How do we as young adults and church leaders engage with social media sites? While this might seem like an innocent enough question at first, with seemingly easy answers (I use site x not site y, etc.) in actuality it’s much more complex.

I was recently at a local blogging workshop where they were discussing institutional involvement in social media (aka social networking). The presenter was speaking out of his experience working with colleges and universities that are trying to be more active in connecting with prospectives, students, and alumni using current and emerging social media sites. One example that he gave was how the chancellor of our regional campus of Indiana University (IU East) is using Twitter to make a personal connection with people, in addition to several other IU East-related Twitter feeds.

Immediately I started thinking of how different this is from how I use social media on a regular basis. Whereas chancellor Paydar maintains his single social media identity through his role with IU East, that model isn’t remotely appealing to me (and I imagine the same is probably true for others of you in my generation.) For me, such sites are enjoyable and meaningful because of the opportunity they provide for near-instant, authentic, personal connection between me and others who know me. In these spaces (as in the rest of my life) I am not first and foremost Pastor Matt, but rather Matt, who is a pastor. A subtle but important difference.

Obviously, the struggle is that while I maintain a personal presence on several social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn,Flickr, etc.) there are times that I do connect with people primarily through my role as a pastor and representative of the “institutional church.” The reason it’s such a struggle is because of the ever-present tensions between authenticity and appropriateness, intimacy and identity. On social media sites these desires get all mashed together in a way that is more difficult to manage than interacting with people in other ways.

I am like many folks who fall into the more post-modern mindset in that I have a deep desire for authentic, intimate connections with others. However, if I am to be truly authentic in such interactions then what happens when my personal thoughts, feelings, and actions are at odds with those of the institution I’m seen to represent? For someone whose primary online identity is institutional (like chancellor Paydar), this decision is easy – the institutional image always wins. But as someone who wants these sites to also be a space where I can truly be myself, the answer isn’t so straightforward.

The two options I’ve come up with both leave me feeling less than satisfied:

1. Maintain separate identities or sites for my different roles, i.e. a persona to use as an institutional representative and another solely for personal use. While this would seem to go with the “clear boundaries” approach to ministry, my lifestyle and self-perception are much more integrated than this would accommodate. I am not two persons, but one complex, multi-faceted person, which is how I would like others to see me and how I hope to represent myself.
2. Maintain my own personal persona and an identity for the institution itself. Instead of trying to be both “Matt” and “Pastor Matt” in two separate accounts, the other option is to give the church itself its own distinct social-media identity. I like this possibility because it takes some of the online institutional representation pressure off me, but at the expense of a somewhat less personal (less authentic?) persona for the church. While the church is an institution, it is also a community made up of real people, and our online presence should somehow reflect that.

Thus far my approach has been along the lines of option 2, with making a Facebook “fan page” for our church. I’m still debating what to do about other sites like Twitter and Flickr.

It’s safe to say that social media sites like this aren’t going anywhere, and that more and more of us will be using them with at least some frequency in the future. I’d love to hear your thoughts and reflections on how you’re navigating this digital dilemma, as well as what suggestions you might have for the rest of us as together we make our way through this brave new (online) world.

(Original post available here)

I don’t want this to come across as an “I’m just putting something on my blog because ohmygod I haven’t posted in ages!” kind of effort (even if at some level it may be), so here are a couple quick updates. In particular I’ll try to highlight some of the things I’ve posted about “recently.”

• My parents are doing quite well after their house fire last year. I just received word from them today that their construction loan has finally gone through. They are rebuilding on the same piece of land their old house was on, but starting literally from the ground up. They hope to start digging footers for the new construction next week (mid-May) and to be in the house by fall.

