Experiencing God in a Digital Age (Children/Young People)

Experiencing God in a Digital Age

Dr Bex LewisSenior Lecturer in Digital Marketing, Manchester Metropolitan University

Director, Digital Fingerprint

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http://bit.ly/experience-god-da

UNDERSTANDING THE DIGITAL LANDSCAPE

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Martha Lane-Fox, 2015

The internet is the organising principle of our age, touching all our lives, every day. As the late activist Aaron Swartz put it, “It’s not OK not to understand the internet anymore”.

http://www.doteveryone.org.uk/

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https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0034/93976/Children-Parents-Media-Use-Attitudes-Report-2016.pdf

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https://www.statista.com/chart/5194/active-users-of-social-networks-and-messaging-services/

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https://laurensmithpages.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/technology-making-us-anti-social.jpg

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H/T @God_Loves_Women

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EXPERIENCING GOD IN A DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT

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• I can't separate my faith from my actions, including those in public life. If people of faith are in public life faith is there too. @JennRiddlestone

• How can you separate faith from your public life? Is private faith true faith? @loulou_uberkirk

• If being a Christian is loving God and loving others, even if I don't announce why I'm doing something, my faith is unavoidably in *public.* @Hstanley_

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Images via https://www.facebook.com/anglicanmemes/

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For many churchgoing is no longer the ‘cultural norm’. People don’t actively ignore the church: they don’t even think about it. Matthew 5:13-16 calls us to be salt and light in the world, and for thousands in the ‘digital age’, that world includes social networks such Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest. With literally billions in the digital spaces, the online social spaces presented by churches need to be appealing, welcoming, and not look like they are just an afterthought: they are now effectively the ‘front door’ to your church for digital users, and you ignore those spaces at your peril.

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http://www.churchgrowthrd.org.uk/blog/churchgrowth/growing_churches_in_the_digital_ageImage: Flickr

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Pokemon?

https://www.illustratedchildrensministry.com/2016/church-pokestop-pokeman-go/http://drbexl.co.uk/tag/pokemon/

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Jesus often encountered people individually. Social media gives us the same personal access to people. This is an every-member ministry, and it’s exciting and inspiring.Rev Pam Smith, author, Online Mission & Ministry; Priest in Charge, iChurch

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https://theconversation.com/how-social-media-is-changing-the-church-57405

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[If we are…] means by which God communicates and reveals himself through his Spirit, then our blog posts, status updates, tweets, artistic images, and online comments should be products of a life transformed by Christ and indwelled by his Spirit. As restored image bearers, our online presence and activity should image the Triune God.

Byers, A. Theomedia(2013, 196)

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https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+12:1&version=MSG

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A good [wo]man brings good things out of the good stored up in his/her heart, and an evil [wo]man brings evil things out of

the evil stored up in his/her heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

Luke 6:45 (New International Version [edited])

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24/7 Values? What do you stand FOR?

• Authentic – be a consistent ‘you’

• Transparent – be honest, where’s the source?

• Self-aware – note your ‘tone of voice’

• Integrity – own your own content

• Self-control – be aware of consequences

• Patience – hold the trigger finger before send

• Non-manipulative – ‘love Jesus’ = send this! No!

• Kindness – encourage others

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Digital Worship?

Illustration by @Mattart1Art

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Creativity

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“As young people develop their identities they need guidance and support, particularly from the significant adults in their lives. The behaviour that those adults model, whether it’s with regard to digital technologies or great historical events such as the Holocaust, or even in the way the cleaner is treated, is important in helping children define their own identity, values, and attitudes.”

Raising Children in a Digital Age, p.101

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Taking time out..

“It's about family togetherness, personal growth and development, and being masters over our environment - rather than enabling our fast-moving, sophisticated world and electronic equipment to dominate us.”http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29751577

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvisspeaking of ‘Shabbat UK’, October 2014

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Conversation

“The epiphany for me was that I’d become a terrific broadcaster and a terrible communicator…. There was an awful lot of telling going on and not a lot of listening”Daniel Sieberg, The Digital Diet, 2011, p.26

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WISDOM!

Image Source: RGB Stock

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