Pastor Keith Anderson Latest Blog Post - Pastor Keith Anderson, A Lutheran Pastor Blogging about Digital Ministry, Social Media, and Church Leadership - Pastor Keith Anderson, A Lutheran Pastor Blogging about Digital Ministry, Social Media, and Church Leadership

Explaining the Holocaust to our Nine Year-Old Daughter

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0400

Keith Anderson

Explaining the Holocaust to our Nine Year-Old Daughter

The other night we had to explain to my 9 year-old daughter what the Holocaust was.

Not because she is learning about it in school, but because it is part of our family story. It is part of her story.

I’m a Lutheran pastor. My wife is Jewish. Her ancestors come from Poland. My wife’s grandmother, we call her Bubbie Helen, was just a teenager when World War II erupted. She lived with her mother, Ella, an accomplished portrait photographer, who owned her own studio in Warsaw, and cared for her sick mother. Her father Eser was a traveling encyclopedia salesman. When the war broke out he was in the United States and he sent them letters urging them to leave Poland before the Nazis invaded. Helen’s mother refused to leave her sick mother.

But Helen did leave. At 16 years old, she set out from Poland. Her father would send her letters leading her to the next safe house. They led her across Siberia, to China, to Japan, where she was on the last US refugee ship to California before Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.

She arrived in California speaking only Yiddish and with no money. She was taken in by two professors at Cal Berkeley who taught her English. She believed her father was in New York City. His last name was Goldberg. And they called every variation of that name in the New York City phone book until they found him. It took two years until they were reunited.

Later they learned that the rest of Helen’s family died at Auschwitz. My wife’s small family is all that remains.

Now my daughter knows the horrible tragedy of the Holocaust, but also that she comes from a line of strong women, like her great-grandmother Helen, her grandmother, her aunt, and her mom. She knows more now about the evil human beings can perpetrate against one another. She also knows more about strength and courage and living in hope. It is a lesson that our younger three children will also learn in time.

This is part of the beauty and the tension we experience as an interfaith family. We have two beautiful traditions, with rich spiritual practices, that do much good in the world. At the same time, we share a tragic history, in which the Lutheran theology to which I’ve dedicated my life in ministry was twisted in order to justify killing my wife’s ancestors. I am constantly aware of it, especially when I preach and teach, and at times find it difficult to reconcile.

Pesach and the Paschal Feast

This time of year brings both this beauty and the tension in sharp relief for us. We love celebrating Passover with family and friends. We hear again, “Why is this night different from all other nights?” and each year the kids remember a little more of the story about the night the Israelites survived the tenth and final plague (the passover), gained release from Egypt, and began their Exodus. We pray, talk, sing, and the kids love searching for the Afikomen.

And we eat the same food made with the same recipes that Bubbie Helen, who died 15 years ago now, used to make.

In close proximity, sometimes within the very same week, we also wave palms on Palm Sunday and celebrate the Easter resurrection with great joy. The kids wear their Easter best. We hunt for Easter eggs, have lunch with friends, and then I fall asleep on their couch.

We enjoy each observance immensely.

A Hard Time at Holy Week

At the same time, Holy Week is a challenging week for us because it has historically been the cause and occasion for great violence, especially against Jews.

Christians have, until relatively recently, blamed Jews for the death of Jesus; the passion readings, for centuries, incited people to leave their churches on Good Friday and commit terrible acts of violence against Jews. Fortunately, that has changed. Scholars have helped us see that culpability lies with the Romans: the cross was their means of execution and they held the ultimate power over the occupied Jews.

Even so, the language of blame persists, especially in Matthew’s Gospel, which I find piercing and difficult to read aloud. Matthew, with its condemnations of the Jews, with the words “let his blood be on our children” put right into their very own mouths, makes me shiver. Because now those are my children too.

It is a haunting legacy that affects us still, which is one reason why I won’t pray the Bidding Prayer for Jews on Good Friday.

On the flip side, we also feel quite acutely the tendency toward Christian supersessionism, which has led to the unfortunate corollary that Jews are blind and that Judaism is an incomplete religion; a tradition which has also had disastrous results.

Given our family and its story, we are very sensitive to the images and language we use. We say “Hebrew Bible” or “Hebrew Scriptures” rather than “Old Testament.” When I preach on the Hebrew Scriptures, I say, “Christians interpret this passage in this way....” It is important to speak with caution, not only for the sake of history, but because of the increasing number of interfaith families that fill our congregations. We celebrate Passover and Easter on their own terms, as their own distinct observances. We treat each religion as complete in-and-of itself. We don’t practice Christian Seders. We do not try to Judaize Christian practice, nor do we Christianize Jewish practice. We seek to preserve the integrity of each.

Living in the Beauty and the Tension

One of my favorite things about our family is that our kids, who are 9, 7, and 4, (and are baptized) always have to be reminded. “Now, who in our family is Jewish? Okay, who are Christian?” They are growing up with an awareness and appreciation of other practices and traditions that I never did.

They will inevitably learn the beauty and the tension of being an interfaith family. Our hope is that they will navigate a religiously and culturally diverse world with openness, understanding, and appreciation of other traditions, and will be willing to defend those who suffer for their faith.

This post was written with Jennifer Alboim Anderson and originally appeared at LivingLutheran.com

church holy week interfaith

This is the World You Live (and Lead) in Now

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 03:00:00 -0400

Keith Anderson

This is the World You Live (and Lead) in Now

Culture Digital Ministry Social Media Church

You may have seen this photo published by NBC News about the difference in the crowd in St. Peter's Square from when Pope Benedict XVI was elected the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005 and the announcement of the newly minted Pope Francis just last week.

