These are the slides which accompanied a lecture I gave at the University of St. Michael's College, in the University of Toronto, on March 28, 2017.

2. storying faith in a post-church world

3. one young girl

4. rich practices

5. another young girl

6. a different set of practices

7. `

8. what is the role of a religious educator?

9. an adaptive challenge

10. seeing the whole thing…

12. how do we inhabit adaptive change?

14. as one quadrant shrinks, three others grow…
is there a message worth noting there?

15. adaptive Christianity to be found in the heart of
deep relationality with God

16. a story of faith that is born in an overwhelming
love, and that embodies that love in communal
sharing and practice

17. we get into trouble when we live from fear, rather
than resisting the fear and leaning into God’s
transcendent love

18. the printing press, the Reformation

19. digital tools and a new reformation?

20. what does it mean to “story faith” in this world?

21. we are living in a time rich with story

22. what would it mean for religious educators to begin
from the clear conviction that God continues to
reveal Godself?
what would it mean for us to base our search and
any interpretive stances we want to use, on the
conviction that God is a Trinity, a communicative
relationship within God’s very self and then in
communicative relationship with us? with all of
Creation?
and if we see God that way we must also see
ourselves that way?

23. given that we so often “get it wrong,” what helps
us to do good discernment? and how do we do
that in ways that ignite curiosity and wonder in the
midst of everyday practices?

24. story is at the heart of all of these challenges

25. authority, authenticity, agency

26. context collapse

27. authenticity connotes emotionally appropriate,
significant, purposive and responsible

29. and yet, the Truth shall set you free

30. and yet, God continues to reveal Godself

31. Mario D’Souza
• the unfathomable and the true are inseparable
• language is an indispensable means of encountering the
real and reality
• the natural habitat of truth is human conversation
• be attentive, be intelligent, be reasonable, be responsible
(Lonergan)

33. why does telling God’s story in this way matter?

34. all ideas compete on an equal footing
contribution counts for more than credentials
hierarchies are natural, not prescribed
leaders serve rather than preside
tasks are chosen, not assigned
groups are self-defining and self-organizing
resources get attracted, not allocated
power comes from sharing information, not hoarding it
opinions compound and decisions are peer-reviewed
users can veto most policy decisions
intrinsic rewards matter most
hackers are heroes
Hamel

36. all ideas compete on an equal footing?
perhaps in the community of truth

37. contribution counts for more than credentials?
biblical witnesses say yes!

38. hierarchies are natural not prescribed?
even reddit users develop hierarchies

39. leaders serve rather than preside?
perhaps the best definition of leadership to be
found in the community following Jesus

40. much within our tradition resonates with a
generation shaped by Facebook — if only we are
astute enough to give people access

41. confessing God as a Trinity is a confession of deep
commitment to communicative practice, to
relational understanding

42. create, share, believe

43. We believe in a God who creates everything —
creative action is clearly a part of who God is and
who we, being made in God’s image, are.

44. We believe in a God who shares God’s very Being
into the world through Incarnation. Sharing is very
much part of who we are made to be.

45. We believe in a God who continues to be very
much present to us, breathing through the Holy
Spirit, drawing us ever close into communion, ever
more deeply into belief.

47. “digital storytelling is a workshop-based,
participatory media practice focused on self-
representation”
Vivienne

48. creating and sharing something in this way almost
inevitably leads to deeper belief

49. Hilberath and Scharer

50. an example from a digital storytelling workshop

52. an example of doing theological reflection with a
commercial
thanks to Killen’s work

54. what were you feeling? list some adjectives

55. is there any kind of cluster within those adjectives?
a theme emerging, perhaps?

56. what is life-giving and joy-filled about the theme or
image?
what is broken and sorrowing?
what possibilities for healing and newness?

57. brainstorm biblical passages, liturgical prayers,
other ritual resources that have resonance for you
in light of that theme

58. sink into that passage, that action, that ritual that
came to you in the brainstorming — ask the same
questions of it:
what is life giving and joy-filled?
what is broken and sorrowing?
what possibilities for healing and newness exist?

59. two more steps involve taking action (see the
reverse side of your handout)

60. this process assumes
• a robust theology of grace
• a profound conviction that God is always reaching out to
us in everything and in every way
• that our human thirst for meaning is in fact a thirst for
God, a God who is intimately caring and passionately
involved in our lives
• that revelation is ongoing, intimately touching our daily
lives while at the same time it is historically privileged in
the gospels and the theological heritage of the Church
Killen

61. rest on the utter certainty that we are inescapably
wrapped up in a community of truth

62. we do not need to build fortresses around our
convictions — we can lean into them, and lean
outward into the world which God has created

63. digital storytelling is an essential practice of faith
formation in the world we inhabit

64. table fellowship

65. returning to the two young women

66. the new evangelization is at heart about listening
carefully to people as we accompany them in their
daily lives

67. thank you

68. references to various images and videos:
Spotify logo (http://kpcbweb2.s3.amazonaws.com/
companies/329/logo/original/Spotify.jpg?1364424490)
Youtube Nation logo (goo.gl/e9O6P1)
Instagram logo (https://4.img-dpreview.com/files/p/
articles/3759280259/instagram.jpeg)
Adaptive change (goo.gl/VqnB3E)
Luther’s small catechism (https://
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Small-Catechism-
Luther-1529.jpg)
Iceberg image (https://
cdn6.organisationsberatung.net/wp-content/uploads/
Unternehmenskultur-Organisationskultur-
verbessern.jpg)

69. further references:
Cranach image of Luther (https://
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/
Cranach_Martin_Luther.JPG)
Cover of “Tweet if you [heart] Jesus” (goo.gl/zdFoFe)
60 seconds of digital life (http://www6.pcmag.com/
media/images/329443-infographic-60-seconds-
part-2.jpg?thumb=y)
digital person (http://bit.ly/2nVEJJ8)
context collapse person (http://
www.netimperative.com/wp-content/uploads/
2015/07/facebook-uni-1.jpg)
context.fact cartoon (goo.gl/od7cKc)

70. further references:
Trinity graphic (http://rapgenius.com/Action-
bronson-the-come-up-lyrics#note-1452273)
Parker Palmer images (redrawn from the book
Courage to Teach, pp. 103-107)
Create/Share/Believe circle (Eric Celeste)
Communicative theology diagram (from The
Practice of Communicative Theology)

71. further references:
Wonder Bread video (shared in a digital storytelling
workshop, contact me for more details)
#EatTogether, President’s Choice commercial
(https://youtu.be/vDuA9OPyp6I)
title slide by Br. Emmaus O’Herlihy, OSB
all other photos by Mary E. Hess

72. more info:
accompanying handout
meh.religioused.org