What I Preached to President Obama

President Obama came to Church the morning of my first sermon as a seminarian.  This is, roughly, what I preached…

Image from Reuters of President Obama arriving

Christianity has consequences.  That’s what our readings tell us today.  Christianity has consequences.  These are tough readings to face when preaching for the first time as seminarian at St. John’s.  What we learn though, is that Christianity has consequences.  You see, Jesus is saying something pretty ridiculous here.  This parable is one that I remember from being a little kid in Church, because the saying is just so far-fetched.  A camel, through the eye of a needle?  Really Jesus?  Now, I’ve heard some other explanations of this in sermons past.  I’ve heard that “the eye of the needle” was the term for the smaller door coming into the city, used when the main gate was locked.  I’ve heard that the word “camel” and the word for “cable,” like the kind you’d find on a ship, are the same.  I’ve heard, and I bet you’ve heard a number of ways of relativizing, rationalizing, and relaxing this crazy pronouncement.
I’m not saying that these interpretations are all wrong.  Maybe they contain some truth, but if you read the Gospels, and read what Jesus says and pay attention to how people react, you start to get the sense that Jesus said things that upset people.  Sometimes he upset his followers more than anyone.  I would hate to be Jesus’ PR guy, his communications staffer.  You get the sense it really wasn’t easy to work with him and some of the tough things he said.  Another moment happens today in the Gospel; a crescendo that builds here for the disciples is exciting.  Jesus talks like they are really on track with him, and you know that doesn’t really happen very often.  Peter says, “look we have left everything and followed you,” and Jesus responds that yes, yes they have.  He says that all who have left houses, family, land, will receive a hundredfold houses, family, land, but then he drops an extra word in there.  You will receive a hundredfold houses, family, and land, with persecutions.  Persecutions.  You see what I’m saying about trying to do PR for Jesus.  Persecutions are not easy to sell.
Our reading from Hebrews today talks about persecution in even barer language, literally.  We are told that we are “naked and laid bare.”  Naked and laid bare.  The way the Greek is actually translates “all are naked and their necks are laid bare.”  The language is violent.  We are exposed before God as lambs for the slaughter.  The hearers of Hebrews would be accustomed to this violence.  Hebrews is one of the latest written books in the Bible, put down a few generations after Jesus, in the times after the first persecutions of Christians.  The community has had martyrs, and is being prepared to face martyrdom for the faith again.  You get the sense in Hebrews that more persecution is coming.  Their lives, because of their Christianity are threatened.  They have faced and will face the persecutions Jesus promises.  Christianity has consequences, and they aren’t pretty.
In our world, where we don’t face these palpable consequences, there is a danger.  There is a danger that our Christianity can devolve into something less consequential.  Dr. Lisa Kimball, a new professor at VTS, gave her inaugural lecture this week and talked about the work of a scholar at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  Christian Smith and his team studied the faith of American Teenagers.  They interviewed thousands of American teenagers to find out what they actually believed.  In one way, their findings were heartening.  The vast majority still believe in God, but the faith they hold Christian Smith describes using a particular acronym.  He calls this faith M.T.D., Moral Therapeutic Deism.  God wants us to be good.  God wants us to be happy, but in the end God is far away.  God is not really connected to our lives, to our stories, to our world.
I once had the chance to hear the great Peruvian theologian Gustavo Gutierrez give a talk.  He said that our culture today has recast the Lord’s Prayer.  Our new Lord’s prayer, he said, goes something like this:  “Our Father, who art in heaven, STAY THERE!”  STAY THERE!  Having God connected to our lives is dangerous, it is safer when God is far away.  Against this image of the far away God we have Hebrews, a text which assures us that the Word of God is living and active among us.  Then we are told that because God has acted among us, we are to “approach the throne of grace with boldness.”  Boldness.  Christianity has consequences, and those consequences demand boldness.
This boldness, this bravery, is what the rich man in Mark’s parable lacked.  Jesus tells him to sell his possessions and give the money to the poor.  He walks away grieving, “for he had many possessions.”  Yes, the passage has something to teach us about God’s economic policy.  Yes, this passage speaks to the rightness of some having great wealth when others have nothing, but there is a deeper issue about identity here for our unnamed man.  You know the old adage: The things you own…(end up owning you).  The man wasn’t free to follow Jesus.  His identity was settled in his many possessions.  We know him only as “the rich man.”  Boldness for the sake of God, for the sake of Jesus was out of the question.  Jesus challenges him to live boldly, and he shrinks back returning to the safety of his possessions.
Following Jesus, really following Jesus, requires of us this boldness.  Following Jesus requires the willing surrender of our identity, the willing loss of all we are for the sake of Christ and the reign of God.  I don’t know what boldness looks like for you.  Boldness could mean marching in the equality day rally today.  Boldness could mean making that tough decision at work.  Boldness could mean having that difficult conversation with your family.  Boldness could mean talking with your teenager about faith.  Boldness could mean, like it did for the rich man, that you need to examine your economic life, to give more of your time, talent, and treasure back to the service of God’s Kingdom.  I don’t know what boldness looks like for you.  What I do know, what we learn from the readings today, is that no one, no one, has enough boldness in themselves to deal with the consequences of Christianity.  Not one of us has enough boldness in ourselves.  And that’s good news.

