Are You Ready For Back to Church Sunday?

The pandemic has demonstrated the value of social media and communication in general.

During this past year, yes I said a year, we have learned that we cannot just put a message in a bulletin or announce it on Sunday morning anymore. Instead, we have adopted multiple platforms to communicate with parishioners.

Depending on the specific needs of individual parishes these tools have ranged from snail mail, phone trees, email blast using tools like Mailchimp, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, YouTube worship services, revamped websites, live streams, apps for smartphones and more. In short, these tools have been a godsend. They have allowed us the ability to maintain our communities while we are staying at home to flatten the curve and save lives.

But as vaccines begin to be rolled out with the government targeting September for population vaccination, we need to start thinking about how we shift and refocus those tools to begin looking outward after they have served us so well looking inward.

Simply put, Back to Church Sunday in 2021 may be the most important day in the calendar. Not just for drawing back together our own communities, but for active evangelism.

The world is starving for community, events to attend, people to see and activities to engage. Our fall ramp up this year will be the most important
of our generation.

There is an incredible opportunity that awaits us this year to offer events, social gatherings and of course in-person worship in the name of bringing people to Christ. To that end, we must start planning now and give some thought to how we will take all these new tools and turn them outward so that we can invite our mission fields and build community.

Building Relationships: More Than Hitting the “Like” Button: Huron Church News February 2021

If the pandemic is teaching us one thing, it is the importance of web-based tools in maintaining relationships.

This is true with family and friends as we once again are self-isolating through a second lockdown. This is also true for staying in touch with parishioners.

Many parishes have adapted and are making greater uses of Facebook Live, YouTube and Zoom. But to have that personal contact that we are missing from the lack of in-person services and coffee hours, phone trees have sprung to life again and the lost art of writing notes delivered through snail mail is back in vogue.

In short, digital tools must augment our relationships, not replace them with a click of a “like” button. Social media and digital platforms are meant to bolster relationships.

Tithe.ly Church Management Software is another tool in the modern parishes’ relationship-building toolbox. It is a robust database that tracks events, groups and even provides a place to store all those minutes taking at each committee meeting. Treasurers can track givings, generate tax receipts and produce monthly reports with ease.

But the most powerful tool for relationship building is the ability of the ChMS to generate various reports. Birthday and anniversaries are built-in reports generated each month to enable birthday or anniversary blessings mailed to parishioners. Custom reports for life’s big moments like baptism, weddings and funerals can also be created. The importance of receiving a hand-written note on the anniversary of the passing of a loved one, the baptism of a child or celebrating that first year of marriage goes so much further in relationship building than hitting the “like” button on Facebook.

Tips on Building Your First Church App: Huron Church News January 2021

The thought of building an app for your church probably scares most people, myself included. I have never built an app before. And if I am honest, I am not that techy of a person. In reality, I am an end-user. People build programs, and then I use the best program. It is very much the same as being a mechanic, finding the right tool for the job.

So, when I submitted my request form to Tithe.ly to begin the process of building All Saints’ first app for smartphones and tablets, both for Android and OS, I was nervous. Had I bitten off more than I could chew?

Thankfully, the process was easy. Some simple design questions and layout choices and the Tite.ly team took care of the rest. My role in the app rollout was entirely about what would serve the church the best, a functional design and what information I wanted the app to contain.

So here are a few tips to think about when preparing to build an app for your church.

  1. Don’t replicate your website. The website already has a mobile version. Think about how you want people to interact and what additional information you want to share. For All Saints’ we decided on an interactive prayer wall, an “events” button, a connection to our live stream, pictures of life at All Saints, a Bible tab and a tab to the revised common lectionary.
  2. Your app will also allow push notifications. Set a policy on how and when to use this feature. For example, snow event and worship is now cancelled is a good use. Birthday announcements are probably a bad use and will have people uninstalling your app.
  3. Link your app to your other social media accounts, whether YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Create an eco-system where individuals can easily access all your online information.

For the first 20 years of this century, a website was one of your post important evangelistic tools. The next 20 years though will continue with people moving from computer screens to their smartphones and tablets.

Now is the time to get on Tithe.ly to launch your branded app.

Introducing a New All-In-One Online Platform for Churches: Huron Church News December 2020

Recently the Diocese of Huron has entered into a partnership with Tithe.ly
Tithe.ly is your all in one online platform for churches. Through Tithe.ly the diocese and its parishes will have access to an online giving platform, messaging service, apps for individual parishes, professionally designed websites for parish, Church management software (including accounting) and event coordination.

Tithe.ly is a powerful evangelism tool for the Diocese of Huron and individual parishes. The Diocese of Huron itself, Proud Anglicans Huron, All
Saints Waterloo, The Parish of the Blue Mountains, St. James’ Stratford, St. Paul’s Cathedral, St. Mark’s London and St. Thomas St Thomas are all first adopters of this new system.

Signing up to the system does not mean you have to have everything Parishes will be able to pick and choose buffet style the pieces of the platform they wish, such as professionally designed websites for $9 (US) a month or they could just opt for the all-access option.

Over the coming number of issues of the Huron Church News, I will be highlighting one part of the system.

The first place I want to begin with is websites. Tithe.ly has several professionally designed themes. Choose the theme that works for your parish. It is as simple as dropping in your images and updating the content.

In 24 hours, I was able to port images, select a few new ones, port content and customize my menus, fonts, buttons etc. All this sounds a little scary, but please rest assured if you can fill out a Facebook profile you can build a Tithe.ly site for your church.

Some of the features I find outstanding are the integration of my live stream from Facebook right onto my site, the plan your visit feature, so parishioners can reserve seats during this time of pandemic and a customized footer that will be available for the Diocese of Huron only, that will help to create and foster a diocesan culture and brand.

Stay tuned as over the coming month I learn to build my first app so that I can push content right to peoples’ phones, stay connected, and offer more opportunities for engagement with parishioners and seekers.

Audience Demographics: How to Reach Out to All Ages? Huron Church News November 2020

Who are you trying to reach on social media? As we start to think about setting budgets for 2021 where are you willing to invest in social to maintain and develop new connections?

One of the things that social media has allowed churches to do for the past decade is micro-target ads and messages to certain demographics. For giants like Facebook, this has always been their best marketing feature.

But microtargeting an audience on a single platform won’t be as effective for the next decade as different generations rush to different platforms. And each of the platforms has a unique way to shape content that helps churches tailor their message to the demographics they wish to reach.

Currently, 7 in 10 adults in Canada are active on Facebook, so this should still be the main platform that focuses much of our energy in driving content and conversations. Facebook is perfect for a few pictures, a microblog post and sharing upcoming events.

Yet, we should also be aware of demographic shifts in social. Facebook currently is skewing to a Baby Boomer audience. Millennials meanwhile prefer Instagram where they can develop Stories on their feed and even post short videos. Moving into this space will require photo and video editing software and a willingness to learn how to develop eye-catching content.

Gen Z or Zoomers alternatively are on Snapchat and TikTok. Snapchat offers similar features surrounding stories as Instagram, while TikTok is
a short video platform. Unlike Instagram, both of these platforms are populated by a younger generation that creates using their phones rather than professional cameras and editing software, so there is a lower
barrier of entry and it is perfectly acceptable to be campy.

To make your church stand out, save time, and enhance the experience, take advantage of each social media platform’s features to weave these different content styles together to reach out to all ages, or nations, and teach them all that Jesus has taught.

How Many Viewers do you Have: Making Sense of the Numbers: Huron Church News October 2020

As churches have rushed online many have been surprised at the number of views for worship services. Churches that used to boast 50-75 in attendance on Sunday Morning now have hundreds of views from a live stream or an uploaded video. And it would seem that we are reaching and
connecting with more people than ever before and many are celebrating.

I don’t want to be the one to deflate all the accomplishments of our churches and their online efforts. Yet to make sense of the number of views and all the data from digital platforms, there are some best practices.

First is to separate out the number of unique viewers from total views. This is easily done on YouTube, whose analytics will tell you precisely the number of unique views. This doesn’t separate out the number of times an individual may re-watch a service, but it does give you a precise number of unique individuals engaging with your content.

Facebook does not provide unique viewer numbers, unfortunately. But Facebook does provide the peak live viewers data during a live event, as well as 3-second viewers, 10-second viewers and 1-minute viewers.

You might have 133 3-second viewers, 84 10-second viewers and 50 1-minute viewers. Of the three numbers, the best to use for your data is the 1-minute viewers’ number as it reflects better the number of people who watched the service verse those who scrolled past on their feed.

Another data point to consider is your email analytics. Mailchimp provides wonderful analytics. You can see how many people opened a specific email and compare those results to your average open rate. It also provides which links were clicked on and who your top subscribers are. This provides great data in analyzing how many opened the order of service for any given Sunday.

Together using multiple data points I am able to better
ascertain a) which type of content is most effective in reaching beyond the church walls, and b) who many people I am effectively reaching.

This helps me better tailor my online offerings to meet the needs of those who are watching but also have an eye to broadening the reach of the Kingdom of God.

Church in a Bag: Sunday school bags delivered to six churches in the Deanery of Waterloo: Huron Church News October 2020

With the beginning of the new school year, the Deanery of Waterloo started Hello Church: Church in a Bag program addressing the needs of Sunday school children and their parents.

As we adjust to life in the pandemic, it has become clear that social distancing requirements will most likely keep many of our Sunday Schools
closed for the coming year.

Recognizing that parents with Sunday school-aged children might also stay away from church until Sunday school reopens poses a challenge for many parishes. But it also provides an opportunity for mission and evangelism and deepening people’s connections to their various churches.

With six churches participating with almost 100 bags created and delivered each week, the deanery looks to continue to innovate in this time of pandemic to bring the church to the homes of the faithful.

As a recipient of this program, Kelli Tigert says “it has made my daughter feel so loved as part of our church family to receive her bag and she is so excited for the next ones to come. Such a truly amazing and thoughtful idea.”

Just like meal kits that are delivered to the door, Sunday school bags are delivered each week, maintaining that connection with parents and kids
and demonstrating the kind of outrageous love of Christ.

Each bag contains a lectionary-based bible verse, a story and a craft. Everything needed for the Sunday school lesson is in the bag. Everything is supplied.

As a bonus, Hello Church provides 15-30 minutes of non-screen time activity for parents during the week. Knowing that Zoom fatigue is weighing heavy on parents, the program is designed to be offline and to add in discipleship and formation.

While the pandemic and the Amber Stage guidelines pose many challenges to returning to church it also has provided an opportunity for mission, discipleship and evangelism.

Welcome to the New Normal: Huron Church News September 2020

We have all heard the phrase, “The New Normal” thousands of times during this pandemic. It is almost ubiquitous at this point, but it still merits pondering what it means and implies for us all.

It suggests two things really,

1) this is new, it is something we have never experienced, and 2) it is also what we should expect going forward, it is now customary.

This should mean much to us in the church, that out of necessity have rushed online so that we could still provide good quality worship, a connection with God and community while isolated. It means what we are doing today will continue to be expected of us once we return to the in-person church in September.

There are many reasons for this, but chief among them is that not all our parishioners will feel safe returning to face-to-face worship. Some will have
underlying health conditions; others will be married to or are caring for someone who is considered high risk. The cameras will, simply put, have to keep rolling.

When we host Back to Church Sunday this year, there will be many regular attendees missing. Not because they do not want to be there, but because it is not safe while we are in the Amber Stage. Therefore whatever form of online worship you and your parish has chosen will have to continue, whether that be live streams, pre-recorded YouTube videos, and even digital coffee hour and Bible studies.

This “New Normal” will necessitate a hybrid model of digital and in-person church, community and worship. Each step of the way care will need to be taking to ensure no one is left behind when we re-open the buildings. The cameras and online engagement simply must continue and we will need to be more creative than ever before.

Welcome to the New Normal.

What To Do Now When The Plate Cannot Be Passed: Huron Church News June 2020

Social distancing has meant that the church has had to change and change rapidly. We are no longer able to gather each Sunday for worship physically. So many of us gather around our computers and watch live streams or prerecorded YouTube videos.

This has also meant that the finances of parishes have been deeply affected. Simply put, the plate cannot be passed. Many have chosen to take this opportunity to sign up to Pre-Authorized Giving, while others mail cheques for their offering.

Thankfully there are online solutions that can be quickly integrated with social and web platforms. CanadaHelps is a popular and easy solution as
a web portal for charities. In one quick stop, you can set up a page for your parish and integrate the online donation platform with your existing channels.

The downside to CanadaHelps is the fee structure. CanadaHelps applies a 4% fee to any onetime donation and 3.5% to any monthly donation. That means if I donate $100 to a church I will get a tax receipt for $100 but the church only receives $96.

PayPal Giving Fund is another solution. It is the charitable arm of Paypal. First, you will need to open a PayPal account for your parish and then link that with PayPal Giving Fund. Once approved, you can accept donations to your charity through PayPal Giving Fund at 0% fees, which means my entire gift goes to the charity of my choice.

It is a little more complicated to set up than CanadaHelps, but the time put in today will reap rewards in the future from the fee-less base service and the assurance that every cent goes to the parish and the building of the kingdom of God.

Do You Need More Proof? Social Media is a Primary Tool for Ministry: Huron Church News May 2020

In this new normal of living through a pandemic, our reliance on social media platforms has been vindicated. People use to see social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, as distractions, and not core to ministry. This all changed with Covid-19.

We now rely on Facebook, YouTube, Zoom and Hangouts for everything from connecting with parishioners, holding meetings to streaming worship
services. The most popular tools are Facebook for live streaming worship services and Zoom and Hangouts for video conferencing.

Many of our churches already had a decent Facebook presence. Being able to adapt quickly and make use of Facebook Live has allowed many of us to stream services and maintain our worshipping communities. This weekly opportunity for virtual worship keeps the body of Christ together when we cannot be together.

Zoom and Hangouts have also been instrumental in this new normal Zoom’s free account allows for up to 100 people on a video conferencing call, more than enough for parish council meetings. Zoom’s limitation is that it restricts group video calls to 40 minutes. To overcome this restriction you will need to sign up to plan. The most cost-effective is $20 a month, or $200 if paid annually.

Hangouts meanwhile are part of the Google Business suite that the Diocese of Huron has made available to every cleric for free. They host up to 100
participants and have no time restriction on video calls, so there is no need to upgrade the service. Hangouts, as part of the Google business suite ecosystem, integrate all the Google tools. You can present your screen or separate window and share documents live; a great tool for the treasurer’s report.

Regardless of the tool one thing as become clear, social media is no longer a secondary tool, but a primary tool to ministry. And while it is not for everyone, it has been a gift from God in maintaining our communities in this crisis and allowing us the opportunity to continue with ministry.

Think Before You Press the Send Button: Huron Church News April 2020

Web, social media and email offer us instant communication. The speed at which information travels today is unprecedented. And while misinformation travels faster and wider than the truth, the tools we choose to use can also have unintended consequences and send a message we may not have intended.

With that in mind, here are a few tips to consider before
sending an email, instant message or tweet.

1) Whether it is in the business world, in church land or just between friends never send a negative comment or reprimand electronically. It often inflames the situations. It is always best practices to sit face to face or at least pick up the phone.

2) The Internet is forever. Be sure of what you put out there. Ask yourself will you still be comfortable with what you have written in a week, month,
year or 10 years from now?

3) If something is on fire, or you need an answer quickly, don’t use email or instant messenger. Not everyone has access or responds instantly. If it is on fire, treat it as such and pick up the phone or arrange a meeting.

4) If an email chain has gone on for more than 4 or 5 replies this is a clear indication that it should have been a phone call or meeting. By the fifth reply, you should take the conversation offline.

5) Email, text and instant messenger simply are not personal. If you really want to connect with someone on an issue, reach out. Go see them or pick up the phone. Your point will have more impact. Your compliment or thank you will mean so much more. Or even better, take the time to write a
handwritten note.

The web has given us an amazing opportunity to share information and communicate instantly. That being said though, relationships are built upon trust. And trust is built when you take the time to pick up the phone rather than banging out an email or sending a tweet. It says we value each other.

There are times to step away from the keyboard, pick up the phone and engage directly. Doing so demonstrates the type of love that Jesus continually reminds of in His ministry.

Yellow Pages in a Digital Age: How to Claim a Listing for Your Church: Huron Church News March 2020

Whether it is Google, Facebook, Yelp or Bing, there are many modern replacements to the “yellow pages” that include churches.

Have you claimed these business listings for your church yet? It is simple, easy, and free. But more importantly, it allows you to manage your content and control the story you want to tell.

For instance, if you Google your church, you will see a business listing on the righthand side of the search result. There is likely a picture, location on Google Maps and reviews from people that have attended your church.

Your church is likely listed whether or not you have claimed ownership of it. This means other people are telling your story, influencing which images are seen first, and you are missing a chance to interact with people who review your church. These reviews can be a point of contact and give you valuable insight into how visitors experience your services and facilities.

Claiming listings allow you to update your business hours and communicate when the church is open. You can link directly to your website which makes it easy for people to learn about your church and all you offer in God’s name. And the listings can support each other. For example, Google pulls events from your Facebook page and can list them on when your church appears in the search results.

Each service has a number of tools and features that allow you to claim and manage your listing. From the images that appear, to what it says. Leaving it unclaimed means others will tell your story and it may not be the story you want to be told. By claiming the listing you can control your content and share the story you want to tell.

Short Videos, A Versatile and Engaging Format: Huron Church News February 2020

Heading into 2020 and keeping up with all the innovations in social media can seem daunting. Which emerging platform should the church engage with? How is it best to deliver our message of hope and salvation?

Before getting lost in Snapchat, TikTok or Lasso it is best to know where the overall trends are headed. And the biggest trend in social media is towards short videos, often known as ethereal content.


Video has become a major trend and the type of content people prefer to consume. In fact, it is what makes YouTube the second largest search engine in the world!


Videos are a versatile and engaging format that not only gives us a real-life picture of what is going on but also allows us to engage in a new and authentic way.

Because social media is designed for people to connect, share content and engage, videos are a perfect fit for this type of interaction.

The major platforms like Facebook and Instagram are pushing hard for videos. Instagram’s recent algorithm gives more preferences to videos when ranking content. And this is the impetus behind Instagram and Facebook stories, short videos that last for 24 hours and then vanish from the timeline.

And considering that each Christian is in effect a Brand Ambassador, or as we would normally say, an evangelist, reaching into your pocket and pulling out that phone to video part of your day, a thought about scripture or theology or even sharing devotionals is a great way to bring Christ out of the church and into your followers’ lives.

20 Years

It was 20 years ago…about now. Sometime after my birthday, but before December.

It was about now, 20 years ago that I stopped listening to the demons on my left shoulder and said yes to that lone voice on my right voice.

