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By Rick Lawrence
6/26/2009
The other day I was carefully observing the speed limit as I raced past a highway on-ramp-and that's when something...organic...caught my eye. There, not 20 feet from rush-hour traffic, I saw two adult geese-one in front, one behind, with five little goslings sandwiched between them-waddle-parading their way up the center of the on-ramp into certain carnage.
I whispered a prayer: "Jesus, what's the parable here?" Then the "still, small voice" answered back: "Leadership is not a casual occupation-it's a life-and-death calling." Amen. And this is exactly why it's so crucial for us to pause, just to make sure we're not leading our "goslings" up an on-ramp
So let's consider the way we're "waddling" when it comes to social-networking tools in youth ministry:Andy Brazelton, my partner in crime at group, has been shaming me into getting on Twitter-the "micro-blogging" Web site. One day I barked at him, "I'm philosophically opposed to Twitter!" Blank stare, so I barked again: "Twitter commodifies communication-it treats trivial details about our lives as if they were just as important as, well, important details about our lives." I really do talk like this...
Well, Andy walked away unimpressed.
I think Kris is asking exactly the right questions. What are the good, bad, and ugly outcomes of trading our face-to-face relational impact for online relational impact? When Youth Specialties president Mark Oestreicher announced last month that he was pulling the plug on his Twitter, Facebook, and blog accounts "to focus more on my family and the staff of Youth Specialties," I think he was responding to the cluttering impact social networking can have in our life-they can hijack what's vital to us.
The great media guru Marshall McLuhan famously proclaimed: "The medium is the message." He meant that the "medium" of television, for example, has a far more powerful influence on us than the shows that TV delivers to us. Former ad-executive-turned-Mennonite-pastor Shane Hipps explores the implications of McLuhan's statement brilliantly in his book Flickering Pixels.
According to Hipps, texting, Facebook, and Twitter have the power to extend (amplify some human capacity), make obsolete (actually talking on a phone, for example), reverse into (pushed to its extreme, every medium works against its original purpose), and retrieve (email is a new iteration of the telegraph, for example). Twitter is changing the nature of our relationships-some of that is probably good, some is probably bad.
Subversive Thought #2
Is our culture systematically training young people in narcissism? I mean, are the music, film, and video games they love subtly undergirding an "it's all about me" worldview? For example, nothing has fueled the pre-teen worldview more than two made-for-TV Disney films-the High School Musical franchise and Camp Rock. You'd couldn't find two more narcissistic launching pads for the kids who'll be entering your ministry soon.
Twitter, texting, and Facebook all operate like sonar for teenagers-every message or post gives them a chance to receive a psychological "bounce-back" signal. And that merges nicely into the narcissistic flow of the culture.
But none of this has kept me from caving into Andy and setting up my own Twitter account (twitter.com/RickSkip). That's because there are positive, effective reasons to be on Twitter. I've written "5 Quick Tips for Using Twitter" as a Web Extra-just go to HERE.
Rick Lawrence has been editor of GROUP for 21 years. Pick up a copy of his book Jesus-Centered Youth Ministry or his 10-week study for adults and teenagers In Pursuit of Jesus or his new 10-study small group resource for teenagers Ten Tough Things. Or follow him on Twitter: Twitter.com/RickSkip.
I love twitter because it keeps me connected with friends that I rarely get to spend time with but as a result of quick updates from each other, we touch base more often via phone. Thanks Rick.
Len Evans 5:07:10pm on 7/20/2009
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