In our reading from Hebrews today Jesus is said to have both “passed through the heavens” and to have been “in every respect…tested as we are.”  Jesus knows how it feels to lack boldness, we see this in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Our God has stooped to suffer, to experience even fear.  We have a God who knows human suffering, and is not surprised by our weakness.  Out of this weakness, Jesus demands boldness. Out of this weakness, the weakness our God knows, God calls us to be bold.

We have a God who calls us to be bold, a God who knows suffering and weakness, and still who calls us to be bold.  So we are assured that we do not walk this alone.  Jesus has walked ahead of us.  Hebrews calls him the “pioneer of our faith.”  We are invited to live boldly, as Jesus lived.  We are assured that God is with us on each and every step.  Boldness is not sourced in us, is not our responsibility.  This boldness is radically sourced in the one who has walked this way before, and who walks with us still.

We do not walk alone.  Take a moment and look around this sanctuary.  None of us walks this way alone.  Christianity has consequences, and none of us can face those consequences alone.  There is a danger to read the story of the rich man  individualistically.  We can make it a story about a man who has to individually choose whether or not he will follow Jesus.  When Jesus invited the rich man to follow him, he invited him to join a community, a community boldly living life together in a new way.  These followers of the way were later called Christians.  Jesus walks beside us, and we walk beside our sisters and brothers, the body of Christ.  Christianity has consequences, and none of us can face them alone.  So I am excited to be here with you at St. John’s for the next couple of years.  I am excited to walk with you and to boldly face, together, the consequences of our Christianity.  Amen.

Sermon from St. Paul’s Aug 16 “How can you believe this?”

Video of my sermon from yesterday

Audio of my sermon from yesterday

Sermon Audio

So I don’t preach from a manuscript, so the Audio and the text differ a bit…

Sermon from July 26, 2009 St. Alban’s El Cajon

Sermon from St. Albans July 26 More than we can ask or imagine…

More than we can ask or imagine…

I don’t know about you, but our house when I was growing up was known for its leftovers. To this day, when I’m home at my parents place my friends tend to show up to raid the fridge for stray containers of Chinese food, or pizza, or whatever may be on offer. There is always the delicate procedure of opening the container for a cautious sniff. How long has that Kung-Pao chicken sat in the back corner?

We’ve spent many a late night over beers and leftovers in deep conversations about music and life, rehashing old high-school stories. As the night wears on we tend to shift into global politics and theology. By three or four in the morning in my parents kitchen we’ve solved one of the world’s great problems: Poverty, Healthcare, Immigration…if only we wrote down those solutions.

In today’s readings we learn that God is a bit like my friend Drew, who is always the first to the fridge. God is concerned about leftovers.

We read today John’s tale of Jesus’ feeding the multitude. This story is so central to Jesus’ identity that it appears in all four Gospels, in fact in Matthew and Mark it appears twice. In all of the Gospels a figure stands out. After the loaves and fish are eaten, 12 baskets remain behind. There are 12 baskets of leftovers. In 2 Kings we hear of Elisha also feeding a crowd with a seemingly scarce source of food. Again we are assured that there is a remainder, there are leftovers.

