Faith and Web

Did you know Google meditated?  I didn’t either, until a few days ago when a friend sent me a link to a recent article in Shambhala Sun: Google Searches.

For any web developer interested in meditation, it’s a must-read.  Google’s approach to meditation is refreshing – separating it from religion and encouraging tough questions.  The goal of the Googler behind this, Chade-Meng Tan, is a noble and surprising one – world peace.

Years ago I meditated regularly, but got out of the practice when my children were small.  Now, children grown, I’ve been teetering on the edge of picking it back up.  It seems this article is the catalyst I needed.

In particular, I’m inspired to try a practice the article explains in passing: mindful emailing.  It’s to help with those sticky emails.  You know – the ones you send off with shoulders tense, teeth clenched or stomach in a knot.

The biggest challenge in mindful emailing is step one – meditating regularly.  But at this point all I’m committing to is five minutes a day.  Of course I’m lucky.  I’ve had training by good meditation teachers.  But they say if you want to meditate badly enough, you will find a teacher.  Assuming you can figure out how to meditate, here are the steps.

1. Meditate every day, at least five minutes

2. After typing an email, decide if it’s just an easy one (e.g. confirming lunch date).  If it is, send it right away.  If not (or if in doubt), then….

3. Take three breaths.

4. Look at it again, imagining the other person (or people) receiving it.  How will they react?

5. Alter it if needed and send if needed.  Sometimes you may decide at this point not to email at all or to phone or find the person instead.

I’ve been experimenting with this process today and so far so good.  The three breaths don’t just help with email.  They re-center me.  Will I keep this up?  Who knows.  But I’ll report back either way.

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According to a recent study “the most valuable brands in the world are experiencing a direct correlation between top financial performance and deep social media engagement.”

I wonder.  Is this also the case for churches, denominations and other religious organizations?  While we’re not Toyota, Dell, Amazon or even Starbucks (much as my congregation loves coffee and coffee hour), I can’t help but think if it’s true for corporations, it’s true for us too.  It might even be more so.  Religion is much more personal.

The study was done by two groups: Wetpaint,  a company I hadn’t heard of before, and Altimeter, the company of Charlene Li, co-author of Groundswell and one of the world’s most trusted voices on social media.

Here are some of the findings that leap out at me as particularly helpful and noteworthy for religious organizations.

• “Socially engaged companies are in fact more financially successful.”
• “Resembling any in-person exchange, socializing requires more than just being there — you have to interact with others, instigate discussions, and respond during conversations.”
• “As the number of channels increase, overall engagement increases at a faster rate.”

And here are a few of the lessons learned that might be of use to us.

• Deputize people throughout your organization.
• Centralize coordination.
• Be in it for the long haul.
• Engage in new channels where people already are.
• Be conversational from the start.

To learn more, see the study itself, ENGAGEMENTdb: Ranking the Top 100 Global Brands (a 34 page PDF) or visit the companion website, engagementdb.com.  If you are very brave, you can even take their  five-question survey and see how your institution compares to the very top brands.

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Consider this a cautionary tale.

On the surface, one of the simplest improvements to your church’s website is adding its institutional policies and procedures. It’s equally true that there are few time investments in your site more worthwhile. Why?

• Adherence to policies is easier to achieve when policies are readily available.
• On the Web, not only are they available, they become searchable.
• The webmasters don’t have to worry about content. Policies and procedures are already written.
• The audience is obvious. It’s church leaders.
• Ergo, it should be clear where in your site it resides, not only for those building the site, but also for those using it.
• In this era, church members often expect to find policies on the website.

A Culture Shift?
And yet, from an informal sample, many churches still don’t do this. My theory is that while it’s easy to include policies on a site from a technological standpoint, it represents a major cultural shift.

Bylaws, policies and procedures by their very nature represent tradition. After forms of worship, they seem to be the aspect of church life most bound by the we’ve-always-done-it-this-way mindset.

As soon as I got on the Board of my church (in the late 1990s), I started pushing for bylaws and policies to be added to our site. People were happy to oblige, especially when I was the secretary of the Board, but then we ran into upkeep. The bylaws changed, but I wasn’t on the Board, and no one thought to send them to our webmasters.

My next tactic was to request that inclusion on the website be required in the bylaws themselves. Once again all agreed this was a good thing. Thus five years ago Section 8.1.3 was updated to read: “A current and complete copy of all policies and procedures adopted by the Board shall be available from the Church office and on the Church website for reference by the general membership.” In earlier versions, as you might guess, they were only required to be in the church office, and you can imagine how few people had access to that.

At first, even with it mandated in the bylaws themselves, the webmasters still didn’t get the updated bylaws, let alone policies, without rattling cages. It was then I realized that cultural change was the issue.

