Guest Blogger Rabbi Aaron Spiegel On Why Synagogues Need To Increase Their Use Of Technology
February 18, 2008 - י"ב אדר א' תשס"חIn the recent issue of Clergy Journal Magazine, Rev. Rich Melheim wrote an article about congregations and technology. His article included a manifesto he titled, “95 Melheimian Theses of Church Technology.” Since there really are 95 statements we can’t include them all here. You can check out the entire list at The Center For Congregations .
Here are some of the 95 that I think are most important.
Numbers 1, 2, and 3 - We are living in a tech world. Good tech is better than no tech. No tech is better than bad tech.
Numbers 17 through 21 - “Anyone under 30 is an immigrant in the land of technology.” (Leonard Sweet). The average pastor in a mainline church is 55 years old - an immigrant in the land of technology. An immigrant will never speak the language like a native. An immigrant’s children absorb the language of the culture naturally. An immigrant must ask her or his children how to communicate.
Numbers 29 and 30 - Tech without decent equipment is bad tech. Tech without a decent ongoing replacement budget line qualifies as bad stewardship.
Numbers 38 through 42 - If a sermon is important enough to be preached, it is important enough to be remembered. If a sermon doesn’t have a visual memory hook for the visual generation, don’t expect it to be remembered. A sermon made up of 99 percent spoken words with 1 percent visual enhancements (photos, props, icons, pictures drawn by kids) will be 99 percent forgotten by the time the Sunday football game is over. The 1 percent remembered will be the point tied to the visual.
At maximum bandwidth, the human ear can process 10,000 bits of information per second. At maximum bandwidth, the human eye can process 7 billion bps. Therefore, a picture is not worth 1000 words - it is worth 700,000 words. A pastor who is not using visuals in worship and preaching is a lousy steward.
I had better stop there! As one who consults with congregations about technology issues, my response to Rich Melheim is ‘amen!’ I have personally worked with hundreds of congregations about using technology. I even co-wrote a book about it. Obviously, since Melheim is addressing churches, not all are using technology wisely. But he and others in the church world are taking it seriously.
Of the nearly 350 congregations with whom I’ve worked, less than 5% are synagogues. Is it that churches have more freedom to experiment? Maybe, but my experience says the bigger problem in the synagogue world is a lack of responsiveness to the needs of our congregants.
We talk about wanting to be more welcoming, particularly of young people. But our actions say that what we really want are young people who are willing to learn, participate in worship, and be part of our community, in the same way their parents and grandparents did. Statistics say this isn’t working. Technology is a tool.
The church world calls it a tool for ministry. Synagogues need to start thinking of technology as a tool for connecting with our congregants, and for them to connect with one another and the rest of k’lal Yisrael. And dare I say, in the most reverent Buberist terms, with God.
Rabbi Aaron Spiegel is the Information Technology Director for the Indianapolis Center for Congregations.
He is a co-author of the book, 40 Days and 40 Bytes: Making Computers Work for Your Congregation.
February 18, 2008 - י"ב אדר א' תשס"ח at 4:31 pm
[…] S3K’s new Board chair (mazal tov!), Rabbi Aaron Spiegel: We talk about wanting to be more welcoming, particularly of young people. But our actions say that what we really want are young people who are willing to learn, participate in worship, and be part of our community, in the same way their parents and grandparents did. Statistics say this isn’t working. Technology is a tool. […]
February 21, 2008 - ט"ו אדר א' תשס"ח at 4:01 pm
Thank you for this useful and motivating post! I echo your “Amen!” I appreciate your comment that it’s not just about experimentation (though I think we do need permission and “a budget” to do that too), but also about listening to congregants. Beth Kanter (nonprofit technology guru — see her blog at http://beth.typepad.com) includes “listening” before “participating” in her guidelines about using social media. Any suggestions on how synagogues can be better “congregational listeners”? And/or how those of us who work with congregations regularly can help them be better listeners?
February 22, 2008 - ט"ז אדר א' תשס"ח at 3:57 pm
Eek! That’s a loaded question, but of course I have an opinion. I’ll start with my colleagues - rabbis have to be more willing not only to experiment, but to fail! The traditional synagogue community seems to have no tolerance for failure, so creative, entrepreneurial rabbis never get a chance to give their best. I believe this has to be fostered in our rabbinical schools.
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.
February 22, 2008 - ט"ז אדר א' תשס"ח at 4:27 pm
There’s a great video explaining Web 2.0 on YouTube. It’s on my blog at http://mahamatzav.wordpress.com/2008/02/16/cyberculture/.
April 20, 2008 - ט"ו ניסן תשס"ח at 10:19 pm
[…] Aaron Spiegel, who’s the IT guy and a former congregational rabbi at the Alban Institute, wrote about how synagogues need to use more technology. […]