Below the Surface

2010 March 30

by Tyler

I often tell the students I serve with that leading worship for middle schoolers goes far beyond how they react initially. Often they would rather screw around than focus on the God we’re trying to get them to worship. It is hard to tell the way that God is working even when it might seem that people could careless.

I had the great opportunity to attend Social Fresh yesterday in Portland. It is a social media conference focused around marketing and I won a ticket to it last week through Twitter. I’m no marketing guru, but it was interesting to attend and listen through the lens of how all this effects the church. More and more I am reminded of how much the church is missing out on by largely ignoring this phenomenon we call social media. I’ll share some of my thoughts and notes on the conference tomorrow.

At the opening of the day there was a video shown that captured so much of how I see social media being a game changer.

Trust me, you want to watch this short video (come here if you can’t see the video)

In many ways social media is similar to the ways God is working below the surface. The connections and relationships built today have many positive repercussions far down the road.

Considering changing the name of this blog to Mister Splashy Pants now…

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http://thoughtsaboutnothing.com Kyle Reed

It is powerful stuff, that social media thing there you talk about.

I think the thing that I take away from this is that it did not become about them but became about helping someone else.
I think the church could learn a lesson from that. Not about promoting your easter service or Saturday night service but about helping your community.

Until churches start to grasp social media as a tool of interaction with others and not a marketing campaign the power will be left untapped.
http://bethanystolle.tumblr.com Bethany

Thanks for sharing, Tyler, and I look forward to your reflections on the event.

I agree that social media is a “game changer” and that churches need to discover ways to integrate it into their ministry. However, I think there’s even a deeper layer to this conversation.

Like Kyle said in his comment, people want to be part of something and help others. Our culture is shifting from a broadcast mentality toward a connected/digital society. So it’s not just about using social media to spray a message out to an audience, but about finding ways to connect and be in community with others. It’s not just about marketing.

But I’m also wondering, what does it mean for loose affiliations where the threshold for investment is low? What about people who just want to be part of a current meme (like Mr. Splashy Pants) instead of engaging in something deeper? What does it look like to be church in this kind of society?
http://godsidekurt.com Kurt

I am missing the connection between the video and serving with middle schoolers? Could you elaborate? Thanks…
http://manofdepravity.com Tyler

In the video a simple thing in social media became huge and changed the way Green Peace did business. There was something going on much deeper than they were prepared for. I’ve often felt that leading middle schoolers is similar. I can’t know the ways the Holy Spirit is working in them even when they seem to not care.
http://godsidekurt.com Kurt

I think this would be a good topic for us to explore further…as I think that middle schoolers aren’t unique in what you are suggesting; “Often they would rather screw around than focus on the God we’re trying to get them to worship. It is hard to tell the way that God is working even when it might seem that people could careless.”

I think High Schoolers do it just as much yet differently…and adults are much better at zoning out in more acceptable ways. I think however frustrating it can be that their lack of connecting is more visible during a worship set it can also be seen as easier to read for the worship leader to change things up mid-stream and seek to connect them. To me this is a beautiful paret of working with them…they are very off the cuff and dont have a problem telling you how they feel…sometimes with words and other times with actions.

Still dont see the connection with the video for what its worth
http://manofdepravity.com Tyler

Totally agree that the concept is applicable to almost any age group. Maybe a little bit more overt with middle schoolers though.
Janet Fraser

Thanks for sharing the link Tyler!

“Be genuine, be honest, be up front.
It’s ok to take yourself a little less seriously…even though it’s a very serious cause, you could ultimately achieve your final goal.”
love it!