Last month I got some heavy retweeting action over on Twitter because of a mildly snarky comment I made to David Pogue about Microsoft buying Skype. He even mentioned it in his Pogue’s Post (The Future of Skype): “When I pleaded with my followers to find something positive to say about the deal, @psdlund racked his brains and came up with: ‘At least it wasn’t Cisco.'” Not quite the fifteen minutes of fame Andy Warhol predicted each of us would have, but not too shabby. However, since I’m in the faith formation biz and not in the being-snarky-about-software-giants biz, I’d rather be known for tweeting something significant about, you know, faith formation. And I’m happy to say that’s exactly what’s happened with another tweet of mine, something I said during the #uu2020 TweetChat the Rev. Naomi King and I organized for last Thursday night. (BTW, if you’re wondering about all this tweeting and retweeting and TweetChat stuff, ask me about it in the comment section and I’ll fill you in.) During the TweetChat, I mentioned something that I’m running the risk of becoming dogmatic about:
Oh, what the heck. Let’s go ahead and be dogmatic. From now on, I’d like for this to be known as the Lund Doctrine: Congregations must pay as much attention to their virtual space as they do to their physical place.
I’ve been spending a lot of time researching just what it means for a congregation to pay attention to their virtual space. There’s a lot of room for faith formation leaders (ministers, DREs, congregational life directors, membership coordinators, etc.) to learn and grow here, and sharing what I’ve learned is a big part of what I do with my online presence. Still, we mustn’t forget about the other side of the equation: the face-to-face faith formation experiences we offer in our physical places. Which brings me to a wonderful document I found via uukaty at tumblr.com. Katy pointed me (and all of her other twitter followers) to a terrific resource for adult faith formation called “Toward Effective Adult Faith Formation,” a four-page PDF adapted from Gathering Together, by Jane Regan and Mimi Bitzan.
When it comes to adult faith formation, these are exactly the things we need to be doing in order to “pay attention” to our physical place. They help make coming to church on a Tuesday night for a faith formation experience what it should be: a positive experience. Check ’em out:
- The most important question we must always ask, “So what?”
- Lose the lecture.
- Make a commitment.
- Faith formation is a team sport.
- Language: Get real.
- Connect with the Church’s liturgical year.
- Creativity is essential.
- Dessert is not optional.
- Timing is everything.
- Have fun!
For complete details, you can download the the list of Do’s (and Don’ts) here: Effectiveadultformation-pdf.
Phil's Little Blog on the Prairie 
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June 20, 2011 at 11:34 am
Mark Erickson
I think your posts are quite good, so I’m glad you got your 15 bytes of fame in the wider world web. Sort of on topic for virtual spaces: I found the work of Gregory Paul recently. (http://www.gspaulscienceofreligion.com/index.html) His oped in the LA Times last October was good “What’s really hurting Christianity in America” (http://articles.latimes.com/2010/oct/27/opinion/la-oew-paul-religion-secularism-20101027) Here’s the relevant quote: “Putnam and Campbell also fail to acknowledge technology’s role in creating a less pious America. Increasing use of consumer digital electronics is soaking up so much of young people’s time and interest that they are decoupling from the social organizations that used to fill a person’s life before TV and computers. Of course, organized religion is just the sort of social “club” that is vulnerable to this potent side effect of technology.” What do you think?
June 20, 2011 at 12:25 pm
Phil on the Prairie
Thanks, Mark. Interesting quote from the LA Times. I believe that the notion of what church is and how it does what it does is changing. Partially in response to new technology, but also because of larger cultural trends. There was a recent article in Christian Century that talked about “loose connections” people have with congregations these days. http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2011-05/loose-connections I think faith formation leaders need to find ways to encourage stronger connections using both digital media/web technologies AND opportunities for face-to-face experiences.