One thing that I do not hear discussed is the reasons why you even need a website. In my consulting work, I will frequently ask if the client is sure that they need a website.
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Text Message Sermon
written by Ben Dubow
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Tonight we tried something different and I think innovative in our service at St. Paul’s Collegiate Church. The message was on prayer and we invited people to text message me during the service and message with questions, comments and reactions to the message and on the topic of prayer. Some of the “texts” got integrated into the message in “real time” while others I will blog about this week or integrate into my message next week. Read more about how it worked here.
The idea was to make the sermon more dialogical as opposed to simply a monologue. It also increased people’s participation with service. I wasn’t sure how it would go but it turned out great.
About half of our church are undergraduate college students and about 2/3’s are in the 18-30 year old bracket. For this group, text messaging, IM’ing, etc, are just part of the communication culture. We wanted to tap into that and affirm it. This, to me, is a great example of using technology that already is being used by everybody in the context of the church.
I am curious if anyone knows of other churches that have tried this. Also, I’d love to hear other ideas about how to use texting, IM, or other communication technologies innovatively in the church.
Sounds cool, did it hold up the sermon at all, when you were reading the texts. Or did you have it like on radio shows, where someone is filtering the text messages sent?
It would be interesting to see how many people (who now know you number) text you during the week.
David February 12th, 2007 at 3:21 amHey David-
We toyed with different ideas like having them go to the techs first, etc. but in the end decided it was easiest to simply have them come directly to me. I have a flip-open phone with keyboard inside, so it was pretty easy to monitor the screen during my message. My goal was to have it be seemlessly integrated into the message so I simply multi-tasked… reading them as I preached, and then integrating in as it fit. It was a bit what I imagine it is like to be a TV broadcaster delivering the news while a producer squawks in your ear.
I think we pulled it off… feel free to listen to the message on our site (www.uconnchurch.com/audio) and judge for yourself… I’d love any feedback or comments.
I’d also love to hear about ideas to improve the concept.
For example, does anyone know how you can set-up a fake “text number” like they do for reality TV shows? It would be great to be able to do this without giving out my cell phone #… lol.
Ben Dubow February 12th, 2007 at 12:46 pmInteresting… this was just posted over on Monday Morning Insight (a great blog and resource). Another example of using text messaging in a sermon.
Here is the link:
Ben Dubow February 12th, 2007 at 4:22 pmText Meets Text: Preaching with Real Time Feedback
Ben…
I love this idea. I had a very similar idea which attempts to involve the dialogical approach to church services.
I work in a college-age ministry called the Onyx House. 100% of our ministry (about 500 or so) are 17-25 year olds who are DYING, I mean DYING, for new dialogue in our church services.
Next term, we are going to do a “reverse sermon”, where I am going to do nothing but sit on the stage and listen as they preach to me. We will have Mic’s moving around and I can talk after each person, but their job is to preach to me. Imagine a church service where the preacher listens more than he preaches. I am convinced the biggest part of preaching we have forgotten in total is listening.
I love the texting idea. I am going to try it.
AJ Swoboda
AJ February 15th, 2007 at 12:35 amblahguy.com
onyxhouse.com
That sounds like a fascinating idea AJ… let me know how it goes!
BD
Ben Dubow February 15th, 2007 at 9:35 amGreat Idea!
We’ve been playing around with txt messages with our youth and young adults ministry. We are looking in to get short digit codes so that we can put keywords on slides and print material or what ever and you text the keyword to our short code and you can get messages back. We where also wondering about real time voting in services, but this idea seems like it could probably work.
Mark Miller February 19th, 2007 at 12:21 pmGreat ideas Mark. How do you get those short digital codes? I’ve been trying to find out but can’t. Anyone know?
BD
Ben Dubow February 24th, 2007 at 1:05 pmIf you google short code sms you probably find some stuff. the trick is the cost. It’s some what expensive and i haven’t yet been successful in getting the budget. there is a site called mozes.com that you can sign up for and basically you use there short code. It has a ton of social networking stuff too kind of like myspace. we are currently using it for our youth and young adults.
Mark Miller February 24th, 2007 at 1:10 pmYou always (assuming your cell phone has AIM on it) create a screen name specifically for this purpose and give that out to people, then you get the messages without giving out your cell #.
kmh February 26th, 2007 at 11:33 amThanks KMH… great idea. I will look into that.
BD
Ben D. February 26th, 2007 at 11:38 amThis is a very interesting idea, and I will be listening to the sermon to hear you preach soon.
I have a question, though. What is the purpose of preaching? and following that, how does texting to the preacher further this purpose?
-you can e-mail me or just comment here.
Caleb February 28th, 2007 at 5:00 pmGreat question Caleb.
From my perspective, the purpose of preaching is to communicate God’s word to people in a way that leads to life change.
More than that, I am pretty committed as a pastor to expository preaching (though I will stray sometimes). By expository, I mean a sermon based on a single passage of scripture (not 35 random verses) where the text itself is the authority and defines the main point. As a pastor, my job is to discover what the text says and then communicate it to people in a way that is faithful, applicable, and accessible.