It is not always easy. It sometimes feels like that lone voice loses. But then before I can give in the hundreds of voice on my left, something distracts me, Hannah rushes in to tell me she loves me, the phone rings and something brings me back.

I know, I know. This is the work of the one on the right. He is, after all, a body. And the body has many parts.

I keep listening. Sometimes it is easy. Often it is not. But I listen. I strain to hear.

I pray for him each day. I pray that he wins. Because I need him too.

It has been 20 years.

Free Wi-Fi access in your church – plenty of reasons to provide it: Huron Church News January 2020

When I meet someone for coffee I rarely meet at Tim Horton’s. I normally search out a locally owned coffee shop rather than a chain.

There are a few reasons for this. One, I prefer to support a local small business; and two, they often have free Wi-Fi that is marketable better than Tim Horton’s.


Whether it is a coffee shop, on the train or at the hockey game, I am always in search of free Wi-Fi so as not to use up all my data on my cell phone plan. Free Wi-Fi means I can linger for a bit before or after my meeting and perhaps have a muffin or second cup of coffee and catch up on the day’s headlines. It also means that I can give the coffee shop a good Yelp, Google or Facebook review while I am relaxing.


Free Wi-Fi is not something we normally think to advertise or provide at our churches. After all, we don’t want people glued to their phones during the service or worse, during the sermon. We might even wish they would sit quietly and reflectively before or after the service praying.


Yet free Wi-Fi also gives the opportunity for the quick review on Yelp, Google or Facebook, which can drive more seekers to your door. It may mean that someone shares an Instagram story of their morning visit that inspires friends to come back to their faith. It may also mean a simple status update that is shared and liked and seen by hundreds.

In our rush to create spaces that are intentionally reflective and unplugged, we can also miss the opportunity to provide the tools for those that come to share their faith and their experience of our churches. And while we want people engaged in intentional prayer, we also want them to share all that God is doing in their lives. And free accessible Wi-Fi gives them that chance in the moment.

Phishing for your personal info: how to protect yourself: Huron Church News December 2019

Recently someone seeking to use the goodwill of the people of the Diocese of Huron cloned what appeared to be Archbishop Colin Johnson’s email and sent an email out the emails listed on the diocesan website. The person was seeking Google Play or iTunes cards. This is just one of many scams that are used to prey upon people.

There are a variety of ways to protect yourself from falling victim to such scams. Here are a few tips to help protect yourself.

1. Never send money to someone you have never met face-to-face. And don’t do it if it someone you know asking you to use a wire transfer, a prepaid debit card, or a gift card like iTunes or Google Play (those cannot be traced and are as good as cash).

2. Don’t click on links or open attachments in an unsolicited email. Links can download malware onto your computer and/or steal your identity.

3. Scammers are great at mimicking official websites, fonts, and other details. Just because a website or email looks official does not mean that it is. Even Caller ID can be faked. Always contact the company by opening a new browser window or by calling and speaking to someone at the organization.

4. Never share personal information with someone who has contacted you unsolicited, whether it’s over the phone, by email, on social media, even at your front door.

5. Always check the email address or URL to see it is legitimate. Case in point, the recent email sent to the diocese was not from a diohuron.org address but was from “Most Reverend Colin R. Johnson “anastasiapeckins35@gmail.com”

The World Wide Web, much like the world itself is a wonderful place full of interesting information and great people. But much like a market in a tourist centre, where the best deal is available only to you and pickpockets lurk around the corner, we need to take a few steps to protect ourselves.

What have you shared: a short reflection on public theology. Huron Church News November 2019

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. John 13:35

By the time you are reading this the Federal election is over. Either Mr Trudeau won a second mandate, a majority or minority or Andrew Scheer was able to turn the tables and is now on his way to 24 Sussex Dr.

Perhaps Jagmeet Singh or Elizabeth May hold the balance of power? One never knows what role the Bloc will play, and they may have more influence and seats than the NDP and Greens. Regardless, the election is over and we can all go back to our regularly scheduled lives.

But I wonder what would happen if in light of the Gospel and the verse above we were to go back through our Facebook and Twitter feeds, what would we find?

Would we find good factual information shared or memes insulting the leaders? Would we find the positive proposals highlighted or another string of insults demeaning Trudeau or Scheer? Do we condone behaviour that belittles or do we rise above it and show God’s love to the world?

Public theology is the engagement and dialogue with the larger society by the church and individual Christians. It seeks a fair and just society for all by engaging issues of common interest to build the common good. We, therefore talk with society not just to society. And no time is better for this to happen than election season. And nothing is quite as public as social media.

So what have you shared? Have your posts and comments reflected love for one another?

I wonder if I am ready to stand before God with the resume of my social media posts in my hands. Would they convict me of love for one another or indict me as someone who put aside the Gospel to fling a little mud during a bitterly fought election campaign?

Perhaps a good exercise is to go back, read what we shared and ask ourselves if by sharing it I made the Gospel known? Did others see Christ through our shares and retweets? The world is watching and we should always be deeply conscious of the responsibility each of us as the baptized share in making Christ known through word and deed. Even and most especially, during election seasons.

How to Generate the Best Welcome Package. Huron Church News October 2019

The welcome package is a sure-fire way to help newcomers learn more about your community. They identify the newcomer at coffee hour so your volunteers can introduce themselves and answer any questions. And most of all, they leave an impression in the mind of the visitor.

To ensure that impression is positive here are a few tips to help you generate the best welcome package for first-time visitors.

Most of the content needed for the package should already exist on your website: who you are, what worship is like on a typical Sunday morning, what life at your parish includes.

Simply re-purpose this content into print format, preferably into a set of brochures. The brochures need to be appealing. Not everyone is a graphic designer or has one who can volunteer their services. This is why I make
judicious use of templates.


Both Apple Pages and Microsoft Publisher have professionally designed templates included with the software. Apple has over 100 + new brochure designs that can be downloaded for an extra 9.99 at the Apple Store and Microsoft 365 has an equal number available for download for your favourite Microsoft program (Word, PowerPoint, Publisher) at templates.office.com


If you wish to break away from the templates that come with the software, both lucidpress.com and canva.com (https://www.canva.com/create/brochures/) are excellent resources that give you access to fresh designs. Canva also allows you to match your design with Facebook banners images if you are planning an event. A bonus.

All of these brochures just require that the text is changed and new images added in the placeholders. They are designed to be drag and drop so that non-profits who cannot employ a graphic designer can still have professionally designed brochures.

Once the brochures are finished and printed in colour, I like to finish it off with a fridge magnet and a pen, all branded and all from Vista Print. Pop
in some seasonal appropriate candy and then you have a welcome package that is professional and informative about the church.

Such a subtle way to leave an impression, but one that will leave a powerful impression that will have that first-time visitor returning again and again.

Let people feel their engagement is making a difference, Huron Church News September 2019

Back in the April 2019 issue of the Huron Church News, I wrote about Facebook’s built-in tool for polls as a means of driving engagement.

Far too often churches use Facebook as a broadcast medium instead of building those peer-to-peer relationships that make social media so powerful.

The idea is simple. Run polls asking simple questions like, for Lent, do you give something up? Or take something on? Advent, blue or purple?

The natural extension of running these polls is translating the data that you collecting on your congregation from social media to everyday life. For instance, you might have a parish dinner in your calendar. This is a good opportunity to run a poll, or to ask the simple question, what is your favourite pie? The responses will provide you with data about the type of pie people who will attend your dinner prefer. During the parish announcements on Sunday morning when advertising the upcoming parish dinner mention the poll and that you will have said kind of pie for dessert. If you employ a screen for announcements, include a screenshot. Nothing builds relationships better, faster and deeper than people feeling heard, even if it is just about pie.

This same technique can be expanded beyond silly questions about food. Asking your congregation about their favourite bible verse will give you great data to build up future bible studies. Asking people to name their favourite hymn or song makes music planning throughout the seasons that much easier. Asking people about their hidden talent can lead to discovering all kinds of skills in the parish to further the kingdom of God.

Moving from social to real life is a great way to continue to build engagement on your social media platforms. And nothing makes people valued and will drive traffic back to your social media platforms than people feeling as their engagement is making a difference in the life of the church.

“Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.” (Matt 13:16)

Genesis 21:1-7

The Lord dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.Now Sarah said, ‘God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.’ And she said, ‘Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.’

Promises, promises. How often in life have promises been given to only to be broken? We are entering election season here in Canada with the upcoming federal election is set for October 21, 2019.

No doubt the politicians will be making all kinds of promises. The promise trackers have been released on the current government. In it, the Liberal government was found to have kept 90% of its 2015 promises to the electorate. In reality, that is a bit of a spin. They kept 50% of their promises, partially keep 40% and broke 10%. All in all, a good record when it comes to politicians and promises.

Going forward, all the parties will be dangling money and promises in an attempt to win your vote. If a change in government occurs, then be ready for the tried and tested line that the fiscal books were in worse shape and now we can’t deliver on our promises.

This got me thinking about promises. Humans use promises to solicit votes, cut deals and strike bargains. This is in great contrast to God, who promises come not from an attempt to extract something from you. Rather they come from a place of faithfulness to a relationship between creator and created.

After many years, Abraham and Sarah continued to trust God that God would be faithful and keep His promise. And when Abraham was 100 years old, Sarah gives birth to Isaac, a son. Promise kept.

Maybe the politicians will tell you that they too need many years in power to be able to deliver on their promises. But God’s promises are not about cost/benefit analyses or an attempt to buy your vote. God’s promises are always about being faithful, even when it seems impossible to do so. This is something we discover in our relationship with God. Even when it looks like death has won, and the promise will go unfulfilled, God finds a way.

Because neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Promise made. Promise kept. 

Like, Comment or Share your church’s social media content, Huron Church News June 2019

Just how important is each user? How important is each like, subscription or share? Why put so much effort into social media, websites and ethereal content?

About the best answer, I can give is to point to Metcalfe’s law.

Metcalfe’s law states the effect of a social network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users of the network.

In other words, if your page has 50 likes, it has an effective reach of 2,500 people. Add just one more person to the network and your reach increases to 2,601. One user translated to 101 more people in the network.

And as you can see this will grow exponentially. Each person added to a social network, such as a church’s Facebook page, opens hundreds of new
possibilities to reach out with the Gospel message and leverage growing networks.

Coming off the heels of synod and the bishop’s charge of being sent into the world, a renewed commitment to social media as a means of evangelism is something every parish should revisit and prioritize.

Over the coming summer months, it is the perfect time to prepare for a robust fall launch and social media engagement. Ask parishioners to like your church’s Facebook page, leave a review and purposefully engage with content.

Metcalfe’s law applies to not only the number of likes on a page but engagement per content. So if a post is like by 10 parishioners then it has an effective reach of 100 people.

If we take the bishop’s charge to heart and take a few seconds to like, comment or share your church’s social media content then we can begin to apply Metcalfe’s law to not just the number of likes of the page, but to each post we make.

And this would mean that each day, with each post, we all take part in the apostolic ministry of being sent into the world.

Friends on Facebook: Less is more! Huron Church News May 2019

In Lent, we learn to live simply so others may simply live. We eat less, shop less and even take social media breaks. But we don’t seem to apply this same idea of less being more to our friends’ list on social media.

There have been countless studies that have demonstrated that 150 people are the maximum ideal size for a community. This is known as Dunbar’s number, which suggested a cognitive limit to the number of people one can maintain stable social relationships—relationships in which an individual knows who each person is and how each person relates to each other. Past 150 it becomes tenuous to maintain meaningful relationships with individuals.

And while social media allows us to break many rules there really must be a cap to the number of “friends” we have on Facebook if we truly want to have meaningful relationships where our lives become a light for others.

It is tempting to say yes to that “friend” request from the person you lost track with from high school twenty years ago. You might even chat once or twice, but quickly they just disappear into an endless stream of noise in our news feeds.

My rule of thumb for Friends on Facebook is simple. Would I have dinner with them? And, would I look them up to invite them for dinner? If the answer is yes, I accept the friend request, if the answer is no to either one, I let it go.

I also use this same rule to periodically go through my friends’ list and bring down the number to a manageable level where I get to interact with each person on my list.

In a world where Likes and Shares dominate we tend to think in numbers and the bigger the number the better. And while Lent is over, spring though is upon us and perhaps weeding our social media gardens should be in the offering. After all, trimming the excess will allow our other relationships to flourish more deeply.

Facebook’s built-in tools for polls, Huron Church News April 2019

Most churches use Facebook as a broadcast medium. We announce special worship services, dinners and lecture series. And follow up to all events is a must, whether a quick post or a few pictures.


But the main issue regarding churches and Facebook is engagement. Simply put, we struggle with engagement and two-way dialogue and prefer to use Facebook as a broadcast vehicle.


In my experience, most social users who post on behalf of churches are looking for the right meme to drive likes an shares, or the perfect quote from the right celebrity pastor, or the best article on church growth that will inspire the congregation and seekers to post replies and engage in dialogue. And while this is indeed possible, it is also not realistic, at least not regularly.


I have found the best way to encourage dialogue and engagement with a church’s Facebook page is to seek feedback. There are a variety of ways feedback can be solicited. The easiest is the poll.


Facebook has built-in tools for polls. Simply using those tools can help drive engagement with your page and therefore with your church.
Examples of simple polls are:

Do you give something up for Lent? Do you take something on?

Advent: Purple or Blue?

White after Labour Day? Yes or no?

Such simple questions, but questions that are designed to elicit a response from your congregation and from seekers alike. It is a low threshold of engagement but one that brings users back repeatedly. And each time a user comes back, there is another chance to take that engagement from social to analogue and fulfil the Great Commission.

Building a welcoming website, Huron Church News March 2019

I have said it many times: a professionally designed and developed website is no longer an option for the church. It is a communication tool that is often overlooked, simply forgotten, or the old website from 2002 is left un-updated.

But with only two in ten Millenials attending church, while over 66% of Millenials still believe in God, we need to ask ourselves how to reach them with the radical love of God and invite them to join us on the transformational journey of faith.


The answer is, just as it was for St. Paul, is to be where they are, and that is the web and social, our Agora.


Now, we may not all be comfortable with a powerful web design tool like WordPress that powers over 60 million websites worldwide, nor do we have someone in the congregation able to build us a website that inspires and attracts. Luckily, there are many tools to help the novice build out an attractive, informative site as the new front door of the church.

Squarespace.com, Weebly.com, Sitebuilder.com and Wix.com are all simple tools to help any novice and social media user to build an attractive
welcoming site. The professionally designed templates allow the user to simply input their content and quickly publish a world-class site.


The only downside to these tools are that much like Facebook and Twitter, you do not own your content. If you stop paying our cancel the service you will lose all your data, pictures and history, just as if you deleted your Facebook account. So back everything up.


If your church decides to go the way of a web builders’ service this is something to alway keep in mind. Yet, it does make it an ideal solution for the small local church who doesn’t have the resources or volunteers to build and maintain a robust website.

Top five social media trends for 2019, Huron Church News February 2019

It is the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019. Which means the end of year list are making the rounds and the pundits are prophesying lists of things to watch for in 2019. Not to be outdone, I thought I would get in on the game with 5 social media trends for 2019.

  1. Live Video Feed. 80% of users prefer to watch a live feed than read a long blog post. For the church, this means posting a video feed of your service or sermon will gain you more attention than posting the text on your website. The most popular platforms for live video feed is Facebook Live by far, but also include Instagram and Periscope on Twitter.
  2. Paid advertising on social. Currently, Facebook has over 6 million advertisers and Instagram surpassed 2 million in 2017. Paid advertising on social allows you to micro-target to your desired audience through identifying location, age, gender, languages spoken and keywords, such as church, Jesus Christ, Easter Service, etc
  3. Ephemeral Content, otherwise known as stories. This content is short video clips or posts that disappear after a period of time, usually 24
    hours. The reason why shortlived content is so popular is that people feel as though it is more authentic compared to traditional sponsored advertisement. It’s an opportunity for you to post several times throughout a day or a week without spamming your followers’ news feeds.
  4. Referral traffic and organic reach are declining for businesses as social platforms change their algorithms to priorities family and friends. While this may be bad for businesses as social shifts back to personal, it is great news for organizations like the church. Now more than ever, every congregant can take up the great commission through their social channels and share content that spreads the gospel and have a greater reach.
  5. The growing importance of personal branding to organizational branding. We are the face of the church and each of us has a brand that is tied to the church. Putting a human face to the brand of the church organization humanizes the institution and garners more trust and trust is instrumental in building relationships and relationships are key for church growth.

These five tips for social in 2019 should help yourself and your congregation make that next leap to engaging seekers and driving that traffic to your front doors on Sunday morning.

Genesis 20

From there Abraham journeyed towards the region of the Negeb, and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While residing in Gerar as an alien, Abraham said of his wife Sarah, ‘She is my sister.’ And King Abimelech of Gerar sent and took Sarah. But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, ‘You are about to die because of the woman whom you have taken; for she is a married woman.’ Now Abimelech had not approached her; so he said, ‘Lord, will you destroy an innocent people? Did he not himself say to me, “She is my sister”? And she herself said, “He is my brother.” I did this in the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands.’ Then God said to him in the dream, ‘Yes, I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart; furthermore it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her. Now then, return the man’s wife; for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you shall live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all that are yours.’
 So Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants and told them all these things; and the men were very much afraid. Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said to him, ‘What have you done to us? How have I sinned against you, that you have brought such great guilt on me and my kingdom? You have done things to me that ought not to be done.’ And Abimelech said to Abraham, ‘What were you thinking of, that you did this thing?’ Abraham said, ‘I did it because I thought, There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife. And when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, “This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, He is my brother.” ’ Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen, and male and female slaves, and gave them to Abraham, and restored his wife Sarah to him.Abimelech said, ‘My land is before you; settle where it pleases you.’ To Sarah he said, ‘Look, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver; it is your exoneration before all who are with you; you are completely vindicated.’ Then Abraham prayed to God; and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children. For the Lord had closed fast all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

This is the second endangerment of the matriarchy or the second time Abraham tries to pass off his wife as his sister because he fears for his and not her’s safety. Clearly, the Father of Faith hasn’t learned to trust God yet. Which makes calling him the Father of Faith a bit off the mark, at least for now.

Sarah has yet to give birth to Isaac, so perhaps we shouldn’t read back knowledge we know but has yet to transpire in scripture. Doing so allows us to be disappointed in Abraham as he doesn’t seem to live up to his namesake. Maybe, rather, we need to look at Abraham as the evaluation of faith, rather than the Father of Faith.

