Tech Geek

No, you're not caught in some sort of a Groundhog Day time-warp. I have decided that over the summer, and while my colleague here at Northridge is on sabbatical, I'm going to take a little bit of a break and only write a TGIF every other week. I know that many of you will not be reading every week anyways, as you juggle camp, VBS, trips, and vacation time. So you'll get two shots to read a post. I am also looking for ideas of topics or questions that you would like me to cover. Drop me a line!

In the last TGIF I talked about Facebook. I also revealed that I have not been keeping up with our church's magazine, The Lutheran, as well as I could be. They had an article discussing Facebook and its use in campus ministry which you can find at this link. I appreciate the struggles that the article raises. Facebook can both be a boon to and a bane of face-to-face relationships that you want to nurture in ministry. As the article points out, Facebook, and other social networking websites, can also reveal things about our youth that we aren't sure we want to know. I appreciated the quote in the article from Jaime Bouzard, campus pastor of Texas State University, San Marcos, who said, “Sometimes I learn more about my students than I might wish, but ignorance is not bliss if I am to truly meet them in their reality.”

As youth workers, I think we need to spend some time thinking about how we live our online lives. There have been numerous stories of public officials, teachers, and others who have lost their jobs because of how they have represented themselves online. We, too, need to remember that we are showing who we are in the items that we display on our blogs and Facebook pages. While I don't think that linking to a political video on my blog is the same as saying something from the pulpit, it may impact how others receive my preaching.

So, first off, no pictures from late nights at the Extravaganza should ever be posted online. These are far too incriminating to too many people who enjoy the opportunity to let their hair down a bit. If you wouldn't pass the pictures around on Sunday morning, you probably shouldn't post them to your profile. Remember, the audience is unfiltered, so even if the majority of folks in your congregation wouldn't be surprised or offended, someone else might be.

At the same time, I think it is okay to be yourself. As those of you who know me personally know, I enjoy beer. So my Facebook profile includes a couple of virtual beers that I have received as gifts from friends, including Sin Boldly Lager from Old Lutheran. It also includes an application that I can update to show my favorite beer of the moment and of all time. I, as do many Lutherans, feel it is fine to engage in responsible adult drinking and I think it is fine for my youth and their families to know that I enjoy beer.

As I was pondering this post, I came across a number of sites that suggested only adding youth to your friend lists after they invited you. That's not a bad idea, and I will probably adopt it in the future. I also think it is okay to start conversations with the young people for who we care around issues of how they are representing themselves online. Is that how they want people to think of them?

I think I remember that one of our synods has some guidelines for Facebook usage among their youth ministers. Do any of you have policy guidelines in your congregation? E-mail them to me and I'll add them to the end of this post on the ELCA Youth Ministry Network website.

Here's a link to a blog post about how one pastor and his wife are using Facebook in life and ministry.