It is an image that dramatically captures the rapid advance in technology and culture—and the difference in the way we live our lives—over these last eight years.

This change has profound implications for how we live, lead, and minister today.

Remember that in 2005, the iPhone, the advent of the modern smartphone, didn’t exist. It was still two years in the offing. Facebook was available to college and high school students, but would not be open to the public-at-large for another year.

Mobile technology and digital social networks have changed our habits, rhythms of life, the way we connect, and get news and information. Pope Francis inherits a profoundly different world than Pope Benedict XVI, who, like many, muddled his way through understanding and using digital social media.

These technologies are rewriting the ways we connect (or perhaps amplifying the ways we’ve always preferred to connect), and this changes the way conversations, influence, community, ministry, and leadership happen.

They are not just tools. They are ways of being in the world. They have become an integrated part of our culture, our lives, and, indeed, the practice of faith.

This image of St. Peter’s Square reflects our new reality in several ways:

People are continually connected to an array of social networks

There are always more people present than those just physically in the room, or the Square. These people in St. Peter’s Square, through their smartphones, are bringing their digital social networks with them to this event.

Ministry leaders know that each person is part of overlapping and intersecting networks of family, friends, communities, and congregations. Now those connections are hyper-linked, immediately available, and digital. Ministry leaders have to be aware that we are constantly engaging a much larger group than those we can see. We are preaching, teaching, and speaking to many audiences at once.

Today authority is born not out of position or title or pulpit, but relationships and the robust engagement with your network. Authority is gained through consistent, authentic, helpful engagement in digital and face-to-face networks. Notice how the leading voices are emerging from small corners of the church. That’s because they leverage social media to tell their story and cultivate their networks.

Everyone is a photographer, director, and publisher (And preacher, teacher, and spiritual guide)

Each person in the Square is their own media outlet, broadcasting the moment in pictures, video, and written dispatches. The pulpit (or congregation) was once a dominant platform for shaping public understanding, culture, and faith.

Now everyone has a platform and it fits neatly in their pocket. Encourage people to share your content. More, encourage them to create and share their own. Engage with their creations and content rather than always expecting them to respond to yours. This stance can help move our churches from places where people consume services to where people not only participate but co-create the ministry.

We've gone fully mobile

No longer do we have to run back to our computers to email or journal our experiences. We can do it all in real time on our mobile devices. Websites and social networks report that traffic to their sites from mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) is skyrocketing. This means our websites should be responsive (that is, they automatically adjust to device they are viewed on).

It also means that most our interactions will be of a shorter, punchier nature—like texts and tweets and quick videos—and longer form communication will be less frequent but will give support those conversations and connections.

Mobile devices and digital social networks are creating a new lingua franca. We have to speak the language to connect, not only online, but also face-to-face. It's about consistent connections over time.

Screens are an integral part of our lives

Screens are often derided in churches as low-brow because people supposedly "turn off" their brains when then watch them. The critique is less than fair, but understandable in that it is born out of the age of television, where we have been passive receptors of information.

Now people use their screens to "turn on" to engage, create, and connect. It is active and participatory, rather than passive. My congregation has screens in the sanctuary for media display and TVs in the narthex for pictures and announcements. We don't stare at them mindlessly, but instead move between face-to-face and screen, in sermons, worship, coffee hour conversation. It's not jarring. It just looks like the way we live the rest of our lives.

People in this picture are sharing a religious event

The technology in the picture is so striking that its easy to forget that these people are capturing and sharing a religious event—and not just any event—an ancient practice of an ancient institution. They are capturing and interacting with an institution, a religious happening, and, for many, a shared spiritual experience. Mobile technology and digital social networks can communicate, extend, and, yes, deepen religious and spiritual experiences.

People share faith, religion, spirituality, and meaning making everyday across their social networks. Recognize, affirm, and engage with it.

We live in a very different world than we did just eight years ago. Our lives have changed. Our religious institutions and their leaders are trying to keep up. What strikes you about the way your ministry has changed due to technology and culture these last eight years?

[Note: it came to my attention after posting this that the pictures were not taken under similar circumstances. The 2005 picture is from the funeral of Pope John Paul II. The 2013 picture is from the introduction of Pope Francis. More from the Washington Post here. Although it is not a one-to-one comparison, it is still instructive, I think, on how our lives have changed. All the points I make below still apply (even with the more accurate pictures in the Washington Post article). Thanks to those who brought this to my attention.]

Send Great Church Emails People Actually Want to Read

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 03:00:00 -0400

Keith Anderson

Send Great Church Emails People Actually Want to Read

How To Resources Social Media

For all the advances in digital communications and social networking, email continues to be the most reliable way for congregations to digitally communicate with members and potential members. Why? In the transition we find ourselves in between print and digital communication, email is the most reliable way of digitally sharing your ministry’s news and information. It’s as close to mailing a letter to everyone’s home as you can get, just without the paper and postage.

Unfortunately, most congregations fail to get the most out of their emails for several reasons:

Uninteresting design
Inconsistent scheduling
Incomplete email lists (who gets it)
Inability to measure their success (who reads it)
Too much or too little information
Lack of focus

However, for some that use email well, a weekly email update is becoming the anchor of their communications strategy, lessening the need for a time and paper intensive production of a monthly newsletter.

Here are some ways and a few examples of how to send great emails that people will read:

Email marketing services

Email marketing services like Constant Contact and MailChimp offer an array of services at very little cost. I’ve used both services and like both. They help you manage your email list or multiple lists, provide statistics on how many people read your emails, and offer templates to make your emails more visually pleasing than just plain text or stationary background. Constant Contact starts as low as $10.50 a month for up to 500 email addresses. Mail Chimp charges by the number of subscribers and emails sent. Most ministries will be able to take advantage of their “forever free” plan, if they have fewer than 2,000 subscribers and send less than 12,000 emails a month.