And doesn’t that make Abraham more relatable? Personally, this thought of the Evaluation of Faith speaks to all of our natural human conditions. We must learn to trust God, just as we learn to trust parents and loved ones. When that trust is broken we become jaded and our hearts harden. But when trust is maintained the relationship grows deeper, the bonds strengthen and the length we are willing to go for each other grows.

So why wouldn’t that be our reaction to God as well? As God keeps His promises, our trust in God continues to grow. God has made a covenant with Abraham to make him the father of many nations and to protect his people. So, of course, God would protect Sarah. Even from Abraham’s own actions of self-centeredness.

Abraham is learning and growing into the person he will become, the Father of Faith. But that doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Rather that happens through relationship, through learning to trust and through experience. And really is that any different for us?

We learn and grow through relationships, intimacy and experiences. We come to know who we can trust, who will disappoint us and who would use us. And it is through these lived experiences that we come to know that God does indeed keep His promises and remains faithful to us regardless of the things we do.

So like Abraham, we are not perfect. We come to church, a hospital for the broken so that our relationships with each other and God can be mended and we made whole again. It is in worship and spending time with God we come to know the depth of His love for all of His creation and it is through placing our trust in God we come to know the abundant grace that is freely offered and that never dissapoints.

So let’s not be too hard on Abraham, he too is still learning too trust.

Genesis 19:30-38

Now Lot went up out of Zoar and settled in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar; so he lived in a cave with his two daughters. And the firstborn said to the younger, ‘Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the world. Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, so that we may preserve offspring through our father.’ So they made their father drink wine that night; and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; he did not know when she lay down or when she rose.On the next day, the firstborn said to the younger, ‘Look, I lay last night with my father; let us make him drink wine tonight also; then you go in and lie with him, so that we may preserve offspring through our father.’So they made their father drink wine that night also; and the younger rose, and lay with him; and he did not know when she lay down or when she rose. Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. The firstborn bore a son, and named him Moab; he is the ancestor of the Moabites to this day. The younger also bore a son and named him Ben-ammi; he is the ancestor of the Ammonites to this day.

How do we ‘other’ people? How do we create a narrative that people of different colour, ethnicity or religion are not fully human?

These questions are the question propagandists have ponder for centuries. The Nazi’s treatment of the Jewish people in propaganda was to other them, make them less than human so the population would not empathize with their plight.

The same is true today of Donald Trump’s administration towards people of colour. Undocumented aliens. Illegal aliens. Caravans of migrants bringing disease, drugs and violence. Old tropes, but designed to help the American people feel less sympathy for the children ripped from mothers’ arms and put into cages like they were animals.

But Donald is not the first, nor is this a 20th and 21st century phenomena. It stretches all the way back to the Old Testament. Abraham has been promised that he will have a son and his descendants will be like the stars in the sky, seemingly endless.

To create a people and an identity you also have to create a narrative of people who are not linked to you. And this is precisely the story we find here. No sooner does Abraham bargain with God for Lot’s life, but Lot leaves his uncle Abraham. Lot separates himself from Abraham and so separates himself from the descendants of Abraham who will be so numerous and blessed by God.

By doing so, the foundational narrative of the Moabites and the Ammonites, at least according to Abraham, will come from acts of incest and drunkenness. This is juxtaposed with Abraham and his covenant with God.

Abraham, a man of faith, choosing by God to have descendants so numerous as the stars in the skies, versus the neighbouring tribes of Moabites and Ammonites, descendants from incest and drunkenness.

Propaganda as a means to other people seems clear to be as old as scripture itself. Either you are with us, or against us. This seems so limiting to a limitless God.

Analogue or digital? They work in tandem! Huron Church News January 2019

I fully admit to being a very amateur gardener.

With a lot of dedication, a little luck and willingness to learn I generally am assured of a bumper crop of tomatoes each year, regardless if this one variety is supposed to produce fruit in 65 days, this one in 75 days and this one in 85 days. They all come at once!!


And one trick I learned is to never plant a solo tomato plant. Plants, flowers and trees require cross-pollination.


The same is true between analogue and digital. We must stop thinking of them as separate but part of the means in which we tell our story, the church’s story and the story of Jesus Christ. They do not exist separately but work in tandem to cross-pollinate.


After all, we want to be able to leverage the social networks of our parishioners to grow the church. The best means of encouraging growth is getting them to interact with your church on digital platforms.


Each week we have a captive audience of people who want to hear what we have to say. Seize this opportunity to always direct parishioners back to Facebook, Twitter and your website. Have announcements slides with your social media accounts, email announcements each week with links to
your social media accounts, always include web addresses on all printed material and ask people to sign up to Facebook events like you would any other sign-up sheet.


This ensures your parishioners move from analogue to engaging with you digitally. It also ensures that those engagements will be seen by their family and friends.

This cross-pollination will  help your church grow, both in digital footprint but also with analogue visitors on Sunday mornings.

Making a podcast: repackaging the long-form radio show. Huron Church News December 2018

Everything old is new again. Fads once forgotten are repackaged. And in a world of 280 character tweets, short articles and sound bites, the long-form radio show is making a comeback. Now granted, we have given this long-form radio show a new name and that is a “podcast”.

A podcast is an episodic digital download of an audio file. They are generally thematic, can be as short as 10 minutes to as long as 90 minutes. You can listen to back episodes, binge listen to a series or subscribe to a podcast and it will automatically download to your devices when a new episode is released.

Here are a few tips for making a good podcast.

Consistency. If your podcast is a weekly show, make sure it drops on the same day each week.

Theme. Whatever the topic of your podcast, make sure you stick to your theme. It is the reason people are listening.

Equipment. Invest in quality equipment and software. Your show needs to be well produced if you want people to keep coming back.

Audience. An audience is built through mentions and cross-pollination. Having guests on from similarly themed shows can help build your audience.

Host(s). The single host version needs to weave a narrative to engage listeners, while the two hosts version can play off of each other like “the straight man and colour commentator” trope.

Engage. Have a means for your listeners to engage with you. Facebook and Twitter are perfect avenues for feedback and continuing the discussion.

Recently Kevin George, rector of St Aiden’s, London, and Rob Henderson, rector of the Parish of Holy Trinity-St Stephen’s Memorial launched a podcast, “The Vicars’ Crossing”.

This is a good example of a podcast done well. There is a consistent theme, Church and the Public Square, it is well produced both in terms of audio, intro music and has been synchronized with other social media platforms and artwork, and they use “the two hosts” format. I’ll let you decide who is Ron MacLean and who is Don Cherry.


I would recommend adding this podcast to weekly listening. You can find information on it at: facebook.com/vicarscrossing; @vicarscrossing on Twitter and of course on iTunes for download.

Genesis 19:12-29

Then the men said to Lot, ‘Have you anyone else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone you have in the city—bring them out of the place. For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.’ So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, ‘Up, get out of this place; for the Lord is about to destroy the city.’ But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.

When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, ‘Get up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or else you will be consumed in the punishment of the city.’ But he lingered; so the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and left him outside the city. When they had brought them outside, they said, ‘Flee for your life; do not look back or stop anywhere in the Plain; flee to the hills, or else you will be consumed.’ And Lot said to them, ‘Oh, no, my lords; your servant has found favour with you, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life; but I cannot flee to the hills, for fear the disaster will overtake me and I die. Look, that city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there—is it not a little one?—and my life will be saved!’ He said to him, ‘Very well, I grant you this favour too, and will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. Hurry, escape there, for I can do nothing until you arrive there.’ Therefore the city was called Zoar. The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.

Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulphur and fire from the Lord out of heaven; and he overthrew those cities, and all the Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord; and he looked down towards Sodom and Gomorrah and towards all the land of the Plain, and saw the smoke of the land going up like the smoke of a furnace.

So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the Plain, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had settled.

The interesting part of this story, for me, comes right at the end in verse 29, “God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow…” This is from the Priestly source in the Torah and is a Priestly summary of the story echoing 8:1 and attributing Lot’s rescue to his relationship with Abraham, “But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and domestic animals with him on the ark.”

This is important to keep in mind because while this story is set closer to the beginning of Genesis and therefore is in the recesses of time, the Priestly source in the Torah comes to us from the 6th century during the exile in Babylon. This redaction clearly is meant to remind the Israelites in captivity that God remembers those in relationship with Abraham through the covenant.

While this redaction is from years after the original oral transmission of this story and the first codified writing of this story, it does add something very important. God always remembers his people and will hear their cry. This theme has always been a part of the people of Israel’s story and it was also picked up by Liberation Theologians.

Liberation Theology came to prominence in the 1960’s and 1970’s in Latin America. It proposed that not only does God hear the cry of His people, but that God has a preference for the poor. This lead to clergy and people moving to be with the poor and to advocate on behalf of the poor and marginalized. In the political climate of the day, Liberation Theology was seen as leftist and communist as the United States was still embroiled in the cold war with the USSR.

I would tend to agree that Liberation Theology offered no roadmap out of a capitalistic structure, although it was essential in bringing democracy, while imperfect, to countries like El Salvador. The struggle is where to go from Liberation Theology.

And while these questions hang over the legacy of Liberation Theology, the core premise that God goes to be with His people has a long and storied history back to some of the earliest chapters in Genesis, as we see from our passage today. How that looks is different in each time and each place. In the passage, Angels of the Lord are the ones that bring God’s message and rescue Lot. For El Salvador, the messenger was none other than Oscar Romero. And in many ways, as Romero predicted the night before his assassination, that if he were killed he would go on living in the people of El Salvador.

His face and the many murals become an ever-present reminder that while the church and liberation theology may have failed the people of El Salvador in many ways, God is still with His people. And it is for that reason on October 14, 2018, Oscar Romero became San Romero de America.

Making Communications Beyond our Walls, Huron Church News November 2018

In a recent blog post “Church Attendance is Dying, Here is What is Next,” Carey Nieuwhof points out that most churches spend less than 5% of their budget on their online presence and ponders how that is working out for most of us?

Carey has a very good point as many of our churches are the best-kept secret, mostly because we don’t invest in a communications strategy to tell the world about the great and life-giving things happening in our parishes.

Millennials and Gen Z are searching for community. They long for something more and they are spiritually curious. But since their parents fell away from the church and their only connection may be a grandparent, reaching this generation requires actively pursuing them with the same love that Christ pursued us with.

This means making communications beyond our walls a priority. And this will be reflected in how much of our budgets we dedicated to communications and how much we continually set aside for communication and web upgrades every few years.

Personally, I like to see the communications budget come in around the 5% mark of the overall budget. This allows for ongoing Google keyword advertisement, Facebook ads for special services and events, updates and upgrades to websites, the production of welcome packages for newcomers, a video or two a year about life at the parish and the production of a parish newsletter.

And while there are many free tools to help disseminate our message, there comes a time when the priorities we set as a community can be seen by where we spend our money or don’t spend our money.
As we approach that time of year when parish budgets are being set, it might be time to take another look at the communications budget. How much do you put aside for advertisement beyond Christmas and Easter? How much do you put aside for web and social media? Does your budget reflect our shared priorities as a church to teach new believers all that Christ taught and baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit?

Let’s Meet Up: Cutting Through the Noise of the Internet, Huron Church News October 2018

The Internet is a vast place. There are literally millions of websites and constant traffic. Social media is no different. Facebook, for example, has 2.23 billion monthly active users, of which 1.47 billion log in daily. There are 100 million daily Twitter users who post 500 million tweets.

So whether it is an outreach event, parish supper or Bible study in a bar, cutting through the noise of the Internet to get the message of your church to a seeker in your specific mission field can seem like a monumental task.

Thankfully there are tools that can help. Meetup.com is one such tool. Meetup.com operates as a website and mobile application that allows its users to schedule events using a common platform. These events are then shared with users who have created profiles and named the topics of interest to themselves. Meetup then filters all the various “meet-ups” to show users the various groups in their area that are of their self-described interest. Users then are able to join the group, your group, and hear directly from you about your next event through an email in their inbox.

The service is relatively inexpensive at $9.99 a month for a group under 50 people, and $14.99 for an unlimited group. And you are able to sign up for the service for one month only for a one-off event, or monthly for recurring events like your church pub theology night.

This simple tool allows you to advertise directly to the people in your mission field who have self-identified as interested in your type of event. This type of micro-targeting allows parishes to cut through all the noise of Facebook and Twitter and get your event directly to seekers and help you share the message of Jesus Christ.

If we want to reach people – Go where they are, Huron Church News September 2018

When Paul on his many journeys would arrive in a new town, he would make his way to the Agora, the
marketplace. It was here in the centre of Ephesus and Corinth that he would begin preaching and teaching the people about Jesus Christ.

Paul knew that if you wanted to reach the people, you simply had to go where the people are. You cannot wait for them to come to you. And this remains true today. The difference between today and when Paul was on his evangelism mission is the Agora.

Gone are the town squares. They have been replaced by the square spaces of our computer screens. This new Agora, much like the old town square is ripe with opportunity to make Jesus known, but it also ripe with
danger. It is a good idea to protect oneself when using social media so as not to be discouraged in our mission.

I am sure many of us have seen memes we are encouraged to like and share. Some are innocuous, but many are phishing exhibitions. A good example is the one designed to entice individuals to share their answers to security question.

Normally these are laid out with a word or picture for your birth month and you will be asked to put together your month with the name of the street you grew up on to get your superhero name, for example.
Another example is the year you were born and your first pet’s name to get your rock n roll stage name.

There are many variations of this type of phishing exhibition, and far too many to describe. So it may not be just one meme that causes you to give away the answers to your bank or Facebook’s security questions, it may have occurred over the course of a few months or years.

This does not mean that we should shy away from social media and sharing our faith and the story of Jesus with the world. Rather, it simply means that we should be careful of the information we post and share with the world, just as we would be careful in a crowded marketplace to not leave our expensive camera on a table unattended.

The fact that we don’t shy away from the dangers of the world, but protect ourselves accordingly, means we can still live the Mark of Mission to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God and make Jesus known to a world that is desperate for a message of love.

Genesis 19:1-11

The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and bowed down with his face to the ground. He said, ‘Please, my lords, turn aside to your servant’s house and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you can rise early and go on your way.’ They said, ‘No; we will spend the night in the square.’ But he urged them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house; and he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house; and they called to Lot, ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, so that we may know them.’ Lot went out of the door to the men, shut the door after him, and said, ‘I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Look, I have two daughters who have not known a man; let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please; only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.’ But they replied, ‘Stand back!’ And they said, ‘This fellow came here as an alien, and he would play the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.’ Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and came near the door to break it down. But the men inside reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. And they struck with blindness the men who were at the door of the house, both small and great, so that they were unable to find the door.

The depravity of empire is something we are currently experiencing while watching the fall of the great American Empire. Casting back to a fantasy about the glory days of the United States of America, Donald Trump seeks to create nostalgia for a better time that can be recaptured if the people are just willing to follow him down a dark path.

With growing income inequalities that have exploded since the neo-liberal ideology burst onto the scene in the 1980’s with Ronald Raegan, Margaret Thatcher and Brian Mulroney, the gulf between the haves and have-nots has grown. Income has stagnated for most but the 1% who continue to see their incomes and wealth grow. Housing has simply become unaffordable to most and that dream of your own home disappeared in the economic meltdown of 2009.

Since the 1980’s, American consumerism has gone from consuming the world’s goods and services to now consuming itself. The American Empire is literally tearing itself apart with school shootings, daily gun violence and a political system meant to castigate all opposition rather than encourage dialogue and collaboration.

The thing is, none of this is particularly new as we see from our passage from Genesis. Empires rot at their core, even when founded upon the highest ideals. And as individuals seek the next sensation they stoop to even lower levels. Even the offer of two young virgins to rape is not enough to satiate the men of Sodom anymore. They require the two strangers staying in Lot’s house.

Lot for his part is far from a hero, after all, he just offered his two daughters for gang rape. Yet, this is the place that angels of the Lord have come after Abraham had bargain so convincingly with God. If 10 righteous men could be found God would spare the city. Alas, even Lot is suspect as to his righteousness.

Yet, even in the depths of all the bad decisions that Lot must make, the angels of the Lord rescue him from the mob. They blind the men of Sodom and Lot’s life is spared.

Is this a story of redemption? Is this a story of Judgement and punishment? Or is this a story that reminds us even in the midst of all the bad decisions we make while trying to good, God is still with us?

As we watch the fall of the Great American Empire, I pray it is the latter.

Genesis 18:16-33

Then the men set out from there, and they looked towards Sodom; and Abraham went with them to set them on their way. The Lord said, ‘Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham shall become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? No, for I have chosen him, that he may charge his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice; so that the Lord may bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.’ Then the Lord said, ‘How great is the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and how very grave their sin! I must go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me; and if not, I will know.’

So the men turned from there, and went towards Sodom, while Abraham remained standing before the Lord. Then Abraham came near and said, ‘Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will you then sweep away the place and not forgive it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?’ And the Lord said, ‘If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will forgive the whole place for their sake.’ Abraham answered, ‘Let me take it upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?’ And he said, ‘I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.’ Again he spoke to him, ‘Suppose forty are found there.’ He answered, ‘For the sake of forty I will not do it.’ Then he said, ‘Oh do not let the Lord be angry if I speak. Suppose thirty are found there.’ He answered, ‘I will not do it, if I find thirty there.’ He said, ‘Let me take it upon myself to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.’ He answered, ‘For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.’ Then he said, ‘Oh do not let the Lord be angry if I speak just once more. Suppose ten are found there.’ He answered, ‘For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.’ And the Lord went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place.

Prayer is one of the cornerstones of Christianity. Through prayer, we bring our concerns and petitions to God. We give thanks and praise, and we also request God’s direction and sometimes God’s interaction in our lives. Prayer is many things and as anyone who hasn’t fully prepared for a test, exam or other anxiety-producing experience knows, prayer is striking a bargain with God.

“Dear God, just get me through this “meeting…exam…interview” and I promise…”

Perhaps this sounds familiar to you. Maybe you have done it once or twice in your life. I, for one, know I have resorted to this type of prayer. But the thing is, bargaining with God is actually a time honoured tradition.

After having just struck the covenant with God, Abraham begins to bargain with God to preserve the life of Lot and his family who lives in Sodom. Abraham knows that Sodom is a sinful place. But Abraham also knows that there are righteous people who live amongst the sinners. And so he bargains with God to spare Sodom. What if there are fifty good people, or thirty, or twenty or even ten? Will you destroy good people who happen to be amongst the bad?

This profound insight by Abraham and gives us an inclination into why he is often called the Father of Faith. Yes, Abraham receives that title from humanity when he is willing to offer his Son Isaac, but we are not that far along in the story yet. For now, Abraham displays a profound faith in the nature of humanity. A faith that believes there is always good people, even amongst the worst of us. And those good people are worth bargaining with God for.

