I’ve become a social media evangelist. Like any good evangelist, I’m passionate about the message. I testify every where I go — to everyone I meet — about the life changing power of new media. Many don’t take my message very seriously. They don’t understand that it will change the way we communicate. Some do ‘get it’ but are invested in keeping the status quo of old media methods. Some don’t understand why we need to change the way we communicate. They don’t see anything broken. They don’t see any problem that needs to be fixed.
So I’m going to explain my own problem with the status quo. “Old” media doesn’t enable easy, strong connections. Ever since I became “officially” connected to the diocese of Texas via my ordination (and prior to that, the process leading up to it,) I have experienced a profoundly alienated condition of being disconnected to “the Church.” In a way that is difficult for me to fully understand, much less to articulate, once I became a ‘professional religious’ person, the locus of “the Church” shifted from the parish level to the diocesan and national levels. As a clergy of the parish I had become an ‘other’ of my local faith community; it wasn’t a location where I could let my hair down, put my feet on the coffee table, share my most difficult struggles and receive support and encouragement from peers.
In this context I am defining “peers” as those people who have no psychological need to project their faith struggles on me because I am not fulfilling the role of the priest for them (little transference). I am in no way implying different levels of faith development. This is strictly defined in relation to my ‘role’ as a priest. So, peers are those who connect to me primarily as “Sarah,” the person behind the collar. These are the people who don’t hesitate telling an irreverent story in my presence because they don’t “see” a priest. These are the people who don’t delight in telling an irreverent story in my presence just to see the reaction of a priest.
Peers in my faith community are able to listen to my doubts about prayer or the resurrection or the presence of God and hear the voice of a fellow believer and not lose confidence in a spiritual authority. Peers in my faith community are able to listen to my difficulty to like, much less love, certain people in my parish, and hear the voice of a fellow human and not feel betrayed by a pastoral authority. The compelling need for clergy to find a peer faith community has led to the popularity of clergy support groups.
Paradoxically, those who are sufficiently detached from one’s role as a priest that they are capable of providing this supportive connection, are often people with whom it is very difficult to connect. Most clergy don’t live or work in close proximity to one another. And working in the church breeds an institutionalism that becomes all-consuming and challenging for clergy to turn outward, outside the parish where one would have the greatest opportunity to find the connection of their peers. In other words, as important as clergy support is to the spiritual health of the minister, developing and maintaining those relationships is difficult. It takes a lot of effort — of a lot of communication.
Once-a-month clericus gatherings (clergy within a region of the diocese) are not enough. For many, these gatherings are so “forced” and “unnatural” that they feel dread, not comfort at attending. The establishment of mutual trust and bonding that is required for effectively supportive groupings are beyond the current system’s ability. Bi-annual clergy conferences are not enough. There are too many competing agendas during these meetings anyway to set aside time for quality fellowship.
I’ve experienced several powerful support groups where there was mutual trust and bonding. One of the first was as a pilgrim on Cursillo, a unique and intense spiritual 3-day retreat. Other experiences include staffing Cursillo, Happening and Kairos. These weekends are carefully designed to create these bonds. I’ve known this level of community in Clinical Pastoral Education groups as an intern and as a resident and through leading youth mission trips to the Appalachia with Mountain T.O.P. One of strongest experiences I had with support groups was during my 30-day stint at Hazeldon Treatment Center. The common denominator among all these experiences is an environment that deliberately (manipulatively?) forces such stress and pressure on the participants that they are forced to drop their natural defenses and cling to one another regardless of unnatural groupings. It’s a cheater’s method of group dynamics. This is NOT the kind of environment I am desiring. For one thing, I am advocating for connections that take the edge off stress, not add to it. Secondly, these easy-bake groups don’t live long outside the environment. Unless, there is a natural affinity that coincides in the group assignment.
To summarize so far:
- The problem with the status quo of the way we communicate is that it doesn’t enable easy, strong connections.
- I am one clergy person who feels disconnected from the Church.
- Church “work” makes it difficult to connect outside the parish life.
- Half-hearted attempts to enable support groups have been lame and ineffective.
- Manipulating stress environment produces quick but short-term bonds that do not last.
The advent of social media technology provides an opportunity to enable these connections. Groups are now able to form easily, along affinity lines. The Church at the diocesan and national level should facilitate these connections because that is part of the job. Just as the parish priest has a pastoral responsibility to create a community that supports a parishioner’s spiritual growth, so does the bishop and presiding bishop have a pastoral responsibility toward the clergy.
As easy as group-forming has become, I believe that the process should be initiated at the diocesan and national level because so many leaders in the church are unaware of the possibilities that now exist. These applications are so new that there is a learning curve for non-techies that without a resource might thwart the motivation to adopt new methods. And finally, the very institutional processes that make maintaining the status quo so sticky require strong leadership to become ‘unstuck.’
Sarah Bennett is an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Texas. She is an avid evangelist of social media and honest, authentic conversations of the spiritual journey. Gregg and I have been married 24 yrs with "narry a ripple in the sea of matrimony." We have a daughter, Megan (22) and a son, Gregg (20). I am an Episcopal priest exploring the theological and ecclesiological implications of social networks. Read more from this author
I like and relate (even though I wear no collar)
Amen my sister…keep preaching! (Will I see you at the aforementioned clergy conference this time?)
