Last week one of Phil Cooke’s blogs contained a radical thought – that Communication is a TWO way conversation.  His point was that today’s tech driven interactive culture is much more in tune with the worship experience of first century Christians.  What was it like to “do church” back in that day?

Phil referred to a book called Pagan Christianity (George Barna/Frank Viola) which talks about early church practices like “active participation and interruptions by the audience, prophets and priests speaking extemporaneously – out of a present burden, rather than from a set script” and even Old Testament preaching as “sporadic, fluid, and open for audience participation.”

So how did we get from there to here – a worship experience so formulaic, commoditized and stylized that people are walking away in ever increasing numbers?  How did we get from dialogue to monologue?  Phil pointed to Warren Oates in a book called “Pastoral Counseling” that traced the moment things began to slip.

“When the oratorical schools of the Western world laid hold of the Christian message, oratory tended to take the place of conversation,” Oates said.  “The greatness of the orator took the place of the astounding event of Jesus Christ. And the dialogue between speaker and listener faded into a monologue.”

There is something else here that’s easy to miss.  The Western world in placing this oratorical standard on what was “normal” in Christian worship imposed a Euro-centric white coat upon the big picture.  We didn’t just loose dialogue – we lost the salt and flavor contained in the coat of many colors, the wonder of multi-ethnic, multi-racial fellowship and friendship.  Segregated Christianity lost the cultural context of the miracle of Acts 2 when people heard the Gospel “in their own language.”

There has NEVER been a greater opportunity to reclaim the dialogue we’ve lost.  We have the technology to make this happen.  Will we?

Not long ago, a blog that I read daily made an important statement – “If you’re a content provider or program producer, you need to give serious thought to how your program is being distributed.  It’s a new world out there.”  This advice has special meaning to churches with television programs – it is and always has been all about where the people are and how to reach them.Just how traditional broadcast audiences are aging was verified by the latest Nielsen numbers.  All of the major networks skew into an average age of 50 + with Fox News being the undisputed champ .  Turns out the “America’s most watched news channel” has an average (repeat average) age of 65 – making it the oldest audience in all of broadcasting – older than the Hallmark, Golf or Military channels.

Absent in this discussion is any mention of religious channels on cable and independent Christian television stations around the country.  Could these venues be shrinking and aging too?  TBN, Sky Angel and the Church Channel have so few viewers that they’re not even on the marketing menu and local Christian television stations like WTLJ-TV54 do not show up when local folks fill out their Nielsen diaries.

If you’re paying to play on stations or cable networks like this, a few simple questions are appropriate; what is the size of your audience?  Who are you reaching?  What is their average age?  Potential audience means nothing – in fact the way this game has been played for years is all about convincing donors you were reaching people when by any objective measurement you’re not.

There are so many on line distribution options available now – isn’t it time to ask where broadcast/cable television really fits in the mix?  Isn’t there another way to get this done?

Last week Skot Welch and I found out about candidate (Republican 2nd congressional district) Jay Riemersma’s position on the DREAM Act – Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors.  What follows is an open letter to Mr. Riermersma and a call for him to substantiate his view of  immigration reform and the real challenges on our southern border.

Dear Jay,

We heard about your position on the “Dream Act,” and we’re very disappointed.  This bill when passed will create a productive, effective path for millions of ‘undocumented’ high school graduates who want to attend college or serve in the military.  That’s the real issue here.

In your response to an inquiry by Patricia Kraay you said that America is first “a nation of immigrants; second a nation of laws.”  Unfortunately this country’s legal system has a long history of favoring white European males like you and marginalizing women and people of color.  At one time in the U.S., former chief justice of the Supreme Court Roger Taney wrote in the infamous Dred Scott decision (1857) that the “negro has no rights which the white man is bound
to respect.”

Decisions and attitudes like that had to change and they did.  But we were left with shadows and patterns that kept paying forward. Jim Crow laws – legitimized by another Supreme Court decision, Plessy vs. Ferguson – were all about “separate but equal,” “states rights” and “law and order.”  The awful reality of this loaded and coded language was a terrifying nightmare of beatings, church burnings, bombings and the Lynching of thousands of African Americans.  These laws were changed too by courageous civil rights pioneers like Dr. Martin Luther King.

Now a new chapter within the pattern of loaded and coded language – “Border security.”  If we listen to you, Lou Dobbs, Bill O’Reily, Pat Buchanan, the Tea Party, Glen Beck and Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, our southern borders are chaotic zones of lawlessness filled with “terrorists, drug smugglers and human traffickers,” “pouring over the border.” Can you substantiate that claim?  Can anyone?