Avoid information overload

How do you feel when you open your email inbox? Let me guess: Overwhelmed with information. If you are like me, you delete all those emails that don’t require immediate attention or provide essential information. Remember that while the information in this email may be the most important in your week, it may not seem that important to those who receive it. You need to get their attention and get your information across well and quickly. Design and scheduling are the key. Provide content that is short and focused on “what you need to know” this week — not forever and all time. When there is more to say, but you want to keep it short, use links. Link to your website or another website where people can get more detailed information.

Be consistent in look and timing

Here’s a good rule of thumb: You want people to think of your emails the same way they think about The New York Times. That is, when The Times shows up on your doorstep, you know what you are going to get — the layout, the tone of the writing, which main topics will be discussed. You want people to open your emails feeling the same way. They think: This is what I need to know, when I need to know it, where to find it, and how it will look and feel. They basically know what they are going to get as soon as they see your name and subject line in their inbox. You want them to read it, so help them to feel that it’s worth their time. Include a few of those items briefly in the subject line of your email to help entice people to open it.

Layout design

Keep your design consistent. Avoid clutter. Use the same template most of the time. You may want to change the color scheme or template to match the liturgical season, if that’s your thing, but keep the content arranged consistently. People will appreciate it. In a world of competing messages and overflowing inboxes, consistency is key to providing people a good experience. More is rarely better. Also, kill your clip art. Use photos instead. People love to see themselves, and you help people match names and faces.

Curate your email list

One of the advantages of email marketing services is the ability to easily manage your email list. These services report bounces or undeliverable mail. Mark sure all your members are receiving your emails when they sign up. Allow visitors to sign up and share their email on Welcome Pads or Guest Book. They will be getting your information, creating another link. Services also enable you to let people sign up for your emails through your website. Subscribers can enter their email address and sign up.

Email exemplars

I subscribe to several congregational email lists, not only so I can keep up with their ministries, but also to see how they use design. Here are three of my favorites that are consistently excellent:

Mercy Seat, Minneapolis, MN: Mercy Seat is an ELCA mission start. Their emails feature a great look that’s consistent and clean, using photos and sparing text. At the end of each email is a section called “For Your Edification This Week,” which is a little dose of pop-culture fun. This is a great way to encourage people to read down through your entire email, knowing they’ll find something fun at the bottom. (MailChimp)

St. Paul Lutheran, Arlington, MA: The weekly email from St. Paul is visually rich and filled with information about congregational life and the upcoming Sunday. It also includes several links to articles or blog posts on religious themes. It serves as a weekly reader, curating good and interesting information on the Web for members — good way to spark conversation. (Constant Contact)

Metropolitan New York Synod: Emails from the Metroplolitan New York Synod are very consistent in their look and feel. Each email has the same header as the synod’s website, a good example of branding across all your digital communication sources — a good idea for any social media you use. The effective emails use a summary of content on the side, a preview of the content without scrolling, and each email ends with a prayer concern — a reminder that this is not just about calendars and coordination but rather our life and work together as the community of faith. (Constant Contact)

Post first appeared at Seeds for the Parish, February 2012.

communications elca email how to marketing

Pastors, You Are Not Too Busy (or Important) To Exercise

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Keith Anderson

Pastors, You Are Not Too Busy (or Important) To Exercise

Leadership Church

It’s a lie we tell ourselves: “I am too busy to exercise. This work is too important.”

Pastors are among the biggest culprits in perpetuating this myth, and not surprisingly suffer from high rates stress, emotional distress, addiction, and burnout. Many pastors sacrifice their short- and long-term health in the name of their ministry, which to them seems too busy and important to pause for even a 30-minute workout. In the end, their ministry suffers and, at times, is even cut short.

I was struck by a recent profile Michael Lewis (author of Moneyball, The Big Short, and The Blind Side) did of President Barack Obama, in which Obama talks about his exercise regimen. Lewis writes,

“When he awakens at seven, he already has a jump on things. He arrives at the gym on the third floor of the residence, above his bedroom, at 7:30. He works out until 8:30 (cardio one day, weights the next)....”

“‘You have to exercise,’ [Obama] said, for instance. ‘Or at some point you’ll just break down.’”

You have to exercise or at some point you'll just break down.

Break Down

You’ll just break down. Maybe not today and this week, but the cumulative toll will break you down.

When my father (not a pastor) had a stroke at 63, it was a wake-up call for me. He enjoyed his work and would have gladly done it for several more years more. What a reminder to take care of yourself for the long-haul, exercise, eat right, and see your doctor. Sure, we can’t foresee or control what health challenges will eventually come, but we can do our best to mitigate contributing factors.

When you're a pastor, you tend to spend a lot of time with sick and dying people, and sometimes illness and disease come to seem inevitable—at it does eventually come to us all— but its not a foregone conclusion. You can live better and healthier and have a more vibrant and longer ministry.

Shift Your Perspective

I see a couple main reasons why we fall into this lie:

We focus on time spent on task, but we don’t as often think of the quality of that time and how our physical health plays a part.

I’ve experienced ministry in the best shape of my life—at peak fitness—and at the worst—overweight, sleepless, carb loading, salty and sweet snacking. (Right now I'm somewhere in between, climbing back into better shape.) I've found an inverse correlation: the less time I take for exercise (more time on task) the less effective I am. The higher my fitness the higher my productivity. In my own experience, when I am exercising, I am sharper, have more patience and endurance on those long days, and I’m more creative when I’m on-task. I make better use of my time.

