Go forth and blog

As hundreds, if not thousands, of modern churches have embraced social media over the last few years, webcasting their weekly services, etc… it’s refreshing to see the Vatican finally formally recognize the power the Web has specifically for priests to spread the most important message in the world.

I’m talking about The Message of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for the 44th World Communications Day. In it, he writes:

The world of digital communication, with its almost limitless expressive capacity, makes us appreciate all the more Saint Paul’s exclamation: “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel” (1 Cor 9:16) The increased availability of the new technologies demands greater responsibility on the part of those called to proclaim the Word, but it also requires them to become become more focused, efficient and compelling in their efforts. Priests stand at the threshold of a new era: as new technologies create deeper forms of relationship across greater distances, they are called to respond pastorally by putting the media ever more effectively at the service of the Word.

He continues, saying that priests should exercise their proper role as leaders of communities which increasingly express themselves with the different “voices” provided by the digital marketplace. Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites) which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis.

Pope Benedict and the Vatican have set the example for the Catholic Church, with a YouTube channel among several places to find information from the Vatican.

In a news conference about Benedict’s message, Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, said the Pope wants priests “to enhance their pastoral work by reaching out to others through digital technology” and that the message is for all Catholics to “use the Web to create a space of dialogue where Christians, believers of other religions and non-believers can encounter each other in a respectful search for truth and wisdom.”

It’s no secret there are many ministers and pastors of churches of all denominations blogging and connecting with their congregations – and people around the world for that matter. Many of whom have been doing it for a long time, in Web terms.

Yes, perhaps it’s the more “modern” churches who have set the social media and church marketing agenda. But it appears even the Pope would say that they’re doing what they should be doing… reaching out to the masses through the new media methods of reaching out.

Why not?

Mark Batterson of National Community Church in Washington, D.C., whose blog is just one place to find him and his church in the world of social media, puts it this way, which I think applies here:

…we can’t afford to do church the way it’s always been done. Our incarnational tactics must change. Don’t get me wrong: the message is sacred. But methods are not. And the moment we anoint our methods as sacred, we stop creating the future and start repeating the past. We stop doing ministry out of imagination and start doing ministry out of memory.

Blogs not only help spread the scared message, in simple terms they also help a minister connect to the people in and out of their community about the work of their churches.