Leonard Pitts, Jr. in a recent article about border security couldn’t find any support for claims like this made by Gov. Brewer. (Strong Opinions on Immigration Get in the Way of Fact – Miami Herald).  He quoted T.J. Bonner who spoke to CNN on behalf of the union that represents Border Patrol agents saying that these statements do not “comport with reality.”  Can you provide supportive evidence?

The sad reality in America now is that millions of young people who could make substantive contributions to an economy in desperate need of entrepreneurial energy are living in ‘undocumented limbo.’  One real life example – Isela – was a guest on our radio show last month.  Isela is a bright, engaging 19 year-old Latina who wants to have a future in America – the only country she has ever known.  For the last 10 years she has been working through the INS and ICE to become a legal citizen without success.

Is your call for “border security” going to help her pursue her dreams?  We don’t think so.  Your “red meat rhetoric” may energize your base, raise money and maybe even get you elected in the short term – but in the long run Isela’s problem and Michigan’s problems will only get worse.  Without the contributions of immigrants in a global marketplace we will waste resources that are accessible, available and mutually beneficial.

Our offer for you to come on our radio show still stands – we welcome a dialog.  We also extend an invitation for you to view a compelling documentary – “Papers” – which will be shown on Thursday, July 29 at 7 PM at the Park Theater in Holland.

In the Spirit of REAL liberty

Skot Welch & Rick Wilson

Last week I participated in a discussion on LinkedIn called “America was not formed as a Christian nation.”  An edited version of that discussion follows which includes a comment from one of the participants and my response.

The “Christian nation” mythology is part of what I call the “values package,” i.e. faith, family, country, ancestry.  Founding fathers – like Washington and Jefferson – were deists – a religion that is far from foundational Christianity. History gathered with any kind of objectivity rejects this position.

Jefferson did write that “All men are created equal,” but apparently in Orwellian terms “some are more equal than others.” Euro-centric, white supremacy is the only way to make slavery and genocide work within ‘Christian principles’ – i.e. use “manifest destiny,” to “civilize”  and kill tribes in the western territories and believe slavery to be “the divine order of things.”

If America is “founded upon the “Judeo Christian ethic,” what part is Judeo and what part is Christian? What person of color in their right mind would want to go back to the most brutal form of oppression every practiced in the Euro-American chattel system. Slavery by race is not supported anywhere in the Bible – Native American genocide isn’t either.

Frederick Douglas said that slavery’s legacy has left a “shadow that still lingers over the country and poisons the moral atmosphere of all sections of the republic.” The worst part of slavery’s shadow? – the cancerous elephant in the room we all see but never talk about.

RESPONSE:

Religion and its precepts have provided a strong foundation for people working together toward common goals. The economic times are enough of a challenge without taking away a moral foundation. I’d like to think that it is not a myth, but the proper way of forming societal values and a key reason for the success that we have had as a nation, economically, socially, and militarily.

Though a cousin of agnosticism, deism in the Founding Father’s days still had a significant Christian flavor to it and, though this is from far ago, most of the Founding Fathers (Benjamin Franklin excluded) attended Church regularly.

MY RESPONSE:

“Religion and its precepts have provided a strong foundation for people working together toward common goals.”  Really?  Christianity in the United States has provided a strong foundation for white European males – and has established institutional and systemic racism which does not support the ideal of a meritocracy.

Ask any person of color about the precipitous gaps in health care, housing, employment and criminal justice. These spectacular disparities stare back at anyone trying to believe that America is founded upon Christian principles – they didn’t work then – they’re not working now. “Injustice for one,” Dr King often said, “is injustice for all.”  Something else is at work which favors you and I – and works against women and people of color.

“The economic times are enough of a challenge without taking away a moral foundation.”  What foundation?  According to the U.S. Census, Michigan is the most segregated state in America – Detroit is the most segregated city in the country. This state has the most segregated school systems in the U. S.  I challenge anyone to calculate the moral, socio-economic cost of plantation economics – what Michigan has practiced for years. If we don’t deconstruct this perverse, immoral foundation – this state and region will die slowly, painfully, tragically.