Even short times away to exercise clarify my thoughts and energizes my work. I get some of my best ideas while running. Exercise clears the unhelpful nervous energy away and helps me settle, be present, and focus. Physical health supports my spiritual aspirations.

We focus on the spiritual and emotional demands of the job, as almost an excuse not to exercise.

We think: not only is my work busy and important, it is utterly unique because of the emotional compenent and therefore different rules apply. I'm allowed to sit on the couch and veg and not care for my body. I need this food or this drink. We tend to think that we are the only ones with such emotional demands. You might call it “pastoral exceptionalism”—but this is also a myth. All jobs carry an emotional component.

All kinds of studies show that physical health contributes to emotional, spiritual, and mental well being. Exercising can actually make us better pastors.

Lewis recounts more of his conversation with the President,

“A few days earlier I’d asked him the same question I’d put to him on his airplane, about the range of emotional states that the presidency now required, and the speed with which the president was expected to move from one to the other. ‘One of my most important tasks,’ he’d said, ‘is making sure I stay open to people, and the meaning of what I’m doing, but not to get so overwhelmed by it that it’s paralyzing. Option one is to go through the motions. That I think is a disaster for a president. But there is the other danger.’”

“It’s not a natural state,” I had said.

“No,” he had agreed. “It’s not. There are times when I have to save it and let it out at the end of the day.”

Pastoring is not easy work, but as a mentor of mine once said, "Ministry will take everything you've got, if you let it." Human need is endless. There is so much to be done in the world. We want to be present with those who suffer and bring people into a meaningful relationship with God. But we have to care for ourselves too, including our bodies, otherwise we will break down and involuntarily relinquish the work and call that has been placed on our lives.

Resources for Healthier Living

Here are some things that have been helpful to me in thinking about healthier living:

On Food: In his book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, Michael Pollan writes about eating well by avoiding manufactured and processed foods (which are everywhere). It's another great way to look at the food we eat beyond just different dieting programs. Eat real, natural foods and you are likely to find yourself feeling better. The movie Food, Inc. highlights many of the same lessons. Take that further with Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life about operating a small farm and appreciating the seasonality of foods.

On Exercise: I recommend Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christoper McDougall. This book became a phenomenon in running circles, but you don’t have to be a runner to enjoy or learn from it. The argument, well and enjoyably told, is that our bodies evolved to and are made to run long distances. Whether you run or not, this book will help shift your understanding of the the natural state for your body—its movement and exercise instead of sitting behind a desk, the wheel, walking from the car to the front door.

How do you take time for your physical well-being? What difference does it make in your ministry?

photo credit: Tony Alter

church health leadership pastors

Frodo Baggins: Model for Ministry in Tough Times

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Keith Anderson

Frodo Baggins: Model for Ministry in Tough Times

Leadership Church

We all have models of ministry we emulate, ministry leaders we look up to. These are mostly those who model success, who are able to perpetuate good times and positive ministries. But what about when things are hard—really hard?

We often lack for ministry models in those time, in part, I suppose, because we like to talk about our successes far more than our failures. We don't as easily celebrate people for their brokenness and struggle, and yet, in ministry, we all wind up there at one time or another.

At some of the most difficult times in ministry, I found an unlikely ministry model: Frodo Baggins.

Frodo is the main character in J.R.R. Tolkien's book trilogy, The Lord of the Rings. During the toughest times in my ministry I found myself watching the recent movie versions often, not merely for escapism, but because in those times I came to strongly identify with Frodo Baggins.

You'll remember Frodo as the diminutive Hobbit, who is charged with carrying the burdensome ring of Sauron across Middle Earth in order to to destroy it at Mount Doom in the forsaken land of Mordor.

The Ringbearer

The ring weighs more and more heavily on Frodo throughout the story. The carefree life of his home in the Shire is replaced with a grinding pilgrimmage through unforgiving terrain. He tires and ages before us. The evil influence of the ring threatens to corrupt is kind heart.

Ministry, whether in good times or bad, is about ring-bearing. It is about carrying the burden for your people—for the congregation itself and for the larger church. Always, we hold the hopes and dreams, and aspirations of our people. In difficult circumstances, we also carry their fear and their anxiety. We are often the recipents of criticism and bad behavior. The weight of the task of guiding a congregation through difficult times can take an enormous toll on the ring bearer.

THE TIME THAT IS GIVEN US

In the Fellowship of the Ring the burden of carrying the ring is weighing heavily on Frodo. He says, “I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.” And the wise wizard Gandalf replies, “So do all who live to see such times. But that it not for them to decide. All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given you."

We must also decide what to do with the time that has been given us, even if it isn't what we would have wanted or chosen for ourselves or others. Some of the decisions that Frodo made and some that were made for him, decisions that enabled to fullfill his goal, his destiny, are also some of the best advice for surviving the most difficult times in our ministry.

Here are four things I learned from Frodo:

Get a Fellowship

Frodo did not make his journey alone. He relied on a Fellowship, a group of people that committed themselves to one another for a common purpose—in this case, to destroying the ring. Although Frodo carried the ring itself, it took all of their abilities and courage to make it through. It took the various talents of Aragon the Ranger, Legolas the archer Elf, Gimli the Dwarf, hobbits Merry and Pippin, and Gandalf the Wizard to endure.

