Reports of the Church's demise are exaggerated.

CNN's Belief Blog recently posted an entry entitled "My Take: How technology could bring down the Church." Lisa Miller argued new technologies like Bible apps, podcasts and streaming video will undermine the need to actually attend church. She wrote "With Scripture on iPhones and iPads, believers can bypass constraining religious structures - otherwise known as “church” - in favor of a more individual connection with God." She recalled how the printing press democratized the interpretation of the Bible furthering the growth of the protestant movement.

I'll admit that I also had concerns about the negative impact of new technologies on the Church. First, lets clarify something: the European/North American church may be in decline, but not so in Asia, Africa or South America. Many Christian groups (e.g. Catholic, Lutheran, Methodists) are reporting great growth! So at present this is a western church concern.

Second, research is simply not bearing that out that new technologies are bringing down the church. There have been other prophets of doom: van der Laan has argued that the "Internet shapes and alters how pastors and parishioners practice their religion" and he concludes that the use of online sources would undermine pulpit ministry. I rejected that argument because it assumes online resources are used uncritically by preachers and accepted uncritically by parishioners. I find those assumptions unsupported.

Heidi Campbell as discovered that blogs, rather than challenging traditional religious authority, may help solidify them. “Many Christian bloggers use their blogs to affirm traditional religious authorities that are in line with the religious beliefs and identities they seek to present online authority rather than simply using it to challenge....”

Chris Helland has explored how online worship can reconnect members of diaspora groups to their religious homelands and practices. Whether ritual by webcam or in virtual spaces, people are practicing their beliefs and connecting.

Paul Teusner has done interesting work on the Emerging Church movement in the blogosphere, a group that challenges traditional religious authorities and structures, yet then appears to create its own doctrinal authorities.

I could go on but you get the point. Is it Religion 2.0 or simply faith in a new wired context? Something new is happening, but to paraphrase Mark Twain the reports of the church's death are greatly exaggerated. Just sayin'.

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Easter: a website

ChurchCrunch blog posted a cool Easter website (remember to scroll down.) The splash page is interactive and offers a linear narration. It is an invitation to a Easter Celebration. Obviously they put a lot of resources into this web ad. After a viewed their presentation I began to wonder who these folks were. Hmm. Not much on the website. Oh, a facebook page...ok, not much here but there is a link to another facebook page, Rock Harbour Church...and a link to the church website. I had to wander about the social media a bit but I did find out what they believe.

They have carefully considered and well articulated teachings. So why hide them? Are they trying to focus on the central message? Avoid distracting debates? Last August I posted about a conference paper the focused on the United Church of Canada's WonderCafe web campaign. Despite the size and expense of the campaign, the researchers questioned its impact. People came, looked around and wandered off. Visitors liked the openness and willingness to dialogue but in the end couldn't figure out what the church actually believed. Dudes, they want to get to know you; don't be so cagey! Tell the people what you believe!

I've re-posted the paper abstract below from the conference website (pdf) for your interest.

7th International Conference on Media Religion and Culture, Aug. 9-13, 2010, Ryerson University, Toronto.

David Haskell (Wilfrid Laurier University) Kevin Flatt (Redeemer University College) and Robin Lathangue (Trent University) Measuring the Effectiveness of a Church’s Off-line and On-line Marketing Campaign: The Case of the United Church of Canada’s “WonderCafe”

In November 2006, in the context of declining membership, the United Church of Canada (UCC) launched an advertising campaign. At a cost of approximately 10.5 million dollars it was hailed as the most expensive marketing strategy ever employed by a Canadian church.

The campaign featured a set of provocative ads that ran nationally in popular, high-profile print publications; it also featured an interactive web site called The WonderCafe. Each of the ads posed a challenging spiritual or moral question then asked readers to go online and discuss the issue at the web site. The leaders within the UCC said the goal of the nationally-publicized WonderCafe print ads and the associated WonderCafe web site was two-fold. They were created to project a positive, public image of the United Church (as the “home of open-minded conversation”) and to ultimately convince members of the Canadian population to attend/join local congregations of the denomination.

The purpose of this study was to qualitatively gauge the effectiveness of the WonderCafe ads and web site as a means of promoting the UCC by probing the cognitive processing of viewers of those media artefacts. Through a series of focus groups, a total of 62 religious seekers were asked to view the ads and then the web site. After viewing the ads the participants were asked a series of open-ended questions to determine 1) how the respective artefacts affected their perceptions of the United Church and 2) whether the respective artefacts inspired them to possible action (e.g., attend a United Church service). Similar questions were asked after perusing the web site.
Forty percent of participants described themselves as “no religion”; 40% described their faith as Catholic and 20% described themselves as Protestant (two attending the UCC). Almost three-quarters stated they knew nothing about, and had no opinion on, the UCC.

