What is all this "social media" stuff anyway?

Bethel Church has been "online" for over 10 years with our website. We've recently begun to venture into the technology front even further with email mailing lists and having the second service every Sunday available to watch live online. All of these services are great, and will continue to be used here at the church, however a new type of communication has also begun to emerge that can supplement our current communications.

Over the past few years, we have been presented with a lot of new information courtesy of what is known as "social media", which includes things like blogs, Facebook, and Twitter (for detailed descriptions of each, please see the appropriate section below). At their core, all of these things are websites that provide people and businesses with a place to share their thoughts and interests online. These websites disseminate information, whether it be a personal account of someone's latest vacation, or the promotion of an upcoming event at a restaurant and they each foster communities of their own, spurring discussions and comments on what people have shared.

So why am I blogging about this? At my job in Creative Services at the College of William & Mary I work daily with the technologies I mentioned above, we use these social media outlets to share the mission of the College with our community and the general public. Additionally, I have been using these social media sites personally for quite a while. Since I am in Williamsburg, but still want to help out my home church, I volunteer to run and update our website and now I'm starting to explore our church's presence on social media and determine how we can utilize it to the best of its capabilities.

How can we use it?

The church has had a website for many years, way before any of these social media sites were around, and Facebook, blogs and Twitter are the next step in our "online presence." The content shared via social media should supplement, not replace, what is currently offered on our main website.

Since not everyone who is interested in coming to church is able to attend in person, offering a virtual community where folks can learn about our church is a great outreach tool. Through our interactions with each other on these sites we offer a glimpse of the welcoming and loving atmosphere that we strive to offer.

Venturing into these new forms of communication also helps us to keep the church community vibrant with new members, as this is another avenue to explain and explore what we do. With over 500 million users on Facebook, 190 million on Twitter, and an unlimited audience for the blog, this is a huge community of people with whom we can communicate. When you share something on Facebook about the church, it goes to all of your friends (by appearing on their Facebook wall). If your friends find it interesting they will share it with their friends and so on; with just one post we have been able to reach hundreds, even thousands, of people.

Facebook and Twitter are also a great way to provide quick updates within our community. If it's decided the church is closing due to inclement weather, or we want to remind everyone about the UMW breakfast coming up, you will find out that information as soon as it is released, since you can receive updates from Twitter and Facebook on your mobile phones as well as on your computer.

What are they?

Blogs

In the case of blogs, like this one, the author writes an entry, known as a "post," explaining their thoughts on a topic (the term "blog" came from combining the word "web log"). The readers of the post can then share their thoughts by leaving comments, which can spark further discussion and ideas.

There are blogs and blogging communities for just about every topic and interest, and the way that you can keep up with the latest posts on a blog is using what is called "RSS" (which stands for Real Simple Syndication). What RSS allows you to do is to be automatically notified when a new post is made available on a blog, you find out about these new posts by "subscribing" to that blog's RSS feed.

There are many different ways to receive the notifications of the new posts, most popular is what's called an "RSS reader", that acts as your own personal customized newspaper and pulls together all the RSS feeds from all the blogs that you have subscribed to and presents them to you in one place. Popular RSS Readers include Google Reader, iGoogle, FeedDemon, and Bloglines.

Facebook

Facebook is the most popular and wide-spread of the social media "platforms". With Facebook, a person creates an online profile and can indicate other profiles on Facebook that belong to their friends and connect with that person by "friending" them. Facebook users can share photos, videos, website links, and more on their profile and that activity will show up on their friends "Facebook Wall" amongst activity from all the other person's friends.

Businesses, community organizations and non-profits may also create online profiles, but since they are not tied with a particular person they are known as "fan pages" and other users of Facebook can indicate that they support that organization by "liking" the page. Organizations with a fan page communicate with their fans by posting status updates, photos, videos, etc. just like a personal profile, and these updates will show up on the "Wall" of anyone who likes the page. Fan pages can serve as a community-based supplement to an organization's website. We just started a fan page for the church this weekend.

Facebook also offers what are known as "Facebook Groups", which are like "clubs" in the real world, they require you to "join" and then members of that group can interact directly with each other. Any activity on the group's "wall" comes from individual members, and communications within the group are done with Facebook messages. Groups are best for small-scale, personal interactions. Our church Facebook group has been around for over two years.

Twitter

Twitter is similar to blogging, however each of the posts from a person is limited to 140 characters and these posts are automatically shared with other Twitter users who "follow" them. When people post on their Twitter account it is known as "tweeting," these little posts (called "tweets") can range in topic from what the person had for breakfast, to their opinion on the latest news story, or, if the account is a company, advertising a last-minute sale. Twitter has become the fastest way for news to travel, as "tweeting" can easily be done using a mobile phone. We've just started a church Twitter account as well.

What's next

As for how these new social media tools will be featured our current website, you'll see these three logos at the bottom of each page as well as featured on the homepage:

These link to Facebook, Twitter and this blog respectively.

Feel free to explore this crazy thing called social media, check things out, "like" them, leave comments, and sign up for these new services if you are interested, it's a great way to share, connect, and learn from others in a completely new way.

Living our faith, sharing God's love,
Tiffany Broadbent

They Are Playing on Our Fears

More and more I am beginning to understand about the false prophets that the Old Testament prophets, Jesus, and then Paul warned about.  Whether it is the sensationalism of news media, persons with a political agenda, or the radicalism of people claiming a biblical mandate, some folks are doing their best to foster their personal agenda by playing on our fears.  And sadly many of us succomb and I believe that happens for a couple of reasons but the main reason is that we don't really know what is right and we are being conditioned to let others tell us what we should believe.  And then there is the issue of who is right if we do listen to all the voices clamoring at us.

