The Pope Dives into Social Networking-Where is your church?

[James Nored]

Here is a recent article in which the pope encourages priests to use social networking to spread the gospel.

The Pope said, "Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources -- images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites -- which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis," he said.

If the Pope, who is 82 and no technology buff, is calling on people to use social media, what about us?

How is your church using social media to share the gospel? What help can you offer or do you need?

[Ed Dodds]

Woodmont Hills Children and Family Ministry -- http://woodmonthillskids.com/

Woodmont Hills Mission Committee Blog -- http://www.conmergence.com/whmc/

http://woodmontserve.wordpress.com/

http://www​.wood​montstu​dents​.com

http://livingasleaders.net/lead/

http://yourstorymatters2him.wordpress.com/

World Convention - http://www.worldconvention.org/wp/

The Intersection - http://www.faithmeetslife.org/

Saintsmeet - http://www.saintsmeet.com/

Topics and tags on delicious.com and diigo.com

Twitter, Identi.ca, Facebook pages, Yahoo Video, live streaming of services

Interaction with online development forums like change.org, developmentgateway.org, mobileactive.org, indymedia.org, english.ohmynews.com, storiesofafrica.org

Just saw this from Davos
http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/27/world-economic-forums-social-n...

Lausanne Movement has some interesting things -
http://www.lausanne.org/

United Methodist Communications has created some very interesting tools
http://www.umcom.org/site/c.mrLZJ9PFKmG/b.2730433/k.BD83/Home.htm

[James Nored]

Thanks for the links, Ed! Which do you or your church use the most?

[Ed Dodds]

It appears that blogging seems to be the most used current tool (publishing). Our JAM ministries produce movies with youth actors which lend themselves well to youtubification.

I would assume portals like drupal, joomla, alfresco, zope, mediawiki, moodle, etc. will be used in the future 1) to help organize the work process of small groups, 2) to facilitate distance education and tutoring as a medium to create relationships "cyberly".

50 to 80 percent of American youth report using online gaming. So second life, multiplayer game environments are the place we need to be better at working with. Chats, and Skype conferences, dimdim, webex, etc. all have huge potential in both organizing and "outreaching".

IMHO, we as a movement have had a strong tradition of producing theological writing that is only distributed in hardback or some paperback. ebooks and audio books (and collaboration with technologies like http://literacybridge.org/ for illiterate audiences) are a HUGE opportunity that publishing houses are ignoring in favor of the profits hardbacks produce. World Bible School and World Christian Broadcasting need to be seen as social media as well.

James Nored said:

Thanks for the links, Ed! Which do you or your church use the most?

[Ed Dodds]

correction: Youtube, not Yahoo video

[Lynn S. Nored]

Ed

Ed Dodds said:

correction: Youtube, not Yahoo video

Ed Dobbs mentioned the use of Moodle. We are using Moodle for distance learning in the Institute of Theology and Christian Ministry in St. Petersburg, Russia with students all over the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Belarus, etc. On line discussions are included.