Haddon Robinson, the preaching guru, puts it this way: “Expository preaching is the communication of a biblical concept, derived from and transmitted through a historical, grammatical, and literary study of a passage in its context, which the Holy Spirit first applies to the personality and the experience of the preacher, then through the preacher, applies to the hearer.”
I agree with him.
So, how does texting fit into that?
Well, to me, it is one more tool in the communication toolbox. The same way I use humor, video clips, props, stories, illustrations, rhetorical questions, questions-and-answers, “talk-backs”, etc, I can also use texting as a tool to more fully engage the listener.
This seems to me simply as effectice teaching and communicating.
To be clear, in the messages I gave, the text was still primary in the message and my points/conclusions/ applications were already set when I got up to speak–based on hours of study, prayer, an preparation.
The texts/questions that came in allowed me to engage with people, interact with people, and contextulaize examples and applications to people in ways that I knew were relevant because they just told me they were relevant.
I think if somehow texting replaced the authority of the scripture, or even the authority of the preacher, that would be problematic. But used as a tool to increase engagement and to make communication more effective, it makes sense to me.
We won’t do it every week… but we will certainly do it again.
Great question Caleb, and I am open to hearing differing opinions on the matter…
Ben Dubow February 28th, 2007 at 5:22 pmI don’t think I would disagree with you, but the idea itself made me think of bad directions that you could be taking with it. I was afraid that you were more interested in re-making preaching into a dialogue when it is shown in Scripture to be a monologue. I think you agree that Scripture is very clear about the function and the mechanics of preaching (i say that confidently because of what you have said about preaching), but I am afraid that many people with this correct understanding move far from what the Scripture teaches. I am thankful to hear that the purpose was not to create a dialogue, but to encourage interaction and to try to make the sermon more relevant by contextualizing the application…and in that light, I think that what you have done may be a very good thing. …could you share some of the results of the texting during the sermon. Maybe some examples of how you changed any points of application, or of how you got a better understanding of the listeners. And if you are going to do it again will you do it the same exact way, or have you been able to refine the process at all.
Oh yeah, thank you for your gracious answer to my first question. And I apologize for asking fifty more.
Caleb March 1st, 2007 at 10:25 pmHey Caleb-
I think we are pretty much in agreement about the theology of preaching, but I do want to clarify that I think preaching is more about DIALOGUE than MONOLOGUE.
I think any gifted preacher would say that there are at least three different conversations going on during a sermon: (1) between God and the Preacher–I pray more during my sermons than almost any other time in my life; (2) Between the Preacher and the listener–they listen to my words, I watch and “listen” to their body language, reactions, etc; and (3) Between the listener and God–my hope is that while they are listening they are “talking” (praying) through the message with the assistance of the Holy Spirit–how does this apply to me? What is God saying to me/us through this?
The text messaging adds a fourth element: listener back to me.
All worship (and I consider preaching when linked with sacrament–as we do every Sunday–a kind of worship) is about REVELATION and RESPONSE. God’s revelation, our response. This is dialogue.
In the historical 4-fold form of worship (which we follow at St. Paul’s and Christians have been following for 2000 years, and has its routes in Old Testament worship), the entire service is a living drama of revelation and response.
I don’t mean that it is a dialogue in the sense that all voices are equal, the text can say anythig we want it to say, or that we negotiate with God. But it is a dialogue (or at least should be) in that we are called to grapple with the message, apply the message, and respond to God’s revelation through His word and the message.
Make sense?
Ben Dubow March 2nd, 2007 at 6:37 pmNow in response to the other part of your comment Caleb:
A couple of very practical things happened:
1. People came more engaged (we told them ahead of time about the texting).
2. People continued to text me all week–meaning they continued to wrestle with and chew on the message. How many times do we get to Wednesday and forget what was preached on Sunday? I consider it a small victory when people even remember what I preached on…lol
3. It allowed me to contextualize illustrations and applications–in other words, to specifically apply God’s word to where people were at. An example is this: from the texting back I discovered two common issues I had missed in my own prep: (1) people thinking of prayer as primarily about supplication, and (2) people thinking of God as an impersonal “it”, especially in the context of prayer. I was able to address both these issues–from the passages–head-on.
4. It allowed people to seek clarification. One text I received indicated that a seeker friend that the “textee” had brough to church had been confused and possibly mis-lead by somthing I said. I was able to address it and correct it later in the service — and give a nice 2 minute summary of the Gospel. It flet very much like a God-appointed moment.
Ben Dubow March 2nd, 2007 at 6:42 pmWhat a great idea! I am going to suggest this to my Pastor friends!
Larry LaBarge March 6th, 2007 at 3:09 pmHey, that sounds kinda like this:
Erik March 7th, 2007 at 4:52 pmhttp://www.mcchronicle.com/Articles/Feb07/Art_Feb07_01.html
[…] Text Message Sermon […]
TXT Sermons at Christian Selvaratnam March 21st, 2007 at 4:16 pmHey check out http://www.fakemytext.com for sending messages from a different number.