Thus patience and persistence became key. At times I think these are the most important requirements for webmastery in a church. It’s not how much PHP or JavaScript or CSS that you know. It’s knowing what’s most needed and shepherding transition.

Now I’m happy to report that our culture has changed. After our most recent congregational meeting, I was not only sent a copy of the bylaws to post within 24 hours, but a few weeks later when I still hadn’t gotten to it, a Board member (Mr. Web Diva, as it happens) sent me a reminder.

And so it goes now with all of our policies. Even our most tech-resistant church leaders count on the web as a repository for policies.

If your church has not yet made this transition, I would encourage you to don the web shepherd’s mantle and ease them in this direction. The ROI is enormous.

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O brave new religious world. Today’s New York Times has a quick article on a few of the realities of congregations using Twitter and Facebook: Lead Us to Tweet, and Forgive the Trespassers.

Here’s a sampling:

• “The anxieties are different for every group. Some Muslim clerics have told followers to avoid making statements on social networking sites that antiterrorist investigators might misinterpret as suspicious.”
• “[S]ome in the clergy see a basic tension between the anonymous world of online life and the meaning of religious community.”
• “‘In Judaism, we believe that God resides in the community — among people in the same room at the same time, hearing each other’s voices and looking in each other’s eyes,’ said Rabbi Gerald C. Skolnik of the Forest Hills Jewish Center in Queens, who also wanted it known that he carries an iPhone and a laptop and is talking with his congregation about a Facebook page. ‘But can you tweet a minyan?’ he asked, referring to the quorum of 10 people required for most Jewish devotions. ‘I don’t think so.’”

It also mentions the Rev. Bill Reichart, a Presbyterian in Atlanta and an acknowledged leader in this area.  I googled a little, and sure enough, found his terrific blog that’s full of tips and insights for those of us interested in faith and the Web, particularly 2.0-inclined ministers: Ministry Best Practices. From a quick foray, here are a few of the posts I found.

• Why Should Your Church Invest in Social Media?
• Language Tools for Ministry.
• Fire Your Volunteers.

What fun it is to be back, exploring such delightful e-avenues.

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Friends,

I’m just back from my faith’s annual assembly.  It’s been a heady few days — and to my complete surprise my batteries for working on Faith and Web seem to have been recharged.  Of course, I’ll need to see if this stands the acid tests of time and competing priorities, but there are many, many things I am itching to talk about.

Here’s a sampling.

• Email newsletters vs. email marketing.
• How to harness the power of blogs for your church.
• What’s in analytics aside from a sea of numbers?
• What about this new kid on the block, Squarespace?
• And most of all, faith and the groundswell (a.k.a. the social web or Web 2.0).

So buckle your seatbelts, and send me suggestions.  I’m all ears.

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Writing this blog changed me. It turned out that even though my main goal wasn’t blogging itself, nonetheless I loved it.

The thing was, I didn’t have enough time. Various life forces converged. In particular, my job kicked into high gear. But there was a part of me that pined away, wanting to blog.

Then came the Christmas holidays. Every year this is a time I reflect and try to come up with a goal for the new year — a goal that’s both challenging and realistic about my limitations. This holiday the thing that kept popping into my mind was blogging. Left brain: “You don’t have time.” Right brain: “Pout. But I want to.” Left brain: “That’s not good enough.” And so on.

Finally the big day came and I couldn’t come up with anything else that did it for me. Worse, I’m perceived as a blogger in the worlds I circulate in. People are even asking my advice about who should blog and how.

So, I took the leap, with one sensible caveat to myself. This new blog would not be about substantial posts. I gave myself permission to dash stuff off, make more typos, not dot every i, etc., etc. For subject matter, well…. In many ways it’s still the same as this blog, but it’s not particularly church-focused. Sometimes I blog about church and web. Sometimes I blog about work and web. And sometimes, gasp, I just blog about fun stuff like Mr. Web Diva climbing trees.

So here it is…. Enjoy…. The Happy Web Diva.

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Friday was a glorious day. As well having perfect autumn weather, a website I’ve been working on for months at last went live. It was a complete redesign for our local Rape & Sexual Center (RASAC).

At first glance I expect many of you won’t connect the dots between a church web diva and a local service agency like this. Nonetheless, the connections are deep and strong. I would never have known of this group if it hadn’t been for my church.

In the early 1990s, ours was one of the many churches torn asunder by allegations of clergy misconduct. Those of us struggling to do the right thing by our faith could find few if any good resources. Into this bleak terrain came RASAC’s counselors. While the congregation’s needs were many, their focus went right to the heart – to those most wounded – to the victims of misconduct. They stood by them and helped the church see what they needed most. They represented one of the few organizations that helped us turn a corner back into a healthy congregation.