Going to church does not mean very much when systems created and sustained by it are profoundly oppressive and cruel.  “Slavery at one time,” Frederick Douglas said “had the power to interpret the Bible and control the church.” If 12 of the first 16 presidents were slave holders, that control was firmly established.  And if “11am on Sunday morning is still the most segregated hour of the week,” (Martin Luther King), that control continues …

Meet Justin Kurtz who until last February was just another student going to Western Michigan University.  He awoke one morning to find his car had been towed from his apartment complex by a company called T & J Towing even though he had the correct permit fixed to his windshield.  Sometimes a story emerges that reinforces the power of generational media on a scale that’s hard to imagine.  Read on if you dare!

When Justin went to T & J to get his car back, proving that he was legitimately parked, the company still demanded the $118 fee which he paid.  But then in a social networking chapter of “don’t get mad – get even,” Justin started a Facebook page called Kalamazoo Residents Against T & J Towing which in just a few days grew to 3800 people many of whom had similar stories about T&J.

Now wouldn’t you think at this point that the towing company would take the “customer’s always right, PR high road?”  Reasonable, right? You could spin it by saying  “Gosh we’re sorry – must have been some kind of mistake.”  Not T&J.  They slapped a $750k lawsuit on Justin claiming “libel and character defamation.”

Remember that Facebook is a global resource and somehow, someone in  Justin’s newly formed, venting network reached the New York Times who happened to be working on a piece about SLAPP – Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation – i.e. companies that sue you to shut up.

Armed now with a NY Times article, a cadre of lawyers waiting in line to take his case pro bono and supporters around the country, Justin has counter sued.  Obviously the story continues as this young man’s facebook page has just passed the 14,000 mark.

Here’s a college junior with no visible resources – except a story and a very loud Facebook megaphone to tell it.  There is no better example of the RELEASING THE POWER of ONE.

How can the faith community do the same?

It’s called “Industry Jargon.”  We all have terms which in the context of our work make perfect sense to “us,” but mean nothing to the population at large.  So when I say “long form,” from a traditional radio/television point of view I need to explain exactly what I mean and why it’s so important in understanding the web driven “short form” that will dominate the future.

In classic radio and television, we have always thought in “long form” terms, i.e. programming that filled, hour, and half hour “blocks of time” that went through “day parts,” and reached audiences.  In traditional, advertiser supported media, these time slots were sold to companies that paid a lot of money to “interrupt” our lives with commercials we passively watched without much enthusiasm wanting patiently for our favorite program to begin again.

Radio and television were shared experiences – you knew what was on and what time it was on as the family gathered for Ed Sullivan on Sundays or Milton Berle on Tuesdays.  In the past, when you and your friends ‘cruised’ your city – weeknights and weekends – Lee Alan in Detroit or “Wolfman” Jack in Los Angelos were in your car.

That was then – this is now in a culture that has completely changed.  If we are still thinking in long form terms, we are preparing programming for a world that no longer exists.  Short form, web distributed media lives on the premise that “smaller is greater – less is more.”

The average YouTube post is 3 to 5 minutes, Pandora allows me to program my own radio station I can play on my car radio – it’s a compressed process I control.  I am no longer influenced by larger than life media kings in a “one to many” model – I’m now in tune with a “many to many” grid in a global, viral experience where I am engaged, interactive, in touch with others.

If I’m locked in “long form,” my message will be lost – and here’s a real life example.  Within the last year I was sent two links from two respected sources in response to issue oriented content.  In both cases, I was connected with church service messages that were 25 minutes long.  I have yet to complete viewing of either link – I don’t have time and I suspect most others don’t either.

The Communication Revolution continues and will be won ultimately be won by those who understand and communicate in web friendly , short form.  Here’s the challenge; how do we take messages locked in “long form,” and reach those who now feel detached and disconnected from the faith culture they represent?

I was honored to participate in innovation training last week at the request of Christian Life Center in Kalamazoo, one of my clients.  It was a fun packed, high energy two days  led by Andy Hinkley who skillfully guided church leaders through the steps in creating a responsive culture of creativity.  Within this atmosphere something spontaneous happened – I’ll call it the “Stan Plan” – which could change the way ministry is done in the 21st century.

I had a convo at the event with Stan Ellis – a youth leader at CLC with a group of about 100 students ages 14 to 18.  Stan was sharp enough to understand that his kids were spending lots of time text messaging each other – so he learned how to put together a text ‘group’ in his BlackBerry which would broadcast information about upcoming events.  Stan also produced a short video that students could access in the narthex.

There’s a lot to like here.  Stan is engaging youth culture on their terms, creating networks and driving traffic.  He asked me about what next steps could maximize what he’s doing – and here’s where the “Stan Plan” was born.

