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"Did you know that Jesus has\u00A0291,060 followers? Although he\u2019s still trailing the Beiber, that\u2019s  still a pretty legitimate following for man who died 2,000 years ago. And he\u2019s not alone in this case; more and more religious  leaders are joining him in the Twittersphere, perhaps after asking  themselves, What Would Jesus Do?\r\nAll  jokes aside, social media is gaining popularity with clergy members as a  new way to interact with their local congregation and the global  population. Almost half of the Protestant churches in the United States  now regularly maintain a Facebook page, according to a recent study conducted by LifeWay Research. It\u2019s  a logical migration, given that social media and organized religion  fulfill some similar needs, mainly the desire to connect with a  community of people who share similar interests or beliefs. It\u2019s almost  self-referential- modern religious leaders are adopting the use of new  platforms like Twitter and Facebook, to incorporate the  same strategy that organized religion has relied on for centuries:  spreading a message by creating a clear channel of followers.\r\n\r\nNew Generation = New Ministry Tools\r\n\r\nWhat\u2019s  driving this movement? It\u2019s partly demographics. The generation that  grew up using computers is approaching their mid to late 20s, and  religious leaders are realizing that if they want to reach this emerging  group, they need to develop new tools for their  ministry. Rabbi David Wolpe, the senior rabbi at Sinai Temple in Los  Angeles, recalls going to breakfast a few years ago with Greg Waldorf,  the former CEO of eHarmony: \u201CHe asked me if I had a Facebook page. I  said no, and he asked why not. I said, because I\u2019m a rabbi. Greg said,  do you want anyone under 40 to listen to what you have to say? Ok, then  we\u2019re going to get you a Facebook page.\u201D\r\n\r\nFor most people under the age of 30, social media is a primary mode  of communication, whether posting  information about an upcoming event on Facebook, checking in on  Foursquare or sharing info through Twitter.\u00A0\u201CMy congregation is  predominantly urban young adults and I would say 90% of them  are on Facebook. I do a lot of pastoral work through text message, and  honestly, I would not know how to send a piece of snail mail to any of  them. It\u2019s not intentional, I just do not have any of their addresses,\u201D  said Nadia Bolz-Weber, the founding pastor of House for All Sinners and  Saints, an Lutheran mission church in Denver, Colorado. In the same way  the technology has evolved, religious leaders have discovered that they  need to adapt their methods in order to function in a connected society.\r\n\r\nConnecting with the Congregation\r\n\r\nClergy  members can use social media to interact with their congregation,  build relationships, stimulate conversation and provide support  and guidance. They might tweet daily scripture passages or encourage  their parishioners to stay updated on upcoming church events by checking  Facebook.\u00A0\u201CI couldn\u2019t do what I do without it without text messaging,  Twitter, Facebook,\u201D said Bolz-Weber. \u201CI keep up with what\u2019s going on in  people\u2019s lives through Facebook. If I see a sad thing, or read that  someone has a hard day, I\u2019ll send a text saying \u2018I\u2019m praying for you.\u2019  It keeps me connected to them.\u201D\u00A0Bolz-Weber  is not alone in her practice of using social media for pastoral care.\r\n\u201CFacebook lets me proactively find out when things are happening in the  lives of my parishioners,\u201D said Rev. Bradley Laurvick, the associate  minister at St. Luke\u2019s United Methodist Church in Highlands Ranch,  Colorado. \u201CIt always drives me nuts when I find out afterwards that  something happened, because I could have called or could have prayed.  Let\u2019s say you\u2019re rushing to the hospital when your daughter has 100  degree fever, of course you don\u2019t stop to call your pastor, but maybe  you put a note up on Facebook. So if I\u2019m online, now I know and I can  drop a line, and ask if they need any help.\u201D\r\nSome  priests and pastors are even known to solicit input on upcoming  sermons, or write posts encouraging followers to examine their  spirituality. Rabbi Wolpe routinely poses questions on Facebook  challenging people to explore their values and beliefs, and the results  have shown that social media can stimulate intelligent conversations on  religion. \u201CThe discussion has been from all sides; they\u2019ve really talked  to one another and they\u2019ve done it well. There\u2019s clearly a community  out there that is willing to discuss serious issues,\u201D said Wolpe.