For me, this was my mutual ministry committee, a talented, dedicated, caring group of three people with different but complimentary gifts. We met as often as needed and I knew I could always pick up the phone or shoot off an email. They could not bear the ring for me, but they helped me to carry it through their presence, support, and wisdom. If you don't already have some kind of group you can rely on within your congregation, assemble a fellowship.

Some find support outside the congregation in formal or informal clergy support groups. These are also good to have in tough times. However, they can't be a substitute for a group within your congregation. You need to find support within the congregation, otherwise you risk demonizing the whole place. Also, outside clergy can't stand up for you an annual meeting.

Have a Wing Man

Samwise Gamgee was Frodo's constant companion throughout his journey. He swore never leave Frodo's side and he didn't. In difficult times you need at least one person (but hopefully more) that will always have your back, will always go to the mat for you, that you absolutely trust—someone you can look to across the table or room during a meeting an know you are not alone, and if it comes down to it, that you can walk out together. This is the only thing that saved me from being a completely nervous wreck in some meetings. Find your Samwise.

The ARt of the Grind

Frodo's every step was labored and weighed down with the ring and yet he kept moving ahead—slowly, yes, but he kept moving. I discovered in my difficult days that there is an art to grinding it out. It's not exciting or glamorous, but it works. Sometimes the best you can do is just keep moving, keep plugging away, trusting that the Holy Spirit is at work in the hope that something will open. For some, the grind can last months or years. Don't become discouraged. Measure progress in smaller increments. Know that there is nobility in each small step of your journey. Be disciplined with your time and your tounge.

Act With Integrity

Above all, act with integrity. In the end, no matter what happens in the congregation, you have to look at yourself in the mirror. You will live with your words and actions. None of us knows what the ultimate consequences of our decisions will be, but we can act in a manner that is befitting the office we hold, that reflects of personal integrity, that stays the course and holds the best interests of the congregation, even if many don't see it that way.

Don't Give Up

This doesn't mean you should stay in a conflicted place that is harmful to you and your family. Sometimes the right thing and the best thing to do is to leave. Don't give up on the Gospel. Don't give up on your own sense of calling, which transcends any one congregation or call. Don't give up on the goodness of people and congregations. Don't give up on yourself.

And thanks for your ministry, especially in the tough times.

church frodo baggins leadership lord of the rings ministry

Helping Our Youth Become Digital Disciples

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Keith Anderson

Helping Our Youth Become Digital Disciples

How To Resources Social Media

Technology pervades nearly every aspect of our daily lives—especially those of our teenagers—and yet we rarely talk about it in our churches.

People carry powerful smartphones, wonderous tablets, and they work daily on desktop and laptop computers. They are continually plugged into the internet and social networks—technologies which have completely saturated our daily lives and work.

And yet, as pervasive as these technologies and digital media are, we don't really talk about them in church. Why?

Perhaps there is an unspoken presumption that these devices and networks don't have anything to do with our faith. In fact, they powerfully shape our faith in ways we are often unaware of—both by the information we receive through them (how we are formed), and how we live out of faith in digital spaces (how we enact our faith). It may also be our own relative discomfort with understanding and operating these technologies ourselves. We can feel less than knowledgable and outpaced (read: intimidated) by our teenagers.

In this digitally-integrated time, churches need to take seriously and engage in conversation at the intersection of faith and technology for all ages, but especially youth. As our youth live more of their lives online, they will also live out their faith there too. If we don't engage it, we will miss out on a huge part of their lives...and leave them without spiritual guidance.

At my congregation we recently hosted two conversations with our Confirmation class (our 7th-9th graders) about technology, social media, and faith. These are the resources we used in both sessions so that you can use or adapt them in your own ministry setting. My great thanks to Livvy Steffens, our Christian Education Director, for helping put all these together. (For more background, also check out this great post on Tenth Grade Tech Trends.)

First Session: Gregory's iPhone Contract

Youth eat, breathe, and live social media and texting in ways that are hard for even younger adults to comprehend. We are familiar with stories of bullying, unfortunate oversharing, and the lasting damage it can do. At the same time, there is the potential for much good and grace, and youth can be the agents of that grace.

To begin exploring this intersection of faith and technology, we watched this video. Then we read a great blog post called Gregory's iPhone Contract, which is an agreement a mom wrote for her 13 year-old son on the new iPhone he recieved for Christmas.

The contact is filled with specific rules, but also great wisdom about living life in a digitally-intergrated world: good matters and etiquette, managing digital and face-to-face connections, what to share, and when to get off the screen and into the present moment.

We divided the kids into small groups and asked them to look at three of the rules, discuss and report back to the larger group.

Then we got into talking about how faith connects and opened it up for kids to talk about what they see in their social networks about how they are used for good or ill (sinners and saints), and how God might be present. The responses were great.

Finally, we broke into groups and asked them to fill out this handy blank Facebook profile with that they'd like people to know about them—what to share and what to keep private, what part faith plays publically or behind the scenes.

Here's a PDF of the outline for the first session.

Second Session: Digital Discipleship

We kicked off the session by watching this video (paid version from Igniter Media) and then returned to the empty Facebook profiles we filled in and asked what people wrote and if faith or God were a part of it and why.

We had small group discussion on these six questions and reported back to the large group:

How do you live out your faith online?
Was God a part of your Facebook profile? Why? Why not?
How do you share your faith in the real world?
How do you see other sharing their faith?
Is religion positive or problematic? How? ...consider prejudices, bullying, etc.
Would you accept a friend request from God? Why? Why not?

We watched this video on caring for others on social media. We broke into our small groups and asked how they would respond to the following five status updates.