Fak April 11th, 2007 at 10:59 am[…] Text Message Sermon The idea was to make the sermon more dialogical as opposed to simply a monologue. It also increased people’s participation with service. I wasn’t sure how it would go but it turned out great. (tags: church sms sermon ministry) […]
links for 2007-08-08 « geek notes August 8th, 2007 at 4:29 am[…] There was an interesting article in today’s Washington Post about churches and the use of technology, especially in worship. I thought it was a good article and well-balanced, though was certainly breaking no new ground on the issue. I liked it because St. Paul’s Collegiate Church was mentioned and small church plants from Connecticut don’t get on the front page of the Washington Post very often. We were cited for the “text messaging” thing we did which I talked about in more detail here on BetaChurch. […]
BetaChurch » Blog Archive » Worship Goes Big-Screen and Hi-Fi September 25th, 2007 at 12:33 pmI love it…I am very interested in how you maybe continually did this or was it just for one series? We are looking to do this at our church and my lead pastor asked me to look in on how this has worked with other churches. What do you believe is the best way to approach this?
We are thinking about putting the number on the screen during the sermon and then afterwards, our lead pastor walking off the stage and looking at the list of questions that had been sent and responding to one or maybe two after announcements and communion. Thoughts?
Jared March 12th, 2008 at 3:38 amHey Jared
We posted the number of the screen throughout the service. I actually took the texts live as I preached–something I felt comfortable doing, but I understand many wouldn’t. I think your concept is a good one.
I looked at them live as they came in (while continuing to preach, so it was seamless) and integrated the texts in as I could. The ones I didn’t get to or weren’t quite on point with my message, I either blogged about or podcasted about later that week.
Good luck and let me know how it turns out.
Ben
Ben Dubow March 12th, 2008 at 9:16 am[…] Text Message Sermon […]
TXT Sermons « Christian Selvaratnam March 25th, 2008 at 7:40 amGreat idea! A few years ago my company, Mobile Verses, started delivering daily bible verses via text message to mobile phones. Now we help churches with their mobile communications needs. Let us know if you have any questions on how to integrate mobile into your church communications.
Apologies for the plug, but it seemed like their might be some questions out there - just want to help if we can. www.mobileverses.com
Ken April 8th, 2008 at 11:24 pmseo title tag Создание сайта веб
Сетевой маяк
Одно из лучшее изобретений “Рамблера” команды появилось получи свет весной 1997 года. Уникальный рейтинг-классификатор Rambler’s с Top100, одной стороны, оценивавший на основе объективных данных популярность веб-ресурсов, с другой, позволявший “одним кликом” перейти к ним, стал своеобразным Сети ядром в России. В сущности, вся история Рунета разделилась на “до” и “после” Top100: возникновение универсального счетчика, способного аудиторию направлять на разные ресурсы, создало в российском Интернете активную, динамичную конкурентную среду. Кроме веб-дизайнеры того, стали более тщательно и вдумчиво работать над своими сайтами, стремясь занять Top100 в более высокие строчки; ведь хороший рейтинг давал дополнительное преимущество - быстрый рост аудитории. Показательно, что за первый год существования рейтинга объем русскоязычного сегмента Сети вырос как минимум на два порядка.
Rambler’s Top100 быстро стал универсальным барометром Сети, общим стандартом медиаизмерений. По сей день этот каталог является одним из лучших “компасов Рунета”; он идеально подходит тем пользователям, которые ищут тематические ресурсы, без привязки к какому-либо конкретному термину. В основе лидерства Top100 - не только огромный охват веб-аудитории, но и очень жесткая система модерирования, по правилам которой всех, кто пытается “играть” со статистикой, надолго либо вообще навсегда исключают из рейтинга. Благодаря системе защиты от “накруток”, статистика каталога “Рамблера” считается самой консервативной - однако задача рейтинга прежде всего в том, чтобы быть единой для всех системой статистики, в рамках которой можно сравнивать показатели разных сайтов. И с этой задачей Тор100 справляется идеально; не случайно в 2004 году каталог получил сертификат соответствия стандартам качества ISO 9001
разработать сайт July 20th, 2008 at 12:52 amДоброго времени суток, форумчане сайта www.betachurch.org
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- плюс распознаёт картинки и вопросы а-ля “что написано на этой картинке?”, “сколько будет 2+2?” и “какой сейчас год?” и умеет корректно на них отвечать?
- какая программа сможет разослать топики по форумам, попутно автоматически регистрироваться на них и создавая подробный отчет о проделанной работе?
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Just Google!
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XRumerIsTheBest July 29th, 2008 at 11:37 pmwow ))
its very unconventional point of view.
Good post.
realy good post
thank you
ChilkVewheliply September 2nd, 2008 at 4:06 pmWe’re working on getting people involved too, but before the sermon is preached, not during. We’re calling it an Open Source Sermon and inviting everyone to contribute. If it works, I’ll preach it from the pulpit and then release it on a Creative Commons License. Come check it out!
Rob September 5th, 2008 at 7:08 am