here are the slides of my presentation earlier this morning at podcamp nashville. there were a couple of video recordings of the session, so i will link and post to those when they become available.

spirituality & social media : the internet is our parish

by gavin richardson

website : www.gavoweb.com

email : gavoweb@gmail.com

twitter : gavoweb

slide 1-2 : intro of self. this presentation is a quick exploration of how people have been living out and shaping their spiritual lives through the various social media tools. this is important to explore so that we can see how we are being shaped by these culture tools & come to understand how to use them to reflect who we are, not to be consumed by them.
the flow of the presentation is, looking at how this is an excellent partnership, sharing some stories of faith in the social media spectrum, where faith goes wrong, suggestions that are just my humble opinion, and a little joke

slide 3 : the printing press as far as faith goes, has & continues to have the most profound impact on people living out their faith.
up until that point scripture readings and community theological conversation happened at the temple, the well, the home. you had to go where people were gathered
only in the creation of the printing press did scripture become accessible to the common person. you also see a further excentuating of a linear teaching
but in the core, ministry is relational & creation of social media relationship is sought out by participants..
the church needs to break away from its hang ups on what ‘its always done’ because it hasn’t always done this. its actually a quite modern experience’

slide 4 : real live preacher was one of the first bloggers to take on a large following.
1. early adopter to the medium
2. there is something brilliant & counter to what people have experienced with pastors and he is expressing.. authenticity, availability, and pastor
before you might have only had the stoic pastor who’s secrets, failures, struggles as a practicer of faith were kept out of sight and not talked about because that would ruin the integrity of the pastor.
pastors were perfect, on a pedestal to be marveled at, but here, is another way

slide 5 : the emerging church movement was a grassroots shift in the evangelical church that brought a postive (as i see it) conversation to the church.
blogging was their primary platform for the exchange of ideas and cultivating conversations and relationships.
because we are faddish emergent can be taboo, emerging means something different, and ‘missional’ seems to be the new adjunct buzz word from the whole 6-7 year era.
the wikipedia page was great, at one time it had in its links some 200 blog listings as ‘authoritative emergent blogs’

slide 6-9 : as with any faith the prophets are those people who are so extremely close to God that they can't help but to share what messages they are receiving.
unlike our own time of logical reasoning prophets usually speak in poetry, lyric, dreams, etc. with the new mediums we might have to expand how some of or prophetic messages, which are generally hard messages to take, come to us..

slide 10-12 : i am a sucker for religious satire.
the brilliance of satire is that, just like people people who watch the fake news, you actually have to know what the news is about.
tweetjeebus, who went silent right before christmas day was one of my favorites. if anyone knows the some quick history of the great schism one of the big lines in the sand was an 'and' in the nicene creed
one of my favorite twitter days was after charlton heston died. there was just some great images of the nra advocate who had been so revered in playing moses joining in with the communion of saints

slide 13-14 : my favorite of podcasters is father roderick. he started his podcasting career out when pope john paul 2 became ill as a news show for catholics wanting to know.. what came out of that was the catholic insider a podcast that was part news, q & a, and tour of the world.
he's since parred his podcasting down to the daily breakfast which is a less technical podcast, but still incredibly interactive and covers a gammit o of subjects. just last week he had a long discussion on battle star galactica
what is unique to this religious podcast is that people interact with him. this isn't his sermon series. he's accessible and average in his speak.

slide 15-16 : going off the normal social media map i want to mention a little bit on virtual communities in virtual worlds. this is me.. i live out my monastic tendencies in second life. i a homeless guy floating around from church area to area, but i have a base church that is united church of christ i have worshiped in. and with that i've made a lot of connections with the lgbt community.
what is remarkable, as in this ash wednesday service at the lgbt church in second life, these are real people who are hurt enough by the stigmas that these virtual environments are a 'safe' place to live out their faith.

slide 17 : not everything is always a positive in the world of faith. the blasphemy challenge was a big thing a few years back where a 'rational response squad' asked people to do the unforgivable sin by blaspheming the holy spirit and god.. reading off a general script.
this took up some decent number of responses as well as send a bunch of religious folks into a tizzy

slide 18-19 : so where does faith go wrong with some of this stuff? i'd say that one of the things that the religious institutions have trouble with is control. control of content, what is being said, the unfiltered-ness of discussion and that everyone has the ability for the same footing as every pastor, bishop, cardinal, cleric, rabbi, etc.
i feel that churches too quickly jump onto the social media train. we need a facebook account, we need to twitter, we need this.. but they never ask why and they never listen to what is already being said by people out there.
it is also to note that when the people of faith and the institutions get too involved with these or any tools it can get to an extreme where it turns on you
i love south park, they do some of the best social commentary i my opinion. this episode where they lost the internet and the whole culture went bizerk. this is a moment where stan's sister meets her online boyfriend face to face & they don't know how to talk. but when the internet comes back they can get back together again.
the church doesn't need to get so enamored with tech that forgets how to actually talk to people and relate.

slide 20 : so in my humble opinion. the "people" of faiths should seek out to listen first.. if that includes joining, so be it, but listen first to what people are saying and doing. make friends, however that looks, and cultivate relationships without agenda. maybe the sole agenda is to love another, and by love we seek the best for that person.
i think the institutions should get away from social media as an institution.. i care not to hear about your pot luck dinner so-and-so church. but i might like to hear some of the personal struggles or triumphs of your leaders. give me somebody, not some entity.

slide 21-22 : one of my fav new sites that a fellow youth leader tipped me off too is a site created by the children of the jewish faith asking their jewish parents and friends to tell their best joke. this is great, the judaic faith is known for its storytelling so all their folks are great storytellers in their own ways.
so i close with, an old jew who tells jokes.

slide 23: thanks!