21st Century Sheep

This week in Sunday School we were talking about the tendency we sometimes have to compartmentalize our lives.  We behave one way at Church, a little differently when we are at work, and still differently when we are hanging around with friends.  We may say we have to be mean and tough at work to get the job done.  We may say we have to tell the rude jokes when we are with friends so we can fit in.

The conversation followed the expected path for a few minutes with comments such as these.  “We should live with integrity and be faithful witnesses wherever we are.”  “If we behave one way at church and differently in the community we provide fuel to the naysayers who claim the Church is just a bunch of hypocrites.”

Then someone said “On Facebook you have to be the same to everyone, you don’t get to pretend to be one way with one group and another way with another group.  They are all just friends.”

I think there is some truth to that.  Especially if you have not customized your privacy settings.  The privacy settings will let you control what friends and friends of friends can see.  It will even let you set up groups of friends such as “church friends” and “work friends” and have different settings for each group.  However, I doubt this is common practice for most casual Facebook users.

I thought about this issue when I setup my page and wondered if I should have a profile for work and a profile for church.  I quickly decided that was way too much trouble.  I don’t even want to take the time to set up different groups of friends.  I then thought I would use linkedin for work related social networking.  That too became too much trouble.  I settled on letting Facebook be the only social networking site that I regularly update and check.

Some of my work friends may not care about what I’m doing at church, and vice versa, but it is all part of who I am.  I do try to always remember my first rule of social networking.  “Never post anything anywhere on line that you don’t want EVERYONE to see.”

By the way, Facebook is changing its privacy policies and settings to make it easier to share your information with everyone.  Be sure you know what you are doing before you check the new box that says “Share with Everyone.”

I came across some reports on Teen Tech use this week that challenged some assumptions and reinforced others.

First is a survey of teens from Harris Interactive.  ” In total, the Cox Communications funded survey found that nineteen percent of teens surveyed go online via their cell phone and 19 percent say their parents are unaware. The vast majority of teens (80 percent) whose parent know they go online via their cell phone say they are not given any limits or controls — far fewer than are given boundaries on their desktop PC or laptop.”  Combine this with the finding that 19% of teens have engaged in sexting (sending, receiving or forwarding sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude photos through text message or email) and you can see the potential for problems.

The second survey found that 60% of teens who text admit to texting while driving.  This is definately a big risk for teens as driving while texting (DWT) is potentially as dangerous as DWI.

Finally, there is a Nielsen report that suggests teens’ use of media is not that terribly different from adults’ use of media.  Here are a couple of myths and realities from the survey.

Myth: Teens use media—10 screens at  a time.  Reality: Teens are more likely than adults to use their media one at a time.

Myth: Teens are abandoning TV for  new media.  Reality: Wrong. They’re watching more TV than ever.

This study is excellent reading and it comes to a not too surprising conclusion.  “When it comes to media, teens are not as radically different (from adults) as some think.”

What does all this mean for those of us who are responsible for teaching, training, and caring for teens?  We need to be actively talking with them about potential dangers but we have more in common than we think.

Today we said goodbye to Scott Wilson-Parsons and his family.  Scott has been our pastor for 11 years and is moving on to Seaside UMC.  This is an emotional time for everyone.  I know many UMC churches and preacher’s families are experiencing the same thing today.  My father was a UMC pastor and we had our share of moves.  I attended 10 different schools and 3 different high schools.  I know it can be a tough time.  There are many things a congregation can do to ease the transition but today I want to look at the electronic transition.

If the pastor is deeply involved with the church website, email, computers and network, it is important to make sure all the knowledge doesn’t leave with the pastor.

Here are some things to have in a good transition document.

1. Email - usernames, passwords, account numbers

2. Web Hosting - account numbers, usernames, passwords, procedures for updating, when the bill comes due and who it is paid to

3. Computers - usernames, passwords, file structure organization, warranties, backups (where stored)

4. Networks - switch and router addresses, switch and router configuration backups, passwords, wireless configuration and encryption

5. Misc. - Usernames and passwords for Facebook, blogs, photo hosting sites, and other online sites that are in the church’s name

Having a good record of these things helps ease the transition and avoid those late night calls to the former pastor because no one knows the password to update the church website!

I pray a blessing on all the UMC churches and families who are experiencing transitions this month.

I have never been to the Annual Conference of our Church.  It is held early in June and that is a very busy time those of us who work in the public schools.

This year the NCCUMC put much of the Annual Conference online at this site.

You can view video from the general sessions, read proposed amendments, and see how the votes went.  You can even follow the NCCUMC on Twitter.

I applaud those folks who made the effort to put this online for those of us who could not attend.  This is a great way to increase lay involvement in the workings of the Church.

