Flattening the Church
At the advice of a friend, I just started reading Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody. He’s taking a social media and ministry class at Luther Seminary and this was one of the books assigned.
His teacher knows what she’s doing.
I’m two chapters in and Shirky has already grabbed my long-haul attention. The basic premise of his book is that the world is changing. We know this already, don’t we? More specifically, he suggests that the world is changing (drastically) because human communication is changing via the social Web.
He asks a question at the end of chapter one that I’m still thinking about:
For any given organization, the important questions are “When will the change happen?” and “What will change?” The only two answers we can rule out are never, and nothing.
How ’bout them apples? Simply put, this means that your church or ministry (read: organization) will be changing as a result of this new method of human communication. Does that scare you or exhilirate you?
Consider the examples Shirky gives:
The Belarusian government is trying to figure out how to keep its young people from generating spontaneous political protests. The Catholic Church is facing its first prolonged challenge from self-organized lay groups in its history. But these stories aren’t just about something happening to particular businesses or governments or religions. They are also about something happening to the world.
Why are young Belarusians able to assemble and protest their dictatorship government?
Why are Catholics (and Protestants, I would add) finding alternative ways to connect with each other outside the four walls of a building?
Why are hierarchies losing the monopoly on power, money, and information?
Shirky answers,
The current change, in one sentence, is this: most of the barriers to group action have collapsed, and without those barriers, we are free to explore new ways of gathering together and getting things done.
We are figuring out other ways to get things done because we finally have the ability to connect with each other in meaningful, powerful ways.
Of course, this has implications for the way churches are run. Can you think of any practical applications of this that you’ve seen first hand? Read about? What about changes that you could see happening? What would those look like?
No comment yet. Interesting post and now I have a new book to read. Will be watching comments. Thanks!
I'm not exactly sure what you have described constitutes a “flattening.” Though hierarchy and barriers are disintegrating before our eyes, large groups of people will still gather. Richard Florida has some great writing and research challenging the assumptions of “flattening.” Thanks for the book link–have to check that out. Good post.
Sometimes I wish my name was Shirky.
My observation is that communicaton is much like a force of nature such as fire or water for example. Through social media, communication can break down and destroy impediments and barriers while at the same time building up ideas and communities. It sounds to me that this should be a must read for anyone in church communications.
I think churches or any other organization for that matter, would do well to hold tightly to what is eternal, but loosely to what is temporal. In other words, stop trying to control the group or the means of communication (temporal and everchanging) and hold fast to His message and word (eternal).
Flattening, as I understand, takes the power from the hierarchies and transfers it back to the people. Hierarchies lose their monopoly on resources, this flattening the playing field and allowing everyone to participate.
Do you have a different understanding?
Me too.
Qounds like agood book to read. As a pastor I was quite cynical of social media preffering the face to face community as more authentic. However I now realise that social media gives us more tools to communicate with those who dont shop up on our church community and to build relationships beyond the borders of our physical limitatioons. It would be unwise to disregard its obvious benehits. Shall read the book to become better aquainted. dCan you recommend any other books or web site specifically realted to the used of social media and churches. Thx
I spent a month in Tibet where I met a number of ex-pats that were being shaped by same spiritual dynamics and influences (writers, teachers, movements & emphasis) impacting my wife and I in the US. In large measure due to the Web. This was splashing over to Tibetans as well. Yep…its getting flatter. Joseph Horevay
Isn't that wild? I find that scenario fascinating!
It's true, though. I think churches need to be thinking about what they have to offer now that the world's best communicators are available at the click of a mouse.
Broadly speaking, among the younger evangelicals, there is a shift from a professional ministry mindset to personal ministry mindset. By that I mean that rather than leaving ministry up to the 'professionals' i.e. pastors, younger folks are seeing/realizing the call to ministry involves everyone. This is a significant difference between, say, my parents generation and my own, and it is being transmitted and amplified by the communication revolution. In the years to come I think that this means that church buildings, budgets, and staffs will get smaller before they get bigger because it doesn't take much of any of these things to empower people to do the work of the Gospel.
Great comment. I'm using this for an upcoming presentation. Totally nailed it, bro.
Great comment. I'm using this for an upcoming presentation. Totally nailed it, bro.