Finding, forming, sharing faith in a digital world
•
0 likes•136 views
These are slides that accompany a presentation I gave to St. Paul's UCC in St. Paul, Minnesota on February 16, 2022
Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (20)
Similar to Finding, forming, sharing faith in a digital world
Similar to Finding, forming, sharing faith in a digital world (20)
More from Mary Hess
More from Mary Hess (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Finding, forming, sharing faith in a digital world
- 1. Finding, forming, sharing faith in a digital world St. Paul’s UCC / February 16, 2022 / St. Paul, MN (note: all underlined words are hyper links to citations and online versions)
- 2. frames for seeing • context collapse • learning in ideas, feelings, and action — while being people in a speci fi c place with speci fi c questions • authority, authenticity, agency • kinds of stories • ignite, curate, practice
- 3. digital media permeate our processes of meaning- making, having their most pervasive impact through our stories
- 4. digital media wrest context from our stories, and enclose us in ever smaller spaces
- 5. let’s start with introductions: please share three things about yourself in short phrases — and do not explain them, simply state them
- 6. for example: • I’ve lived in St. Paul for more than two decades on Lincoln Avenue • I have an adult son who had a stroke at birth and lives with cerebral palsy, epilepsy and prosopagnosia • My mom has been and remains the church organist in a UCC church in Oshkosh for the last fi fty years
- 7. take a moment to think what three things you would like to share right now
- 8. sharing
- 9. we are a story-making, story-sharing people
- 10. but we live in a world of context collapse, shaped by algorithmic enclaves
- 11. we know that human meaning and learning are shaped by ideas, feelings, and actions — and digital media are profoundly impacting how we understand authority, how we experience authenticity, and how we engage agency authority, authenticity, agency
- 12. context shapes all of this, and yet we are living in context collapse
- 13. so how do we bring context? again, through stories
- 14. we may be living in times shaped by digital media, but humans have always lived through and in and against stories
- 15. Jesus taught through story we learn of Jesus through biblical stories the Holy Spirit continues to breathe in our stories
- 16. fi nding faith helps to form faith and of course involves sharing faith!
- 19. but stories have their own elements that authenticate or manipulate people
- 20. Bell, Roberts, Irani, and Murphy • “…stock stories .. are the most public and ubiquitous in dominant, mainstream institutions… the other story types critique and challenge their presumption of universality • Concealed stories … are often circulated, told and retold by people in the margins whose experiences and aspirations they express and honor, and they provide a perspective that is often very different from that of the mainstream • Resistance stories are … stories, both historical and contemporary, that tell about how people have resisted [oppression], challenged the stock stories that support it, and fought for more equal and inclusive social arrangements • Counter Stories … are new stories that are deliberately constructed to challenge the stock stories, build on and amplify resistance stories, and offer ways to interrupt the status quo and work for change” citation
- 21. so what are we to do? ignite, curate, practice
- 22. For example … • to glimpse a stock story (Generic Brand Video by Kendra Eash) • concealed stories (The War on Drugs by Jay Z, et. al. ) • resistance stories (Understanding Charlotte, by Dr. Rodney Sadler) • counter stories (Knowing by Mai Vang) (Seriously by This American Life)
- 23. it is inevitable — and appropriate! — that people learning how to discern such stories in our wider social spaces will also use them for discernment close in at home, in religious ways and places and practices
- 24. So, for example… • a stock story (Bp. Nienstedt in MN) • a concealed story (House for all Sinners and Saints in Denver, CO) • a resistance story (music video from Selma) (MN United campaign) • a counter story (House for All Sinners and Saints)
- 25. story practices • learning to listen • moving from listening to hearing • hearing one’s own voice in relation to God (spirituality) • hearing each other’s voice in relation to God (vocation) • hearing God’s voice in the world (mission)
- 26. more of my resources • slideshares: https://www.slideshare.net/maryhess1/ • writing: https://meh.religioused.org/web/writing/ • storyingfaith.org • Tech in Church in a pandemic: https:// www.techinchurches.org • a page of COVID-related resources: https:// meh.religioused.org/web/covid19_resources/
- 27. print resources • Grace & Gigabytes: Being Church in a Tech-Shaped Culture, by Ryan Panzer (Fortress, 2020) • Click2Save Reboot: The Digital Ministry Bible, by Elizabeth Drescher and Keith Anderson (Church Publishing, 2018) • Digital Creatives and the Rethinking of Religious Authority, by Heidi Campbell (Routledge, 2020) • The Virtual Body of Christ in a Suffering World, by Deanna Thompson (Abingdon Press, 2016)