Tech Week 2 – Churches, evangelization and tech.
Let’s talk. Let’s talk about talking, and about the media through which we talk, and the new media, the social media, the media that we can’t even imagine yet.
We’ll get some talking points out the way first: Vatican Radio, St. Maximilian Kolbe (what a coincidence!), Fulton Sheen, EWTN, Word on Fire, shortwave, longwave, satellite, podcasts and Twitter feeds.
There. That’s done. Now, here’s my take, which is a take on a pretty narrow aspect of church life:
When it comes to parish and even diocesan priorities – Internet presence and social media presence, in particular, should be prioritized – somewhere between cleaning out the second shelf from the bottom in the janitor’s closet and making a Cotsco run for giant boxes of Goldfish crackers for PreK. In fact – it’s probably below those two.
Heresy?
I don’t know. Do we even believe in that crap anymore?
Shrugs.
But yes, I know. To be present in the world as it is right now means a vigorous, engaged internet presence on all cylinders, on all fronts.
Shrugs.
I’m not going to try to sketch out a philosophical framework here. It will emerge in the bullet points, probably. I’m just going to share some thoughts on the Church (as in the Church) and the Internet/tech/social media/new media, thoughts born from decades (gasp) now of activity on the web, of engagement with the whole business from AOL Message Boards to Instagram microblogging, fully aware of the irony of offering a critique of the thing through the very thing being critiqued.
So when I need to corral Many Thoughts – you know what that means: bullet points.
- I’m not talking about whatever it is you feel called to do as an individual or as a unique ministry online. You want to plunge into the fray and evangelize and be present via blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, podcasts, memes, Etsy shops, Tumblr – go for it. Publish homilies, articles, images, music, engage in dialogue, gather others in virtual community – whatever. Explore issues, write and publish online journals, magazines and news sites. It’s all we have, and it’s how we stay informed. That’s not what I’m thinking about right now.
- No – what I’m about here is the question of the institutional Church’s engagement and use of this media, primarily at the diocesan and parish level.
Whenever a new form of media pops up and grabs everyone’s attention, the call is out there: Is your parish engaged with this? Do you have a Twitter/Facebook/Instagram presence? Because YOU MUST!
I’ve watched this cycle over and over again through the years, and while I was never on that particular train to begin with, I now feel even more strongly than ever: no. No need to prioritize it, no need to worry about it. Other things are more important.
Not that a parish/diocese should be invisible on the Internet. That’s not what I’m saying at all. When it comes to information about you – about your parish or diocese – the Internet is all we have now, aside from the actual building itself (and I’ll come back to that). There’s no mass media of any other sort any more, really – not that anyone pays attention to in great numbers. So if you want people to know about you, you must have a strong, up to date Internet presence. It’s called a webpage that you’ve updated more recently than 2014.
So yes, I’ll start with that. Every parish – no matter how large or small – and every single diocese should have a web presence that (and this is the important part) – presents the basic information that people are looking for in a way that’s obvious and easy to find.
So for a parish:
- Mass times. Directions. Staff listings. Emergency contacts. Links to bulletins. That’s the bottom line – and then anything else that’s a priority in your parish. If you have a great music program, put up audio and video clips. If your church is interesting historically, have an engagingly written history up there. But just make the basics easy to find, right up front, and clean out those photos from the 2011 PreK Christmas program. I can pretty much guarantee that if anyone lands on your parish website, there’s a 87% chance that they’re looking for one thing: Mass times. Give them what they’re looking for. It’s the welcoming thing to do.
For a diocese:
- I haven’t done one lick of research on this – as in, I haven’t spent any time scouring diocesan web pages recently. So for all I know, they’re all fabulous, helpful and designed with an eye to evangelization. Great! But in case they’re not:
- A diocesan webpage can be many things, but in my mind, what it should be, above all, is a place where someone can get a sense of what’s going on in the diocese and how they can plug into that. Most diocesan webpage have plenty of information on parishes and ministries, but they tend to not serve the needs of seekers, inquirers and those interested in getting involved in something because the information is discretely presented, rather than collated.
