Uploading the Gospel

How parishes use social networks to spread the Good Word

By Andrew Junker | Oct. 15, 2009 | The Catholic Sun

When Jesus walked the earth two millennia ago, He preached the Kingdom of God in houses, outside the Temple and by the sea where men fished for their living. He met His followers where they were, and called them to follow Him.

Now, youth and young adult ministers are taking Christ’s example to heart, but the venues have changed. Instead of the Sea of Galilee or a town’s local well, they’re going on social networking Web sites like MySpace or Facebook.

These online communities offer huge opportunities for these Church leaders to evangelize to a population that lives much of their lives online.

Bill Marcotte, director of the Office of Youth and Young Adult Evangelization for the Diocese of Phoenix, cited a recent poll that showed more than 82 million people use the Internet for faith-related reasons. Those activities might include receiving information about upcoming religious events, online prayer requests and downloading religious music.

“The potential is great in its uses, provided it is used, like any other tool, in a wise and prudent way,” Marcotte said. “Other research has shown online spiritual activities lead people to become more involved with their local faith communities and help to drive more face-to-face encounters.”

That’s the way Ryan Howe uses the Internet — not as an end in itself, but as a means for drawing youth into St. Theresa Parish’s evangelization and ministry.

“In terms of online technology, our Life Teen Web site, www.godtalk.org, is the main resource we use,” Howe said. “As it is built right now, it is designed to be a place where teens and parents visit and gain information about the Life Teen program at St. Theresa’s.”

At the Web site, youth can find information about upcoming events, download Life Teen calendars and learn about the core team that volunteers in the ministry. The site also posts photos of past events.

“The bottom line right now of the Web site is to make people aware of the program and get them to St. Theresa’s on Sunday nights,” he said.

The benefits of being connected online are various. It used to be that when Howe wanted to disseminate information, he would have to rely on snail mail, announcements during Mass or inserts in the parish bulletin. While Howe admitted these avenues of information haven’t gone away, an online presence can amplify the ministry’s efforts.

“I believe this is going to be the way of the future in terms of youth ministry,” Howe said. “I really believe that a large amount of pre-evangelization and some evangelization is going to take place on the Internet using stuff like this. This is where the teens are now.”

Kate Hursh, director of youth ministry at St. Timothy Parish in Mesa, mainly uses Facebook to get information out about youth events. Facebook is a site that allows users to create profiles for themselves where they can post information and photos. It’s also very easy for users to interact with other profiles, leaving public messages on a “wall,” sending direct messages and tagging other users in photos.

For many youth, it’s the main method of communicating online.

“These days young people are using e-mail less and less,” Hursh said. “It’s all about texting and Facebook to communicate. The youth and young adults at St. Tim’s are really responsive to us on Facebook. They are almost in constant communication with us.”

She said it’s a great way to help keep teens accountable and offer them words of encouragement when they’re down. On Facebook, a popular feature is the status update, where users can post quick descriptions of what they’re doing or how they’re feeling.

“There have been times where a teen is in real trouble and talking about taking desperate measures, crying for help with their status,” Hursh said. “It’s sad that our society has become so impersonal, but if we do not take advantage of opportunities like this to minister to the youth and young adults, we are going to really lose out on opportunities to help them grow.”

Hursh noted some of the potential pitfalls of social networking sites as well. For many youth, their profiles don’t really exist as an extension of their actual selves, but as an opportunity to create a new persona that has little in common with the real person. At times, user profiles can seem like self-involved performance art.

“It seemed with MySpace, teens were putting up one side of their life and thinking it wouldn’t have a [repercussion] in their real life,” Hursh said. “We had a night where we challenged teens that if they wanted to ‘live their lives without question’ — be held accountable for the things that they post — they were to add me as a friend on Facebook and know that I could possibly check up on them from time to time.”

Marcotte’s office held a seminar in May for youth ministers to learn about the pros and cons of social networking. This was around the time stories of “sexting” — when someone takes a nude photo of him or herself and texts the photo to another person’s phone — littered the nightly news.

The seminar helped teach the youth ministers how to use the powerful social networking tools for good and highlighted some of the more objectionable or even dangerous ways youth can use the sites.

“Many youth leaders are using social networking as a means to communicate the Good News to youth as they should,” Marcotte said. “They should not be afraid of using this important tool. But, again, the tool must be used with wisdom and prudence.”

Church leaders have a good example in using new technology for evangelizing and connecting to youth from, perhaps, an unlikely source. During the 2008 World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia, the then-80-year-old Pope Benedict XVI sent a mass text message to the youth gathered there.

“Dear friend,” the message read, “u must be holy & u must be missionary: never separate holiness from mission - BXVI.”

“Our Holy Father is setting the example by using technology to send the message of the Gospel. I think we must also follow his lead,” Marcotte said.

“But, on the other hand, we must also understand the limitations. It should not be seen as the only way to do evangelization nor be seen as a particularly effective way,” Marcotte said. “It’s simply a another way of connecting people.”

Howe agreed.

“It should never take the place of getting together in face-to-face community and breaking open Scripture and the teachings of the Church, but online communities shouldn’t be ignored,” he said, “and if used in a proper and safe way, it’s going to be a very powerful way of teaching teens about Christ and the Church.”