A few weekends ago I went to a pretty good presentation that talked about ministry of leadership in changing times. The
presenters were very hospitable and knowledgeable, and they’d come from far
away to talk to people in the Dioceses of California and El Camino Real.
When one of the presenters saw my name he said, “Aren’t you
changing the world?” I was taken aback and asked for some more information
about what he meant he said, “Young, fabulous, and trying to get the church
into the 21st century.” I said that, ha, sure, yeah I fall into that
category and that’s me!
A few minutes later I got to talk with the other presenter
about some of the things I am doing in the Diocese of California and some of
the things I hope to be doing in the next year or so. It was a great little
conversation and I felt really good about what I’m doing and what I want to do.
It built on some feedback I’ve gotten from congregational leaders this week
too.
Before we started though, I had a surprising interaction
with one of the facilitators. I asked if someone had the Wi-Fi password for the
church hosting us. The presenter said, “We do. But we aren’t giving it out
because people will do other things during the presentation, so we’ll give it
out at the end. Nice try, Joseph!”
This facilitator echoed some concerns that had been raised
at Episcopal Communicators in early April. If people are looking things from
the sermon up as preachers are giving it then they may know what the preacher
is saying that isn’t accurate. This already happens. My mom’s pastor has been
reading his sermons from a website the last two years. My mom googled a phrase
and found out and now she follows along. Every week.
Rather than fearing that people can do that, this access to
information challenges preachers (and all kinds of presenters) to be better at
what they do. I don’t think that it’s always a good thing for everyone to be
online all the time. I do think that avoiding access so that those in
leadership aren’t accountable is a worthy defense, though.
Much earlier this year I went to a presentation where our
presenter asked us to put our computers away because we wouldn’t need them. She
lied. Her presentation was awful, and yes, I wanted to escape her awful presentation
into my work email or the Twitterverse. Should I have stayed engaged? Yes.
Should she have been better prepared and less hokey? Totally.
The presenter wouldn’t give me the Wi-Fi password on
Saturday for fear that people would do other things. He had a captive audience
that he didn’t want to escape. That was an unnecessary fear and anxiety though
— his presentation was great. I was (clearly) really annoyed by this — the
presentation was on the church changing, and I’d just been complimented for the
work I’m doing that involves electronic communication, but he didn’t trust me
to stay engaged…and he took the choice away from me.
What do you think? Is having outside access a good or bad
thing? How do you navigate this in your ministry setting?
No comments:
Post a Comment