Abraham’s bargaining is also hopeful. It foreshadows for us, the reader, the redemption that will be found in Christ. Christ who seeks the lost and saves them from eternal torment. And this also helps us see and understand the character and nature of God as well. God is willing to bargain with Abraham to save the righteous. God’s displays compassion and love, a love that will be fulffiled in Christ, when even the sinner is brought back to the family of God as Christ seeks all the lost sheep.

Making sure we are speaking an accesible language (June 2018 Edition HCN)

Language is one of humanity’s most important inventions. It allows us to clearly communicate and work together. But more importantly, it allows us to understand the “other”. Needless to say this only occurs when we speak the same language.

For instance, in the life of the diocese, we are embarking on a project to utilize cloud-based
communications techniques to facilitate superior inter-organizational dialogue. Or, to put it another way, we are getting a new email system.

Insider language often prevents clear understanding. This is not just something that occurs in tech-speak but occurs throughout church land. With our websites and social media accounts being the first point of
contact with seekers in today’s digital world, it is incumbent upon us to make sure we are speaking an accessible language.

And while insider language can be taught once part of a community, our outwardly facing language needs to be in the vernacular of the greater society. To that end, we must be conscious of insider language when
communicating outwardly.

Posting to Facebook about an upcoming Youth Group meeting is clear, open and inviting to a newcomer. Referencing S.A.L.T. will meet next Thursday is not.

The same is true for words that we may take for granted as being in the common lexicon. ‘Eucharist’, ‘collect’ and ‘doxology’ are common words that appear on many church websites. Yet, for the vast majority of the population, they are words that are unknown.

Using accessible language like Communion, Prayer and Sending Prayer allows outsiders to access the information and the stories we wish to share. Once part of the community, the educational process can
begin and the insider language can then be taught.

With Pentecost just behind us, we are reminded of the power of language, of being understood and when understood how the message of Christ promulgates itself. Let us, therefore, be intentional about our choice of language to always live in Pentecost and not return the Tower of Babel and the scattering God’s children.

Cambridge Analytica lesson: check your apps settings (May 2018 Edition)

Most people are aware of Cambridge Analytica – the company that breached Facebook’s privacy agreements and weaponized social media as a psychological tool to help Donald Trump win the presidency in 2016.

They did so by collecting data that Facebook users freely shared on the platform. This is done most often through quizzes. Ever wonder if you are High Church or Low Church, which theologian are you, which Disney Princess are you, which Star Trek character are you, or what is your social media word cloud?

The number of quizzes is too many to innumerate here. But to access the quiz result you must agree to give the app access to your profile and personal information that often includes your profile picture, age, sex, birthday, entire friend list, everything you have posted on your timeline, all of your photos, hometown, education history and everything you have ever liked.

Few people probably realize that every time they install one of these apps they continue running in the background unless users actively delete them via their privacy settings. To do so, click on settings and then “apps and games” tab in the right-hand menu and you will see how many apps are installed on your profile and consistently pulling information.

Not all apps and games sell your information to third parties or operate like Cambridge Analytica, but it is very difficult to ascertain which do and which do not. Many companies use this information to build
psychological profiles to market and advertise directly to you.

And political parties use this information to micro-target you on issues that you have self-indicated are important to you. By accessing these quizzes you not only share your information, but you are also giving
the apps access to your friends’ list in which the quiz will appear as sponsored content in your friends stream. This is in the hopes that since you took the quiz, your friends will also wish to play along with you and compare results.

My advice is to go to your apps and games settings and delete all the apps and games you do not use on a regular basis. Secondly, when it comes to quizzes, while it may kill a few minutes and give you a chuckle, I would simply avoid them. And finally, Facebook still remains a wonderful place to share with friends and family, but it is always best to do a quick audit of your own privacy
settings.

These three tips will ensure your enjoyment and connections through social media remain with you, friends and family and are not used in a manner that counter-intuitive to the Missio Dei.

Waterloo in El Salvador: democracy in action (Huron Church News May 2018 Edition)

From March 4 to March 11 a group of parishioners from All Saints’ Anglican Church in Waterloo, Ontario travelled to El Salvador to attend Foundation Cristosal Global School and immerse themselves in the Salvadorian culture.

The purpose of the mission trip was to educate the participants about democracy and human rights in the Salvadorian context, the history of the church in the public square and how church participation in the public square can be activated back home in Canada.

In the midst of the trip, an opportunity presented itself for the group to put into action their learning and participate in the International Women’s Day march in San Salvador. All Saints’ joined approximately 5000 people in what can only be described as one of the liveliest marches the group participants have ever attended.

The march went down Alameda Franklin Delano Roosevelt and ended at Monumento al Divino Salvador del
Mundo (The monument for Christ, Saviour of the World). It was here that speakers told stories and shared human rights violations of women in El Salvador.

For instance, 17 women have been incarcerated for the violation of El Salvador abortion law. Abortion is strictly prohibited in El Salvador and carries a life sentence. These 17 women did not have abortions
though, they had miscarriages, and one had a stillbirth. The courts, however, had found them guilty of not doing enough to protect their unborn children and considered the miscarriages and stillbirth as abortions. Many of these women have been imprisoned for over a decade with another 20 years on their sentence remaining.

All Saints’ spent time with partner communities in experiential learning moments of democracy in action. Rather than have an NGO, like Cristosal, dictate to a community their needs, Cristosal works with the communities to empower them in their local environment. Partnerships in this context look much different, but they do respect the autonomy of the communities and create more holistic relationships of mutual transformation.

The time spent in El Salvador was formative and fruitful for All Saints’. The country, in many ways, is scripture stories come to life.

For the missionaries, it was a walk to Emmaus. During our time with the people of El Salvador, we were mutually transformed. It is the hope of All Saints that this transformation begun in many miles from home will find life in the greater community as we look to serve and witness to Jesus Christ in Waterloo and around the world.

The path to reconciliation: Anglicans and Lutherans walk together in Waterloo (Huron Church News May 2018 Edition)

Throughout this past Lent, Anglicans and Lutherans in the Waterloo area joined together to walk the path of reconciliation.

Each Wednesday, All Saints’ Anglican Church, St Columba Anglican Church, Christ Lutheran Church and Mount Zion Lutheran gathered together for a speaker series focused on reconciliation and the Truth and
Reconciliations Commission ’s call to action #59.

The program began by building an understanding of the Doctrine of Discovery, UNDRIP (United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Ingenious Peoples), the Indian Act and the Residential Schools system.

Our first speaker, Bishop Mark MacDonald, brought insights from Indigenous Spirituality to Christian Theology. The Good Walk or 4 Directional Thinking reminded us that we should experience the Gospel truths from all sides, as one experiences a mountain from all sides when they walk around it.

At the core of Bishop Mark’s message is the principle or idea of relationships that are formed through time spent in community. Bishop Mark encouraged all to participate where they can in a blanket exercise, visiting the Six Nations and the Woodland Cultural Center or attending a Pow Wow.

Next, Rev. Tom Patterson from the Diocese of Huron Bridge Builders reminded us of the importance of discovering both our differences and similarities as we come into relationship. The Bridge Builders do this with balanced representation on the working group while being attentive to not force that relationship or for settlers to take over.

Rev. Rosalyn Elm helped the participants to decolonize our Western theology and use insights from Indigenous Spirituality to create new insights into scripture. Western Theology tends to look from the Fall onward, seeing humanity as sinful, while Indigenous Spirituality looks back to the Garden, proposing
that we are living in the Garden of Eden as it is not just spiritual but real.

Through sharing our sacred stories we are also able to better understand our own stories by receiving a new lens in which to experience scripture. Rosalyn poignantly highlighted this with a telling of the Haudenosaunee creation story and using that to interpret Genesis.

To close out our time in Lent together, Deacon Scott Knarr shared tangible examples of reconciliation
in action. Deacon Scott has helped develop and participates in a music camp on the Six Nations, which operates both summer camps and Tuesday after-school programming. (musicforthespirit.ca)

Scott brought into focus for the group the importance of relationships, of walking reconciliation with one person at a time and that reconciliation cannot be rushed or we will just tip the canoe.

The thread that connected all the various topics and speakers was relationships. The path to reconciliation can only be travelled by mending the broken relationships between settlers and
First Nations. This was a powerful insight as we are reminded in the season of Lent that it is through Christ that our broken relationship with God is reconciled and our sins are forgiven.

This story was picked up and reprinted in the ELCIC Newsletter. It can be viewed here.

Who do you really like: be careful with Share Baits -Huron Church News April 2018

Share Bait is any post on a social networking site (typically a puzzle, optical illusion, political question, inspirational story, etc.), that asks for the user to share it with friends, with the objective of getting as much exposure or attention for the meme as possible.

These are often cute memes that we “Like” and “Share.” Usually, they are something innocuous like a church sign that reads, “whoever is praying for snow, please stop!!” (Pro-tip, it is I, I pray for snow, now you know.)

The point of these memes is to get as wide as possible an audience to “Like” and “Share” the meme, but also to “Like” the organization’s page. It is a communication tool in any organizations media toolbox. The question though is not whether we share the meme or not, but rather is the organization asking us to “Like” and “Share” the meme representative of an organization we, as the church and representatives of the church, want to signal boost?

Many questionable organizations use this technique to gain “Likes” and then leverage your contacts to further propagate their message. And while the original meme may be innocuous or the political message
may be one you personally agree with, signal boosting AltRight or Alt-Left organizations has consequences.

Before sharing a meme I will click on the link to the organization’s page and read their “about” section. I often scroll down the page and look through a few post and even read the dreaded comments section. In short order, I am able to ascertain if this is an organization that I want to tie my reputation to or more importantly the reputation of the church.

For instance, one page I recently visited has these comments left on a post just down from a share bait meme. “That ugly nasty greedy no good money grubbing snot faced witch”; “The ugliest human dyke who ever existed”; and “I’m surprised that no one has shot her but maybe the bullets cost too much.”

Clearly, this is not an organization I want to associate myself with or the church. Nor is it an organization that I want to give any oxygen too for it does not represent a life in Christ, love of God and love of neighbour. And all it took was a single click and a few minutes.

Website design: it’s not about you, it’s about your audience – Huron Church News March 2018

When designing a web page, or curating content on your social media platforms there is one important rule to remember: it is not about you.

That may seem counter-intuitive since it is the story of your community that you are telling the world. Yet far too often we allow our preferences for design and content to influence our choices.

Here are four tips to help as you prepare to update or launch a new website for your church or to improve your social experience.

1) Remember to make your site mobile friendly. Mobile devices traffic overtook desktop device traffic in 2014. According to a study by comscore.com, 80 percent of millennials own a smartphone compared to just 40 percent of people 55 and up. Chances are if you are going to reach the next generation, it will be on a handheld device.

It is best to design your site to optimize for the mobile experience over the desktop experience. Swipe or tap friendly navigation will go a long way in creating a good user experience.

2) As you design your site, think about your target audience and what they would want to know about your church and its ministries. The impulse is to share the things we want to highlight that we enjoy the most. That would be an effective strategy if you were marketing to yourself and your demographic.

If you are targeting millennials, then you need to highlight the ministries in your church that are of interest to millennials. Spend some time online researching areas of interest to millennials, take a few surveys and don’t be afraid to ask for input.

3) Promote Sharing. Events pages are a great way to promote sharing across social media channels. Keep each event separate, clean, efficient and easy to get the relevant details. Every share across social
boosts the chances of people finding their way back to your site, and then your front door.

4) Lastly, when writing for the web, whether social or your website, less is more. Edit 50% of the words from any post or page. Users tend to scan and not read. The last thing you want is someone bouncing off your site or leaving a TLDR (Too Long Didn’t Read) comment on your social media channels.

While many see millennials as fickle, they are no more fickle than any generation. We just need to learn to present ourselves in a manner that resonates. This is, after all, what Paul meant when he said: “For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. To the Jews, I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law, I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law, I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law) so that I might win those outside the law. To the weak, I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that I might by any means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings” (1 Cor. 9: 19-23).

Private and public: where is the line? – Huron Church News February 2018

There is a very fine line between public and private and on Social Media which can be razor thin. Many of us have signed up for Facebook, Twitter or other platforms as private individuals. The terms of service of those platforms also clearly articulate that the content we post and the individual user controls who has accesses to that content.

However, when social media is used for professional purposes, the line between personal and professional can be blurred. When using “private” accounts to promote the churches and institutions to which we belong, that which may have been considered private becomes public. Once that line has been crossed, we cease to be private individuals expressing opinions. Our private opinions and accounts become extensions of the church or institution that we represent — for good or for ill.

Many professional clergy and church leaders use personal accounts to help further the overall reach of church’s message. It is a great way of living the Great Commission and being a visible sign of Christ. And I would encourage people to continue to live as outward visible signs of God’s reconciliation with the world. But acting this way also needs to come with a caution.

If you use your personal account for church business – or any business for that matter – – actions in your personal life can have consequences for the church or institution you represent. You cease to be just an individual, but a representative. This is important to keep in mind when you delete, censor, debate or silence comments you don’t like.

If you blend your personal and public lives, your actions no longer just represent you, but they represent your specific parish and the church in general. It is always best to take a step back from the keyboard or device before posting something in the heat of the moment and ask how your words reflect the church. Am I living and posting in a way that reflects the image of Christ? Is the Kingdom of God served by this tweet or comment?

As we head towards the season of Lent, now more than ever is a good time to reflect upon our social media practices, how we engage with colleagues, parishioners and the wider world.

Video? You never know how far it might spread! – Huron Church News January 2018

Recently Forest Hill South Park Church posted a video on their YouTube and Facebook pages. It can be found here.

The video is titled “Gratitude.” In it we are challenged to change our perspective this Christmas and give thanks for the big and little things in our everyday life. It is a little campy in places, but the message is clear: in life we have much to be grateful for, so celebrate those gifts.

The video is not a Hollywood production, with paid actors, set design or sound technicians. Its acting is cheesy and over the top. And it is clearly shot with everyday recording equipment. And yet, it’s message has struck a chord and it has been viewed over 7.4 million times!

Forest Hill South Park invested a little in recording equipment, many hours editing, lots of tape and wrapping paper and some playful energy and produced this video. I am sure they had no idea at the time it would go viral.

Video as part of a communication strategy is an underutilized tool in many churches. Yet it is a tool that reaches across all generations and easily accessible through Facebook and YouTube.

So whether it is your next youth group meeting, parish council or even wardens meeting, toss a few ideas out, grab your IPhone or camcorder, play around with iMovie and start using video to tell the story of your church. The video could be a parody (instead of All about The Bass, how about All about The Grace), a recap of an event, an introduction to your community for seekers or just a little bit of fun. You never know how far it might spread.

Create your own sermon teaser – Huron Church News December 2017

If you are like me, December 15th is blocked off on your calendar. The latest trailer in the Star Wars franchise from George Lucas was just released and to see Luke Skywalker standing in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon once again sent shivers down my spine. To say I am excited for December 15th would be an understatement.

The trailer is a means for Hollywood to generate excitement for upcoming movies. This is known as a teaser. Show just enough without giving the story or the ending away to encourage people to stand in line to see the movie at midnight on opening day.

This tactic is not just reserved for Hollywood. Silicon Valley makes great use of the teaser whenever a new product is to be released. And video game producers have jumped headlong into producing trailers for upcoming video games.

The premise is simple. Release just enough to tease and leave people wanting more. And the premise can be applied to sermons.

The sermon teaser is nothing new. Megachurches often tease their upcoming sermon series to get people interested and committed. The sermon teaser is not just for sermon series though, but can also be used for special sermons, feast days and can even be used weekly, although I tend to use it sparingly.

The idea is put out just enough of your sermon to Facebook or Twitter to get your followers interested. It is picking one idea, putting put it out there and leaving your followers wanting more. I often use what I think may be the most controversial line in the sermon to generate interest and drive traffic to the church’s front door.

For example, I would post, “It is the tragedy of the earthly city, the world around us, that we, the baptized, have been sent to perform the comedy of redemption.” Want to hear more? See you at All Saints’ on Sunday morning at 8:00 and 10:00 am.

One line is all that is needed to pique the curiosity of your followers and parishioners; one line to intrigue people to come to church; one line leaving them wanting more. The only restriction is that your sermon needs to be finished before Saturday night.

Looking for a better review of your church? You need Yelp! – Huron Church News November 2017

At the recent clergy conference in Niagara Falls, the guest speaker Nadia Bolz Weber spoke about the distrust of institutions that is prevalent among Millennials.

She proposed that the locus of authority has shifted from institutions, like the church, to individuals. As such, individual opinions and reviews can have a bigger and greater impact than any institutional message. This is why Yelp reviews, according to Nadia, are key to the Great Commission and church growth.

While I was a little distressed to learn many in the room didn’t know what Yelp was, her talk was an insightful way to consider the church’s role in a society where the Internet has democratized authority.

Gone are the days when we can control branding and messaging through advertising alone. Now anyone can leave a review of your church on social media channels or review sites such as Yelp and drive seekers to – or from – you.

This new locus of authority means that before stepping into your church, potential newcomers will Google you and read the reviews, if there are any. Having none is better than having negative reviews, but it may also indicate an inactive community and does little to encourage seekers to visit.

Who can leave a review of your church on Google, Facebook and Yelp? Anyone, including you. You are, after all, the biggest cheerleader or evangelist for your own church. Taking the few minutes to rate your church on Facebook, Google and Yelp and leaving a few comments about you like and find interesting can go a long way to encourage a seeker to take that next step and give you a try on a Sunday morning.

We no longer have to wait for the institution to provide the new marketing campaigns or billboard ads. The power to reach the locus of authority is now in your hands and on your keyboards. Take a few minutes, write a review and live the Great Commission.

Cloud Based Note Keeping, Huron Church News October 2017

I have a habit that may horrify some of you, and to which others will relate. I write in, dog ear, and highlight my books with complete abandon. Whenever I find a good quote, illustration or sermon idea, I keep a note of it. Then, months later when I want to reference those notes, I find myself staring at a bookshelf full of equally marked up books trying to remember which book holds that one quote that would bring out the Gospel message on a particular Sunday.

To combat my office floor from being littered with books every time I desperately try to remember that one specific sermon quote or illustration I have adopted cloud-based notekeeping. Evernote is my platform of choice, but Google Keep, and One Note are also great options and provide similar functionality.

Evernote is a cloud-based cross-platform application. It syncs across multiple devices so I can take notes on my phone or tablet and access them later from my laptop. I can create a text note, an audio note or even snap a quick picture. I can include attachments to my notes and even can set a reminder to alert me when the note might be relevant. Say, the beginning of Easter, or before the sale ends on the item I just snapped in a store.