“Create a Facebook Fan page which will serve as the immediate and ongoing  hub for ministry communication,” I said.  “Select a trusted student leader or two to run things for you – maybe pick a day when you’d be available to chat or lead a discussion.  When events come up, create an “event page” that can be used by students to invite others.  Upload your video on YouTube, link it to the event and fan pages – make a YouTube ‘network’ where other videos describing the ministry can be viewed.”

What is the growth potential of the “Stan Plan?”  The average Facebook account has 130 friends – let’s make it easy and keep the average at 100.  That means that each of Stan’s 100 students has the potential of informing 100 kids – 100 x 100 = 10,000.  This can happen exponentially if after each event the chatter builds and grows as this process repeats itself.

There are disclaimers of course.  Stan is going to have to keep the ‘churn’ going – planning events, establishing networks and driving traffic.  The more he grows – other student leaders will have to be trained and that will take time.  Are there security issues?  Yes.  Is there the potential for gossip and/or  hurtful things to be said peer to peer?  Yes.

But the pluses are well worth manageable risks.  Stan is creating networks and driving traffic – he’s using the energy and vitality of youth culture in a trans-formative, trans-generational dynamic.  He’s living in a world of participation, active not passive, dialog not monologue – a circle of real conversation.  And in his own words he’s practicing “reverse mentoring,” i.e. learning from his students as he listens to them.  What a concept!!

Is there something in the “Stan Plan” you could adapt?  I’m sure Stan wouldn’t mind.

Why?  It’s a question that every 3 year old asks in wonder and real curiosity; why is the sky blue?  Why are trees green?  Sadly as we ‘mature,’ we stop asking because somehow we think we know most of the ‘whys.’  In reality, it is the most critical and sustainable question you can ask.  Why?  Because “the secret to creativity (and innovation) is curiosity.” (Seth Godin)

“We forget to teach kids how to be curious,” Seth Godin said in a recent blog. Challenged kids get immediate and special attention but students with no curiosity – no problem.  “Lumps are easily managed.”

If our employees are like this, it’s a path to slow and painful organizational death and it’s going on everywhere.  GM and Citigroup are not the only people with problems.  Large, once powerful, top down ministries are going through deep waters too – why?  Because that question was not asked early and often enough – the culture has changed and now these organizations find themselves “beautifully prepared for a world that no longer exists.”

Why ask why?  Where do you start?  By looking at everything you’re doing – sacred cows and all – and simply ask “why are we doing this?”  If the answer can’t be tied to a substantive, coherent and innovative strategy built upon the reality of internet driven generational media, there are two choices.  Stop doing it all together or change the activity based upon where people are and the way they behave.

Asking why is a huge challenge in relationally driven communities of faith and responses seem to go along generational lines.  Ask Gen X and Y – the question and they’ll say “because we can.”  When boomers and the greatest generation get the same inquiry they’ll say “because we always have.”  X and Y have energy and passion that without focus tends to burn up quickly.  Boomers have loads of wisdom, knowledge and experience trapped in inertia and lethargy that remains unchallenged.

What about what Thomas Friedman has called “the radical center,” a meeting in the middle.  Why are we doing this?  Because we should.  Here energy and passion meet wisdom and knowledge with inertia and lethargy becoming the spoils of war.  The culture of innovation thrives in this trans generational, transformative atmosphere.  Life is good, life is fun in a world of ideas.

But how “biblical,” is this you may say?  Is Jesus “down with it?”  During an argument among the disciples about who was the greatest, Jesus responded with a clear picture – He called a child to Him and said “Unless you are converted and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’” (Matthew 18:2-3)

Why ask why?  Because curiosity is the path to innovation, becoming childlike, our child of God selves for all the right reasons.  The greatest crisis in generational media is leadership – in Tribes, Seth Godin says it best – “We need you to lead us.”  Keep leading by always asking why.

Occasionally I respond to ‘The Detroit Blog’ managed by a group of writers from Time Inc. that is all about attempts to save a city which is by all accounts on life support.  What follows is my response to a post called “A Weakening Pulse” – about the need for one consistent message that focuses everyone.  I begin by quoting blooger Karen Dybis about how urgent this message needs to be.

“Red alert, Metro Detroit: Whatever we’re doing isn’t working. We need some sort of major, significant, all-points bulletin to get ONE strong message out there. One message that every newspaper, every television station, every radio broadcast sends out at the same time.”

Thanks Karen, for a moment of candor – you’ve got the right idea.  The BIG question – what is that “ONE strong message” and what does it look like?  Let me try.