More than that, through my church I have learned the importance of social justice. I’ve learned that social justice isn’t always marching in marches. Some of us do that well, while others become ministers or lawyers. Still others teach, inspiring our youth to justice work. And some of us create websites. We grease the wheels of communication – getting the word out to those who need it.

Creating websites is also, inevitably, a learning experience. As I catch my breath, the things I realize I’ve learned from this one are:

1. Be patient. Building even a small website takes time if you want to do a good job. In this case, I unintentionally created one of the longer logjams. The same forces that slowed down this blog also slowed the redesign. But the good people at RASAC were patient and understanding. I hope I was likewise with them.

2. Be appreciative. Their VP of Development & Marketing was the mastermind behind the site, pulling together the content and organizing the structure. She did the crucial work and she did an excellent job – and then sent flowers to me! This was after a small bumpy patch when stakeholders were trying to correct things like word spacing (being in a print paradigm and not realizing it).

3. Express compassion. One of RASAC’s Board counseled me to make the look-and-feel gentle and soothing, so a victim who came to the site wouldn’t be scared away. It’s such a grim subject, but he made me literally see things in a whole different way. And it brought to mind a battered woman whom I heard speak years ago. I’ll never forget her reading Psalm 55 – “Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.” Hence the birds in the upper right corner.

May I help the people who need RASAC find their wings and find peace.

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As some of you have noticed, I haven’t updated Faith and Web in several weeks. What’s worse, I’ve barely kept up with other blogs. Worst of all, I haven’t even been to church. Put simply, there hasn’t been time. This morning, however, I was back in our gorgeous sanctuary. It’s a new day.

And what a service to return to…. The Wicked and the Good, featured the Rev. Gail Seavey, Marguerite Mills (Director of Religious Education), Jason Shelton (Director of Music), the children’s choir, the adult choir and many good-humored others, singing songs from the musical “Wicked” and parsing how we can tell who is doing good and who isn’t. “A hint: you can’t always tell by looking.” It was one of those services I’ll remember the rest of my life.

Now, a few hours later, I’m mostly recovered and delighted to also have time to blog. I’ll do the obvious, and reflect about my gap in posts as well as what it means for the future. One aside: at church I was comforted to learn that lately many of us have been busy in a way we aren’t used to. It’s good to know I’m not alone.

Speaking for me, most of the changes are evanescent. For example, we’re remodeling our home office. This has long been a dream of mine – to give the room that houses our computers more light, plus a view of our backyard. However, with the construction my beloved old eMac went offline.

A few of the changes, though, are large and of lasting consequence. In particular, my job responsibilities have expanded. I’ve been named a leader of the organization I work for. As you might imagine, I feel deeply honored and absolutely thrilled (even a little stunned). But more importantly, this signifies a shift in understanding of the Web – both what it is and what it means to my organization.

It’s not just a shift in understanding for the executives. It’s also a shift for me. I believe that this blog is part of it. Blogging has helped me look at my work in some new ways. It’s one thing to talk about and build Web 2.0. It’s a whole other thing to actually live it.

Today, as I catch my breath, I’m looking at my priorities. I realize they’ve changed. The priorities I understand look something like this:

1. Love my family and dearest friends. In the end they are what matters most.

2. Do the best job at work I possibly can. I must live up to the trust in web leadership that has been invested in me.

3. Love my church. Unlike many people, I am blessed to be a part of an amazingly vibrant, yet truthful, congregation. Over and over, it helps me discover a better self. As they sang this morning:

“We are led to those who help us most to grow
If we let them and we help them in return.
Well, I don’t know if I believe that’s true
But I know I’m who I am today
Because I knew you:
I have been changed for good.”

Looking at this list, I’m also aware that there are some missing priorities. In particular, I don’t know where blogging fits. Is it priority number four? Or is it woven into two and three? I suspect the latter, but have a confession to make.

When I began this blog, my real goal was to consider writing a book about building excellent church websites. Specifically I planned to blog until the New Year and then regroup. If still interested, I was going to spend my down time during the last week of the year exploring publishers. That decision is now made — at least for the foreseeable future.

However, it turns out I love blogging in and of itself. So I wonder if there is a way I can write meaningful but short and occasional blog entries? Many of the blogs I read do this very well. While that’s not been my style, perhaps I can figure out a way to do this? Or perhaps I will have more days like today where time unexpectedly opens up and I can again write something more substantial.

I don’t know what my blogging tempo will be in days to come, but I do know that it’s a wonderful adventure, that I have much to say, and that church websites are well worth loving too.

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We’re back from 12 glorious days in Britain. It’s been years since I’ve been abroad and I wasn’t sure what to expect on returning. Would I be overjoyed to see my trusty computers again? Or sad to return to the grind?