• The new Honda Insight has launched, to pretty good reviews I might add, but I’m still not convinced. It is about 4/5 of a Prius at a lower price, both size and mileage-wise. While the $20k price is attractive, I still have significant reservations about the overall environmental impact of all those hybrids’ batteries, even if they do use less fuel.
• I survived my first time through all the major seasons of the church (especially Christmas and Easter) and have emerged unscathed as I prepare to celebrate my 1 year anniversary of being a pastor on June 15th. It’s incredibly hard to believe it’s been almost 11 months, though I guess if you judge by the continually decreasing frequency of my blog posts, it’s not all that surprising.
• Part of the blame for my lack of blogging should also go straight to Facebook and Twitter. The more I seem to get sucked into these social-media oriented sites, the less I create original content for my blog. I do intend to remedy that though …

Rather than inundate you with more semi-interesting updates, I’ll leave you with news about this blog:

No, I am not abandoning it. Yes, I am actively planning new content!

• A review of my recent “road test” of a 2009 Nissan Versa. I’ve had my eye on the Versa as a possible next car for a while now, so you might be interested in my impressions after spending 350 miles with one.
• Some tech updates on “recent” purchases – Lenovo S10 netbook, Nikon D60 Digital SLR camera, and several others.
• Some insight into bicycle commuting – continuing the irony that this gearhead car-blogger often doesn’t even drive a car unless I can’t avoid it!
• A revew of Phyllis Tickle’s The Great Emergence – a wonderful, insightful (and relatively short) book about “how Christianity is changing and why.”
• A semi-regular feature for posting recipes, particularly for the soups and breads I make every Monday night as part of the dinner and conversation group I host.

So, there you go … proof that <montypythonvoice> I’m not dead yet! I’m getting better! </montypythonvoice> Stay tuned for new content coming soon, and feel free to leave your suggestions for interesting posts in the comments section!

From Bits to Bites & Windshields to Worship!

I’ve put a great deal of time and effort into getting this blog up and going. I hope that it can be a source of information, insight, connection, and community. One of the advantages of ramping up slowly before going live is that I’m able to launch with quite a bit of content already posted, so feel free to poke around and get a feel for what this blog is all about. Check out the categories listings, peruse the archives, and maybe even leave a comment or get a subscription (or at least figure out what getting a subscription means!)

One of the things that makes blogs so great is the opportunity they provide for conversation. Therefore, I hope you’ll feel free to contribute your own thoughts, retorts, and suggestions in the comments sections you’ll find at the end of each post. The beauty of the internet is that it doesn’t have to be a one-way communication medium, so let’s make the most of it!

Now that you’re here, why don’t you go ahead and take your coat off, kick off your shoes, and hang out for a while? I think this gonna be a lot of fun …

First of all let me say that the WordPress folks have made this program pretty darn easy to upgrade. I took the extra step of backing up my existing install (database and files just to be safe) and dove in. The basic process is as follows:

1. Download the new files
2. Copy the files to your server
3. Tell WordPress to upgrade your database (if needed)

And that’s it! For most of the files you can simply overwrite or delete the old files completely, with the exception of things like themes and plugins. I didn’t time how long the upgrade process took, but I’m sure it was 15 minutes or less.

So what did I get for all my (not-so) hard work? The main focus of this revision to WordPress is a completely revamped “back end” where I write posts, manage comments, and do other blogger-ly things. That means that readers won’t see much of a difference, but trust me things are better over here than they were! There is a new theme and layout which is much easier on the eyes and has better usability. There also are some nifty new upload features that make putting my photos and artwork on the site a lot easier. Overall I’ve been very pleased with the upgrade thus far and would recommend it to others.

The one change that readers may notice is that articles in the RSS feeds are no longer truncated the same way they are on the front page of the blog. Therefore, you’ll now get complete articles if you choose to subscribe. (I know that some people actually prefer to get the shorter synopses. If you are one of these people, make some noise in the comments and I might think about changing this!)

Any of you other WordPress bloggers out there make the switch to 2.5 yet? What do you think of it? If not, are you going to? Let’s hear about it in the comments …