The Word in either Hebrew or Greek for “leftovers” for “remainder” is theologically significant. This is the same word which describes the portion of field to be “left over,” not harvested, in order that the poor might have food to eat. This is the word that Isaiah uses to describe the Jewish people “left over” after the exile, the faithful remnant which is the hope of Israel’s future. This is the word that shows God’s concern for those who are left out, and that which is left behind. And so today’s lessons ask us to pay attention, like my friend at home do, like God does, to the leftovers. Leftovers are our way in, our way into the story of God’s abundance.

You all know the general theme of this story. People need to be fed. It appears the resources are too scarce, and yet somehow, miraculously after everyone eats there are leftovers. These stories tell us of God’s overabundance. My guess is that you all know a little bit about both scarcity and God’s abundance. In today’s economy we are aware of scarcity. Unemployment numbers and housing foreclosures continues to rise. Thousands are jobless, homeless, or on the brink. There seems not to be enough.

And yet you all are here this morning, and my bet is that many of you could tell stories about God’s abundance, stories where it seemed like the resources were scarce and yet somehow God provided more than you needed. These miraculous and surprising moments continue, our God is a God of overabundant blessing.

This is a basic tension that is named in the time of Elisha, the time of Jesus, and is still present today. Society and the forces of economics tell us a story of scarcity and God asks us to rely on God’s abundance. 5 loaves feed 5000. In God’s economy ALL are fed, ALL are satisfied. This divine economy of abundance requires a different sort of living, one that asks us to turn over our imagination to God.

Ephesians this morning assures us that God is doing more for us than we can ask or imagine. I don’t know about you, but I can ask and imagine a lot. What is at stake here is the realization that often we don’t really know what is best for us, that we must turn our lives over to the God that knows better than us. The God who, in the Word’s of Thomas Merton, “loves us better than we could ever love ourselves.” We are asked to live not out of what we imagine for ourselves, but out of God’s desire that ALL are fed. We are asked to live not out of scarcity, but trusting in God’s abundance.

St. Alban’s is a community that knows something about this. In your work with the Karin you have imagined with God what it would be to gather up the resources necessary to feed, clothe, and provide for God’s refugee children. This is a powerful witness to God’s care for the refugee, the remnant, to those left behind. With John Conrad you allowed your leftover land to house and advocate for the homeless. Might I be so bold this morning as to ask: Where else is God calling you to care for the leftovers? We are about to participate in a meal that among other things recalls Jesus’ feeding miracles, the bread come down from heaven. This morning, no matter how well the ushers count, there will be leftovers. Who do you still need to invite to this table?

We are asked to turn our lives over to God’s imagination, indeed to imagine with God. I believe it is God’s imagination that turns my parents leftovers into the blessing of a community of friends…it makes you look at your tupperware differently…leftovers are pregnant with possibility.

What will you do with your leftovers?

Proud

Spilling beyond the parade route, shaking hands, waving and dancing a sea of purple shirted volunteers, the St. Paul’s Cathedral contingent, made their way down University Avenue in the Pride parade.  The message was clear: God loves you, and this church supports the full inclusion of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people. 

It was a particularly salient time for the message.  The Episcopal Church passed two resolutions this last week at General Convention.  The first declares that our ordination processes are open to all baptized Christians regardless of sexual orientation.  I was really inspired by my Bishop’s words on this one.  He framed them with a joke:

“Do you believe in infant baptism? Believe in it? I’ve seen it!” I too have seen and affirm the ministry of All who God calls to ministry.

The other resolution called for Bishops to exercise “generous pastoral response to meet the needs of members of this Church” which basically means that more dioceses will allow for the blessing of same sex relationships.  I had the dubious honor of ending up in both the Washington Post and the Boston Globe talking about how I am “relieved” that I will be able to celebrate the unions of my gay friends when I’m ordained.

I am proud of The Episcopal Church this week.  I am especially proud to be a part of the church in San Diego which has worked so hard to keep everyone at the table while we move forward.  A lot of what I talked about in the interview with the Washington Post didn’t make it into the article.  I expressed frustration at some of the triumphalism exhibited by some of the more extreme advocates for LGBT people at convention.  The interviewer asked me at one point if I was relieved that so many of the conservatives had left the Episcopal Church.  I responded that I was saddened.  It is always sad when people choose to walk away.

I am also incredibly concerned that the actions the Church took will be characterized as attempts to break with the Anglican Communion.  Ian Douglas of Episcopal Divinity School and Bonnie Anderson, President of the House of Deputies, both characterized these two resolutions as very concerned with the future of the Communion.  Indeed they both include a great deal of language about desiring ongoing relationship.  Anderson and Douglas said that the resolutions were about being open and honest.  I think they are about coming out.