Today I had the pleasure of participating in a Webinar on CyberMinistry and Facebook sponsored by the United Methodist Property and Casualty Trust.   Joy Melton, of Safe Sanctuaries fame, organized the event.  I presented with Susan Hay, Director of Youth Ministries with the General Board of Discipleship.   Peter Persuitti did a great job with the technical aspects and recorded the webinar.  If you have 45 minutes and nothing better to do, you can check out the webinar here.

Twitter, the hot micro-blogging messaging system is one of the fastest growing services on the web.   Even Oprah twitters!  Twitter asks the question, “What are you doing?”  You type in your answer, using up to 140 characters, and your response goes out live on the web.  Each user chooses other users to follow.  You can also make your updates private.

FromChurch.com provides a much more extensive explanation of what Twitter is in this blog post.

Anthony Coppedge has written Twitter for Churches.  You can follow his blog here.  I purchased the book but have not read it yet.  I’ll report back after reading it.

I’ve been slow getting started with Twitter but I’m making an effort.  My twitter messages automatically update on this blog, see the right side of the page, and on FaceBook.  My Twitter name is pobriant.

A Spirit Song

Lord send your Spirit down to me.  Break these chains, set my heart free.  Touch my eyes, so I might see.  Oh, send your Spirit down to me.

Christ promised that when he was gone,  He would not leave us all alone.  He’d send his Spirit to carry on.  Oh, send your Spirit down to me.

I need the power and strength You bring.  I need your Holy comforting.  It’s for your Spirit, now I sing.  Lord send your Spirit down to me.

I need to feel that perfect Love.  I need the hope of things above.  So send your Spirit, like a dove.  Please send your Spirit down to me.

Oh send your Spirit down to me.   I beg you now Lord, on bended knee.  Please hold me close Lord, tenderly.   Oh send your Spirit down to me.

Paul O’Briant

Today was Memorial Day in the U.S.   This is a day when we remember those who have died in military service to the country.   In my experience there is a tendency for patriotism and religion to get intermingled and even confused on days like this (and July 4th).  Our pastor, Scott Wilson-Parsons, gave a prayer in the service yesterday that, in my opinion, honors both patriotism and God, and does not confuse the two.  Portions of it are copied here with Scott’s permission.

“On this memorial day, O God, we remember.  We pray that we may never forget, but always remember before God that in your sight, war is evil and that to all who experience it, war is brutal and cold.
Let us pray for leaders who send the young to war, that their judgment be sound and their motives be pure.
Let us pray for soldiers who lay down their lives for others, that the love which inspires their sacrifice may be fulfilled in the love of Christ.
Let us pray for soldiers who have been maimed or brutalized by war that our love for them may make their scars of no consequence and make their brutality yield to the tenderness of returning love.
Let us pray for those of us who are left behind, that we may live on in the strength of the love that we knew.
And, O God, let us pray for those who suffer most from war, that the homeless, the orphaned, the hungry and the innocent may help us to turn from warlike ways to accept God’s gift of peace.

Father, help us never to forget that war is a human invention created by our failure to find our peace in you..
Help us to honor its dead and to pray for its victims who live on, help us to pray always for peace…
As your gathered church today, we pray for peace, we pray for our leaders, we pray for our enemies.

Help us, O God as we struggle.  Help us to be your church.  Amen.”

Last Saturday I attended a Lay Speaker training on Stewardship.  presented by Jim Mentzer.  He did a wonderful job.  It inspired me to talk about stewardship at our UMM meeting Sunday morning.  The podcast of that devotion is here.

Stewardship in Tough Times

One of the blogs on my Google Reader is apophenia written by danah boyd (lower case intentional, that is her preference).  From her site:

“My name is danah boyd and I am a Researcher at Microsoft Research New England and a Fellow at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. I recently completed my PhD at the School of Information (iSchool) at the University of California (Berkeley). My research examines social media, youth practices, tensions between public and private, social network sites, and other intersections between technology and society.”

danah recently spoke at the Penn State Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology.  Thankfully, she posted a rough draft of her comments here.  I encourage you to give it a read.  It will help you understand the appeal of social network sites to teens.  Some of the points I found particularly interesting follow.

1.  Teens are still doing the same things teens have always done.  The gossip, flirt, hang out, bully, and joke around.  The difference is now they can do these things online instead of just in person or on the phone.

2. Online “friends” on social networks are definitely not the same as personal friends.

3. Social networks produce “invisible audiences.”  This means the things we put online may be viewed by audiences other than the ones we originally intended.

4. All social networks are not created equal.  danah describes some very intersting differences in the adoption of MySpace and Facebook.