I’m so bummed! What gives someone the right to just stand by and watch you get put down? Is it that hard to stand up for what you know is right? So much for my best friend……
Okay – so I brought up all my grades, I’ve been to class on time every day for a month, and do they let me go to the concert, next Wednesday….NOPE!! Life isn’t fair! Wish I could trade in my parents….
Like if you think there’s no way Jay should have been starting point guard yesterday… A sophomore starting over a senior the last game of the season?!! Get real, Coach! And now he’s all puffed up like he’s so special…random!
Another bad day…Sometimes I wonder if it’s all worth it. I mean, it’s not like I have any friends. I’m just someone everyone can beat up on. Tired of being a punching bag. Does anyone care?.....
So what am I doing Saturday night?...I’m going to an event at church! Oh sure – that’s much more fun than going to Sam’s party, right?! Will I ever have the right to choose for myself? Not while I’m living in this house! What’s all the big deal with this church stuff? Do you think God is real? I’m not so sure…..

Here's the PDF of the full session outline.

So, Talk About It

Hopefully these ideas and resources can help you talk with your youth about the intersection of faith and technology in their lives and help them become digital disciples and agents of grace in the challenging landscape of teenage social media. But however you decide to have the conversation, just have it. It's a huge part of our kids' lives and if we don't talk about it, we will cede that space to someone else.

How have you engaged your youth in conversations about faith and technology? How did you do it? What did you talk about?

photo credit: D Sharon Pruitt

church education formation how to social media youth

Give Up Your Telephone for Lent

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 06:00:00 -0500

Keith Anderson

Give Up Your Telephone for Lent

Social Media

Give up your telephone for Lent.

It sounds crazy, doesn't it? I mean, how will people reach you if they need help, want to share good news, or need pastoral care?

It would be crazy to give up your phone for Lent.

And yet, we quite easily, and in some cases flippantly, talk about giving Facebook and other social networks for Lent like its no big deal.

This reflects a profound misunderstanding of the role social networking now plays our lives and ministry.

When we talk about giving up Facebook for Lent we usually mean that social media are simply a form of entertainment, that they are ancillary to our "real lives." When we place them in the category of giving up meat, coffee, chocolate, we insinuate that Facebook is a guilty pleasure that we are probably be better off without, but usually don't have the willpower to give up.

However, digital social networks have become an integrated and, for many, an essential, part of life, relationships, ministry, and, yes, faith. Just as much as any phone.

Digitally-Integrated Faith

Consider: many ministry leaders use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Texting to connect with parishioners and people beyond their congregations on a weekly basis. Social networks are avenues they intentionally offer to people to connect with them. Giving up social media would both cut off those avenues of connection, funneling people to the phone or email (non-social means of communication), and cut off the flow of inspiration, care, and formation ministers offer through these social media.

"Giving up social media for Lent" is not a neutral position, it is a net loss for ministry and the communication of the Gospel—ironically at a time of the year when that communication is heightened in our church observances in extra worship services and study groups.

We should be more present in social media during Lent, not less.

Further, the generational dynamics here are fascinating. Tell older generations to give up their phone and they balk. Tell younger generations to give up the phone and they would just shrug. They wouldn't find the title of this blog post provocative, because they make vastly fewer phone calls, using texts instead. Telling a younger to give up social media for Lent is like telling an older to give up their phone.

Take Something On

Rather than give up social media for Lent, follow that wise Lenten maxim: "don't just give something up, take something on."

For most people, that usually winds up being some kind of additional devotional practice. Extend and share that Lenten practice onto your digital social networks. Or, make social media your Lenten devotion: leave supportive comments, offer prayers and blessings when needed or asked for. Pray for the people in your Newsfeed and Twitter stream. Share meaningful quotes, pictures, or videos. If you are worried about your relationships becoming too digitized, set up face-to-face meetings—incarnational moments—as a way of connecting digital and face-to-face relationships.

Rather than using Lent as a way of turning way from social media, use this season to be more intentional about building relationships, cultivating community, and sharing your faith in a way that is authentic and recognizes our digitally-integrated lives, ministries, and faith.

How are you using social media in your Lenten practice?

photo credit: Nate Steiner

digital ministry generations lent social media spirituality

The Church's Generational Log Jam is Making Everybody Cranky

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Keith Anderson

The Church's Generational Log Jam is Making Everybody Cranky

Culture Emerging Church

Ministry leaders can be so busy lamenting the fact there are fewer people in our churches these days that we often miss how the people who do attend are crammed together generationally.

We are unwittingly cramming six distinct generations into three traditional roles, and it causes all kinds of congregational tensions, which present persistent challenges to ministry leaders.

That’s the important point that Carroll Sheppard and Nancy Burton Dilliplane make in their helpful book Congregational Connections: Uniting Six Generations in the Church. I had the pleasure of co-leading a conversation on generations in the church with Carroll at a recent gathering of the Philadelphia Area Ecumenical Resource Network, and I appreciated this point:

“This is the first time in the world’s history when significant numbers of six demographic cohorts have all occupied the stage at the same time.”

“What is intensifying the problem is that these six generational cohorts are trying to squeeze themselves into an outdated three-generation model of elders, households raising children/career singles, and children.”

“In the six-generational cohort society, it is often unclear who is in charge, who will do the work, and who is raising the children.”

6 Generations Crammed Into 3 Roles

Sheppard and Dilliplane argue that we are trying squeezing the following six distinctive generations into the “old three-generation model (Elders, Worker-Bees raising children, and Children)”

Builders, born 1901-1924
Silents, born 1925-1942(45)
Baby Boomers 1943(46)-1960(63) - these three groups above are called olders
Gen X, born 1961(63)-1981(84) - these three groups below are called youngers
Millenials, born 1982(85)-2001
Gen Z, born 2001-

We can no longer afford to lump olders together and youngers together. They are distinct groups with their own needs, styles, cultural references, and spiritualities. The book does a nice job describing those in a congregational context. The conflicts they create, which are described in the book, will sound familiar to many ministry leaders.