You are absolutely right about both the importance of using social media to connect in our fragmented world and the difficulties clergy face as they try to find peers with whom to connect and time to cultivate those connections.
As both a pastor and spouse of a pastor, I have seen such a critical need for those connections that I decided to take matters into my own hands. I started a “Pastors on Facebook” group; the direct link is http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=130686104106 if you or any other clergy reading this would like to join. I also host monthly “Caring Clergy Community Conference Calls” on the first Monday of each month and publish a free e-zine for clergy; for more info on those see my website, http://www.betruetoyourself.com. I hope to connect with you soon!
Thanks, Wendi! I’ll check out your sites.
What you are doing is not just necessary, it is prescient. It is not looking into the future; it is accepting that the “future” is upon us. THANK you, on behalf of someone who is so often feeling like Sheep #18232736 in my own church, for hopefully ushering in a new pastoral age. Were that others would be so willing to take the leap of faith… and how ironic that in an arena where the stipulated requirement is a “leap of faith,” so many stand firmly rooted fifteen steps back from the edge of cliff, facing backwards in the opposite direction.
And as someone who knows you from long before the collar (and its attendant leash), thank you for keeping your reality consistent… I turn to you as a scholar, as an inspiration, as a sounding board, as a buddy… and with the amount of water under our bridges, I appreciate that I DON’T have to worry about possibly “shocking the collar”… any more than you have to worry about the collar shocking me. It is in your very humanity that you are truly the most accessible of priests, a walking illustration not of judgment and prudence, but of faith and failing and helping others to grasp their humanity as you wrestle with your own.
Thank you.
I think if we look at social media for what it is, a conversation, then where are we loosing? We are engaging people who might not otherwise be engaged. People can converse with busy schedules and not so busy schedules.
We hold our liturgy as one of the most valuable pieces of our faith and understanding as Episcopalians. If we really look at the liturgy we see that it’s a conversation between us and God. Why would we want to throw our history and what we value out the door by not embracing social media.
Social media has been able to break down some barriers as well. If we look awesome marketing has been done. People have learned to be precise and brief in what they say. It allows people who may battle certain mental illnesses a way out of the box, a way to share what they are feeling. As an addictions therapist I’ve seen clients use social media as an addition to keeping sober (as a supplement to what they do). Social media has helped build community amongst people of related thoughts and ideas. For General Convention for those of us who couldn’t be there it allowed us to have a voice with those who were there.
I see social media as a different language. We have to understand it in order to read or speak it. It can be done and you can teach old dogs new tricks and guess what you can teach new dogs old tricks too.
Social media isn’t something to be scared of. You aren’t going to catch a disease from it. It’s a newer form of communicating, a bit more advanced than passing notes in class.
If we want to grow as people, as a community, as a culture, we need to step outside our box, outside that which is comfortable and learn something new. In order to appreciate being comfortable we have to be uncomfortable.
May God bless us with the fire for inspiration, for imagination, and for growth. For today and tomorrow.
pax et bonum.
Is it my imagination or is the role of new media in the Anglican Communion and Episcopal Church exactly the same issue that created the church in the first place : that being the translation of the Gospel into the native tongue of the people?
The establishment of the church live in a world of memos, and printed brochures, and phones that are attached to wires that connect to the wall of their house. (I think they are called “Land Lines”) The movers and shakers of the world, and most everyone under the age of 40 texts, tweets, uses Facebook, email, and flickr to the point that, other than in the loo, they never touch paper.
What we are calling new media is just a variation on the original themes of communicating to the church in the language and method of the people.
There was a time in the church where the Prayer Book, Bible, and Hymnal were the only printed materials. Announcements and the like were verbal – church newsletters were “the new media” back in the 20th Century, and the church establishment embraced them.
The BIG difference with new media, especially social media, is that evangelism and reaching out to those who may not be on our path is so much more effective. One does not have to be in church to be a part of it. Think of all the church shoppers out there, someone can visit a new church every week for an entire summer, and, through social media get a feel of what’s going on in each of the churches they are not attending that particular Sunday. Of course the same arguments can be made by anyone going through a challenging time – be it illness, divorce, or working an extra shift because the mortgage is due, people can connect, and stay connected to their church family while life is putting other demands on their precious time.
With all the challenges facing the Episcopal Church, new media must be embraced, it just has to. It keeps us connected, it reaches out to new people, and lets families who may have gone elsewhere know how their church family is doing, all in a manner that meets the person on their level of comfort.
New and Social Media is the King James Bible of the 21st Century.
Sarah, don’t konw if you are familiar with RevGalBlogPals, but if not I invite you to visit: http://www.revgalblogpals.blogspot.com
We are a community of people of all denominations…largely women but including several men, and largely ordained or discerning but including laity (me) who have formed online community to discuss matters of ministry, faith, and life.
blessings!
Very well written post. It will be helpful to everyone who utilizes it, as well as myself. Keep doing what you are doing – i will definitely read more posts.