Qualitative analysis of participant responses determined the following: Over 40% of participants, suggested that the ads got them thinking about the UCC; however, for more than half of those, their perceptions were slightly negative. Further, no ad viewer mentioned a desire to learn more about the United Church and only 8% voiced an interest in perusing the WonderCafe web site now or at some point in the future.

Post web site viewing, almost 80% of participants had positive perceptions of the UCC as an open and accepting denomination in terms of social and religious issues. However, in half of responses and often alongside positive comments about the church’s openness were remarks expressing confusion or frustration over the web site’s lack of doctrinal information on the UCC. Discounting two participants who regularly attended the UCC, about 15% of participants acknowledged some interest in attending a UCC church service. However, their attendance was always expressed in highly tentative terms (e.g., “If I ever go to a church…”) and was never shown to be a pressing desire.

With reference to the results of the analysis, the efficacy and limitations of religious marketing, especially religious marketing that employs the internet, are discussed.

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Our (Virtual) Siberian Visitors

I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.
H. W. Longfellow

As many of you know I run the video camera during our church's services. The services are streamed live using a service called LiveStream and archived for later viewing. Usually we have only a few viewers for the live stream, and a number more who watch later in the week.

I remember when my siblings and I were young and we were snow bound on Sunday, Dad would sit us down in front of the TV for Rex Humbard or a similar preacher in lieu of church. The streaming service is a different experience; not Rex and the folks in far off Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. The stream is our folks worshiping together. I've been home myself with ailing kids or bad weather and we have joined the service online, and even said "Hi!" via chat. There is a personal connection.

A streaming service is also like Longfellow's arrow, who knows where it will land. A few Sunday's ago we had online viewers during the service from a church in Tyumen, Russia. Like ourselves they also stream their services online and popped in for a visit. Two small churches on different sides of the planet stopping by for a friendly visit. (No, I don't understand a word of Russian.) Kinda cool but makes you think.

On rare occasions I still fill the pulpit when the pastor is away. I preached two Sundays ago and the service was streamed as usual. I recalled our Siberian visitors when I was preaching and wondered who else might stop by. Where will my words end up? Preaching is always a serious matter, and the Bible has warnings for those who would be religious teachers. But now in the digital age "i shot a sermon into the air, it fell to earth, I knew not where."

On that note Christianity Today magazine has an article on theological debate in the digital age entitled "Not many of you should presume to be bloggers." Hmm.

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"My Confession..." Part 2

So here is the test! As I discussed in my last post, I've downloaded the iPad Confession app, and I am going to give it a whirl. No, I'm not Catholic so this is new territory. I am hoping to discover how intuitive this is, so my apologies to my Catholic friends if I appear clueless...(more so than usual.)

Step 1: Add new user - Name, Sex, Birthday, Vocation, Last Confession (umm...), Password.
(Apparently vocation means: single, married, priest or religious [order]. ) Here goes...am I going to get Vatican spam now?

Step 2: Select 'Act of Contrition'???? ummm, ok 'default act of contrition.' I'm not sure what I just agreed to here, but I'll go with this.

Step 3: Examination of Conscience - Here I have a list of the Ten Commandments, Responsibilities to God and Responsibilities to Other.

Oops, it logged me out, and won't let me back in... I had to recreate my profile. It seems to bump you out from time to time.

Step 3 (second try): Ok, I've selected the 10th commandment "You shall not covet your neighbor's goods." The Lotto is $50,000,000 this week; so coveting is realistic. Now there is a set of five questions, from the generic: "Am I jealous of what other people have?" to the more pointed "do I not trust God to provide for my material needs?" I like that; it is thought provoking. I also have space to add my own reflective questions. What should I ask myself? Hmmm....

Step 4: Begin confession "In the name...." There is a warning here "This app is intended to be used during the Sacrament of Penance with a Catholic priest only. This is not a substitute for a valid confession." I wonder if this notice was a later addition? Click next...

Step 5: My list of sins.... (general categories not specifics...that would be a security nightmare!)

Step 6: Act of Contrition; the prayer of confession. Next.

Step 7: A text box: "Receive absolution and respond 'Amen'. If the Priest says, 'Give thanks to the Lord for He is good.' answer 'His mercy endures forever.'"

All done. It will remember my last confession next time I log in.

Interesting experience; it is not a replacement for confession, but it does lead one to reflect and prepare. It is not entirely intuitive; it assumes you have gone through Catechism classes and been Confirmed. I can see why many would download it, but will many actually use it. I doubt it. But it is an interesting reflective tool, in an age when moral self-reflection is out of vogue.

It seemed appropriate to end on a worshipful note here with an ancient Irish hymn common to all branches of Christendom: "Be Thou My Vision."

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