When an LGBT person comes out, they do so not to hurt the person who they are telling.  So many of my gay and lesbian friends’ parents asked the question: “How could you do this to us?”  Coming out is about wanting to be in a better relationship.  If I am going to truly be in relationship with someone, they have to know who I am.  If I hide a part of myself because that part is viewed as inconvenient or “messy,” than I am not bringing my whole self to the table.  The Episcopal Church essentially came out this General Convention.  I am proud.

Honduras Presidential Meltdown

The recent events in Honduras have gotten me re-mincing about my year there.

A late evening in November of 2005 my friends Lyra, Linda, and I drove back to San Pedro Sula from Tela, winding through banana plantations and the aftermath of tropical storm Gamma.  The main bridge was out, so the trip took an extra hour.  We listened to Maná as we passed by wooden shacks where a single light bulb glowed blue green in that distinctly Latin American way.  We’d come to Tela to pass the day as the country voted for the next president.  We were upset when we discovered that the elections meant that no beer was for sale, but contented ourselves with some great seafood and an incredible sunset.

The run up to the elections had been loud and fascinating.  Every morning around 6:30am the trucks began driving outside my windows at El Hogar orphanage in Tegucigalpa, where I was serving as a year-long volunteer.  The trucks were mounted with loudspeakers which played a short jingle and then urged voters to select either Mel or Pepe for president.  There seemed to be very few formal debates, but every imaginable surface was covered with political posters, and the air was thick with campaign promises.  The choice seemed to be between a corrupt socio-path (Pepe wanted to enforce the death penalty for seemingly any suspected gang member) and a corrupt mafia boss (Mel supposedly had ties to crime rings and covered up murders).  Hondurans figured that whichever president was elected, they would embezzle a large portion of the aid that flows to the Western Hemisphere’s second poorest nation.

Honduras is not a left wing country.  I remember my surprise at the incredible words of praise that Hondurans spoke about Presidente Bush.  The US Military operates a huge military base in the center of the country which was used to manipulate wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua during the 1970s and 80s.  Before that Honduras had largely been run by US banana companies, giving rise to the terminology “banana republic.”  The power of the US military and business influence has made a small portion of the population very wealthy, and meant that many Hondurans uphold a strong capitalist, pro-US political voice.

Lyra and I used to joke that Hondurans were a people in need of a revolution.  Compared to our travels in El Salvador, where there was a sense that the poor could rise up from their situation through education and working to change the governmental and social systems, Hondurans were downtrodden.  They lacked a sense of drive and commitment to change.  “Yes We Can” were not commonly chanted words in a culture that had constantly been subject to someone else’s military business.

This is partly why I find this week’s events so puzzling and sad.  It seems that so few Hondurans are in support of President Mel Zelaya’s supposed swing leftward toward empowering the masses.  I suspect this is because Hondurans do not trust their elected leadership.  They figured the president would rob the people, and it seems from the reports of embezzling that he has been.
Even more puzzling to me is the international response.  As we continue to hear calls from the US, UN, Organization of American States, and Chavez to reinstate the democratically elected president I wonder about the sincerity of the desire to help the Honduran people.  Realistically the livelihood of the average Honduran took its most drastic downturn when the North American and Central American Free Trade Agreements and the subsidized prices of US agricultural products came together in a perfect storm that drove thousands of campesinos away from farming.  Over 50% of Hondurans are unemployed and 1 out of every 6 Honduran citizens live in the United States legally or illegally sending money home to their families.

If we really wanted to help the Honduran people we would do more than try to reinstate a questionable leader.  We would work to create a market situation in Central America where the family farmers could earn enough to provide housing, food, health care, and education for their families.  We would force our companies who employ thousands of Hondurans in maquilas (assembly factories) to pay a living wage.

As Lyra, Linda, and I tumbled down the winding back roads on the way back to San Pedro the night of the election I was amazed by the stark beauty and stark poverty of Honduras.  I remember a great feeling of gratitude to have the opportunity to get to know these people and this place.  I gave thanks to God for the joys and challenges I was facing.  Today my prayer is that the people I got to know in Honduras come forward from these challenging times with a chance to dream for a better future.

