Post-GiEN Observations

July 13th, 2008

Spending time at a denominational confab is always an adventure. For the first time in many years I just spent the better part of week hanging out with a combination crowd of Adventist techies and administrators, with some significant international presence thrown in for flavor. I usually have an allergic reaction to such a heavy concentration of church administrators, so fortunately there were enough techie types there to put some oxygen into the air.

Not surprisingly I discovered that there’s even some church politics in the mix as well. Seems that one level of the church developed a hosting service for all churches to have a website and so did another administrative level and never the two shall meet. So now you have dueling hosting and website development services. [Just for the record at FLC we use neither of them and are strictly a home brew shop.] It was fun to be approached by both competing services and asked to join their particular platform, but no one really gave me much of a hard sell, more like a glancing blow.

I was surprised that an international conference in its 5th year still only has 60-80 in attendance and the majority were not from the US, even though the meetings were here in the US. I would imagine that most every Adventist church in the US has its own website by now, yet there are only 80 people in the world who are interested in sharing the Gospel via the web? Not even some folks from Denver, just some people with a travel budget. A marketing problem? Lack of interest? Hard to say.

Back to the swamp tomorrow and then back to work…

Filed under Internet Technology |

4 Responses to “Post-GiEN Observations”

Gary Walter on July 22, 2008 9:44 pm
Hey Delwin,

Found this site via F-Book and took a moment to peek. I had no idea you were a tech-geek pastor. Imagine my surprise!?

Anyway, it was interesting to here your perspective on GIEN. I think my brother spoke there and I turned down that offer. Indeed, I used to work with Jesse Johnson, the current prez of TAGNet.

Also, living in the heart of the Silicon Forest and the Open Source capital of the world, I’ve made a few tech-geek friends.

Anyway, your comments - I’m assuming were live-blogged - were just what I expected.

I’m a big socialnetworking proponent and believer in Web2.0. With that perspective, I don’t see the “Church” ready to embrace web tech that could be so out of control as being user defined.

Thanks for the unofficial update.

gw
Admin on July 24, 2008 9:24 am
Then imagine my surprise to find myself in the role of tech-geek pastor.

Roger didn’t make it to this GiEN session–I would liked to have seen him, but I think he was taking a class at Andrews.

Yes, I was live-blogging for the most part, with a few reflections after the fact. I’ve had several other conversations since then as well and could have said more, but I was trying to keep it short.

I agree that the primary issue the church structure/administration or what have you, will be (and probably always has been) one of control whenever it comes to questions regarding the use of technology. Using the printed page to disseminate the “official” theology is fine, disagreeing with that theology in print is not. Reporting on a church business meeting in the Gleaner is ok (as long as you stick to the voted actions), but disagreeing with a decision in a blog probably won’t go over so well.

As I noted already, during the one workshop on blogging, this issue of control was the recurring theme and concern for several there. One person even framed their question this way: “What is it that scares you about blogging?” I found the question more telling than any possible answer. (Just for the record, the presenter didn’t seem to be “scared” of blogging.)

The great irony of the Web these days, however, is that the Church as an authoritarian entity really has very little control over it. The same power that enables a church like mine to have its sermons seen in Zimbabwe also enables someone to post a video attacking the Church or administration or whatever. Congregations and individuals can create blogs and websites and upload video content and, other than the legal trademark sorts of take-down notices for using the SDA “trademark”, there isn’t much that can be done to put a lid on it. So, even if the structure never does embrace Web 2.0 or whatever you want to call it, a whole generation of Adventists already has and is already moving ahead on it with or without any sort of official “approval”. However, I think the truth can bear examination…
Bryan Collick on July 28, 2008 6:48 pm
Delwin thanks for your live-blogging and your honest perspective. I’ve added a link to your site on the GIEN website (as there wasn’t a singular tag or category to cover all your GIEN-related entries).

I’m new to the organizing side of the forum, but even last year as a presenter I spoke very candidly about what we as Adventists need to be aware of as we engage with the internet and emerging technology. While my presentation wasn’t recorded, I did get some face time to share some tidbits thanks to CSPS (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YviMgqys9s0).

I think the biggest problem needing attention is the mindset of Adventists. It is sad to see so few in attendance (though it was a little more than you estimated), but the reality is that people think this is someone else’s job. Like the earlier commenter, “The Church” isn’t ready to embrace web tech because the people who are actually qualified to do it and improve it are of an opinion that this needs to be done by administration. Or by a committee. Or by somebody–just not them. In reality the world church suffers because capable individuals have lost the drive and desire necessary take the work of the church into their own hands. It’s what Gary Krause and Julius Nam highlighted; how far are we from the early adopters that revolutionized Adventist media with literally startup mentality?

The hope is that GIEN Forums will continue to inspire people to be bold in their Christian involvement. That people who are pencil-pushing administrators will be encouraged to think different and techies will be heartened by the realization that their work is and must be necessary for mission success–just as much as the missionary or the pastor. I’m glad you’re critical yet approving and hope you’ll consider sharing more of your ideas and abilities with the community as it develops.
Admin on July 28, 2008 8:11 pm
Bryan–

Thanks for your comments and the link.

While I am agreed that the majority of those sitting in the pew probably think that creating a denominational presence on the Web is “someone else’s job”, in one sense they are right–it is someone else’s job. It’s the job of the technically inclined and willing to make it happen and where it does happen, that is who is doing it. What I see as lacking in a GiEN gathering is that those “someones” who’s job it is aren’t present or are present in small numbers.

And further more, the administration took the job out of many peoples’ hands when they decided to go out and create a web presence for everyone, whether they want it or not. So given that, should it come as no surprise that folks think “the Church” is going to be the one to extend the web presence because, after all, isn’t that who created it to begin with? So maybe everyone who was involved was already there and I was just thinking it would have been a bigger number?

I have no way of answering my question, but is the denomination actively seeking those who have the skills to become engaged in the process? Because those skills do exist–they’re sitting in the high schools and colleges of Adventism (which is not to say that those who aren’t attending Adventist schools are somehow lacking) and they are being currently caught up in posting content to youTube, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and so forth. In other words, I think that, to illustrate what Nam and Krause highlighted about early adopters in Adventism, there is a generation who is already fully engaged with a startup mentality in leveraging the Web–they just aren’t doing it “for” the Church, at least not the Church as defined by administration and administrators.

And those of us who have those resources aren’t waiting for a committee to decide if it’s “safe” or “OK” or what have you–we’re just trying to stay ahead of the kids (ok, who am I kidding…I’m just trying to keep them in sight as they head over the horizon) or smarter yet, put them to work.

Let me illustrate. Several years ago my church got caught up in a website overhaul. The process started off well, but then got bogged down in a variety of entanglements and delays. After months and months of waiting patiently both the youth and young adult groups finally gave up waiting and went out and registered their own domains (they know how), put up their own websites (on their own time, on open source software, no less) and then populated those websites with all sorts of media including photography, video, audio and podcasts. And not a single committee was harmed in the making. This wasn’t a rebellion–it was moving around an obstacle to get the word out about what God was doing in their midst.

Now those same “rebels” are going to be redesigning the main website and when they are done they have already offered to incorporate those “offshoot” websites back into the main code. Who am I to get in their way?

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