“To be fully human is to seek communion with others,” Dr. Robert Jensen said, “not separation from them.” (”Heart of Whiteness”). Detroit is the most segregated city in America (Michigan Apartheid – Keith Schneider) and it is this profound, deeply rooted separation that destroys our humanity and blocks virtually any kind of sustainable solution.

As a white, Irish American (on our radio show – Radio in Black and White), when we bring segregation dynamics to the table, we often hear the familiar “playing the race card” accusation.  In that context please consider this. “Race is not an addendum, an adjunct or side issue.  It lies at the heart of of the formation of nearly all our institutions and our collective way of life.” (La Ron Williams)

We also hear -”well, that was then and this is now.”  “Slavery is indeed gone,” Frederick Douglas said, “but it’s shadow still lingers over the country and poisons the moral atmosphere of all sections of the republic.”  Moral poison in Detroit is imbedded in a real life litany of disparities – jobs, housing, health care, education, wealth, and criminal justice.  The overwhelming evidence points to silent, perverted, legal and “ethical” codes that sustain “conditions in which unjust power brings unearned privilege.” (Robert Jensen – Heart of Whiteness).

Devastation in Detroit within this context is obvious.  Argue about taxes, the size of government, affirmative action, immigration, law and order – offer great ideas about urban farming and rail systems all day but here’s the bottom line – segregation is working against ALL of us, we pay a high price for this social cancer, this pathological assassin, this elephant in the room filled with debilitating inertia.  That’s why “What we’re doing isn’t working.”

One message?  Here it is.  “Segregation shaped me,” Maya Angelou said,  “Education liberated me.”  Until we become conversationally “fluent in race-related matters, we will never be able to take responsibility for undoing the damages that racism has caused.” (LaRon Williams)  We’ll never be able to be fully human which means to reject any “system that conditions your pleasure on someone else’s pain.” (Robert Jensen – Heart of Whiteness)

Without multi-racial, trans generational, multi-ethnic, sustainable collaboration that crosses racial, geographic and socio-economic lines, Detroit will be like the “Emperor who had no clothes” – something obviously missing that everyone can see.

It’s a simple game that almost everybody who’s ever been on a playground or backyard basketball court understands.  Known variously as ‘HORSE’, ‘PIG’ or ‘HANGMAN’ – you and an opponent shoot baskets in varying degrees of difficulty.  When you miss – you get a letter – keep missing, get all the letters (that spell horse, pig or hangman) – you loose.  Last week, during the Final Four half time show – Barack Obama played the game with Clark Kellogg (CBS Sports Analyst).  In more ways than one, the name of the game was changed.

The president has a ’sweet stroke’ and his outside range is impressive even though his mechanics are unorthodox as we would say in ‘hoop speak.’  He and Clark Kellogg struck up an instant, easy rapport talking about everything from the (NCAA) tournament to (First Lady) Michelle’s exercise initiative.  The conversation was apolitical except when asked about how he likes to ‘drive the lane,’ (go to the basket).  “Well, I can go right,” Barack said, “but I’d rather go left.”

The game at the White House outdoor basketball court started out as “PIG,” but then at a certain point the letters were changed to “POTUS” – an acrostic for President of the United States.  I don’t know why the name was changed but I have a theory.

Not long ago – during chattel slavery days – when slave owners died and there was no will – the property of the estate had to be gathered together for valuation.  Frederick Douglas describes this process in brutal detail.  “We were all ranked together at the valuation. Men and women, old and young, married and single, were ranked with horses, sheep, and swine … all holding the same rank in the scale of being.”  (Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, an American Slave).

Living in the shadow of this history, the devaluation of African Americans has moved forward in unimaginable cruelty through Reconstruction, Jim Crow and the Civil Rights movement.  The greatest casualty has been the image of black men who have experienced a stereotypically driven character assassination – shiftless, lazy, predatory and dangerous. This history and experience is never far below the surface – part of a collective consciousness.

That’s why we have to change the name of the game!  And that’s why this vignette on a sunny afternoon on the White House basketball court meant so much.  Two black males, both professionals – both at the ‘top of their game’ – one of whom happens to be the leader of the free world is imagery that has been needed for more than 200 years.  The challenge?  We need so much more of it.

I was once asked about the emotional connection to Barack and Michelle Obama.  “I just don’t see what there is to be so teary eyed about?” he said.  Maybe if we change the name of the game we can all see it.  Maybe POTUS is a game we need to play in our neighborhood basketball court too.