Commun(e?) ity

Yesterday evening Jason Evans and I laughed as we attempted to flip buffalo burgers on the grill, each of us holding a beer in one hand and a utensil in the other.  Meals at the Hawthorn House are a happy experiment, bringing together family recipes, sustainable ingredients, curiosity, and a desire to share food with friends.  I’m living here this summer, in a house that embodies the experimental spirit:  9 adults, 2 kids, 2 dogs, a half dozen gardens, a couple of compost bins, and some renegade skunks all sharing one street address.

Cooking at the Hawthorn House

For me this summer is an experiment.  I spent two happy years after college living in my own apartment, enjoying the solitude having my own space afforded me.  My home became a refuge from the busy life I lived working as the Campus Minister at UCSD, beginning the ordination process, and dealing with life back in America after a year-long stint in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.  I loved closing the door at the end of the day and sinking into my couch.  So this summer by intentionally sharing space with others I am actively exploring what it means to hold space in common.

Holding this in common with this group of people so far has been more of a blessing than a hardship.  I stay up too late drinking good beer and talking theology with my fellow nerds Jason and Lars, get hyped up about the politics of Michelle Obama’s organic garden with my housemate Brooke, commiserate about the insanity of the free clinics I’m working in with Bethany, or blow hookah bubbles with the guys upstairs.  I may get labeled a monster, but just by Matty-boy (who is 5) and Paige (who is 7) as we play.  If all else fails Tasha, the family dog, will throw her chew toy at my feet expecting a game of fetch.

The Evans Family

When trying to explain this concept to others I have often been meant with odd stares.  What do you mean you’re going to live with that many people?  Did you join a commune?

Others are familiar with what has been called “new monasticism.”  A number of communities have arisen (and disappeared) over the past decades attempting to pattern their lives toward a shared vision of following Jesus.  Shane Claiborne of “The Simple Way” in Philadelphia made his community famous when he described their life in his book The Irresistible Revolution.  These communities generally understand that their movement to live together and work in economically deprived areas mirrors that of the monks and nuns who came after St. Benedict, St. Francis, and St. Clare.

Hawthorn House avoids the title “new monasticism.”  My guess is that the term indicates  that a community has come to some imagined settled reality.  The Hawthorn House community, like the meals we eat, is an active experiment.  At Hawthorn we bring together the traditions we hold dear, ongoing questions, friendship, and a desire to follow Jesus.  This summer I’m trying not to hold on too tightly to any vision of what my future life with this community could be.  If the experiment continues it will be because this is a community that knows that cultivating tomatoes while cultivating friendships can teach us a great deal about the kingdom of God.

Last Sunday’s sermon

Sermon from Sunday.  The Lessons are actually for a couple of weeks from now…I’m meditating on hope, loss, beheadings, and Guiding Light (yes the TV show). Let me know what you think!

Sermon from June 28, 2009 Good Samaritan. God Has the Last Word.

http://www.goodsamchurch.org/artman2/uploads/1/_20090628_GSA.mp3

Update

It’s been a long time since my last post.  Brief update:  Finished a marathon in Pittsburgh 3:59:42 (right under the 4:00:00 goal mark)  It was a blast to train with my buddy Josiah from seminary and I’ve really learned to love running.  Finished out the first year at the seminary, twas lovely.  I miss Virginia.  Spent a couple of weeks in Colorado with the family.  Ran the Bolder Boulder again.

Now I’m in San Diego.  I just started my Clinical Pastoral Education.  Translation:  CPE is a 400 hour certification.  I am paying the Vitas Hospice Network to allow me to be a “Chaplain in Training” to hospice, clinic, and hospital patients.  I will spend 1 day a week with a group or 7 people doing the same program and refining our skills and discussing our perceptions of pastoral care. I’ll blog more about this later.

I moved into the Hawthorn House, a Christian community of people living together.  I live downstairs with Brooke, Jason, and their two kids Paige and Matty-boy (he’s a bit of a super hero) and Tasha (the dog.)  Upstairs there is an apartment of guys just out of college and in the backyard another house with three people.  I’m viewing summer as a bit of an experiment in discernment around how living can work differently…Sharing meals, resources, and conversation seems like a small thing.  Still it is already making a difference in the quality of my days.

