism plays out on the internet just like in physical spaces. In other ways, how it plays out is unique to the internet. The anonymity of some online interactions, and the abundance of false information in other interactions, empowers racism and allows for things like the easy indoctrination of new white nationalists. This is all to say: any strategy to combat racism must also have an online component.

I don’t, as a white man however, have the lived experiences of racism. Far be it from me to claim authority in matters of racial inequality. I have trusted sources I try to learn from and amplify in those regards. What I can speak to, however, is the need for us white people to address our own racism as it plays out in online spaces, something I’m more familiar with.

Note: In the post I’m going to use “People of Color” and “Marginalized Voices” a lot, but understand in the context of Black Lives Matter, what this mean is Black and Brown people.

Here are my suggestions: 

1. Follow, Listen to, and Learn From People of Color

Okay, that’s actually three things! Three that are hard to separate. This seems straightforward, but it wasn’t until a couple of years ago I started being more intentional about it. In fact, I would say that people of color had to meet a higher bar of familiarity for me to follow them because of my own subconscious racism. Since then, I would say 3-to-1 of my new follows have been people from marginalized communities. And it shows in my feeds. The richness of expression my feeds now contain, have made me more conscientious and frankly show me a fuller expression of the human experience, reflecting the image of God. I have been blessed for it.

It’s easy to do this. Social media platforms are helpful in giving us suggested people to follow. Search through them for diverse friends and follow them. Similarly, go out of your way to follow strong underrepresented voices that come across your feeds.  Don’t be upset if they don’t follow you back or confirm your friend request. They are right to be suspect of white people they don’t know. I’ve been following the great Wil Gafney for years (we, like, share a name you know), but after taking a deep dive in my suggested friends on facebook, I was surprised I had yet to add her there.

One of things I’ve had to quickly learn about in the last week is what “Defund the Police” means. Spoiler alert, it doesn’t mean what most pundents are saying it means. I went to my favorite Black policy genious, DeRay Mekesson to start learning more.

2. Amplify the Voices of People of Color

There is so much clutter on social media that it makes it harder to find diverse voices. Are you adding to the clutter? Or are you amplifying the voices of the marginalized? I have a simple rule that I try to follow. If someone is speaking up for the marginalized they get a like. If the marginalized are sharing their own story, they get a like AND a share. In this way, I am consciously centering their voices.

3. Don’t Let Your Woke-ness Crowd Out Marginalized Voices

Seeing the world through the lens of social justice is convicting. We are excited to act. The outrage machine knows no bounds however, at the end of the day, if it’s just a lot of white people yelling, it will crowd out marginalized voices. I tend to post less and share more during these troubled times using rule number 2.

4. Cross Pollinate Marginalized Voices

Instead of coming up with your own rebuke to a racist post, no matter how reasoned, consider instead injecting a marginalized voice or story in its place. We can come up with the perfect argument, but it’s still not likely to be as powerful as the lived experience of a Black person experiencing police violence, for example. This is the internet equivalent of finding it hard to hate the people you know. There is a little bit of knowing that’s spread when you share first hand accounts.  

5. Stay on Topic When the Moment Calls for It

It was awesome that there was a manned space launch in the midst of the protesting, but every time I saw a post about it, it was so jarring. Not only did it seem off-key but it also added to the clutter. If you are super excited about something by all means still post it, but weigh it against the concerns of the day and keep it to a minimum. OR spend even more time amplifying marginalized voices to counterbalance it.

Secondly, there are always lots of side arguments that happen that frankly, don’t seem as important (how do you know what’s important, listen to marginalized voices!). Who’s responsible for the looting: is it white supremacist’s or anarchists or fed up Black people? There is so much clutter around side topics like this one that it’s crowded out the important message of systemic racism and police violence that the protestors are there for in the first place.

6. Back Up People of Color Online

I witnessed a video of a white teenage girl jumping in front of a Black protester on the White House lawn to ensure he wouldn’t be assaulted head on by the police. She didn’t hesitate. White people can fulfill a similar role online. There is not enough time in the world for Black and Brown people to respond to every racist response leveled at them. There is a difference, however, between speaking over someone and speaking with someone. Don’t be surprised if the person you are trying to shield wants to respond in their own way. Back them up.

7. Donate

Here are some good options to donate. Take the time to educate yourself about the work that’s being done to address police violence and racial inequality and you’ll find that there are many worthy groups we can contribute to.

