Healthy in Body and Spirit

So I'm sitting in a session on Health information seeking in everyday life at the Canadian Association for Information Science conference. Not my usual topic, but I was interested in how the presenters, Jennie Abrahamson & Victoria Rubin and Shelagh Genuis were approaching their research. Abrahamson & Rubin's paper was "'Your Doctor Won’t Tell You This ...': Expert and Lay Perspectives in Health Communication Discourse," and Genuis' was "Constructing sense from uncertain and evolving health information."

Suddenly my ears perked up; I was hearing familiar themes. People are wrestling with health challenges, and are seeking information. They talk to health professionals, but also friends, neighbours, and "experts" on television and increasingly the internet. Seekers attribute authority to these non-professional sources (the "Oprah factor"), and that concerns health professionals. Tami Oliphant addressed related issues in her paper on alternative medicine at last year's conference.

More than a few pastors have expressed their views on Oprah's "theology", and their concerns about where their parishioners are looking for spiritual information. Whether health professionals or pastoral professionals, they are concerned for the well-being of those in their care. They want them to get "good" information. People are more open to considering different kinds of expertise. Whether doctor or minister, you are no longer the only source in town. Time to get past that and focus on the next task, equipping discerning information users. The information world is a big place.

I guess I need to talk to more health information researchers; I have much to learn from them! And now for something completely different: Trust me, I'm the Doctor.

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"Do I mow the lawn today?" and other theological questions...

Judgement Day. May 21, 2011. 6:00pm.

So says the Harold Camping of Family Radio ministries, a Conservative Christian evangelistic ministry. Important to Christian theology is the idea of the end things ("eschatology"), whether it be "what happens when I die?", "what happens to the world?", "is there a heaven?", or "is there a hell?" The Bible says alot about end things. These are important faith questions. The danger arises when answering those questions becomes the consuming passion, and not living out our faith. Perhaps Harold Camping is sincere and convinced. Tomorrow he will be a very disappointed man.

Judgment Day prophets have been around for a very long time. In fact, the Gospel of John records that end time speculation started even before Jesus' death! There have been lots of end time predictions through history, and many times people have climbed mountains to wait...and wait...and wait. I'm amazed by how the media has picked this up. Why the fascination with this End Times prophet? Is it just a warmup for the Mayan/Nostradamus 2012 End-of-the-World prophecies? There is certainly a public taste for this coverage, and it is interesting to watch the twitter posts as people confidently (?) proclaim that the world isn't ending. MTV is suggesting top five movies for end of the world, the Washington Post is predicting good weather for the end of days, and CNN suggests a last meal at your favourite restaurant. A little bit of a circus, but it is a fascinating religious phenomenon (sorry, had to!)

I'm an evangelical Christian, and I believe in Judgment Day. I believe a time will come when God will say "Enough!" "Enough cruelty. Enough killing. Enough destroying this creation I once called 'very good'." I need to believe in a God who will one day bring justice to an injustice world, re-make the world as it was to be in the beginning. I think that is the point of Biblical prophecy; not to provide a road-map/checklist for the end times, but to give struggling people hope that even when if seems darkest, God is still there, and one day He will say enough.

So I will mow my lawn today, and get groceries. Maybe new sneakers. Or I guess I could wait til tomorrow. ;-)

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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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