Being able to store and search my notes easily gives me the freedom to take notes wherever and whenever I want without worrying about losing them or remembering to look them up when necessary. And, since my notes are on the cloud, I can share them with people; from sharing service ideas with clergy colleagues, to a shopping list with my wife. As much as I love post-its, they just can’t compare.

Evernote certainly hasn’t stopped me from marking up my books, but it has helped me organize my thoughts, sermon illustrations and seasonal ideas in a quick searchable notes that I can quickly access wherever I am. And most importantly, it has helped me avoid stubbing my toes and tripping over yet another pile of books in my office.

Understanding your audience: how to use your analytics tools, Huron Church News September 2017

While listening to a podcast the other day (The Pro Church Podcast with Brady Shearer, check it out), I heard a phrase that struck a chord with me. “One of the first rules of social media is always to take a deep dive rather than going wide.”

This is an idea I have advocated for years and it is so well summed up in this simple sentence.
Let me explain.

Social media consists of a plethora of platforms that can help you make and maintain connections and share the story of your community and faith.

It can be tempting to use all of them. We want to be connected to everyone in every way possible, on our websites, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. But by spreading our efforts so thin, it is hard to be effective on any of them. In other words, it is best to do one thing really well, than a few things poorly.

It is easy, however, to figure out where you are the most effective and where you should focus your attention by monitoring the analytics on your social platforms. These analytics offer insights into how your content is received by your audience. It can also help you determine your current audience and evaluate your efforts to reach new audiences. They can also aid you in trimming the number of platforms is use as well.

Most social media platforms come with built in analytics. For websites, my preference is still Google Analytics, which while quite robust is also free.

Analytics on your website will help you determine your bounce rate (how long people stay on your sight), landing page (which page or sub-page gets the most direct traffic), how traffic arrived at your site (whether through a Google search, social media link or other) and user flow (how users navigate through your site). This is all very powerful information and will help you tailor your message to meet current users’ needs.

The same is true for Facebook. Pages come with built in analytics. Simply click on “Insights” at the top of page and you will see all kinds of demographic and behavioural information about your page’s users. You can see the gender and age break-down of your users and their language and location. You can also see statistics about people that were reached and engaged and what content resonated with your audience and what isn’t hitting the mark.

Twitter also offers analytics on its platform and much of the same information is readily available. You can also see the interests of those who follow you, giving you a great insight into the type of content that your audience seeks, will engage with, and will share to their followers.

It is understandable to want to be on social media platform. The more platforms, the bigger your audience, the greater your reach. However, poorly engaging with your users will not grow your audience but will cause your audience to disengage.

By focusing your resources only on the platforms on which you are be effective, you can maximize the reach and impact of your message to help fulfill the Great Commission, to baptize new believers in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit and to teach all that Jesus taught.

Canadian Church Press Awards

The Canadian Church Press 2017 award of merits were released. While I did not win an award, the Huron Church News had a third place award for in-depth coverage of a news event. It is for the coverage of coadjutor bishop election of Feb. 13, 2016 (printed in our April edition). The April edition can be viewed here, HCN-4-InDepthNews I share the byline with Sandra Coulson.

My column, “Media Bytes”, was also entered but alas won no awards. The comments back from the judges though were, “Once again, if there were more than three prizes to award I could give half of the entries on this competition an award. Consistently interesting and highly readable.”

Tips on how to garden your website, Huron Church News April 2017

Throughout this series, I’ve written in detail about how your website is often the first and sometimes the only impression a church gets to make.

But websites are like gardens, they must be regularly tended and updated or else they get overgrown and unappealing. So it’s important to take stock every now and then.

Here are a quick five things you can do to ‘audit’ your website to keep it fresh and well weeded.

Keep the pages well structured. Common elements such as headers, footers, sidebars and menu items should be consistent on every page. Your home page can be an exception to this rule, but a visitor must be able to find their way around.

Keep the text short and well structured. I try to remove 50% of the words from my first draft. Readers disengage if they have to read too much to find your point or have to wade through too much jargon. Your website is your first point of contact with those un-churched. Words like Eucharist, Compline and BCP and BAS have deep meaning to those inside the church, but to many, it is confusing jargon.

People tend to scan when they read online. Break up your text into short sentences and paragraphs. Make liberal use of bullet points and headers and include an image every 250 words to keep people engaged and illustrate your point.

The menu should be short and concise. If you need more than 7 items, consider sub-menus so visitors can quickly find what they are looking for.

Have a clear and distinct call-to-action that drives visitors to fulfil the goal of your site. If you don’t know the goal of your website, now is a good time to think about it. For a church community, you likely want to increase attendance at your weekly services, solicit donations for your ministry, recruit volunteers, or collect contact information for potential members. Once you have identified your goal, your website needs to make it simple and easy for visitors to do it. A large “register for our newsletter” button or “newcomer information” page may suit your needs. Just make sure to keep it clear and concise.

Make your website accessible. You want your website to reach as many people as possible, so make sure it can be read with different devices and browsers. There is now more mobile traffic than desktop traffic so your website should be mobile-friendly at the very least. Ideally, you should also consider users using accessibility software such as screen readers for those who are colour blind.

These simple five tips can be used when designing your new website or auditing your existing site. If you discover your site needs a little work, don’t worry; even the healthiest garden is never maintenance-free. But by knowing what needs to be done and keeping on top of your content, layout, and goals, your site will help your community fulfil the Great Commission and make that first point of contact memorable, in a good way.

Email – central to your parish’s communications strategy, Huron Church News March 2017

Email is King. All hail the king!

I know that sounds flippant, but in P2P communication no platform has yet managed to supplant email. As popular as Facebook and Twitter have become, the largest P2P communication channel remains email.

In 2015, 205 billion emails, on average, were sent each day. Meanwhile, only 23 billion text messages are sent each day, 500 million Tweets and 55 million status updates are created on Facebook. The numbers are staggering, I know. Yet, the volume of emails dwarfs all others players in the field.

The power of email cannot be understated. While some people may resist signing up to Facebook or Twitter, or undertake a Lenten fast from social media, the one channel that even the latest adopters usually have is email. This means email is central to any parish’s communication strategy.

My current favourite application to help with email and parish ministry is MailChimp. The Forever Free plan at Mailchimp allows for up to 2000 subscribers and 12,000 emails to be sent each month free of charge. The multiple list feature allows for different communications to reach different audiences. Customizable templates can be updated with a parish logo, pictures and text, or, with a little HTML knowledge, you can create your own.

Regular communications like announcements and newsletters can be created easily and unexpected messages such as obituaries and emergency announcements can be quickly shared with the entire community or just a small group. MailChimp can also be integrated with tools such as Facebook, WordPress, Raiser’s Edge and more.

This free platform allows churches to use email to build community and fellowship and keep in touch with those that may otherwise only connect a few times a year. By having the entire parish list only a click away, communities are able to come together in times of crisis and share the Good News of God’s Spirit working in the world.

You can read more about how MailChimp can help manage your church communications by reading their guide for nonprofits here: https://mailchimp.com/resources/guides/mailchimp-for-nonprofits.

Sermon from Lent 4 Year A, Preached at All Saints March 26, 2017

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts always be acceptable in your sight, oh Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

Two years ago at our Diocese Synod, the synod of Huron voted to memorialise Archbishop Oscar Romero. What this means in the Anglican tradition is that we recognise his status within the Roman Catholic Church. As he proceeds toward sainthood (San Romero), we in the Diocese of Huron have chosen to embrace this journey and make his soon to be saint day, his day of remembrance part of our calendar. That day is March 24, the date of Romero’s assassination, just two days ago. Today I want to reflect upon Romero, how he lived his life and he was blind but regained his sight.

When you step off the plane in El Salvador and you enter into the city of San Salvador, without realising it you are stepping deep into the biblical narrative. That isn’t to say that El Salvador is some backwards third world country that has you stepping backwards 2000 years into the past, for San Salvador is much like any North American city complete with gas stations, shopping malls and of course ice cream shops.

No. What I mean is that the biblical story has been lived out in El Salvador in our lifetime. This becomes abundantly clear as you drive around the city and country and you steep yourself in its people and its history. This is the place that its people suffered in slavery, suppressed by Pharaoh, the right wing government of oligarchs. This is the place where they journeyed for years in exile during the civil war, searching for their promise land, to share all that God had promised them with each other, where the land could provide enough for each person, a land flowing with milk and honey. And this is the place that gave birth to some of the most prominent people in the Liberation Theology movement, prophets to be sure.

Let me explain. You see before Oscar Romero was Oscar Romero, he was a dutiful priest in El Salvador. He was, in many ways, ill prepared for his ascension to the role of Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church in El Salvador. He was a quiet man, who more often than not shrank from confrontation. He was prayerful of course and he lived a pious and meagre life, serving the people that God sent to him.

But much like the Catholic Church as a whole at that time, he focused on the salvation of the person’s soul, not the material conditions in which people found themselves. The scripture that informed the church’s position in El Salvador was, “blessed are the poor for theirs shall be the kingdom of heaven”. He taught, much like the rest of the church, that you ought to be happy with your lot in this life for in the kingdom of heaven you would receive their reward. And that is how the church became a tool of the right wing government, the military and the oligarchy that helped to maintain the status quo and the oppression of the poor. Take your lumps for your reward will be in heaven. Hardly the principles of a legend, like Romero. Much more akin to one who is blind to the plight of his people.

That was, of course, till Romero met a friend and mentor, Padre Grande. Padre Grande was a revolutionary, a rogue and a radical. And he was a mentor to Romero. Padre Grande preached a radical message. He preached a message of the love of God for the poor, not only in the next world but also in this world, in the material conditions in which the poor found themselves. He preached that God chooses the poor, he resides with the poor and that God has a preference for the poor, a message with deep scriptural and theological roots.

This revolutionary and counter-cultural message of the times rubbed the ruling families the wrong way. Romero hadn’t adopted this position when he ascended the throne of the archbishop of El Salvador. In fact, he was chosen specifically to be archbishop because he was quiet and a moderate. The government and the oligarchs of El Salvador figured he would be a useful tool in using religion as the opiate of the masses in an effort to maintain the status quo and their position of privilege.

Two events changed the course of Romero’s life and therefore also changed the fate and destiny of the people of El Salvador. He was asked to be present by the army at a student protest, for the army feared violence would break out and the archbishop’s presence with the military could help keep the peace. Three times the generals asked Romero, and three times Romero denied them, quietly and simply saying he would pray for them.

When Romero woke the next day and opened the paper, he read of the violence that had occurred, how the army had opened fire on the peaceful protesters and how hundreds were now dead, murdered by their government. Romero had an epiphany that day. A moment when the heavens are torn open and God descended. That doing nothing was, in fact, a choice, and therefore he was complicit with the murders and the violence that had just occurred because choosing to do nothing meant he chose the side of the oppressor.

And while Romero was wrestling with this epiphany, during a period of fasting and prayer, Padre Grande his mentor and friend and a leader in the liberation theology movement in the Roman Catholic Church was assassinated by the government of El Salvador. Much as John the Baptist was killed and silenced by Herod, Padre Grande was also silenced by those he opposed with nothing more than a message of peace, love and repentance. A message the oligarchs deemed too dangerous.

These two events, the gift from God of knowledge and the death of a mentor spurred Romero into a new direction, a new ministry; a ministry to be with the poor and to speak on behalf of the poor. A ministry that focused on the life of Christ, the life that Christ lead; of feeding the poor, healing the sick and caring for the most vulnerable of society. A ministry that focused on not only allowing the light of Christ to guide our lives, but for the light of Christ to become a beacon for nation suffering under foreign oppression and domination, as the US government ignored atrocities of entire villages being murdered as they poured over 1 million dollars a day in military aid into the right wing government and the oligarchs that controlled it.

If this reminds you of the baptism of Christ and Jesus’s relationship with John the Baptist, it should, for it is a mirror of the Gospel story. Romero would champion the cause of the poor. The light of Christ guided Romero and his work of healing a nation and a people divided. The government, the Pharisees, though fought him every step of the way.

Until they could take no more. The Pharisees, the government, conspired after one of the most controversial sermons Romero preached on a radio address to the people of El Salvador in which he ordered the soldiers of the military junta to disobey commands when ordered to open fire and kill their brother or sister, their fellow Salvadorian. That God’s law of thou shall not kill trumps any order from any officers in the military, or the government, or the Pharisees, the oligarchs.

And while preparing to celebrate the last supper, the Eucharist, the greatest offering to God of the church, Romero was assassinated. Gunned down in cold blood has he stood behind the altar of our Lord.

After preaching love, healing and care for the poor in the outskirts of the Holy Land, the outskirts of Jerusalem, Romero would come to Jerusalem, San Salvador and would be killed by the authorities. I remembered Christ own journey from baptism and his light rising as John light faded, till John was eventually killed like Padre Grande. And I remembered how Christ actions of siding with the poor and fighting systems of oppressions of oligarchs and foreign domination would lead to his eventual crucifixion.

This is where the story diverges, although I wonder if it truly does. Christ was resurrected, while Romero lies dead still. I have visited and prayed at his tomb. Except, except that in his final sermon the night before his assassination, Romero boldly predicted that even if he were killed he would live on in the people of El Salvador. And after visiting his tomb and walking past mural after mural, shrine after shrine, the image of Oscar Romero is literally everywhere in El Salvador.

I tell you this story of the people of El Salvador for a reason. We, like Monsieur Romero have a choice. We can either choose blindness or we can choose to see. Romero was blind to the plight of his people until the light of Christ illumined the suffering of the people of El Salvador. And we too have the same choice. The salve to open our eyes lies within the words of scripture, the Logos, the word made flesh, Jesus. The healing of our blindness comes from following Christ. Our sight is dependent on washing ourselves in the waters of baptism as the blind man washed himself in the pool of Siloam.

But like the blind, I will not promise you that from baptism comes a life of ease. We will be questioned as he was questioned. We will be doubted as he was doubted. We will be pushed out and ostracised as he was. Yet even though it will not be easy, the grace that flows from the waters of baptism will heal us and we others. We were blind but now we see. And once we see the plight of the poor, once we have walked with them in their lives, in mission and service of mutual transformation, we, like Romero will never be the same. I was blind, but now I see.

Dios bendiga a monseñor Romero y Dios los bendiga. Amen

Too many friends? Know your limit! Huron Church News February 2017

Recently, I saw a news post on my Facebook feed and I realized I couldn’t remember who the ‘friend’ who posted it was. Obviously, not one of my closest friendships. With upwards of 1100 friends on Facebook I find it difficult to maintain all these relationships and keep straight who is who.

This got me thinking about the 150 rule, or Dunbar’s number.

Dunbar’s number is the suggested limit to the number of people with whom it is possible to maintain stable social relationships. Within a group that does not exceed this number, you know who each person is and how each person relates to all others within the group. Robert Dunbar, the British anthropologist, first proposed this number in the 1990s.

The 150 rule wasn’t exactly new though. Hutterites, a Christian farming sect related to Mennonites, create new daughter colonies when the original colony surpasses 150 people. The communal lifestyle of the Hutterites becomes endangered as the size of the group grows. Relationships drift and a sense of accountability to the collective is lost. A colony, at its absolute maximum, may have up to 250 people. Once that upward threshold is reached, 10 to 20 families leave the colony to plant a new community, leaving 150 people in the original colony. Hutterites have been engaging in this practice since 16th century.

The same principle is also true for our worshipping communities. Once membership reaches 150, social connections begin to break down and familiarity is lost. There is a certain magic about small churches. They have that family feel of knowing everyone and belonging which comes from not exceeding Dunbar’s number.

Social media lowers the bar for ‘maintaining’ relationships which allows us expand our network well past Dunbar’s number. This is both good and bad. Social media allows us to reconnect with people we have lost contact with, and maintain connections that might otherwise drift or dissolve. However, as the Hutterites have known for centuries, it can be extremely difficult to keep so many relationships in order, no matter the medium. While it is nice to reconnect with that high school friend initially, it may become more draining than it is worth.

Recently, I found Facebook becoming too much. Overwhelmed with messages from people that I was having difficulty placing, I decided that something had to be done. I found myself going through my friends list and realized I didn’t know who many of my ‘friends’ were. I could easily have gone on the great Facebook cull of 2017 and un-friended 500 people. Yet I had made these connections because I had, at some point, thought they would be worthwhile so I was hesitant to throw it all away.

Facebook allows you to ‘tune’ your feed so you can see only what you want. You can unfollow someone while remaining friends, or make sure close connections are surfaced at the top of your feed. This feature has allowed me to de-clutter my Facebook, while maintaining all the loose connections I want. My news feed now only contains those relationships I want to strengthen, and allows the others to become acquaintances: people to which I am available, but not overwhelmed by. And while I am nowhere close to Dunbar’s number, the noise has diminished and my news feed is much more manageable.

As we come closer to Lent, maybe it is the time to de-clutter your Facebook as well. Instead of a social media hiatus for 40 days, those 40 days can be spent de-cluttering. Prioritize those relationships that are important. As much as we all want to be liked, nobody can be friends with everyone, or, as it turns out, more than about 150 people.

Don’t push content upon your followers but interact with them, Huron Church News January 2017

The road to Emmaus is one of the best biblical accounts of how social media works.

I find it striking that in this 2000-year-old account of a resurrection appearance of Jesus Christ we have the very fundamentals of social media. But then again should I be surprised? The Gospel is, after all, always astonishing.

In this passage, Jesus appears to the disciples, although they do not yet know who he is. He walks with them along the long and dusty road. He comes into relationship with them. Jesus dialogues with them and lets them open up to him about themselves and what has just transpired in Jerusalem. Jesus does not force the conversation or push “content” upon them. Instead he builds a relationship.

After a time, once a relationship has been established, Jesus continues to dialogue with them, but he also begins to offer His own content. He opens their minds to scriptures. This is tricky of course, because this is the moment when we would want to push more content on people, but Jesus demonstrates that the time is not yet right. Instead, He focuses on building the relationship, understanding a subject (namely the scriptures), and walking with his disciples.

On the road to Emmaus, Jesus demonstrates something fundamentally important about relationship building that we lose at times in social media. We push content on the web: posts, blogs, sermons, images, tweets, etc. We push content in the hopes of gaining new followers and new “likes”. We purchase ads to further our reach and further the reach of our communities. But by doing so we can forget what Jesus talked about so long ago, and that is to come into relationship with people.

Pushing content seems natural to us. Having something new on our Facebook pages and websites seems critically important in a world increasingly based on consumption. Yet, I think that on that long and dusty road, Jesus demonstrates that instead of consuming, we ought to be coming into relationship with one another.

So while content is important, so also is it important to stop, engage and interact with those that like, comment, or share our posts. Take time in your day to read what others share on their social networks and work on building relationships. Enter into dialogue, discuss, and get to know one another.