Black Lives Matter

SURJ (Showing Up For Racial Justice)

Reclaim the Block

Campaign Zero

8. Lobby

There are no end to the issues of racism that you can contact your government representatives about. For example, Incarceration rates in my home state of Iowa are way higher for African Americans, and surprise, surprise, we are one of the last states that doesn’t allow felons to vote. In Iowa you can get felony for stealing a bike if convicted. You can see where this is going.

If you don’t know if a specific thing to lobby for try 8 Can’t Wait, eight restrictions to use of force that are statistically proven to reduce police violence.

9.  Don’t Retraumatize People of Color

Be careful posting videos and images of violence against Black and Brown people without a trigger warning. A lot of us white people need to see the truth of things, but it’s not nice to those who’s emotional wounds are reopened every time they see it. 

Put a warning sign in caps at the beginning of your post. If it’s a graphic video and the key frame that shows up is violent, just use the link instead of embedding the video. Or find a version with a different keyframe. It won’t get as many likes, but it will do less harm.

10. Be Mindful of Your Privilege and Bias

Racism is so ingrained in the fabric of the United States that it’s hard to know just exactly how you contribute to it, and how you benefit from it. Some elements are obvious if you have developed the empathy to see them. Some take an advanced degree in economics.

In responding to, or when constructing posts around race, it’s important to start from a place of self-awareness, including an awareness that this issue is bigger than any of us can possibly imagine. Try to educate yourself so that you can see the harm before you, but admit that it’s there even if you can’t. We will make mistakes. Learn from them, name them, correct them, and do better the next time.

11.  Repent

Generally, you want to always look for ways to amplify Black voices or to help tell their story instead of simply adding to the outrage machine by telling your own story, but there is an exception to this. 

As white people, we get to name how white people, specifically, perpetuate racism and name the privilege we gain from it, and name how both of those things are wrong. An attitude of repentance will make it harder for the rest of White America to ignore, and easier for them to see the racism within themselves.

12. Listen to Queer Women of Color!

Everything in this post should be multiplied when considering Black and Brown women, and multiplied again when considering queer Black women. The same can be said for trans people of color.

The intersection of racism and sexism and homophobia is particularly difficult for queer Black women, and because of that, we often miss out on the deep wisdom and truth they have to offer us.  

Don’t forget, it’s also Pride Month!

More Reading

Check out this post from Inside the Kandi Dish called Dear White People, This is What We Want You to Do

This one is Vox called How to be a Good White Ally, According to Activists

From Danielle Cadet at Refinery 29 Your Black Colleagues May Look Like They’re Okay — Chances Are They’re Not

Featured image by Theo Master via Twitter

The ongoing tragedy that is COVID-19 has made undeniable the need for digital ministry to further the work of the church, and our mission to proclaim Christ.

The need for us to expand into digital ministry has been obvious to me since I decided to study online theology in 2005 and since I started doing digital ministry consulting in 2011; and started the Digital Ministry, Aboundant, in 2014; and then started teaching digital ministry to religion undergrads in 2016, and to professionals in 2017. Needless to say, I’ve been beating this drum for a long time to anyone who would listen. I remain a digital ministry evangelist. But instead of saying “I told you so”, I would like to instead invite us into a deeper expression of digital ministry.

We need to meet people where they are at, and people spend a lot of time online. Lately, they spend that time social distancing, and because of that online outlets have become our most viable source of community outside of the home. But even before now, online spaces were a primary source of community for a growing population of the world.

We’ve been slow to engage people online. We’ve ceded those spaces to radicals and trolls, letting them write the narrative of the church online, and for the most post they have won out. I can assure you that most of the group we call “the nones” are engaged in online community, as they are mostly digital natives, not having known a world without the internet. They are not finding us there because we do a poor job of ministering there.

We have a lot of excuses not to engage people online in the fullness of ministry. Here are the greatest hits:

• “It’s not as good as face-to-face”
• “We have a great facility, people should come to us”
• “We don’t have the time or the money or the knowhow”
• “You can’t do sacraments online”

CORVID-19 Has made all these excuses seem pretty silly. This virus has proven a point I’ve spent 15 years of ministry trying to make: we need to engage in digital ministry, even if it’s just to be prepared for times like this.

Yet, and yet, I am grateful for every church worker who has taken to online spaces to do ministry in this troubled time. I know it won’t be easy, and will require a lot of grace on everyone’s part. I am also grateful for my Digital Minister friends who have really risen to the occasion. I hope people take the time to listen to their sage advice. They’ve been waiting for people to take them seriously for over a decade (if their experience is anything like mine). They will be grateful to be heard, and to help.