- What I mean is this: An ideal diocesan (or regional – in a large diocese/archdiocese) webpage could include pages in which, first of all, all major events in all parishes are collected, presented and searchable on a diocesan-wide calendar.
- During special feasts and seasons, a special page would be created: Lent in the Diocese of Yumkinville – Christmas Masses in the Diocese of Meltdown.
- All of the adult education/spirituality programs are collected, presented, and searchable by time/date/zip code in one section of the site.
- You could do the same with any number of activities, ranging from VBS to charitable activities.
- All of this would be presented in inviting ways: Want to get involved? Interested in the Catholic Church?
- Presented in inviting, accessible ways that will (and here’s the kicker – the other hard part) – lead inquirers to other human beings who will respond to them.
Now, for my other point here: Should your parish be focusing on evangelizing through the new media?
Maybe. If you’ve done the following first – if you’ve knocked on every door in your parish boundaries, personally engaged with every person living within your parish, invited them to Mass and connected them with services that they need and your parish provides.
Has your parish done this?
Has it?
Tossing pictures on Instagram or updating a Facebook feed is easy. Going to encounter other human beings, listening to them, and inviting them to your parish is a lot harder. So of course, we want to put our energies into the former and call it a great success of the New Evangelization.
Here’s what a lot of people don’t understand. According to Canon Law, a parish is a geographical entity. The pastor of a parish has responsibility for all the souls – Catholic and non-Catholic – within those parish boundaries, a responsibility that he takes on and, when needed, delegates to others, lay and ordained, volunteer and paid who are part of the active membership and staff.
A pastor’s responsibility is not just for the people who show up on Sunday or even to those who are registered. It’s to share the Gospel and the Works of Mercy with every person within the parish boundaries.
Does an Instagram account help or hinder this fundamental responsibility?
It can, of course, do either. I’d argue that most of the time it hinders it, or, at the very least, is irrelevant.
Some years ago, we were part of an older, former predominantly ethnic parish in an urban area. That particularly ethnicity had long departed for the suburbs, but the parish still existed, partly because it was a gorgeous building, well-maintained, and partly because that pastor wasn’t going anywhere – I can tell you that. I wouldn’t call it “thriving” – but nor was it dead.
But here’s the thing: the neighborhood in which the parish sat was now predominantly African-American. We went to Mass there almost every Sunday. Were there any black faces in that congregation? One or two – long-term parishioners.
I only use this as an example, honestly, because the racial difference makes it easy to quantify – if you’re sitting in a mostly black or Asian or Hispanic neighborhood and almost no one involved in your institution is of that ethnicity, it indeed raises questions of outreach. But be honest about your own parish – it may be not as obvious, but still: do the people living in the streets and neighborhoods around your church have any sense of what that place is about other than being annoyed at the traffic a few times a week? Has there been door-to-door outreach? Is your parish a place where Catholic culture in all of its aspects flourishes in a way that makes it clear all are welcome to poke their head in and see what it’s about? Is your parish a place where, in some little way, neighbors know that if they are in need, they might find help? They might be comforted in illness, they might find guidance when they are confused or a friend when they are lonely? Is your parish a place where questions are welcomed and answered? Is your parish a place where anyone – of any social or economic class or way of life – can walk in, feel welcome and see and hear a glimpse of Beauty?
You can argue that a new media ministry can get the word out that yes, neighbor – we’re here for you and we invite you to come and see. Great. My counter-argument is that person-to-person comes first, and retreating behind a computer screen can become an excuse not to do the harder work of meeting another face-to-face.
Some more bullet points on why I don’t think parishes really don’t need to worry about Keeping Up With the Happy Place MegaChurch in terms of new media:
- It’s in constant flux. Get everyone all excited about your parish or youth group MySpace page, and in a few months, no one care and everyone’s moved on.