In today’s media savvy world, it is critical to not only use social media tools, but to use them effectively. Social media is just that: social. Effective use requires two-way dialogue and engagement. And remember we count success not in number of likes, dollars on the plate or even growth. Success is best measured in spreading of the Gospel message and coming into real relationship with those we encounter.

Encouraging Tech Ed while protecting and guiding our kids, Huron Church News December 2016

Youth spend much of their time online and with their eyes firmly affixed to a screen and with the growing importance of tech in education, social circles and professional demands, it’s unlikely that will change anytime soon. When was the last time your teenager actually used a phone to call someone?

Knowing these realities, how can we encourage the positive aspects of the digital world while still protecting and guiding our kids? Especially as the family computer in the living room disappears and is replaced by private devices that can be difficult to monitor or control?

It is important to note that the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) in the United States prohibits sites from collecting information from or making available information about users under the age of 13. Since many of the most popular social networks are based in the U.S., these sites cannot legally allow those under 13 to open accounts. Either you or your child would have to lie, and I wouldn’t recommend that approach. (Ex 20:16)

Some sites, such as YouTube and Whatsapp have older age requirements to create an account (18 and 16 years old respectively) and some are more proactive about enforcing the restrictions than others. In many cases, it is very easy for a child to lie about their age. Aside from legal restrictions, many sites have mature content and the age restrictions should be considered when deciding if having an account on a given service is appropriate.

Beyond basic age restrictions, here are a few strategies to help you and your kids navigate the digital world safely and confidently.

  • Before signing up for any site, both parents and kids should understand how the platform works, how data is stored and shared, what privacy settings are available, and what kind of communication is possible.

  • Establish usage guidelines. Be clear about what kind of use is acceptable – including the kind of communication, communication partners, what kind of personal information can be shared, and the frequency or time of day that access is permitted.

  • Be aware of who your kids are communicating with and what kind of content they are viewing.

  • Trust but verify. Many parents require knowing account passwords or to be given access when requested as a condition for use of certain applications or sites. This requires a lot of two-way trust but it can be a good way to keep your kids accountable and ensure that you can check on them if you absolutely need to.


  • The digital world offers amazing opportunity to connect with friends, learn and share ideas and share our lives with others. As we read in Proverbs (20:6), “Start children off on the way they should go, even when they are old they will not turn from it.” A secure safe foundation for our kids will help develop technical skills and the confidence to navigate the digital world.

    Sharing photos, tagging and privacy issues, Huron Church News November 2016

    I am often asked why Facebook sometimes displays questionable ads because a friend of yours “liked” it. Except you know your friend has never played online poker, ordered foreign pharmaceuticals, or taken out a payday loan. Why would Facebook assume your friend, and you by extension, is interested in these things? Simple: “Like Farming.”

    Like farmers create Facebook pages and create content dedicated to collecting as many “likes” or “shares” as possible. A simple “brain teaser” that only “geniuses” can solve, a nostalgic image of the past, or fake contests that you have to like to enter are common fodder for link farmers. And since Facebook’s algorithms place a high value on popularity, highly liked and shared pages have a much higher chance of appearing in your feed and being seen by your friends and family.

    Once the farm has grown a high popularity rating, the farmer either removes the page’s original content and replaces it with something more nefarious (usually malware or scam advertising) or they outright sell the highly liked page to a third party.

    Now instead of liking a page for “your chance to win $5000 from Bill Gates,” you are now a fan of online gambling, for example.

    Many like-farmers rely on appeals to emotion: anytime you’re urged to “like” or “share” a post that pulls at your heartstrings there’s likely a like-farmer behind it. “This poor little girl with cancer lost her hair to chemotherapy — ‘like’ this post to let her know she’s still beautiful!” “This new government policy is outrageous — ‘like’ this post if you’re outraged, too!”

    If you are unsure whether a page or post is legitimate there are a few places to go to verify the pages information before hitting the like button. Snopes.com is a website dedicated to dispelling rumours and lies that spread online faster than the common cold. Another good site is facecrooks.com which keeps you up-to-date on Facebook scams and provides information about how to protect your privacy.

    While Jesus said in the Gospel of Luke, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’ On Facebook, it is a good practice to periodically look back and weed through your past “likes.” You might be surprised to notice you really don’t like some of those things at all.

     

     

     

    The insidious threats of “like farming”, Huron Church News October 2016

    The smell of lavender evokes powerful feelings for me. Simply passing a fragrant candle is enough to spark memories and bring a smile to my face on my worst days. That sweet smell can cast away any shadow. You see, lavender is the scent of the baby shampoo we use for my daughter, Hannah.

    Our senses can be a powerful means of evoking an emotional response. And this forms the backbone of creating a consistent brand. Create a smell, sound or sight that links to an experience and it becomes possible to evoke that memory again and again. Get that smell, sound or sight out in the world and it can bring people to your door.

    This association is part of the core philosophy of branding, the process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product in the consumer’s’ mind. The same techniques apply to the church and how we present ourselves to the world. Creating that association is key. And part of any branding exercise is, of course, having a distinguished and recognizable logo.

    Logos tell stories and can create powerful associations for people. In the blink of an eye the Golden Arches or the Nike swoosh are both recognizable and they evoke emotions, memories, and opinions. Just seeing the logo on a billboard can subtly influence your next shoe or dinner decision.

    stam_logoFor congregations, branding can be used to create a recognizable presence in your community. At my previous parish of St. Andrew Memorial, we chose a bold and modern St. Andrew’s cross to communicate that the community was rooted in tradition but has modern relevance.

    Once we had our logo, it was critical to put it everywhere. The goal was to make it instantly recognizable to our neighbours and anyone that came in contact with the community. From bulletins to vestry reports, from Web and social media platforms to outdoor signage, the logo permeated all of the parish’s communications.

    Any communication, signage, sponsorships or outreach that bore our logo contributed to the emotions or memories evoked by it later on. Seeing the logo sparked a memory about something the church had done – i.e. “oh yah, you are the church with the garden” – or of an experience with it.

    Seeing a logo everywhere can lose its appeal to the everyday parishioner or priest, but remember: the logo is not for you, it is about you. It tells your story and helps seekers associate the logo with the essence that is your church. In the end a logo is a symbol meant to convey the enormity of all you wish to communicate about who you are as a community. It speaks of your worship, your outreach and how you interact with the world around you.

    Each individual church ought to have its own individual logo. This creates an emotional association with parishioners, neighbours and those that are served. And we are wise to remember that such a simple image can have a profound effect and stir powerful emotions that will help to fulfill the Great Commission.

    Frequency of posting: how to create a consistent presence, Huron Church News September 2016

    Your church’s digital communication is like connecting with a friend. If you call infrequently, you tend to drift apart. If you speak too often, you might feel like the friendship requires too much of your attention. You may consider changing your phone number or letting the call go to voice mail.

    The same tension can be found online. While you want to stay in contact with friends and share events from your church and life, you also don’t want to spam your Facebook feed with too much too often.

    Consistency is key. Your church’s communication plan should consider the frequency in addition to the tone of your communications. Consider when content will be posted, and how often (daily, weekly or a few times a week), and what sort of content will be shared. Just as infrequent posting says something about your community so does posting too often.

    This can be a challenging task. Luckily, there are tools to help you schedule your social media posts so you can plan ahead instead of constantly considering when and what to post.

    The first tool at our disposal is the native built-in scheduler on Facebook. This simple tool lets you load a series of posts ahead of time – say before a vacation or the busy Christmas season. This tool can be found in the drop-down menu next to the publish button on your page. Instead of publishing the post, simply schedule it.

    Hootesuite.com has been my go-to for scheduling and managing social media accounts for years. I use the free version, which allows me to manage multiple social media platforms at once including Twitter and Facebook and schedule posts across multiple streams. The free version allows you to manage three different accounts through one convenient dashboard.

    Another solution that has recently appeared on my radar is Buffer.com. The free version of Buffer is wonderful for scheduling posts but the dashboard only manages a single Facebook account. Despite this limitation, Buffer is a great solution for a church as it can schedule posts for your Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram accounts. If you happen to manage multiple Facebook pages, Twitter or Instagram accounts, you will need to upgrade to a paid version.

    By scheduling posts in advance, you only need an hour or two a month to create consistency and an active social media presence. Much of the work of sharing content and promoting events can be scheduled in advance, freeing you from being tethered to your phone or computer daily. Think of it like mailing a letter, once you have placed it in the mailbox, you can walk away knowing it will be delivered, freeing you to focus on other areas of ministry while keeping your social media accounts consistently active.

    A Picture is Worth a Thousand Shares, Huron Church News May 2016

    Parish life can be hectic. There are many events to attend: garage sales, bible studies special worship services, and dinners to name but a few. Each of these events is a chance to tell the story of your parish community and to celebrate the good work that is being done in the name of Jesus Christ.

    These are the very real personal stories of communities in action that will attract newcomers and strengthen existing relationship between parishioners. These are the stories of faith, the minutia of day to day parish life. And these are the stories that can have the biggest impact on your outward communication strategies.

    It is necessary then that these stories are captured to share and celebrate. To do this, a person in the community should be tasked with documenting each event. This seems obvious but is far too often overlooked. People will often take personal photos but these usually end up being communicated by that individual rather than as part of the broader communication strategy of the parish and shared on the parish’ social media channels.

    Assigning this task needs to be considered when planning any event so the opportunity is not missed. Not only is the event captured for posterity, but the recordings and photos can be used to communicate the vitality and essence of your community on your social media and web channels.

    In this way, visitors to your social media platforms will see the active and vibrant community that exists. Rather than a post from several months ago and pictures from a couple of years ago, they will be able to see recent engaging activities that communicate the life of the community.

    We have much to share in the life of the church. Even after these events have passed and are over, their effect can live on. The images, pictures and stories can inspire new generations to come to church. They can tell the story of your community. And most importantly, they can tell the story of Jesus Christ.

    So be ready at your next event, dinner or special worship service. Task an individual with snapping a few pictures and share those pictures on your parish’s social media channels. Celebrate your events and celebrate your community. And in doing so you will help make Christ known to the broader world.

    Community in action: capturing a perfect picture, Huron Church News April 2016

    Photos of your community in action can be an ideal way to tell your story. But sometimes it can be hard to capture a picture that communicates the message you want to share. Whether it be for privacy, logistical, or quality reasons, stock photos can be a preferable solution.

    First, isolating your parish’s “story”, who you are and what you do in the world, is an essential part of your communication strategy. Selecting the right image to tell that story can profoundly drive your web traffic and even lead to new-comers on a Sunday morning.

    A picture, after all, is worth a thousand words. This point was driven home this past September as millions of people saw the lifeless body of Alan Kurdi lying on a beach in Turkey. This image moved thousands of people across the Diocese of Huron to join with thousands more across Canada to open their homes and lives to refugees from this humanitarian crisis.

    We were aware of the refugee crisis prior to seeing the image, much like the world is aware of the church and the work we do to be the hands and feet of Christ in the world. Yet an image can move people to open their homes, or even to join a church.

    Selecting the images you use to tell your story is critical. Sharing images of a youth group worshiping with a praise band, or a collection of young families is fine, if that is part of your story. But if your parish is elderly, appreciates Gregorian chant and sings hymns accompanied an organ, then you are not telling your genuine story. Newcomers want to know who you are, not who you aspire to be. And if they feel they have been misled, they may not return and you may be missing out on attracting those who would be a fantastic fit for your community.

    A good rule of thumb when deploying an image on your website is to use one every 250 words. It helps to properly space images and avoids the over use of images while also helping to tell your story.
    Images are a great way to help tell your story in the digital realm. Following some simple rules can go a long way to communicate your particular story. Just keep in mind some useful tips: one image for every 250 words, always purchase your image to fairly compensate the artist and most importantly, have the image tell your story and avoid Exodus 20:16.

    The bus factor – who holds critical information in your parish? Huron Church News March 2016

    If a bus hit you tomorrow how would it affect your church?

    This may sound like an odd question, but in business management, and especially in the field of software development, the bus factor is a critical measurement of this exact question. That is, how is information concentrated, and, if someone were suddenly removed from the equation, how would it impact the team or organization?

    Where two or three are gathered, they will know all the passwords.

    In my work with parishes around the diocese over the past few years, I have discovered that most churches have a very low bus factor, often a bus factor of one. This means that only one person has information that is critical to the parish. This is often passwords or log-in information for social media accounts, ownership over the parish’s web address, or access to critical email addresses or web/hosting services.

    Often, the person who has this information is a parishioner and not even parish staff, wardens, or clergy. In many cases, ownership of domain names and web hosting has been left with a past member of the parish.

    This is a dangerously low bus factor. Losing control of accounts can be frustrating and delay or completely stop critical activities of the parish. It can lead to having to reboot and redesign websites, social media accounts and pursuing complex processes to regain access to lost accounts.

    It is good practice to keep all necessary passwords and information for digital accounts and configurations with the parish so wardens always have access if necessary. Secondly, all renewals for accounts, web hosting services and domain registration ought to be through the parish and not personal credit cards.

    Ultimately, your parish should practice good Christian theology when it comes to bus factor: where two or three are gathered, they will know all the passwords.

    Use your website to call your visitors to action, Huron Church News February 2016

    “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you” — Matthew 28:19-20

    Matthew gives us a call to action and we measure our success by the number of disciples brought to our Lord.

    By applying the same principles to our online communications, we can ensure we effectively achieve our Lord’s call to action.

    Having a website for your church has become as much of a requirement as having a listing in the phone book. They’re essential for people to find you.

    But once they do find your website, what action do you want them to take?

    Do you want them to look at your Sunday service times? Sign up for your newsletter? Volunteer for a ministry?

    What you want your visitors to do can help you get the results you want from your web presence. Having a well-defined call to action on your website means you can direct your users toward your desired action and measure how well you achieve your goal.

    Driving people to your action is best achieved by a simple, clear call on your site.

    A distinct button that says, “click here to register” or “visit us” is a good example of a call to action. When a user clicks on the link, you know that your website has achieved its goal.

    Measuring the success of your call to action is easy with Google Analytics. By adding a tracking code, you can track how many visitors came to your site, and most importantly, how many of those did what you wanted them to do.

    You can track visits to a given page, clicks of a button or downloads of a file, or you can define your own custom events to track.

    By identifying clear and measurable goals for your website, you can design your site and content around driving traffic through your calls to action.

    Once your goals are clearly defined, measuring success is just a matter of setting up analytics and tweaking your site until it is performing the way you want it to.

    What is your Because? Huron Church News January 2016

    When was the last time you spontaneously tried a restaurant? With no recommendation from a friend or a review read on Yelp. You just saw a sign and said, “What the heck, let’s give that a try?”

    If you are like many Gen-Xers or Millennials, cold calls to restaurants are not common. Decisions to go to a new restaurant are based on recommendations from trusted friends or online reviews.

    That being the case, why do we expect people to walk into our churches simply because we have a pithy quote on our sign? True, we will, on the odd occasion, have a cold call from a seeker or someone new to town, but these occurrences are far from the norm.

    What’s far more common is a friend or colleague recommends their church to a friend, just like a restaurant. They do so because they know why they love their church and can articulate exactly what their church does well and what they enjoy about it. It could be a good youth group, a strong music program or a preacher fantastic at liturgy and inspiring and relevant in sermons.

    Whatever the reason, if parishioners know exactly why they love their church, they will be able to clearly articulate their feelings with family, friends or colleagues.

    So when people ask me to help them promote their church, the question I always start with is this: What is your “because”? Why would someone come to your church? Can you or your parishioners finish this statement quickly and concisely: “You should come to my church because . . .”

    If you or your parishioners can’t finish this statement to briefly and effectively describe your church, any outward communication is premature.

    If people can’t articulate their experience with a friend, then we shouldn’t expect hundreds of people to flock to our churches on Bring a Friend Sunday or Back to Church Sunday.

    The best and oldest form of evangelism is still our parishioners’ social network. But to leverage these networks, whether online or off, we must first inspire our parishioners, educate them, and, most of all, give them permission to go out into the world and tell people that they love their church because . . .

    Include Communications as Part of your 2016 Planning? Huron Church News December 2015

    The end of 2015 is at hand. Budgets and plans for the coming year are being drawn up and leadership roles are being considered. This is an excellent time for a comprehensive survey of your parish’s communication plans and tools.

    A good place to start is to review the current contracts you have with communication companies. What do you still need? And what should be re-evaluated?

    Your current Internet, telephone, or web hosting plan may not have been updated for years and you may find much better deals are now available. A quick call to your service provider can yield better service, higher speeds, or cost savings in the hundred of dollars. Take a few minutes to make sure your plans are up-to-date and compare providers to get the best deal.

    Next, look at what platforms you use to communicate the message of Christ to the wider world. Does the parish have a Facebook page or Twitter account? Have these been dormant or underused for some time? Who is responsible for maintaining the online presence of the parish? Is this a team effort or the responsibility of just one person?

    The person (or persons) responsible for your external communications is an important selection and should be considered with equal importance as other parish roles.

    This person is the voice of the parish, but as with many other positions, requires the support of the entire vestry. To maintain an active social media presence, the rest of the parish must commit to participate. Your selection of platforms to maintain may depend on this commitment.

    Now is the time to cull or re-commit to the accounts that underused. While reducing your communications channels can seem like a step backward, it is better to focus on a few things well than to spread yourself too thin. Having a good, robust website and active Facebook page is better than having many platforms that are infrequently updated or underused.

    Finally, ensure that the parish has control over all accounts and products. A well-intentioned volunteer who has been maintaining an account or website may leave and the parish would lose access to these accounts. The parish should protect itself from this all-too-common occurrence by ensuring that accounts are registered and paid for by the parish and not a single member, including the rector.

    Adding an annual review of your communication strategy is a good practice to ensure you head into the new year with a message that is focused on the Great Commission and tools that are efficient and effective at spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ.

    Looking to reach fans of The Simpsons, Huron Church News November 2015

    Reaching beyond your immediate circle and social networks online can seem daunting. Stretching the already limited outreach budget to put it into something like an online advertising campaign can be risky, with no promise of a return on your investment.

    But with some well-placed, well-timed ads, traffic can be driven to Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, websites and, yes, even to your front door without breaking the bank.

    Facebook ads can be targeted by postal code, location, ages, genders, interests, or other demographic dimensions. You can use these segments to advertise directly to potential youth group members or users who share an interest in the subject of your next event.

    Running a Simpsons-themed Bible study? Target fans of The Simpsons.

    Want to maximize your Easter or Christmas attendance and reach new families? Target your event advertisement to local Christians and Anglicans.