But the most important lesson I’d like people to draw from this experience is this: Just like we now know that we need to be better prepared to fight a pandemic, we need to be more serious about digital ministry. Not just during this tumultuous time, but always. When the pandemic dies down, don’t put away your webcams or your zoom meetings, keep them going. Grow into these digital spaces, then grow the spaces themselves into holy places. Meet people where they are at in the name of God. God is already there, I promise.

For those of you wanting digital ministry advice specifically related to COVID-19, please check out our ongoing post on Aboundant.

What should the next expression of Methodism be called…I’ve been trying on the Affirming Methodist Church for size.

Who knows what will happen with the future of Methodism? I don’t, but I’ve noticed that hasn’t stopped people from imagining a new name for a new Methodism. Names are powerful. They are hopes and dreams and mission and identity all wrapped up in a neat little alphabet package. If there is a new Methodism, it needs to be built on a firm foundation, an affirming foundation.

Full inclusion is affirming. We must affirm that people driven away from the church will be embraced, that they are of sacred worth. In affirming who God created them to be, we the church, will take the first step towards repentance.

Affirmations can be a proactive call for justice. They are the stuff we stand for. We affirm x,y,z.

Affirmations frame our beliefs in the positive. Saying what we believe, instead of what we don’t believe.

Affirmation is an entry point into theologies of liberation and reconciliation by emphasizing the sacred worth of each person.

It feels wonderful to be affirmed, it is a sign of grace.

So many lost and lonely people want/need to be affirmed, they hunger for it. The light of Christ can satiate that hunger. We can be the instruments of God’s light. We can embrace them.

Affirmation is universal and is understood both in secular and sacred circles with roughly the same meaning, making it an ideal bridge between the two.

Romance language versions of the word affirm are similar to English, making it a decent global choice.

Affirmation calls on disciples to proclaim boldly a gospel of blessed assurance. Affirming our faith is an act of discipleship.

We affirm as Wesley preached…”The grace or love of God, whence cometh our salvation, is FREE IN ALL, and FREE FOR ALL” (emphasis his).

AMC.org is not available, but it’s not in use either. A cancer institute currently uses it to redirect to another site. We may be able to negotiate for it.

No other denomination carries the acronym AMC.

“A” comes early in alphabetical listings.

“A” forms a steeple.

If there is a split, I don’t think it would be wise for either side to use “United”. A truly good name will capture the imagination of the movement coalescing around it. A truly good name would also be affirmed by the people most harmed by the church. They have the largest stake in the name, and should have to the most to say in choosing it.

Let me know what names have stirred the Spirit in you.

Part 1 – Why Snapchat?

Part 2 – How to Use Snapchat for Ministry

Thanks for taking the time to read these and thanks to UMCOM for commissioning them from me. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Check out this article I wrote for United Methodist Communications on Snapchat and Youth/Young Adult Ministry. 

In the last year I’ve lost I’ve lost 32 lbs. It’s not the most I’ve ever lost nor the fastest I’ve lost it, but it is the easiest weight loss I’ve ever experienced.

About a year ago I started applying Lean Startup experimentation techniques to my health. I didn’t even realize I was doing it. I had been teaching churches and students how to do it so much that it was seeping into my daily life. The crux of Lean Startup is coming up with efficient tests to quickly validate a hypothesis. It is what internet startups use to manage risk in the unpredictable world of tech.

At first, I was messing with my medications (under doctor supervision). Then I started experimenting with my sleep. Finally, I started tweaking my diet. After all of this experimentation I had learned a lot but not seen any real improvement in my health. The monster in the closet with my nutrition was always diet pop, mainly Diet Coke. There were days when I would drink 100 ounces of the stuff! That’s 8 cans, or three big gulps.

I have never seen a thin person drinking Diet Coke.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 14, 2012

This tweet from our president was crass, but it rang true to me. I didn’t really know any healthy people that drank “Diet” pop, and had seen a lot of evidence to the contrary, starting with myself.

Three times for Lent I had tried to give up diet pop unsuccessfully. If God couldn’t convince me, then who could?

In the midst of my Lean Startup experimentation, I decided to try a smaller test. I went down to one Diet Pop a day of any size. I almost always drank it during lunch. Surprisingly, it stuck. I credit this partially to my Clinical Pastoral Education training which taught me to be more self-aware. Thus, I was making less impulsive decisions.