Like many geeks, I’m an introvert. My ideal day consists of puttering with code, punctuated by reading and a solitary walk. To my amazement, however, my main reaction to the end of this lovely holiday is delight in reuniting with friends, particularly church friends – be it via email, web, phone or (best of all) in person.

The Nerd Herd Dines

As luck would have it, my first day back ended with a meeting over dinner of the church’s Technology Committee (AKA the Nerd Herd). Granted, I’m a bit dewy-eyed at the moment, but for some time I’ve considered this august body to be a major asset to our church. Today I decided to analyze precisely why.

As you might have guessed, the Nerd Herd came into being to address a crisis. About two years ago, the staff computers were in shambles. The Board was willing to use some of our then scarce funds to replace of all the equipment. But a few of us stomped our feet and said (more or less): “Don’t you dare. It’s not the equipment that’s the problem. That’s a symptom. It’s a lack of infrastructure.”

Fortunately, the Board listened to us. And then a very dedicated, as well as talented, geek stepped up to the plate, saying he’d be happy to chair a technology group.

When we first met, we identified what the problems really were, and then we set out to fix them. We recommended replacing much of the hardware, and while this might look like we were back to Plan A, really we weren’t. We made sure systems were much more secure, we were organized, and we set up ways to keep track of licenses, etc. – gathering documentation in a couple of central places (including a wiki).

There are now eight of us, with a strong presence of large males and beer drinkers. But really it wouldn’t matter if we were twelve drummers drumming, as long as it works. And it does. Here’s why.

Key Ingredients for Successful Church Tech Support

1. An excellent leader. Our chair (shepherd?) is supportive of all members, and very hands on with the staff. We know we’re very lucky, and we’re grateful for his able leadership.
2. Gratitude and respect. The appreciation of our chair extends in other directions. He sets the tone, and we are respectful of each other – laced with a boatload of crazy jokes and laughter. Respect doesn’t have to equate with fear.
3. A clear understanding of our mission. We are there to support the technology needs of leadership, particularly staff. We are reactive, not proactive. When there’s a need, we listen and take care of it.
4. An easy procedure for staff-in-need. Early on, we set up an email address that forwards to all members of the committee. When staff members have a tech problem, they simply email this one address. If email is down, then there’s a prioritized list of phone numbers. To get this going, we sent a marvelously succinct (7 lines, to be precise) memo to staff. It went: “FUUN Tech Help. If your church computer doesn’t work, the church’s Internet access is lost, etc., here is what to do – in priority order….” The remaining lines listed the tech committee email address, followed by phone numbers.
5. Infrequent meetings. We don’t often gather physically – just once or twice a year. Initially we had to meet more to get things sorted out, but that was then. We get it that just because we’re a committee doesn’t mean we have to meet a lot. Some committees (e.g. Nominating) do, but not us. On the other hand, it’s good we meet occasionally. Several people noted over dinner that our meeting is an important part of their church experience. It’s one of the best ways to be in community – breaking bread (and more) with those who share a similar worldview – in our case, a perspective shaped by zeros and ones.
6. Clear and easy procedures, particularly around documentation. The procedures are informal, but they work. Specifically, we have a notebook to gather all of those rabbit-like software CDs and a wiki where any of us can add or update general documentation.
7. Recognition of differing areas of expertise. One of the realities of church life is that once you are perceived as a geek, the average congregant and staff member assumes you can do anything with a computer. Of course this is nuts. But that doesn’t mean people get it. They may in a hazy kind of way, but that’s it. From their perspective, something is wrong and you’re more likely to be able to fix it than them. In fact, that’s true, but that doesn’t mean it’s okay. It’s a classic set-up for burnout. Keep asking people to fix things they don’t know that much about, and guess what. Not only will they stop doing it, they’ll probably stop coming to church. We have overlapping but diverse areas of expertise and respect that. We’re very fortunate to have a network/security expert on our team. Other areas of expertise include email, desktop support, hardware setup, hardware maintenance, programming and web.
8. Great boundaries. We actually keep a very low profile. We don’t want church members to get the idea that we are there to help them individually. Thus, for example, you won’t find us listed in the church directory with the other committees. Also we don’t initiate work. We simply respond when appropriate people ask us to.

If technology at your church is a mess like ours was, I’d heartily recommend looking at the infrastructure and setting up a team like ours. Just be sure to find a great shepherd.

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I’d been intending to post this past week, but between a couple of major projects, illness in my family, and the heat, haven’t had the time. Now I have another big project, so it will be two to three weeks before I have a chance to blog again.

Meanwhile, I’ll be thinking of you, gathering stories, and praying for rain in this part of the world.

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