There’s a Catch 22 element to creating congregational listeners. While our rabbis certainly need to be emboldened to try new things, this has to be fostered and nurtured from synagogue members. Sadly, those who crave this experimentation and creativeness are leaving (or have already left) traditional synagogues to create their own thing. This ties back to the work that Steven Cohen, Shawn Landres, Elie Kaunfer and Michelle Shain did on the emergent communities (http://synagogue3000.org/emergentweb/survey/documents/NatSpirComStudyReport_S3K_Hadar.pdf)

Personally, I think the jury is still out on whether this nascent movement will have staying power - but it does say to me that there are people who are not only willing to try something new, they’re willing to try it outside the traditional synagogue community.

After working with churches for the last 10 years, I’m jealous to see how easily some are able to nurture experimentation. One important thing that those of us who work with synagogues can do is let those we work with know what’s going on in the congregation world. I’m surprised how little synagogues know about what their sister synagogues are doing let alone what the churches (even in their own neighborhoods) are doing. They don’t know what they don’t know. Perhaps if we can be the purveyors of information there we’ll be able to create a buzz that will inspire innovation. Only then will we be able to really start using the technology tools that Melheim describes.