I flew home last weekend for my sister’ wedding.  She looked beautiful, and he grinned the whole time.  I was happy to be able to help the priest navigate a confusing ceremony.  Spending the last night with her friends from San Antonio and some of my friends from High School dancing in lo-Do was great.  I’m still adjusting to having a “brother-in-law.”  I said those words for the first time last night and it was confusing…but I’m super excited to have Corey in the family.

Facebook, Blogging, and Ministry

I’m in debate about expanding upon the use of Facebook, Blogging, and the general social networking phenomenon for ministry in an article.  I thought I’d write up some of my thoughts and see if it is useful to folks at all, go from there.  PLEASE comment or email, let me know if this is helpful.  Depending on how the conversation goes I might expand into more posts.

I’ll describe some specifics about my own use of facebook in ministry and then talk in some detail about the “facespace” and religiosity.

Status Updates

With the advent of the “status update” facebookers are able to share their thoughts/feelings on a moment by moment basis.  Much like the “Twitter” users of Facebook can make changes that represent their current activity, thoughts, and feelings.  My status might say, “In class learning about macro-economics” or “looking forward to hanging out with friends tonight.”

Status Updates are important in facebook because they are the most publicly available piece of information.  The default settings cause whatever a user writes as a status update to instantly appear on the front page of facebook for anyone who lists them as a friend.  In ministry this can be important because it serves as a prime avenue for advertising.  When I have a new blog post, a new religious reflection, a link I want to share I can place that link in my status.  My blog traffic tends to triple when I place a link to my blog in my status.  Another use of the status is to advertise events.  This can be overt “PLEASE COME TO THEOLOGY ON TAP TONIGHT AT PINTS PUB 8PM” or more oblique “Mike is looking forward to worshiping tonight at Good Samaritan and 7:07.”  The recently added feature which allows others to comment or “like” the status can bring a sense of group connectivity to these announcements, a virtual word of mouth.

Blogs and Notes

Blogging can be viewed as a spiritual discipline.  Blogs can be incredibly personal journals, shared with a select community of friends, they can be advertisement, or the opportunity for group processing.  The advent of instantaneous online publishing has given rise to many new genres of expression.  In my own use, my blog is a mix of personal reflection, homily, and a public forum to share thoughts.  My blog has become an important way to continue talking with some of my favorite conversation partners across the globe.  Students at UCSD expressed thankfulness that they could access my reflections at any time, could replay and interact (through comments) with my homilies.  When I published blog posts from Tegucigalpa Honduras, I was amazed at the number of responses I received and to the degree I felt in continual community with people who were supporting me from thousands of miles away.

Some of the most popular blogs are the most controversial.  I hear Fr. Jake of Fr. Jake Stops the World, a popular progressive Episcopalian blog say that he intentionally took controversial positions to generate more traffic to the blog and more conversation.  While this can be useful for generating conversation, I think blogs for folks involved in ministry should reflect their overall arc of preaching and teaching.  If you are extremely radical, so be it, but otherwise posturing may not be helpful for the real people you minister with.

Blog posts can be long or short.  They might be full essays or sermons, or a couple of short words, a poem, a link.  Mixing a variety of material and including art and video helps diversify your online space and gives people with different needs and desires an opportunity to interact.

An important feature of Facebook that many bloggers do not know about is the ability to link a blog.  If you enable the “Notes” application which is a default part of every facebook account to “link” to your blog, each time you post a new entry it will import into facebook and note on your wall that you have made a new post.  (Click on the Notes application and look for the “import settings” on the right side of the screen.)  You may want to advertise your post in your status: “New Blog Post: Maundy Thursday http://christiandifferent.wordpress.com” was my status all day on Maundy Thursday.

Photo and Video Sharing

In addition to sharing words, sharing images and even video from life can be a way for people to connect with their minister.  A word of caution: on Facebook and Myspace friends can tag one another in photos.  You need to be vigilant about the image that others may choose to present of you on social networks.  Keeping aspects of your life private can be important when presenting a professional image in ministry.  Facebook allows you to control which friends can see your pictures, but these settings are not automatic.  You can “untag” yourself in a photo, but if a particularly offensive photo ends up online, it is becoming a common and polite practice to remove a photo if someone in the photo does not want it online.  Don’t hesitate to gently ask someone to remove an offensive photo.

