Post Conference Thoughts
Some of the greatest things about a conference is the people you meet and the conversations you get the opportunity to have. When the time to step up comes, you have all these great conversations and thought-provoking questions bouncing around in your head–”Man, I’ve got to remember to talk deeper about…” Then, after you have presented, done some Q&A, and the quiet settles in for a bit…it hits–”Man, I forgot to talk about…!” So, let’s call this Mark’s chance to take a Ben habit and do the recap. Lastly, before we sail out, please hear my heart on this…none of this is a condemnation on any aspect of church, regardless of “graphs” or not. We love the church. We love working with church. We love it in all its many facets, failures, and success–to His glory!
Integrity Defined and Challenge Given
First off..let’s drill down further on integrity for a moment. This is especially true around understanding the application of integrity. I know it must sound odd combining integrity with community. Honestly, I wanted that oddity. I hope that it causes a moment of hesitation and wonderment. After all, its not like a church would intentionally do something that does not have integrity, right? What church would do that? And besides, integrity is something that would be core to a church, right?
Integrity is something perceived as much as it is something lived. A person, or church, of integrity does not go around saying, “Look. I have integrity.” Absurd. To have integrity is to demonstrate integrity, not talk about having it. Moreover, to really understand the application of integrity around building an online community is to truly grasp that integrity is as much intentionally building in the core mission of church as it is to build online community. The challenge I assert is that for a church to employ frictionless (“easy to start, easy to use”) tools that have emerged like Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and many others, does not equivocate with building community with integrity. To build integrity within community is to start with integrity and weave it throughout, intentionally. Much easier said than done, especially with no real tool for fulfilling the Great Commission at the core of a community platform.
Confluencers and Church 1.0
Next, let’s take a look at the attached PDF below (“GameChangers.PDF”). Please go ahead and download it, open it up, and let’s walk through this one together. This is where I want to build your awareness. If you recognize the challenge of keeping integrity while building community online (aka, “tightly fulfilling the Great Commission”) than you will have an easier time understanding the graph.
Many churches today are still struggling with the far left. These are the churches that we all know and see out there. They are the “confluencers”. They are being knocked around by the confluence of innovation, changes, and cultural shifts but they just refuse to lead…and sometimes, even follow. They either have no idea of anything going on around them or they simply do not care. Tongue in cheek, in the game of a church with impact, they do not even know that a game is going on (“What is a game?”) They share in common: misconception, even fear, around the use of social web and most things Internet, email is the core form of mass communication (mostly) and the website (if present) is really a poor example of the church bulletin “made electronic”…ouch. Being in the game of changing souls and impacting a community is limited to a vision of gathering on Sunday and hoping for the best.
Moving a little further on the graph to the right and climbing the hill of traditions and resistance, we head towards those churches that really are motivated to begin to play a part. They want to play a part. They want to be a church of impact, kinda. They are not only aware of social web, but they have already invested in a website, and just maybe, a blog too. Maybe something like WordPress (open source!) Even so, their best efforts are still far short as they still think of things like social web as “…just another Internet thing that they have to wait out”. Even if in reaching some consensus around the need–they are far from recognizing any effort or investment (time and money) as a priority for their church. They have spruced up a nicer website, and perhaps even the blog is integrated into the church site, but the conversations are one-way (church>>>attendee) and pretty much, people only connect in a way that their paths cross, they share in a common Bible study, and possibly co-labor within some volunteerism. Honestly, the confluencers and the group of Church 1.0 are more closely related than not. Personalization is just not a priority…and it shows.
Church 2.0
Moving from “Church 1.0″, we truly start to get some community traction while fulfilling The Great Commission. Its not that confluencers or church 1.0 churches are not fulfilling this, but they have no vision for reaching through the Internet. We have definitely crossed over a threshold and here is where I truly separate the emerging potential game-changers from those churches simply getting along. True enough, we are plowing uphill against traditions and resistance but forward momentum and visionary leadership are starting to overcome the naysayers pretty consistently. It always helps to have a senior pastor called of God with a clear vision for impacting a community and radically embracing Jesus. More than motivated, these churches are having active meetings around the revision of their websites to include social web with stuff like Twitter and maybe even a Facebook page. Not only are these churches in the game, they are engaging strategy, advancing players round the bases, and challenging the traditional ways. Personalization means something to these churches. They recognize the shift in social web and that people want more than “information from the church website”. Attendees want to experience their church online, consume some resources, and maybe even participate back in things. Sadly, most of this interaction still happens offline. The only experience shared is by those together, all offline. The good news? The conversations are not 100% one-way church to attendee. There is some stuff flowing back online and being integrated into church, the experience online.
Key Ingredients Missing (DON’T MISS THIS!)
There are still key ingredients missing…even up to our progressive church 2.0 people. Actually, they’re not missing. They are practiced more or less effectively, all offline to the Internet, all within the church and its activities. So, most churches have them, some understand them, some even have complete processes written out with roles and responsibilities. There are four pillars that are core to the spiritual infrastructure of every church. We see these as:
1. Spiritual assimilation: Bringing people in. In to our churches, in to our groups, in to our culture, in relationships with people, all, in a relationship with Jesus.
2. Spiritual formation: Growing our body of believers, in their walk, forming and maturing their faith across times, places, peoples, and in life. This is unique to each individual believer and is a function of many things.
3. Spiritual discipleship: Teaching our body of believers, in their walk, with the disciplines of faith, including resources, events, missions, volunteerism, and concentrated expository and life application studies.
4. Spiritual stewardship: Growing, teaching and encouraging the use of time, money, and talents of the body of believers.
This spiritual infrastructure is being done to some degree in the more advanced churches that have both identified the need and dedicated research with work effort to include them into their processes. Some of this work is even using elements of their technology for assessment, diagnostics, and reporting. Some of this work has focused more on one core more than others (e.g., spiritual formation through a “Grow to Go” or “REVEAL” model as diagnostically measuring and reporting into an attendee’s profile).
Four Pillars and My Next Steps
Reaching deeper waters here! These are the game changers. This really narrow field of leading churches are well advanced (or getting that way) in not only user experiences, user interfaces, and social web, but also in at least beginning to dedicate complete teams and leadership to incorporating parts, if not all, of the four pillars in concert between technology and pastoral leadership. Great work is happening here, and attendees lives are being changed. Community impact is happening and more so, community online is beginning to drive community offline, and vice versa. Some of the opportunities and promises of social web are beginning to emerge rather than the church materially lagging on a personalized Internet experience. Even more importantly, the core spiritual infrastructure is becoming more integrated into the attendees life, and their social web interaction within the church is significantly less friction than any other present-day church model that incorporates these aspects.
Shadetree
So here is where we are, BigBadCollab, and where we go next. We invite you along with us. Part of our calling and vision for the church is necessarily, change. It is for this, and many other reasons, that we have begun this journey of Shadetree. It is our desire to incorporate (and we are) the core spiritual infrastructure. Individual community use within Shadetree is balanced to two sides: core spiritual infrastructure models that manifest within the instance from diagnostics, assessments, surveys, and business process rules according to the algorithmic functions of the various spiritual models that we are being engaged to incorporate in ways those entities desire to incorporate. Secondarily, to the aspects of spiritual community, not simply “friending” people.
We are releasing this as open source in the traditional sense of open source. We are fostering a growing developer community within the church to support this movement and those that would desire to contribute to giving it all away. Would you like to hear more? Drop us a line. We would love to hear from you. </msn>
Download GameChangers.PDF