    As a bonus, ad traffic can lead to organic traffic. Each ad-driven “like” on your parish’s Facebook page increases the possible reach of each post or event to a larger network of people. The points of entry into your parish community increase exponentially.

    Google Ad Words is another avenue to reach people outside of your network with well-timed advertising campaigns. Easter and Christmas campaigns, for example, can create a point of entry for those looking to try a new church or come back to church on a major feast day. You can target these ads similarly to Facebook ads.

    Highly targeted ads can mean you spend money to deliver the message you want only to the people you want, whether it is Google or Facebook. It can cost as little as a few dollars a week to advertise special events to a specific audience, or you can create a more general ad to reach people in your area searching for more general terms such as “Church Service” or “Church, insert your city here”.

    A small investment in a well thought-out advertising strategy for your online presence can have profound and dramatic effects on your parish’s reach and growth potential in spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ.

    Copyright goes beyond music, Huron Church News October 2015

    When creating a poster or Facebook event for an upcoming parish event, such as Back to Church Sunday or a fall barbecue, the first instinct may be to look for an image on a search engine like Google to promote your event. They are, after all, readily available and easily downloaded.

    They are also protected by copyright.

    Beyond music, copyright is an issue rarely discussed in many churches. Works protected by copyright do not stop at music, books or journal articles, but also include images, photos, PowerPoint templates, text from blogs and websites, Photoshop files, published sermons, and works of art.

    How can we use materials fairly while respecting those who used their time and talents to produce them? Are there portions of the work you would be allowed to use?

    Small parts of copyrighted works may be copied for the purposes of research or private study. Educational institutions, archives, libraries, and museums also hold specific exemptions.

    Ordinary congregational worship activities, however, do not provide a context for “fair use” of copyright material.

    Therefore, when looking for images for a website, blog post, sermon series or poster, simply Googling an image and downloading it is a violation of copyright law and could put the congregation in a difficult position.

    Many artists are willing to allow free use of their images, but they do also require acknowledgment of their work. This creates traffic back to their portfolio and can increase their sales and help provide for their livelihood.

    Even when an image is free, it is best to check with the artist or read the parameters that govern the use of the image found on the web.

    Using a photographer’s pictures or a designer’s Photoshop files in a sermon series or PowerPoint presentation may be allowed, but non-financial requirements may still exist, such as acknowledgment in the publication or at the end of the presentation.

    So how do you find materials that are safe to use and are within your parish’s budget?

    When it comes to images specifically, there is a wealth of free resources online. Excellent starting points for churches looking for inexpensive or royalty-free images include http://www.creationswap.com, http://search.creativecommons.org, and http://www.sxc.hu. Whatever site you use, take the time to read its FAQ or licencing page to be sure you are in compliance.

    If you have an image that you want to use but don’t know where it came from, http://www.tineye.com is a website that can help find the original source of the image. Once you know that, you can ask permission of the owner.

    A little work online can protect the congregation and also lead to new relationships with artists who deserve compensation for use of their quality work. Taking a little time to identify the rightful owner of images and copyrighted material goes a long way to protecting the church and advancing the Gospel.

    Christ Has No Body

    Teresa of Avila (1515–1582)

    Christ has no body but yours,
    No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
    Yours are the eyes with which he looks Compassion on this world,
    Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
    Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
    Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
    Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
    Christ has no body now but yours,
    No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
    Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world.
    Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

    Guest Column, St Paul Social Services

    Transformational Relationships

    I have always had a materialistic approach to ministry. To quote his Holiness, Pope Francis, “You pray for the hungry. Then you feed them. This is how prayer works.” To be the hands and feet of Christ in the world has been and continues to be foundational to my sense of call and ministry as a baptized Christian and a priest.

    As the Body of Christ, the church, we are to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, visit the sick and imprisoned and to bury the dead. The Works of Mercy, as they are known, are central to our identity. We are to help heal a broken world and to help enact the Kingdom of God in the here and now, even if it is only a little bit each day.

    As the church seeks to transform the lives of those that come to it for help, it begs the question, “How is the church being transformed providing such help?” While serving at the Fellowship Center I have had the opportunity to develop relationships with many of the guests. But the most profound impact of my service at the Fellowship Center came when a guest invited me to prayer. As we stood shoulder to shoulder in the sanctuary praying for the world and its concerns, for peace, and an end to hunger, there came that moment when I would normally begin to interject prayers for my friend. But then, the most remarkable thing occurred. He began to pray for me instead. It was at that moment I realized he didn’t want me to pray for him, but wanted me to pray with him.

    Since that day, each time when we see each other he brings me prayer cards, books to read and pictures of various saints. I pressed him that he needed not to do this, I was happy to volunteer and help. He answered me, “You spend your time taking care of others, but who takes care of you? If you don’t mind, I think I would like to do that job.”

    Much as the disciples came to know Jesus in the breaking of the bread on the road to Emmaus, my friend and I have come to know Jesus, not just through service but also in each other. Through sharing a meal and prayer together, we have been mutually transformed by the experience. The transformation occurred not through a power dynamic of me serving him, but rather through a relationship of mutual comfort and support.

    Transformation of our guests and of our volunteers does not occur when there is a counter separating us from those in need. Transformation occurs when we greet each other on the way to Emmaus, when we walk with each other along the journey, when we break bread together and we come to know Christ in each other during these moments.

    Coming to the Fellowship Center no longer is a time to volunteer. Rather it has become a time be fed while feeding others.

    You can find the whole issue here

    Who would Jesus vote for?

    Conservative MP Wai Young claims the Conservative are acting ‘in the same vein’ as Jesus Christ with anti-terror bill, C-51.

    This is a bold claim and not the first time the Conservative Party has laid claim to the Christian Faith and appealed to Christian voters. Which got me thinking, who would Jesus vote for?

    voteThis is not an easy question to answer. Would Jesus vote for security? Would Jesus vote for better health care funding? Would Jesus vote for more social programs to care for the poor and the marginalized?

    If we examine the underlying ideology (and not get mired in specific policies) that informs the various parties we should be able to make a valiant attempt to answering if Jesus would vote for a certain party.

    First, let start with the governing party, the Conservative Party of Canada. The Conservatives are based on an ideology of low taxes, small government and personal choice. Stephen Harper has repeatedly said, parents know best their child care needs, so putting money back into parents pockets so they may choose the daycare options for them is a priority (and part of the underlying ideology that informs their policies).

    The UCCB payments are all part of a greater neo-liberal ideological framework. While many will say it is a shameless vote buying mechanism, it also reflects the neo-liberal position of the Conservative Party; that personal choice takes priority over the collective use of resources.

    The question we need to answer then is Jesus in favour of personal choice.

    St Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 12:12-26 that we are all members of one body, the body of Christ, the church. This body metaphor is key to understanding the responsibilities we take on in baptism, namely to care for each other and that we are intrinsically linked.

    Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot were to say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear were to say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?

    It is simply difficult to imagine a member of a body making a personal choice. The body works as a collective, united and whole. Personal choice comes to an end after one comes to God through Jesus Christ. At our baptism we enter into a covenant with God. God promises us salvation and eternal life in turn we are to teach all that Jesus taught, baptize new believers in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit: we are to feed the poor, clothe the naked, heal the sick, and in all things we are to be as Christ, offering ourselves to God and to the world.

    The underlying Ideology of the Conservative Party of Canada and the underlying ideology of the Christian faith are obviously in direct opposition. Clearly Jesus would NOT vote Conservative.

    Secondly lets look at the NDP. The NDP position of social welfare clearly lines up with the teaching of Christ, but does the underlying ideologies line up as well?

    The NDP most closely reflects classic socialism, which lends itself to the body metaphor of St Paul as listed above quite well. Yet the question of universal daycare, or universal health care bring into question whether Jesus would vote for the NDP.

    God’s justice has never been about universalities. Each are judged accordingly. That being said, the care for neighbour brings into mind the works of mercy taught by Christ.

    So while the underlying ideology is not clearly in line with Christianity, it does offer some intriguing possibilities. And while universality is not a Christian ideology, universality does not necessarily work in opposition to Christian ideology. Would Jesus vote NDP? Possibly.

    The third party is also very interesting. For instance the sliding scale for Canada Child Benefit from the Liberal platform reflects the fairness found in the teachings of Jesus Christ, and doesn’t promote universality.

    The fairness distribution also allows for those that have more to help those that have less, clearly in line with St Paul’s teachings in 1 Corinthians and with the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 4:33-35).

    Yet the third party also embraces some of the idea of universalism (which is its underlying ideology as it promotes universal rights and freedoms through the charter), while scripture speaks of each having different needs, Acts 4:33-35:

    With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

    So would Jesus vote Liberal? Again, I think possibly.

    We have looked at the three main parties, but it would be a disservice if we didn’t also look at the two other parties with seats in Parliament. The Green Party and The Bloc Quebecois.

    First, the Green Party. The Greens’ focus on the environment and being good stewards of the earth is clearly reflected throughout scriptures and within the teachings of Jesus Christ. The economic platform is also guided by fairness, and not just fairness towards other humans, but to the planet.

    The underlying ideology of the Green party places humanity and the planet as part of the same body; intrinsically linked. The question, as it pertains to Christianity is, “are we of this world?”

    In our understanding of baptism, the answer is yes … and no. Marked, as Christ’s own, we become citizens of both the heavenly city and the earthly city. We exist in the here and now, but also at the end of time with God in eternity. So the body metaphor stretched to include the earth, of which we are commanded to be good stewards of, does not fully reflect the underlying principles and ideology of Christianity. Yet we cannot dismiss much of Christian Stewardship underlying the ideology of the Green Party.

    So would Jesus vote Green? Again, I believe possibly.

    And finally the Bloc Quebecois, a regionally based party existing solely for the purpose of advancing the cause of separation, or in Christian theo-political terms, advancing a schism.

    St Paul is clear in 1 Corinthians that schism, division in the church, in the body, is a sin. The underlying ideology of separation goes directly against both the idea of dividing the body and the warnings against schisms.

    In short, would Jesus vote for the Bloc Quebecois? NO

    Holy bible and crossNow you may be asking yourself, why answering the question who Jesus would vote for or wouldn’t vote for? Simple. I am a Christian. As a Christian, my faith informs who I will vote for, who I will choose to represent me and my beliefs and values. I cannot separate my faith from my vote. It is who I am.

    Knowing this, and knowing who most closely represents the Christian faith I espouse in their policies and underlying ideology is important for when I make my choice on October 19th. I, like many other Christians always serving my Lord and Saviour first and foremost, will cast a ballot. I pray that we all cast a ballot that reflects the kingdom of God and not kingdoms of this world.

    Activating our Weak Ties, Huron Church News June 2015

    Within our social circles, we have a mix of relationships from very close friends to distant acquaintances.

    Our closest relationships likely make up a close-knit group of friends and family who know us best. Acquaintances, on the other hand, are made up of a diverse group of people who can come from different contexts, such as work, school, neighbourhood, conferences, and old school friends.

    In social graph theory, these two groups are referred to as “strong ties” and “weak ties”.

    The people we spend the most time with are our strong ties. These connections are very familiar with our likes, dislikes, hobbies, clubs we belong to, and the church we attend. In fact, our strong ties likely share some of these things with us.

    Weak ties, on the other hand, are people we spend less time with. They may be friends from work, neighbours, distant relatives, or friends from high school. We don’t see them as close friends, but weak ties are very powerful when it comes to social networking, online and off. These ties act as bridges between social groups and have been shown to be extremely influential when job hunting because they have access to a different pool of connections and information than we and our strong ties do.

    The same benefit can be extended to the church — our weak ties hold the potential power to reach outside of our immediate social groups and reach newcomers, welcome new ideas, and evangelize.

    Social media is the perfect way to stay connected with weak ties — that friend from high school or colleague from a previous employer. It’s also a great way to spread your church’s message across these powerful social bridges.

    Every interaction with our church’s Facebook page or Twitter account is an opportunity to engage weak ties. A simple “like” that shows up in your newsfeed or activity tracker means that your friends, even the distant ones, see what your church or diocese is up to. If they “like” it too, it can spread exponentially.

    This is why Facebook events for church picnics, barbecues and other events are so important. While you may never think to invite someone from the office to your parish barbecue, simply RSVPing through Facebook allows your weak ties to see that activity on your Facebook wall and may prompt a question or conversation.

    As we prepare for summer and begin to think about the fall and Back to Church Sunday events throughout our diocese, give some time and energy to interacting with your church’s social media accounts. By doing so, we all can participate in reaching beyond our immediate membership to spread news, promote events and invite newcomers.

    The newest member of your church is just waiting to learn about the exciting things happening in your parish. And that is all one click away.

    Take some time this summer to engage with your church’s social media accounts. By doing so, come Back to Church Sunday, you may find yourself sitting beside your weak ties.

    Genesis 18:1-15

    The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. He said,‘My lord, if I find favour with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.’ So they said, ‘Do as you have said.’ And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, ‘Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.’ Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.

    They said to him, ‘Where is your wife Sarah?’ And he said, ‘There, in the tent.’ Then one said, ‘I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.’ And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, ‘After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?’ The Lord said to Abraham,‘Why did Sarah laugh, and say, “Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?” Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.’ But Sarah denied, saying, ‘I did not laugh’; for she was afraid. He said, ‘Oh yes, you did laugh.’

    HospitalityHospitality. Abraham makes room for his three guests who come to his tent, whether travelling from afar of simply appearing as they walk up to Abraham’s tent. We are not sure if the three guest were angels, God himself, perhaps in the form of the Trinity. Although this is all just sheer speculation and anachronistically reading Christian theology back into a Jewish texts.

    What is of note in this passage is the act of hospitality. Abraham does not hesitate to offer his home and his best food for guest he knows not. Abraham does not know if these strangers who have appeared by his tent are important. He does not know if they are from another tribe, or perhaps includes princes or kings. Abraham simply offers hospitality to those that have come to him. He welcomes them into his home.

    This is a powerful message. The early church would take this passage as significant in how we are to welcome strangers. And it will inform generations of hospitality providers in the church. Yet, that is getting very ahead of ourselves I think. In the course of the narrative that is unfolding on the pages in front of us and what we have read, Abraham is beginning to demonstrate the faith for which he will become famous.

    It must have been an incredible act of faith to practice this kind of radical hospitality. No names, no introductions. Simply, here is my home, here is my food, you are welcome to share. And in the sharing Abraham and Sarah receive a message. That they will be rewarded for their faith and hospitality. They will have a son for nothing is impossible with God.

    What would it look like if in Christian nations, blessed with such abundance, we were to share with the rest of the world and offer this kind of radical hospitality, and to develop and hold the same faith as Abraham: that in offering hospitality to strangers we too would be blessed by God?

    Perhaps the thought makes you laugh as Sarah…

    Right Tool for the Right Communications, Huron Church News May 2015

    When evaluating web and social media solutions, the best place to start is with the question, “What is your desired outcome”? It can be tempting to jump on the bandwagon of the next big thing or stick to what we already know, but it is important to first identify your goals and pick a platform or technology that will get you there. Otherwise, you may find yourself fitting a square peg into a round hole and your outreach attempts may be less effective than they could be.

    For example, Facebook is one of the most popular platforms across generations today. Most churches recognize that Facebook is a useful tool for evangelism, content discovery, and communication. But even Facebook offers different ways for organizations to communicate.

    The Facebook group is designed specifically for internal communication, while the fan page is designed with external communication — evangelism — in mind.

    Both of the tools can be a great resource to any parish, but they have different features and applications.

    A group is useful for internal communication and can be a great tool for a parish council or committee in a church to collaborate and share information outside of regular meetings. A group can provide a shared history of discussions and notes for new members, and can allow people to connect who may otherwise have difficulty meeting outside of Sunday mornings. But Facebook groups do not reach outward as only members can get updates and they can require active monitoring to keep up on a given discussion.

    Fan pages, on the other hand, behave much like personal accounts. People need only “like” the page to join and they will see updates in their Facebook news feed. Friends of friends are also able to see these posts when someone comments or interacts with a post. Instead of reaching only the members of a small group, fan page posts can reach exponentially more people than a group.

    Fan pages also offer two very distinct evangelistic properties for any church wanting to reach out with the Gospel message: analytics and advertisement.

    Once a fan page reaches 30 likes, analytics are available to the fan page owner. Churches can see who is interacting with their posts and what content has the best and most favourable reach and can make decisions about how to tailor their message for maximum effect.

    I can’t stress the importance of analytics enough. Knowing the demographics of your audience allows you to tailor your message to either have a greater impact on your current readership or shift focus to engage with a different target audience.

    Advertisements are also available through fan pages. By creating an ad to promote a post or event, you can target a particular city or postal code with upcoming events or Christmas or Easter worship schedules. Or you can get even more specific with demographic targeting, such as letting young families know about your upcoming Messy Church event.

    A small budget of $6 to $10 can have a profound effect on reaching seekers, especially in the holy seasons of Christmas and Easter, and help grow your congregation.

    Facebook is only one example of all the platforms available, and fan pages vs. groups is but one decision to make. But starting with the answer to “What is your desired outcome?” will lead your community to finding the most effective tools to achieve their goals.

    HCN May 2015

    Tech Soup, Huron Church News April 2015

    Being a good steward of the resources entrusted to us in the church means stretching every dollar and often making do with used or old equipment and software.

    Many of our churches are still using old computer towers, Windows XP and Microsoft Office 2003 or earlier. Often files sent to a church cannot be opened due to incompatibility issues from outdated software.

    Formatting of the document can change when attempting to convert the file to older versions of the program and can cause large headaches and much hair-pulling.

    Thankfully, there are solutions even for churches stretching the office administration budget. Open Office (www.openoffice.org) offers software for free that can open most documents.

    Open Office allows for basic word processing and is a good, quick solution when you are stuck not being able to open a certain file.

    But if you are looking for some serious upgrades to your software in your church, then signing up to TechSoup (www.techsoupcanada.ca) should be your next step. TechSoup offers discounted and free software to non-profits and charities.

    Many companies, such as Microsoft, Intuit, and Google, have software available through TechSoup to help empower the not-for-profit sector.

    Each company sets its own eligibility guidelines, some of which exclude religious organizations. But don’t be discouraged. Great deals and opportunities for churches are still available.

    Microsoft Office, Intuit Quickbooks, Google Business Suite for non-profits, and a Google Adwords grant of up to $10,000 are all available to faith-based organizations that meet the eligibility criteria.

    To sign up to TechSoup, you will need your Canada Revenue Agency number and your estimated budget for the coming year.

    After a background check that takes about 24 hours, your account will be activated and you will have access to a library of free or low-cost programs and software.

    Updating your church’s computer can seem daunting and expensive. But thanks to socially-minded companies and portals like TechSoup, affordable and up-to-date software is just a click away.