Importantly, they say, people no longer experience “middle age” but, in fact, middle ages. “Adults are now experiencing multiple “middle stages” rather than middle age. Boomers are coping with two middle stages, and many have changed careers in their forties or early fifties, having already spent 20 or 25 years in their first.”

This has all helped to create a generational log-jam. People are trying to cram into these traditional categories, and either find themselves squeezed out or jockeying for room, airspace, and leadership roles.

The leadership challenge here is clear: "Congregational leaders are faced with having to be all things to each of the six generational cohorts: Builders, Silents, Boomers, GenXers, Millennials and the young “GenZers.”

Here are my takeaways for how to approach this ministry challenge:

Better Know Your Generations

Become more familiar with each of the six generations. What are the cultural references? Formative experiences? Spiritual needs? Churches are often steeped in the cultures of olders, because that’s who tends to show up in the church—but it was news to me in reading the book about the “Silent” generation—understandably, I guess, since they tend not to draw attention to themselves.

The church has much work to do on understanding younger generations—primarily because they aren’t present in our churches. Carol Howard Merritt’s book Tribal Church: Ministering to the Missing Generation paints a great picture of younger generations and their own hopes, spiritualities, and frustrations.

Tribes, More Important Than Ever

We need to move from larger general categories to more focused micro-communities within the congregation. Each generation is a tribe, but within each generation, or transcending each generation there are tribes of all sorts—gathered, or longing to be gathered—around ideas, interests, spiritual practices. Seth Godin’s book Tribes: We Need You To Lead Us is a great guide for gathering and leading tribes.

Program for Tribes

Church programming ministry tends to follow the traditional old three generation model. Our programs needs to be more tribal, offering learning, fellowship, and service opportunities to small, specific groups. We also need to bring these tribes together in inter-generational activities to build understanding and community.

Gen-X ers: Be the Bridge

As a Gen-Xer reading this book, it brought home an important role of our generation in building generational understanding. Gen-X ministry leaders can be a generational bridge between olders and youngers. We grew up with boomers (our parents) and perhaps lived closer to our grandparents in a time when families weren’t quite as far flung as they are today. And we also, in large part because of technology, inhabit a world very different from Boomers, and so we have much in common with Millenials and even Gen-Z. We have an opportunity to help build the bridge from olders to youngers, from the past to the future.

Community at The Core

Finally, Sheppard and Dilliplane write,

“Congregations that embrace community as their primary core value are the most likely to be able to create authentic multi-generational events and worship, no matter what their liturgical tradition.”

“The way of love will ask Olders to understand that they too must hand over the mantle of prophecy—not knowing what words will be spoken, texted or tweeted, what videos will be made or played. What they can ask is that the Youngers speak truth fearlessly and proclaim Jesus’ rule of love to the 21st century.

Love asks the Youngers to deeply respect the sacrifices and struggles of the Olders to preserve the best as their world has fallen apart.”

photo credit: Rudy Salakory

church culture generations leadership millenials tribes

Best of the Blog 2012: Digital Ministry, Pastoral Transition, and Church Leadership

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 12:50:55 -0500

Keith Anderson

Best of the Blog 2012: Digital Ministry, Pastoral Transition, and Church Leadership

Culture Social Media Church

2012 was the most challenging and gratifying in my professional career. I published my first book, left one call and accepted another, and relocated our family of six from Boston to Philadelphia. It was a great year to be blogging to document it all.

What I've learned about blogging is that one does not only write a blog to process the present moment, but also to observe how one's own perspective, style, and interests evolve over time.

I blog, in part, to discover what I'm interested in, what seems worth writing about, and to chip away at larger ideas and challenges in 1000 words or less. In short, in blogging, like all writing, I suppose, the thing you learn the most about is yourself.

So, in a new a new tradition (drum roll) here's the best of my blog, 2102 edition:

Here's the 2012 edition of the blog in raw numbers:

48 posts
36,134 visits, of which 25,670 were new
from 25,727 unique visitors
who viewed 57,583 pages on the blog

Top five posts:

What Young Clergy Want You To Know, which went completely viral, resonating with young and seasoned clergy alike, garnering over 1100 Facebook likes
10 Commandments for Church Websites, pulling together my best advice on web design for churches
Five Ways Church Members Can Participate in Digital Ministry, a "priesthood of all believers" look at social media for evangelism and ministry
Pastors, Stop Complaining About Sunday Morning Sports, with sports being symbolic of the loss of privilege clergy experience in our culture
Should Pastors Remain Facebook Friends With Former Parishioners?, one of the persistent question among ministry leaders

Here are more highlights organized thematically:

Digging into Digital Ministry

In May, Elizabeth Drescher and I published Click2Save: The Digital Ministry Bible. It was an amazing experience writing, editing, and launching the book. I couldn't have asked for a better partner than Elizabeth. I'm also grateful to our editor, Stephanie Spellers, at Church Publishing for her help, encouragement, and insight.