Groups/Fan Pages

Many campus ministries, parishes, whole denominations, and dioceses are beginning to form online groups.  This can be a powerful tool for ministry because you can message all members, post photos, create group specific events (see “Events” below), and otherwise utilize a group or fan page as on online tool for organizing.  The key for effectiveness is to include as many of the people in the ministry as possible in the group and to use it consistently for communication.  Groups/Fan pages are only effective if people check them, and they will only check them if they are updated consistently.  Utilize the group page to drive traffic to your website, and create a badge for the group on the website which links back to the group so that people can join like this:

The UCSD group

The Power of Search for Evangelism

One of the under-used features of Facebook for ministers is the search feature.  I’ll begin by talking about campus specifically, and broaden to parish based ministry.  Campus Ministers MUST make a priority of getting an email address from the campus they work on.  This address allows them to join the campus network.  This is incredibly important because it allows you to access the “profile  search” features of facebook for the campus network.  You can then choose to search campus  for each student who lists their specific religious affiliation.  Simply click “Search,” from the dropdown menu select the appropriate network, and type the name of the denomination as it is most commonly listed on facebook.  For example, facebook lists Christian-Episcopal rather than “Episcopalian” so you want to put in “Episcopal.”

If you are the Episcopalian minister for campus, you can access each and every student who self-identifies as “Episcopalian.”  A student who has self-identified in a denomination on facebook has made a statement.  They do not have to list this identiying factor, so their is a degree of investment in this identity if it is listed.  In a way they are publicly proclaiming, even evangelizing, in a culture where religious faith is not normed: the college campus.  A new campus minister should make an effort to buy coffee for, get in touch with, email EVERY student who identifies as part of their denomination on facebook.

The same can be true, though perhaps to a lesser extent within a geographic region.  You can search profiles of people within certain age group, genders, ethnicities, etc. in a geographic region and perform the same search for people who self-identify within a denomination.  The trick is to be sure they do not already have a congregational home when you invite them to participate in your ministry.

Events

Using Facebook to publicize a ministry event can be a powerful way to quickly organize a large group of people to attend.  We once brought together over 400 people in one day for a Vigil at UCSD simply through facebook invites to attend the event.  It gives a fast online incarnation to a word of mouth style of advertisement, and a place to point people for details.  Make sure your event has a catchy title, an image (even if it is a silly one), and that you publicize the event well in advance.  If the time/place/details change you can update the facebook page and message all attendants.  You can get a sense of how many people will be coming.  If used consistently Events can become a way for your members to invite their friends to participate.

Events also include walls, which means that people can discuss the event, post pictures, even create discussion forums to begin a conversation before an event or continue one afterward.

The Development of Digital Identity

Working with college students, particularly at a highly technologically advanced school like UCSD, I was taken aback by how much communication now happens online.  Particularly through Facebook, students now share a large amount of their identity, their values, their ideas online.  As young adults list the bands they like, their favorite movies, the clubs they belong to, they are making decisions about how to share their story and sense of meaning with others.  In many ways the amount of sharing happening in the “Facespace” (a name for the online realm of facebook/myspace) involves a level of self-disclosure that is new.  People know more about, and have constant access to information about their friends and acquaintances.  At the same time this disclosure is less personal.  Students seemed to feel comfortable sharing a great deal, perhaps because the facespace is a disembodied reality.  While friends, family, and random strangers with access to their page now know a great deal about their lives, they haven’t had to take the risk in an intimate conversation to disclose this information.

The development of boundaries within the Facebook/Myspace world is still in its infancy.  While “privacy settings” allow users to limit who can see what information they display, the social networks are continually developing the amount of control the users are given, and the users themselves are only slowly growing to understand how these settings can be employed.  For many students there seems to be a a sort of social pact about online identity disclosure.  It is somehow socially unnacceptable to say, “I read on facebook that you enjoy____”  Though students disclose large amounts of information about themselves, the preservation of a degree of anonymity is important.  It is hard to move conversation from the facespace to the real world.

At the same time it can alert a minister to important pastoral needs.  Attention to how a person portrays herself online can give us insight into their inner world in important ways.  While not making direct reference to things on facebook, noticing that someone has communicated frustration, loss, anger and making a point to check in can be important.  You can now comment specifically on the post on their wall, but you can also decide that the person needs a real hug rather than an online poke.

Learning to communicate digitally, to interact with digital identities are important, but nothing will substitute for real presence in ministry.