We have begun to rely on the news media not only to tell us what has happened, but to interpret it for us.  We have begun to rely on preachers and especially vocal tele-evangelists to tell us what the Bible says and how it applies today.  In both these instances we are getting what is currently called a "spin".  It seems to me that a "spin" is more than an interpretation of events, it is a willful attempt to sway an opinion using events and circumstances to justify an agenda.  It is as if we can no longer think for ourselves, or as if we do not have appropriate knowledge to interpret events for ourselves.

I am reminded of what Mickey Efird says about our knowledge of the Bible.  The Bible is not about what we thought it said, or we wish it said, or that we hope it says.  We need to know what it says or we are at the mercy of those who would interpret it for their own purposes.  Remember, in this country not too many years ago, we used the Bible to justify slavery.  The Bible taken out of context can be a dangerous practice and that is one reason why we need Bible study so that we can not only know what it says, but also begin to understand the context.  When we understand the context and the content, we can better apply the scriptures to our own lives.

I have had people tell me that Mickey Efird is scary because he teaches things they have never heard before.  But I have not heard many folks complain that the "Left Behind" series is scary.  So, what is the difference?  Mickey is trying to bring context to what the Bible says and giving us that information to add it to other teachings to decide for ourselves.  The "Left Behind" series appropriates scripture and tells us what is says for today and we buy it because it is what we have always heard; the agenda -- to sell books!

So, name your fear in this day and time.  Is it a perceived move from democracy to socialism in our country?  Is it acceptance of homosexuality as an approved lifestyle?  Is it terrorism and all that it represents in its many forms?  Today there are a whole lot of folks "spining" those issues and we don't know what to believe.  The purveyors of "spin" play on our fears and advance their own agendas.

John Ortberg's book, If You Want to Walk on Water, You Have Got to Get Out of the Boat and Max Lucado's book, Fearless are two attempts by Christian writers to get us to address our fears.  In neither of those books is there a spin on an issue.  Both name fear as the reason for our paralysis and suggest we need to address our fears so that we are not ruled by them.  Great idea and no agenda, no "spin"!  

I believe it is time to reclaim responsibility for our lives and our thoughts and our opinions.  But to do that, one of the things we have to do is stop letting others dictate our thoughts and understandings of the circumstances that surround us.  Name your fear and decide to do something about it.  Learn what the Bible says and the context in which it says it.  Stop being lazy and accepting what your favorite news commentator tells you to believe.  Reclaim life, the life God is calling you to not the one "spun" by the world.

Blessing for the journey --

     Marty

Troubled By God Hardening Pharoah's Heart?

God told Moses to tell Pharoah to set his people free.  Moses did what God asked but Pharoah refused.  Then God sent the plagues to try to help Pharoah understand who really was God and therefore to let his people go.  Plague after plague the scripture says that God hardened Pharoah's heart to no avail.  Many folks are troubled that God would harden Pharoah's heart.  Why would a God of love do that?

So what was going on?  We in our day and time can't see beyond the obvious.  What was happening was a competition to demonstrate who really was God.  But even understanding that we are missing a couple of things that people in that day and time would have understood.

The first key is a better translation of the Hebrew word that was originally translated as hardened.  That translation is heavy.  So God made Pharoah's heart heavy.

The second key is an understanding of the Egyptian process of how to get to the afterlife.  (Having lived in Egypt for hundreds of years, the Hebrews knew all the Egyptian customs.)  The Egyptians believed it was a two step process.  The first step was a "justice examination".  The Egyptian god of Justice was symbolized by a feather.  The examination required putting your heart on the justice scale opposite of the feather of justice.  If you had lived a good and just life, your heart would be lighter than a feather and you would go to the next step of getting to the afterlife.

So, God's actions were making Pharoah's heart more and more heavy as he was unjustly holding the Hebrews in Egypt.  And because of that Pharoah was not going to make it to the afterlife.  Therefore, God wins!

So it was not about making Pharoah's heart hard, it was getting heavier.  And all to prove who really was God.  Hopefully that helps!

Have a blessed day!

     Marty

Invitation to Share

This is the first post in what I hope will be a new sharing ministry of Bethel Church.  My intent will be to post thoughts several times a week (some about what is going on and some about thoughts from some of our studies) that might help us to share, grow in faith, and help one another as we move ahead in our faith journey.  My hope is that you will engage in the conversation to get your questions answered and to help us connect more closely with one another.

At convocation last week, one of the ideas that captured my attention was the idea of being consumers or citizens.  Consumers are people who take advantage of what is going on around them for what they can get out of it.  Citizens are a part of what is going on around them and do thier best to contribute.  That is exactly what we are trying to foster at Bethel, a citizenship mentality where people engage by using their gifts to live their faith as a part of the body of Christ, Bethel.

So if you find yourself being invited into something new, give it a try.  As you do, you will engage in ministry, get connected with others, and share in the life of joyful obedience.  Worried about burn out?  Nobody is going to ask you to do everything and those who do are the ones who burn out.  If you are using the gifts God gave you and not tring to be the energizer bunny for God, you are giong to find a new life.

Often what will be asked of you will make no earthly sense but that often happens with God.  But sometimes we wait for the right time or for things to make earthly sense and in the meantime, we are no earthly good.

Come join in ministry and conversation.  Tomorrow's topic -- why did God "harden" Pharoah's heart?  Got another topic you are interested in, just let em know.

Have a blessed day -- Marty