- Maybe not as many people as you think actually engage with social media that often – even Facebook. I have loads of friends and acquaintances who sure, have a Facebook profile, but never check it. I’ve never been a big Facebook user myself, but I’ve just about given up totally aside from posting links, since my feed never shows me posts from people I actually care about. I still haven’t figured that one out. Is it really worth anyone’s time to develop a Vibrant St. Polycarp Twitter Feed? Really?
- These new media corporations are always, constantly screwing with their algorithms, making it harder and costlier for even paid accounts to get noticed. It’s a game that profits only them. Don’t play it.
- I think it’s pretty clear that the WrongThink hammer is going to start coming down hard in the not-too-distant future. Do you want your freedom to say and preach what you believe is true? Don’t depend on these large media corporations to give you the platform use for that.
- Quite simply, while I think social and new media is, in itself, morally neutral, and although I’ve benefited from it myself in some ways – meeting people who’ve become good friends, for example – I do think the aggregate impact of the internet-world-in-your-hand revolution is morally and spiritually problematic. (That will Friday’s topic)
Bottom line: is it right or prudent for a church entity to encourage people to engage more with the online world? Or should they be more directly saying things like, “Look – you can get information about us online, and it’s good, up to date information. But as for ministry? And spiritual questions and issues? Here’s a person. With a face and a voice and an ear. Talk, listen, laugh, cry and break bread. Put down your phone and join us in that radical, counter-cultural act instead.”
I’ve been motivated to set down my thoughts on this by a recent column by Bishop Robert Barron. I’ve worked with and for Word on Fire, I’ve had conversations with Bishop Barron, and I’m on the same page as he is in most matters. But…I hate to say it..not on this one. Back in July, he wrote, “Getting out of the sacristy: a look at our pastoral priorities:”
Pope Francis memorably told us to “get out of the sacristies and into the streets,” and to go “to the existential margins.” Especially in our Western context, the streets and the existential margins are where we find the “nones.” Two or three generations ago, we could trust that many people (Catholics certainly) would come to our institutions—schools, seminaries, and parishes—to be evangelized, but we absolutely cannot assume that today. But yet we still seem to devote most of our money, time, and attention to the maintenance of these institutions and their programs. Might it not be wiser to redirect our energies, money, and personnel outward, so that we might move into the space where the un-evangelized, the fallen-away, the unaffiliated dwell? My humble suggestion is that a serious investment in social media and the formation of an army of young priests specifically educated and equipped to evangelize the culture through these means would be a desideratum.
I actually would say that this is a false dichotomy. Viewing the parish as a center of Catholic life and activity and yes, mission, does not mean simply maintaining institutions. It means returning to a deeper understanding of what a parish is – which is not an inward-looking club, but rather a geographical entity filled with hungry, seeking souls, with a concrete expression of the Body of Christ planted right in the midst of it, filled with people nourished by the Bread of Life brave enough to simply walk down the street and share that loving presence with a neighbor in creative ways that involve IRL connection.
I don’t think we need an army of young priests trained to use social media. Out here in the world, surrounded by families with young adult children, that’s not what I’m hearing: My kids would really respond to one more cool social media priest.
No.
We need priests – and religious and laity – who are unafraid to be present to other human beings in real – not virtual – life. There are countless ways to do this in buildings and outside of them, within parish boundaries and outside, at all times of the day and night. Some, indeed, have a gift for communication and that particular form of evangelizing presence. Many, many have been led to deeper connections with others and with the Lord in ways that have begun with online ministries. (See the beginning of this post!) But I don’t think an army of priests prioritizing catching up with the Nones online is the answer. Not even they are hungry for more screen time or virtual life. They’re exhausted by it, too. They’re hungry for real life, real people and real connections. And yes, of course that happens by going outside the sacristy – maybe even with your phone turned off.
“If you don’t like what is being said…then change the conversation.”