Church as InfoOrg...

As part of my research, I will be gathering and analyzing church produced information. I would imagine that most people would not consider churches as information organizations. The activities of worship and social outreach would predominate in people's minds. Yet two of the key activities of churches are preaching and teaching; both information intense activities. As a former pastor I know that a significant time investment goes into sermon preparation and presentation. What about preservation? Is that sermon a "one shot deal" or is that information preserved, stored and indexed in a way that it can be accessed by the congregation for future reference. I have benefited from reading some collected sermons from preachers of by gone years (here is one of my favourites). What about our teaching; if we use purchased curriculum, do we have a library where past materials used are archived? Are original class materials preserved? Or do those classes simply disappear as if they were never taught? What about communication, another information intense activity? I travel from time to time and it is my practice to always attend church on Sunday morning. The phone book tells me who is in my neighbourhood and the web tells me who they are. I am amazed sometimes that many church websites are so uninformative (here are one or two I like from smaller churches.) When I do arrive, I spend time looking at bulletin boards and information tables. Sometimes these are a lot like their websites. :-(

Churches produce a lot of information. I wonder how much time congregations spend thinking about how they manage all that information. This is not a new idea. Preserving important information has had a long history in the church: "since I have investigated all the reports in close detail, starting from the story's beginning, I decided to write it all out for you, most honorable Theophilus, so you can know beyond the shadow of a doubt the reliability of what you were taught." The Gospel of Luke chapter 1.

I guess someone thought that information was important. ;-)

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Somethin's wrong in my spiritual neighbourhood...

who am I gonna call? My public librarian! Yes, surprise...not the priest or pastor... and not the local theologian (do you even know who the local theologian is?) Sometimes when people have a spiritual question they turn to the place they go to answer questions like "where do I find information on jobs in Alberta?" or "when was Genghis Khan born?" The local public library.

I had an email from a librarian colleague who is working in the public library. He was asked a Bible question by a regular patron. He is a skilled librarian but not being satisfied with the information sources he had at hand he emailed me to ask for a second opinion. Yes, librarians do network to find the best answer to your question :) .

So why go to the public library to ask a religious/spiritual question?

1) Research has shown that even in the age of the internet, people are still the preferred source for information about personal life questions. Librarians are both accessible and available to answer your questions. They even have desks set up in the lobby just waiting for you to come and ask! If you can't come in person you can phone or email. That is not necessarily the case for churches whose staff may seem too busy or important to bother.
2) Libraries are perceived as community places where churches may be conceived as private places especially if you don't belong to that congregation.
3) Librarians are generally non-threatening. There's a surprise. Asking a religious question might feel safe there because the librarian isn't going to proselytize you. Librarians function under Codes of Intellectual Freedom and Ethics that require us to provide unbiased and complete information in a respectful and safe environment (that raises ethical issues sometime but that is for another post.) You don't have to join us if you ask the question. Though more librarians would be nice.

So why can't churches be more like libraries?

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