\r\n\r\nPreachers With eMegaphones: Social Media Allows Broader Reach\r\n\r\nMany  organized religions are following the same path as Rabbi Wolpe, taking  advantage of social media to reach out to a global community. Websites  like Facebook and Twitter allow clergy members to engage in dialogue to a  few hundred thousand people, instead of just the few hundred within  their congregation. \u201CChurches are natural places of interaction,\u201D said  Scott McConnell, the associate director of LifeWay Research.  \u201CCongregations are rapidly adopting social networking, not only to speed  their own communication, but also to interact with people outside their  church.\u201D\r\n\r\nIn fact, in January, Pope Benedict issued a message  encouraging Catholic priests to start blogging. And since the Catholic Church isn\u2019t exactly known for being an early  adopter of anything - (this is a group that waited until 1992 to formally acknowledge that the Earth revolves around the sun) - the speech marked a tangible  shift in the relationship between organized religion and social media.\r\n\r\nFor  many religious leaders, even the ability to easily network with other  congregations has definite benefits. Bolz-Weber recounts the time that  her church wanted to start a Godly Play Sunday School program, which she  describes as a sort of \u201CMontessori thing\u201D with a religious focus.\u00A0\u201CBut  the materials were expensive and we could never afford it on our own, so  I put something up on Facebook asking if anyone had any Godly Play  stuff they wanted to donate, and all these larger churches wanted to  help,\u201D she said. \u201CIt\u2019s also helpful to the larger churches because they  get ideas from us that they might not have come up with themselves, like  our blessing of the bicycles.\u201D\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nAnd  beyond individual clergy, social networking sites give religious  organizations a centralized meeting ground for followers to  connect with others around the world who share their faith. The Church  of The Latter Day Saints (also known as the Mormon Church) are the most  active on social media, with over 448,000 Facebook fans and 12 official  Twitter accounts with a combined 25,000 followers. Their main website  even includes a special landing page with a list of ideas for ways that  believers can use social media to share their faith in creative ways,  like posting a personal video testimonial on YouTube.\r\n\r\nBut is it Destroying Tradition?\r\n\r\nWhile many clergy members have begun to embrace the use of social media, others have expressed concern that it is eliminating a crucial component of religious practice:  tangible human interaction, specifically the act of physically gathering  together to worship. For the past few years, church leaders have spent  countless hours bemoaning an observed decline in turnout for services.\r\n\r\nIn his much-circulated blog post, How Facebook Killed Church, Richard  Beck maintains the decline is due to technology: \u201Cthe thing that kept young people going to  church, despite their irritations, has been effectively replaced. You  don't need to go to church to stay connected or in touch. You have an  iPhone.\u201D\r\n\r\nData proves otherwise: weekly church attendance actually increased slightly in 2010,  according to a Gallup Poll which showed the percentage inching up from  42.8 to 43.1. And Rabbi Wolpe maintains that social media can support  traditional practices, if used effectively. \u201CI think its brought more  people to the synagogue, as opposed to less,\u201D he said. \u201CAnd I think when  it\u2019s used well, that\u2019s generally the case. It\u2019s like seeing someone on  television giving an interview. If you like them, you\u2019ll want to see  them when they come to your town. If people like what they see, they\u2019re  going to want more.\u201D\r\n\r\nSocial media gives modern followers the ability to curate their own  religious experience. Now they can listen to podcasts of sermons, join  online prayer groups and Catholics can keep track of their sins with the  iConfess App. One website, OurJewishCommunity.org offers streaming Shabbat  services with the option to live chat during the liturgy on Facebook and  Twitter. Options like these make it easier for people to find time to  fit religion into busy schedules. \u201CI can\u2019t tell you how many people have  told me that they listen to my sermons while they are exercising,\u201D said  Wolpe.\u00A0While  this is certainly a departure from the old norms, that doesn\u2019t mean  it\u2019s necessarily a negative shift.\r\n\u201CI really don\u2019t have a fear of this  destroying anything that has been,\u201D said Laurvick. \u201CWill it transform  it? Yes. Should it? Absolutely. It holds clergy to a higher level of  accountability, it promotes transparency, and most importantly, it helps  people share in what they love and what they\u2019re passionate about.\u201D\r\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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