    AprilHCN

    First Contact, Huron Church News March 2015

    Your website is the first experience many newcomers and seekers have with your church. Before setting foot in the door, before the greeters offer a warm welcome, and before the hospitality of coffee hour, your website has already made that critical first impression.

    Digital presence is increasingly the first point of contact and of evangelism.

    A website is an essential communication tool. It is no longer a luxury to have a website; it is a requirement to reach seekers and potential newcomers, and it can help retain connection with your occasional members.

    Not every church can afford a website created from scratch or has the technical skills within the community to build it themselves.

    Fortunately, there are some simple, free or low-cost solutions that can get you up and running in no time. These online services will host your site, removing all the back-end technical work, and most of them offer professionally designed and developed templates for the design and layout of your sites.

    My suggestion is to avoid drag-and-drop solutions and instead find a template that you like and rely on the business, design and development skills that professionals have put into it. Unless you are a professional designer, use a template.

    Some websites that offer these services include Weebly.com, Wix.com and WordPress.com.

    Each has their pros and cons. I prefer WordPress because of its extensibility, support, and freedom to change hosting, but the learning curve can be challenging for some. Weebly or Wix may be preferred options for smaller communities or for those just getting their toes wet.

    All of these providers offer free hosting at their domain. While this might seem easy, it is in your best interest to register your own domain name and connect it with your new website — a feature all of the
    above services support.

    Not only does a hosted domain look unprofessional, but also it means that if you ever change hosting providers, your address changes, too. Every link that points to your site will break, all the search engine history you have built up will be lost, and every bookmark to your site will be broken.

    Using your own domain is a relatively inexpensive option — around $15 a year — and instead of the long stswithins.wordpress.com, you can invest in stswithins.com. Then when you are ready to upgrade to a new site you don’t need to change your address again.

    Next, you need to develop your content. When building your site, think about the three main audiences: newcomers, seekers and existing parishioners.

    All three of these audiences will visit your site, so consider how your content speaks to each of them and make sure they can find what they are looking for.

    Getting your church online can seem scary. But there are many tools that can help each church have a professionally designed and developed website at a low cost.

    A little time and effort can go a long way into reaching out with the love of God to newcomers and seekers alike.

    MarchHCN

    Diocese Of Huron Launches Facebook Page, Huron Church News February 2015

    Facebook: a place for friends, families, colleagues, and acquaintances to connect over cats, babies, news, events, announcements, politics, videos, brands, and communities. Facebook is a means of communication, connection, and organization across generations and demographics.

    And Facebook presents an exciting opportunity for the Diocese of Huron to connect in all these ways and more with people from across the diocese and to spread the Gospel message.

    The Diocese of Huron’s new Facebook page promotes events and communities of diocesan interest and creates a dialogue about who the church is, who we have been, and who we are becoming as the people of God. The step into Facebook is one in a series of efforts by the diocese to engage with people both in our churches and in our neighbourhoods. As the diocese continues to renew its communication patterns, it is important to be in the places where our message, Christ’s message, can be received.

    In many ways, social media is the new agora of ancient times, the meeting place where individuals discuss daily events and share their faith. It is critical for the Diocese of Huron to be involved in these conversations and to proclaim the word of
    God.

    Stop by and like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dioceseofhuron and keep up to date on news, events, and thought-provoking discussions of interest throughout our great diocese.

    HuronChurchNewsFeb2015

    Chiastic Structure of the Gospel of Mark

    A Chiastic Literary Structure is part of Jewish writing and is designed specifically to point to the important components or the center of the text. Each component has a mirror component. So as seen below, A and A’ are mirrored, John points to Jesus and the young man points to Jesus at the end of the Gospel text.

    Following the Chiastic Structure in Mark, the passion prediction becomes the epicenter of the Gospel. I find this particularly interesting especially in light of the shorter ending of Mark where the “women flee and say nothing.”

    The Gospel of Mark is a literary challenge. Have you the faith to go to ahead to Galilee. Have the faith to believe in the words of Christ, that the Son of Man must suffer and die before he is to be raised from the dead and ascend into heaven. Have you the faith to believe in the resurrection? The text for me is symbolic of the faith that is required of each Christian. It stands in place of Thomas. Can you believe without seeing?

    A Beginning – John points to Jesus 1:4-8
    B Jesus’ baptism – The splitting of the heavens, “You are my son,” 1:9-11
    C Jesus is tested in the wilderness 1:12-13
    D The parable of the sower 4:1-9
    E Raising of the young girl 5:21-43
    F The death of John the Baptist 6:14-29
    G Stilling of the second storm (exorcism of the deep) 6:45-52
    H Peter’s confession 8:27-30
    I – Jesus’ first passion prediction 8:31-33
    H’ Transfiguration 9:2-10
    G’ Exorcism of possessed boy 9:14-29
    F’ Appearance of the rich (young) man 10:17-22
    E’ Raising of the young man in Secret Mark (followed Mark 10:34)
    D’ Parable of the vineyard 12:1-11
    C’ Jesus is tested in the temple 12:13-27
    B’ Jesus dies, the temple veil is split “Truly this was God’s son.” 15:33-39
    A’ The “post-runner” the young man, points to Jesus 16:1-8

    Genesis 17

    When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.’ Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, ‘As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God.’

    God said to Abraham, ‘As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. Throughout your generations every male among you shall be circumcised when he is eight days old, including the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring. Both the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money must be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.’

    God said to Abraham, ‘As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.’ Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said to himself, ‘Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?’ And Abraham said to God, ‘O that Ishmael might live in your sight!’ God said, ‘No, but your wife Sarah shall bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard you; I will bless him and make him fruitful and exceedingly numerous; he shall be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this season next year.’ And when he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham.

    Then Abraham took his son Ishmael and all the slaves born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him. Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. And his son Ishmael was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. That very day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised; and all the men of his house, slaves born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.

    The sign of the covenant between God and Abram, now to be known as Abraham, is circumcision. God appears to Abraham, promises an everlasting covenant with Abraham and all of his descendants. Isaac, a son, to be born of Sarah and Abraham will inherit the covenant.

    To Abraham and Isaac and their descendants God gives them the land of Canaan. In exchange, Abraham and his descendants are to worship God. And the sign of this covenant is circumcision of all males in Abraham’s household.

    This sign forever marks the Jewish people as alien, or other. They are being set apart by God from the rest of creation. God has chosen his people with who he makes a covenant. And this status as “other” is reinforced when the land promised to Abraham is none other then Canaan, the land in which Abraham currently is an alien.

    This foundational story of the people of God cannot be understated in anyway. To be marked by God, set apart for God and chosen by God comes with benefits to be sure, new land, which will be theirs in perpetuity. But it also comes with consequences. Abraham’s people will now be other, set aside, set apart, different and alien in a world where cultural differences can lead to war and violence very quickly.

    closing-the-dealIn Genesis to this point, God had made a covenant with Noah, to never again destroy the earth and all who live within. But now God has singled out a people who God has chosen. Abraham jumps at the opportunity, and who wouldn’t? Large amounts of land to be his and his descendants in perpetuity? Sounds like a great deal. Worship God, mark themselves as God and God will make his descendants as numerous as the stars in heaven and from Sarah will come nations.

    Would you make that deal? Would you set yourself up as “other” in perpetuity?

    Parallels

    Fanshawe College is one of the largest colleges in Ontario, with satellite campuses in towns surrounding London and a campus in Downtown London, all of this in addition to the large main campus on Oxford Street in the east end. It is a major player in education in London and frankly, all of South Western Ontario. It receives millions in funding from the Provincial Government and contributes hundreds of millions of dollars to the local economy.

    FanshawelogoFanshawe was the latest stop for Leadership London and the team of leaders who are training in the TOL methodology. Your Rogue Preacher and the rest of the team descended on Fanshawe College for a meeting with the President of the college, Peter Devlin to discuss leadership, what qualities make for a good leader and how to nurture those qualities. We toured the campus, got a behind the scenes look at the functioning of the college and were presented with a problem that the team would work through and present a solution, or possible solutions to Fanshawe College.

    Without getting into specifics of the problem, it was very interesting for me to note that a college as large as Fanshawe, with a robust marketing team and state of the art technology still, like any other institution, had problems on how to isolate a specific demographic and attract the aforementioned demographic.

    This perennial problem of Fanshawe reminded me of the church and the church’s perennial problem of attracting, retaining and connecting with millennials. The parallels were striking to say the least. And as the team worked through the OODA loop and processed the problem, possible solutions slowly began to crystalize. It was refreshing to see and experience.

    I began to wonder, what could a team of leaders accomplish in the Diocese or the greater church if they were giving an opportunity to help shift the culture and establish new patterns. I began to wonder how the church can adapt to the culture around us and how the culture around us could adapt to us? I began to wonder what the vision of the future may be?

    In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men dream dreams. Acts 2:17

    Quick to Criticize, Slow to Praise

    I, like many of us, have been quick to criticize and slow to praise. It is easier to tear something down rather then build something up. And my recent adventures in home renovations have taught me precisely that. I am not sure why we do this as human beings? But I found myself doing it far more often then I wanted.

    Over the past 6 months or so though I have been more proactive about praising more and criticizing less. I have found it immensely helpful to remind myself that while I may not agree with the decisions being made by others, that their hearts is in the right place. There are after all very few truly “evil” people in the world.

    For instance, I may not agree with decisions my bishop makes, or votes taking in deanery council, but reminding myself that all these people want to see the Kingdom of God grow and are just doing their best has helped me temper my criticism.

    What has also helped me temper my criticisms of others is reminding myself that it is easy to criticize, but then asking myself, “what am I going to do about it?” I can, after all, join in a “bitch” session, or I can be willing to help others and offer constructive solutions. This has helped me not just to be more effective in church land, but to be happier.

    This, of course, is not just a realization I have had on my own or a moment of self actualization. It is born of a couple of things. It is a process by which I am becoming more the person God wants me to be. Allowing the Spirit of God to work me over has had a dramatic positive effect. Also, having good friends has been key. Not just too debrief and complain with but also challenge me to be a better priest, and a better person.

    So a big shout out to Kevin Dixon and Bill Ward. You guys have helped make me a better person, at least 8 times out of 10. (sorry Billy, couldn’t resist)

    Vision, Mission and Purpose

    I have been involved with the church for many years in one capacity or another. During that time I have helped churches and various congregations develop vision and mission statements and clearly articulate their purposes or goals.

    As a quick recap, a Vision Statement is the pie in the sky idea, what one day long into the future an organization would like to see. The Mission Statement is the process by which the vision is enacted. And the Purposes or Goals are the daily means by which that mission is carried out.

    Often this is seen as too corporate of an activity. It reminds people of the business world and we are church. Often, there is great resistance to this process. And when this process does get completed, there is very little buy in by parishioners or staff.

    At a recent gathering of clergy here in London I asked how many of us knew the Vision and Mission Statements of the Diocese. I was not surprised too see no hands go up. After all my hand didn’t go up either as I shamefully had to admit that I too had to look up our Vision and Mission statements and could find no hint of our Purposes or Goals on any Diocesan communications.

    Why do I mention this? Recently through Emerging Leaders and Leadership London I had the opportunity to tour a few non-profits here in London and how they have grown through the years and the work they are engaged in.

    Our First stop was Y.O.U. (Youth Opportunities Unlimited). Over the past few years they have repurposed a building in the core of London to include classrooms, housing units and a café where skills are taught and resume building occurs. The rooftop terrace was impressive, the café was great and the building and the ministry being done to care for youth on the margins is incredible.

    Our next stop was WIL (Originally Women Immigration London). This organization connects recent immigrates with employers, helps them navigate interviews and directly partners with the Federal Government in the immigration resettlement process. WIL began modestly in a church basement, and now own a large office tower in the core of London and helps to connects thousands of immigrants with meaningful employment.

    Our last stop was Pillar Non-Profit. Pillar’s recent purchase of the Goodlife building in the core of London for the creation of a Social Innovation Shared Space is helping to change the direction of London and shape the future of the city. Pillar as a network of non-profits now has multiple staff and continues to advise and assist non-profits in London in a myriad of ways.

    ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????The social impact of these three organizations in London is impressive to say the least. How they got there is also worthy of note. Everyone I spoke to in each organization could clearly articulate the Vision, Mission and Purpose of their organization, everyone from Executive Directors to the receptionist.

    Each employee knew what the organization was hoping to accomplish, how it was going to get there and what the daily task were. This got me thinking about my context and the church. Can we, as a church body, whether that be local parish or Diocesan structure, clearly articulate our shared Vision, our shared Mission and what our daily purposes or goals are?

    Starting with better communications surrounding Vision, Mission and Purposes may help us grow and expand, reach more people and have greater impact in helping to build up the kingdom of God. And like Y.O.U., WIL and Pillar Non-Profit could also greatly increase our foot print in London and in the world.

    Plans are Merely a Platform for Change

    Shifting and changing culture is a difficult thing. While many may be on board with the need for a shift in culture, it is difficult to enact that change. There are three common ways in which change is often implemented.

    • Imitation
    • Importation
    • Revolution

    Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but it will not help you change the culture of your church. What works at another church or diocese, will not necessarily work in your context. There are many reasons for this, but most notably the source of your imitation has invested greatly into their venture, raised up the right team, down missional listening and are now acting accordingly. Often we try to replicate what others have done, rather then looking for what God is asking us to do in our context. The desire to have a ready made program parachuted in is a strong motivation. The hope is for quick results, little work and easy decisions. If it is too good to be true, often it is.

    Importation, another means of implementing change, is the dreaded consultant. Many churches will hire a consultant to help them move forward. This has a tendency to work in individual churches on a small scale where the individual congregation has already bought into the need for change, but often runs into problems on Diocesan levels were cynicism is aimed at the higher ups and buy in is low. It also can lead people to placing all expectations on one person, who will be the saviour. And when things naturally do not work out because one person alone cannot save the world, the horizontal church responds that we tried and change is not possible, status quo remains. Unfortunately this also creates a scapegoat and does little to build a team that will champion the need for change.

    Revolutions meanwhile are often successful, but they require a crisis situation. Through crisis the need for change is fostered when the church is willing to look for new leadership, new vision, new methods, new practices, new rewards, new principles, a new approach to hiring and formation, and a new way to promote those within the organization. This type of change is effective for it breaks with traditions, the same policy traditions that have created the crisis in the first place. After all, doing the same things and expecting a different results is not just a logically fallacy, it is also Einstein’s definition of insanity.

    changeTo help enact revolution, a collaborative team of leaders needs to be brought together. Power needs to be decentralized so that decisions can happen quickly and efficiently and for team members to have some skin the game. The buck doesn’t stop at the bishop, but rather at the team who are responsible to each other and also the organization, the church.

    In this manner, the structure of the organization shifts from vertical to horizontal. More individuals are giving responsibility for the enacting of the vision, mission and purposes. The delegation of decision making is not an abdicating of responsibility of the leader (the bishop), but rather is putting individuals in positions to succeed and to advance the vision of the church.

    Revolutions require new leaders in many ways. They promote from the bottom up. Traditional paths to the operational power are replaced by assigning task to the people best suited for the responsibility, regardless of tenure, age or experience.

    All of this sounds great, but operational integrity must be maintained throughout and adherence to the execution of the intent of the church must inform all actions of the organization. Being focused, and making sure all decisions flow into the agreed upon vision, mission and purpose is simply a must. It is easy to go off the rails, to get distracted and for individuals to have pet projects or concerns. But in a crisis, all need to pull together, in the same direction as a team.

    This building of a collaborative team to help enact a revolution and to carry forward the vision, the mission and the purposes of the church flows from the principle that there can be no expertise without collaboration (1 Corinthians 12:12-27) and success depends on the collaboration of experts.

    #ToL and Leadership London

    What is #Tol? It is a Team of Leaders and a leadership methodology brought to civic affairs by The Center for Collaborative Command and Leadership. This program has been brought to London by Emerging Leaders through the Leadership London program and part of the Emerging Leaders mandate to retain, attract and connect young talent in London On.

    Taking directly from the #ToL website, #ToL is describe as,

    The concept of Teams of Leaders has been developed by the US Army to help it to interact with the civilian world of the post-Cold War era, and to promote utilization of the immense intellectual, business, and logistics capabilities of the Army in the service of the civilian authorities. In addition, the ToL concept served to strengthen the existing relationships with the long-standing allies of the US, and to form new ones with the large number of rapidly emerging partners.

    The original goal of the Teams of Leaders concept was to fill the structural gap in situations where a single authority and a single shared purpose were typically either unclear, subject to external manipulation, or entirely absent. Hence, the driving force behind the Teams of Leaders approach was the wish to promote an environment that builds common understanding, and develops mutual trust and confidence among a wide variety of professional, organizational, and national teams forced to act jointly in the often turbulent setting of the contemporary political, economic, and social world.

    Ultimately, ToL policies, programs and practices were found to be equally applicable across both the military and civilian governmental, non-governmental, and corporate entities acting in the joint, inter-agency, inter-governmental, and multinational (JIIM) setting of globalized activities. The transition of ToL from the military to the civilian sphere of activities was largely afforded through the work of the Center for Collaborative Command and Leadership (CCCL, formerly Center for Collaborative Leadership in Healthcare – CCLH). Presently, the ToL concept serves as the unique and exceptionally well suited tool in the development of collaboration among entities involved in missions executed at all levels of the civil society and of the corporate world.

    Marty@ToLOn October 4th, your Rogue Preacher began his first session with #ToL and Leadership London. It was an exciting day of learning the methodologies and practices and collaborating with an exciting group of Londoners, of leaders, who are seeking to become citizens of action committed to reshaping London for a better future.

    Each month we will meet and tackle problems in various sectors of London and thereby gain valuable insight across all of London while putting into practice the methodologies of #ToL. These sectors include:

    • Non Profits
    • Healthcare
    • Education
    • Technology
    • City Government
    • Economic Development
    • Our Place in the Region
    • Our Heritage
    • Arts

    There is much to be learned and much to be shared. There will be techniques of building teams rapidly, developing solutions to long standing problems and rapidly responding to new problems as they emerge. It plans to be an amazing journey of discovering London, developing leadership skills and team building methodologies and most of all continuing as a life long learner.

    I will endeavour to share thoughts and insights, especially as they pertain to the church. Hopefully as I blog my way through this project there will be insights that can be applied directly to the church, its long term problems, rapidly developing problems and help foster a stronger and better teams of leaders throughout the church.

    I will try to not be critical of the church, but at times I will have to be. My critiques will not be about pointing out problems and assigning blame, but rather will be about offering ways we can name our problems, but also tackle them to help further God’s Kingdom and build up the church here in London.

    So check back periodically, and hold on…we are going to plunge deeply into the heart of London.