In the blog I continued to explore the relational, networked, and incarnational nature of digital ministry that we write about in Click2Save:

Tweet Up: How to Bridge Digital and Face-to-Face Relationships
How Digital Ministry Builds Traditional Churches, Skype interview with Chris Yaw
Digital Ministry: It's Not Brian Surgery, about pastoral care around, literally, brain surgery
Five Ways Church Members can Participate in Digital Ministry, a "priesthood of all believers" look at digital ministry
Our Amazing Experience of Digital Prayer when my son broke his femur and I reached out to my social networks for prayer
Feast of the Digitally-Intergrated Incarnation, the blending of digital and face-to-face relationships

These were accompanied by practical how-to's about:

Pastoral Transition

In May I announced I would be departing Redeemer for Upper Dublin Lutheran Church. I shared my three key questions about leaving one call and accepting a new one and the role that digital media now play in pastoral transition:

Digital Disentanglement, about the digital dimension to leave taking
Who's Sermons are These Anyway?, about transplanting my sermons from the church to my own blog
Social Media and the Call Process, on some harrowing moments managing connections and relationships during the process
Should Pastors Remain Facebook Friends with Former Parishioners? (My answer is yes.)

Church Leadership in a Changing Culture

Toward the end of 2012 I began writing more on shifts in culture and leadership—these were among the most popular posts.

Following the death of Steve Jobs, I drew leadership lessons from his life and work, informed by his biography by Walter Isaacson. Jobs symbolized to me leadership in a digitally-integrated world. I wrote that Steve Job's Best Invention was Apple itself, an organization that is able to create amazing products, and Jobs' advice on keeping your passion kindled in order to do great work.

On the intersection of cultural change, declining mainline denominations, and church leadership, I wrote:

Rise of the “Nones” and My Trip to Asheville, responding to the Pew Forum report, The Rise of the Nones
Leadership for a Church on the Edge, with some key marks of digitally-integrated leadership for the church today
What Young Clergy Want You to Know
Pastors, Stop Complaining About Sunday Morning Sports
What the Church Should Learn from Mitt Romney's Defeat
I explored these themes this in a Skype interview with Jim Hazelwood, Bishop of New England, and in a webinar with ELCA Synod Communicators.

And there was plenty more. Feel free to check them out all my posts in the archive.

Above all, thanks for reading! I am deeply grateful for your readership and support!

photo credit: Jenni Douglas

best of blogging church digital ministry leadership pastoral transition social media

Feast of the Digitally-Integrated Incarnation

Sat, 22 Dec 2012 06:00:00 -0500

Keith Anderson

Feast of the Digitally-Integrated Incarnation

Digital Ministry Social Media

“And the word became flesh and lived among us....” (John 1:14)

Last summer, one of my Facebook friends I’ve never met, Tracy Pasche-Johannes, a fellow Lutheran pastor from Muncie, Indiana, and her husband, Jeff, were in my hometown of Boston on vacation. “We’re in Boston! Would you like to meet in person?” they asked in a Facebook message.

We had never met before and we had a pretty thin connection to start with: we shared one common friend, who, at one point thought it would be a good idea for us to know each other and introduced us on Facebook. We had observed one another’s status updates, messaged back and forth a few times, but that was pretty much it.

We agreed to meet up for an Italian dinner in Boston’s North End. Over pasta and Chianti, canolli and cappuccino, we fleshed out one another’s status updates and blog posts, putting a voice with our writing, describing our families, locating one another within our ministry and community contexts.

Over the course of the meal, all the words, links, and video we had shared back and forth on Facebook became embodied and enfleshed, and our digital connection grew into a deeper personal relationship. Our dinner was, in the Johannine spirit of “the Word made flesh,” a feast of the incarnation.

Words Made Flesh

Much of the reluctance among ministry leaders about integrating social media into their ministry practice is the worry that digital relationships will eclipse face-to-face engagement. In fact, studies show that people active in social networks are more likely to be engaged in face-to-face volunteerism and faith communities. This is because people who long for community seek it out in many forms, and people who connect in meaningful ways enjoy opportunities to extend that connection in both online and offline settings.

However, it is also true that we can become overly reliant on digital social media for nurturing relationships. People understandably worry that time spent on Facebook and Twitter takes away from “real” relationship. Many see this danger as an argument against the use of social media in ministry. On the contrary, it is one of the strongest arguments in favor of it.

As we are reminded in the seasons of Advent and Christmas, Christianity is a religion rooted in the incarnation—in the divine Word made flesh in Jesus Christ. We regularly gather around the miracle of the incarnation at the Eucharist, where bread and wine become Christ’s presence in our midst.

Ministry leaders, who are steeped in this incarnational imagination, can remind those of us in digital social networks of the importance of nurturing relationships through both digital and face-to-face encounters. They can help blend and make mutually reinforcing these online and offline connections by embracing invitations to meet in person, creating opportunities for offline connections like Tweetups and Meetups, and shepherding relationships from the Facebook newsfeed to face-to-face encounters and back again.

In short, ministry leaders should name digitally-integrated incarnational moments when they happen and help create opportunities for them when they don’t.

In those moments, where our digital presence becomes embodied and we enter into one another’s lives and realities more deeply, we are brought into the experience of where the Word, Christ, was made flesh for us. Every moment of incarnation points beyond itself to Christ’s Incarnation, just as every moment of resurrection recalls Christ’s Resurrection, which makes all our daily resurrections possible.

Can I Tag You?

When Tracy, Jeff, and I parted ways after dinner, the customary good-byes that one might associate with the beginning of an extended time apart were noticeably absent. They were replaced with questions like “can I tag you?” and comments like “this would make a good blog post.” For, we knew we would see each other again soon—momentarily, in fact—on Facebook, where our newly incarnate connection would continue until—or if ever—we meet face-to-face again.

Photo Credit: Shinya Suzuki

This post originally appeared at the New Media Project at Union. Reposted with permission. Copyright, 2011. New Media Project.

click2save digital ministry facebook incarnation social media