Letting go
A story in this week’s Chronicle highlights the shifting change in communication strategy for college and university admissions in light of electronic social media. (For anyone with some sort of interest or connection to higher education marketing, Brad J. Ward, who is referenced in this article, is a great resource. Check out his blog and his company.) I can’t help but connect this to a similar shift in the structural church.
How does the church do church in a social media world? How does the church do church in a social media world when fewer and fewer of its participants are millenials who expect a democratic communication process?
I was having a conversation with someone a couple of days ago about this very problem. An organization we are both affiliated with was following the typical prototype of so much church planning and communication: the leadership team makes a proposal, seeks the silent involvement of clergy, the two groups make a final decision in a closed meeting, and announce the results in a newsletter article. Even those of us who are supposedly knowledgeable of the situation are lost and confused.
I, only quarter-jokingly, added that if the church just ignores what goes on around it, the problem will fade away — you know, because the Vatican proved that model successful after that troublesome monk in Germany started spouting off 500 years ago.
Last Sunday I met with my congregation’s in care committee, a group I relate to as I progress through the ordination and education process. I shared with them one of my greatest fears for the church — that we continue on our path of being generally 50-60 years behind the mainstream society, which as we go forward will have the social impact of being 150-200 years behind. Technology now changes on a daily, hourly basis. Its not a matter of getting e-mail to solve the problem.
The creativity that is shaping up in these admissions offices requires no small part of letting go, of recognizing that the university as a social institution must change and adapt to its new role. No longer is its voice the “expert opinion.” Just as much, this is a wonderful opportunity for the church and religious organizations to step forward and model this new behavior, to let go of complete message control. Especially for those of us in traditions which emphasize mutuality and covenant, democratic governance and the universal priesthood, anything less is simply anathema to our theological understanding.
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Daniel Ross-Jones serves as Minister for Youth & Young Adults at First Congregational Church of Palo Alto, United Church of Christ. Living in the San Francisco Bay Area for a time still measured in months, he is frequently getting lost and discovering treasures of a landscape very different from his Upper Midwestern roots. Green Jello Hotdish is a blog exploring the intersections of his days. 
