Attitude to social media among our students

One of our Uni Fellowship of Christians staff members invites student leaders to brainstorm possible promotional strategies for summer break period. First comment from a student leader:

“Does it have to be online?”

We are increasingly getting this kind of disengagement from social media attitude among our students. We’re post-paper and posters and fliers AND post-social media.

Curious to see what promotion looks like on next few years. Especially when seeking to broadcast to lots of people. Word of mouth is very hard to reach beyond the boundaries of networks.

A few guesses:

• focus on word of mouth promotion to make it as effective as possible
• email list & bulk SMS list more effective than social media
• focus social media on those who DO use it to spread to word to those who don’t but rely on those who do to keep them updated…

I much prefer ‘truly man, truly God’ to ‘100% man, 100% God’

Regarding the incarnation, I find ‘100% man, 100% God’ and ‘fully man, fully God’ both to be ugly and ambiguous.

I much prefer ‘truly man, truly God’. It’s not like every single aspect of the Incarnate Son of God is divine. Nor is it that somehow there is some precise ratio in which he is no more God than he is man.

An odd time for ministry media communications and promotions

It’s an odd time for media communications I reckon… for many who might’ve consumed print media to stay connected, moved online to free social media… and then chosen to abandon social media without re-connecting with print media.

Many people are no longer easily reachable through traditional or online forms of communication in the way they were in 1995 or 2010

Things that might fill the gap:

• Email subscriptions to key organisations?
• Podcasts?
• Video content?
• Live events and their associated announcements and conversations?

Missionaries: email newsletters don’t need to be marvellous

Missionaries don’t spend too long on your supporter email newsletters. They just have to be good. Just fine. That’s all.

Say what you will about the legitimacy of sodalities and the priesthood of all believers…

Say what you will about the legitimacy of sodalities & the priesthood of all believers & whatever…

If you’re in The Conjuring universe & you call for a priest & a Christian Union staffer turns up instead in an Easter Mission T-shirt & NTE Keep Cup, you’re not feeling reassured 🙂

Just a random silly thought. I don’t actually have a serious point to make!

Clunky interview questions for guest preachers

Your questions need to help the guest preacher warm up and introduce themselves and they need to help the congregation warm up and get to know the speaker.

People bring up rollerblading when interviewing me at events and it rarely ever works. It’s a hospital pass. Because they rarely give contact for WHY they have suddenly brought up rollerblading. And they haven’t really thought of an actual interesting question. As a result I’m left having to do all this work to save an awkward out of context in-joke.

Worse still, it makes me look somehow as if I’m the weird one… as if I asked to be asked about rollerblading or something!

Actually, I’d rather not get interviewed before I preach, but instead just get a brief introduction (again without any odd, unexplained references to rollerblading).

But if you’re going to ask questions, make sure you actually think through what will be good questions!

Workplace euphemisms

Some of these are true in Christian ministry circles too…