When I tell people that I really like Twitter, they sometimes look puzzled. I imagine that they are thinking—Are you crazy? How do you have time to spend on Twitter? I like Twitter because I can get the latest information, quick facts or leads on just about any topic or product that I want anytime I want. I have learned a lot about social media, current events, products, services, and…
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New Forms of Communication for Ministry
On November 13, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI addressed the participants in the plenary assembly of The Pontifical Council for Culture in Rome. The theme of the meeting was “Culture of Communication and New Languages.” In the course of his talk, the Holy Father made several references to modern communications. Here is one: “In a world that makes communication its winning strategy, the Church, repository of the mission to communicate to…
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Positive Interactivity: A New Way to Relate in Ministry
Let’s talk about that challenge of “positive interactivity” at the level of everyday ministry. Moving from one-way communications to “positive interactivity” in our ministries is a dramatic shift that demands a new way of thinking about our relationships. Most of us are serving many people in a variety of ways. However, we can be so busy carrying out our responsibilities that we don’t realize how important it is to ask…
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Internet Ministry Can Serve Many People
In our reading of the gospels, we learn that Jesus engaged people individually and in large groups as he preached and taught his message. He walked the length and breadth of his homeland to be with them. We who follow Jesus accept his commission to take his message to the whole world (Matthew 28:18-20). Today that includes to cyberspace where many people are gathering. They go online for information, goods,…
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The Internet Needs High Quality Catholic Content
Catholics (and the Gospel in general) are a feeble voice in the hurricane of media messages generated by a rather out-of-control culture. Many Catholic voices on the Internet seem as poorly informed as they are vocal… This comment from a respondent to my Getting Started Survey has some truth to it. Not everything that is online and tagged as “catholic” represents the best of the Catholic Church. More importantly, the…
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Church Ministry and the Digital Age Part II
The Catholic Church has always been in the forefront of using communications media for mission and ministry. Pope Paul VI wrote in On Evangelization in the Modern World, “The Church would feel guilty before the Lord if she did not use these powerful means [of social communication] that human skill is daily rendering more perfect. It is through them that she proclaims “from the housetops” the message of which she…