After about six months of drinking just one Diet Coke a day, while doing other experimentation, a truth became aware to me. I would drink one with lunch and then after lunch, I got immediately tired. Even if I ate healthy food for lunch and had a good night’s sleep, I would be suddenly tired. The only variable left was the pop. Wait a second, despite all the caffeine in this stuff, my high is gone in 20 minutes? My high? Right after these slumps was when I craved another Diet Coke the most. It was an addiction. 

The second I named my addiction was the second I was able to drop Diet Pop for good. The was six months ago. Not only did I give up Diet Pop, I gave up all artificial sweeteners. Concluding that the sweeteners were the ingredient I was addicted to.

A week after giving up the sweeteners, I decided to start a diet. To my surprise, in the six months that I had just been drinking one pop a day, I had lost six pounds without even trying!  Six months later and I’ve lost 32 total pounds. It was the easiest weight I ever lost. I hardly ever feel hungry after giving up the sweeteners, which were powering my cravings.

“Diet” pop, my ass.

But the benefits didn’t stop there. I continued my experiments with more success:

My sleep improved. I had been flushing my sinuses and had installed a serious air filter in my room, but it wasn’t until I gave up Diet Pop that I saw the benefits from these other changes. Now I don’t even flush unless I actually have congestion.

I was able to decrease my medications. I dropped one completely and halved the dose of another. It’s now the only one I’m on. I never thought I would need such little medication to manage my health.

My focus and drive have increased. I used to have few hours each day where I was completely ineffective. Usually after lunch. Sometimes, I wouldn’t rebound at all. Now I’m down an hour at most, most days.

I get sick less often. Which is saying a lot considering that I have a four-year-old in daycare and preschool.

My relationships have improved. I’m not kidding. I’ve been able to focus more on the people around me then my next food/pop fix.

I’m a more thoughtful eater. We belong to a co-op now and I cook fresh farm-to-table food with lots of veggies. With pop, I did a lot of impulse eating.

My experimentation isn’t done. In the beginning I said I had lost more weight, more quickly in previous diets. This is true when I was younger and had different motivations, but after I reached my goal it never lasted. This time is different. I decided to lose 12 more pounds and I feel zero fatigue from six months of dieting. Also, you should know there is nothing complicated about my diet. I use an app called Lose It to track my daily calories and I just eat less. It adjusts my limit based on my goal and my current weight. Currently, I aim to lose one to one-and-a-half pounds a week, which means I get just over 1700 calories a day, and I rarely feel hungry. I eat whatever I want, just smaller portions. I haven’t increased my exercise, either.

So I don’t know if dropping Diet Coke and artificial sweeteners will have the same effect on everybody, but if you consume a lot of the stuff, I hope you’ll at least experiment with dropping them. In my experience, they are poison.  

Honoring the Poor by Giving them a Voice

We often interpret the “Body of Christ” passage as meaning “everyone has a role” in the Kindom of God, but when I read it, I take it to mean “everyone should have equal access to the Kindom of God.”

“Those members we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor…whereas our more respectable members do not need this”

This fits with Jesus’ ministry of clothing the poor, of giving them dignity in the face of humiliation, through acts of healing, advocacy, and spiritual protection. Whereas Jesus often required those of means to sacrifice them in order to demonstrate faith.

The way we honor the poor, the least respectable among us, through the internet is by keeping it open and free.  While not perfect, this has proven to give the poor and their advocates a relatively larger voice since the inception of the internet.

Empowering Evangelism

Churches produce lots of data intensive media that is easy to distribute through the internet. Don’t think for a minute that we’ll be able to compete with the likes of television networks when are are forced to pay more or else have our data throttled. The Great Commission requires that we make “disciples of all nations in Jesus’ name”. Nothing reaches “all nations” easier than the internet. Let’s not throttle Jesus, shall we.

Promoting Religious Freedom

Those with strongly held religious beliefs that are in the minority (think the Pro-Life movement, for example) will undoubtedly find it harder to get their message out there when a corporation or corporate owner doesn’t like what you have to say are doesn’t want any boat-rocking on their networks or sites. You might have to pay-to-play or be censored outright. This happens now on other mediums. If a television network doesn’t like your political ad they can simply tell you they won’t run it. An ISP will be able to tell you the same thing about your church website through their network. Net Neutrality keeps this sort of thing from happening.

Those three are the main reasons I think we should be engaged on this issue.