First a bit of background: I am not a specialist in this area. I have a Master of Divinity degree and I am employed by a Presbyterian congregation to communicate church worship, activities, and missions to the congregation. While my skills in graphic design are a couple steps above a 3rd grader's refrigerator art, I am a theologian and a preacher. I have pastored a church and I care deeply about how a congregation's theology is communicated through presence, through written communication, and through online communication. I have not been groomed and prepared for the role I am in- I was thrown in by God a year and a half ago and I can't claim to be any sort of authority on the subject. I mean only to ask questions. Your input would be appreciated. Please don't confuse my questions for any sense of smug authority. I really have no idea what I am doing.
The question arises over and over in different parts of the church: "How do we communicate the life and activities of this institutional body in a timely and efficient manner that doesn't offend donors and safely gets information to the right people?" I've sat in meetings or talked with folks about this at undergraduate institutions (of religious and non-religious affiliation), seminary-level, and congregational-level. The scenarios which prompt these questions:
-"I didn't get those 12 emails over the last month reminding me that the mandatory meeting was today!"
-"What do you mean we've been donating thousands of dollars to this very worthy mission? It was only published a bazillion times in every platform known to this congregation? Well, I didn't see it."
-"Wait, this school has a club for [enter controversial topic here]? Why was it never communicated over email or posted to the online announcement board?"
-Or on the flip side: "Our club might ruffle feathers on the board, so we were told by [enter central authority figure here] that we can't let anyone know about our presence or when we have meetings, making recruitment difficult. Why are we being discriminated against because we are [enter controversy here]?"
-"When the scholarship deadline was moved up to tomorrow, I called everyone on campus who deals with online communication to try and get an email alert that the deadline has been moved. They are all on vacation. The weekly email went out Monday- and they said I should have sent them notice before then, but I didn't know before then!! Now, anyone trying to apply to this very essential scholarship will be turned down because of our inability to communicate simple things to the entire campus."
-"Who is the secret moderator behind the emails? Why doesn't she forward my partisan propaganda?"
-"Someone created a facebook account with the school's name on it and no indication of who is behind it. S/he has started posting very controversial postings that I do not want associated with my school. We must stop this now, even if it means alienating a class, staff member, faculty member, board of trustees member, etc."
-"Why does the pastor have to spend hours every week just moderating online content? He already works 60 hours a week."
The situations are common, especially since so many people spend so much time online now. For an institution or a church, there have to be these moderating decisions made, and in my opinion, there is often not a reasonable infrastructure or theology for deciding WHO makes those decisions, WHAT sort of responsibility that person or group of people have, and WHY decisions are made the way they are. Often the pastor/president/board must either make all the decisions (which is problematic in many situations) or moderate arguments that rise constantly over what someone else has said online somewhere that offended someone with clout.
I am aware that the very basic nature of the internet makes every person a potential authority to speak on behalf of the institution. On some level, these institutions absolutely MUST let go of their tightly controlled image. You cannot commit huge funds to the moderation of google searches or threaten lawsuits over every negative comment made about you online. There's also a basic maturity aspect about this too- yes, students/congregants have probably taken out their frustrations about your professors/pastor/staff online somewhere. At the end of the day, you can't make everyone say only nice things about you. It cannot by done. If you have a huge PR problem- it probably goes deeper than "that group of students who always wanted to cause a little trouble."
But what about official communications coming from an institution? Church email? Facebook group administration? Twitter postings? Content availability or hierarchy on an official website?
My question today, arising out of all these questions and issues previously mentioned: Why doesn't the church (in particular) see this sort of role as a spiritual gift? We see the role of coffee preparation or snow removal as modern gifts of the church, fitting within the larger role of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12). We are quick to point out that while some are called to preach and others to teach and others to serve as Elder or Deacon, others are called to maintaining the classrooms or cooking meals for the hungry.
So why don't we talk more about those who are called to moderate internet communication?
What sort of signs would we see in a person called to this sort of work? Does this person have patience, temperance, availability? Does this person need to work on staff or receive a salary? Who does this person answer to? Is this better fitted to a committee format? Should a group moderate together and thus disperse some of the responsibility and antipathy that is generated when moderation requires difficult decisions? How can the whole community support and empower this person or these people? What sort of preparation or theological education is necessary for an online designer/communicator in a church setting?
Not only is this a relatively new question for relatively old institutions- and thus has created a number of hiccups so far. There aren't a lot of models for dealing with these questions. Such radically equal access and dispersion of authority has never happened like this before. It could mean that the institutions themselves, if too rigid, could become antiquated quickly. But if flexible enough, they can survive this just fine. It may not be enough to use the old lines of authority though. It might mean a new calling is forming, and a new sort of gift of the Spirit is emerging.
What does your institution do to address these issues? Do you have someone or a group who you feel is called to this ministry? Knowing that not all will be pleased, how does moderation of content occur? Who responds quickly when new information must be communicated (even when it's something as simple as cancelling a scheduled event due to snow)? Does the responsibility and blame always get pushed onto the pastor? Or the secretary? Or the expendable staff member? Through whatever system is currently in place where you are, is discrimination perpetuated through social communication? Do the voiceless have further barriers placed in front of them, even with such open communication as is available now? How do you create an environment in which communication is effectively reaching those people it needs to reach?
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