This is a guest post from Jared Dees, the Digital Publishing Specialist at Ave Maria Press. He blogs at his website, The Religion Teacher, as well as Ave Maria Press’s Engaging Faith classroom resources blog. He can also be found on twitter as @jareddees.

Before you decide to jump into social media, there are a few things that need to be taken into consideration. You must first ask yourself “Why?” If your decision to adopt social media strategies as a part of your parish evangelization is due to outside pressures, then you’re doing it for the wrong reasons.

Under pressure, many organizations, including parishes and Catholic schools, are entering into the social media world for the wrong reasons. Consider the following reasons that have influenced organizations to begin using social media prematurely.

• It is a great way to share announcements. Social media is by its very nature social. Sharing information and announcements does not properly tap into the social nature of these new tools. Digital natives are trained to tune out these announcements and prefer information that they can engage in themselves.
• It is free. One of the most appealing characteristics of social media is the cost. If it is free, why wouldn’t organizations use it? Many people neglect the cost of time that engaging in social media can place on people. Not only will parishes need to create good content to share and provide updates on social networks, they will also need to invest the time needed to develop and nurture relationships online. This will be something new and challenging for many people. Building relationships is never simple and never quick, but it is always free.
• Facebook has 500 million people. Just because a lot of people are using social media does not mean that your parishioners are going to engage with your or their fellow parishioners on your Facebook Page.
• We can focus on social media and forget about our website. No matter how many social networks you join, the parish website is the most important online presence you can have. If there is a weakness in the website, efforts should be made to improve it before anything else.
• We can reach young people. Unless you involve young people in the creation and moderation of content on social media websites, they are not going to participate. Yes, young people are using social media, but their experience can really hinder a parish’s ability to connect with them if the parish does not know how to use social media correctly.

Take some time to seriously consider they ways in which your parish can use social media. Learn from others and enlist the help of people who are already active in the various social networks and proficient in using the various social media tools.

The Right Reasons for Parishes to Use Social Media

There are a number of reasons that organizations like parishes and Catholic schools begin using social media as a form of outreach prematurely. But what are the right reasons to use social media? How would a parish know they are ready?

• I can engage in conversation with parishioners. The most powerful opportunity with social media is the ability to establish and develop relationships with people you otherwise would not have been able to reach. Conversations are no longer squeezed into formal meetings or rushed in between events.
• Parishioners can engage in conversation with other parishioners. Now parishioners can connect with one another and with the parish staff through social networking sites. Connecting via social media is much easier and less involved than connecting on the phone or even by email. The opportunity is there for parishioners to develop relationships with one another that extend into actual parish events and prayerful gatherings.
• It only costs time. Using social media is free, but it does cost time. The recognition and commitment to dedicating time to using social media is a necessary first step to using it effectively. It takes time to post and engage with people in your social networks. Parishes and schools should recognize this and realize that it will be difficult to see the results of the day to day time that is spent on these websites.
• I can get more participants at events. One of the primary goals of any online outreach to parishioners should be actual physical presence at events and participation in ministries. Social networking sites allow parish staff to provide another reminder of upcoming events and ministries and to post the people and successes of those events and ministries on an ongoing basis. The more the focus is placed on the people, the more people will come to the events.

If you are beginning to use social media on a professional level or you have been using it for a long time, do not forget that at its very nature it will always remain social. This means that the foundation of social media is relationships. If you are not using the tools to build real relationships with people, then you are doing it wrong. Don’t be afraid to encourage parish staff to be active in social networks and build personal relationships with the parishioners that could blossom into attendance, involvement, and volunteerism.

Good luck!

This is a guest post by Fr. Jim Schmitmeyer, who is a regular columnist in Today’s Parish.

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There is a story about a man who built a wooden staircase in a convent chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The stranger’s arrival was an answer to the nuns’ anxious prayers. He constructed an amazing circular stairway without a central post. When he finished the task, the man left without payment or farewell. The sisters concluded that the carpenter was St. Joseph himself.

The people of Sacred Heart Church in Memphis, Texas recently received a new wooden ambo, a handsome, handmade pulpit. Its carved posts, stained and polished, swirl in diagonal patterns unique to the mission furniture of the American Southwest. The ambo’s sturdy frame dignifies its mission: to heft and anchor the Word of God in a community of faith.

Like the mysterious builder who appeared at the Santa Fe convent, the carpenter who fashioned this ambo is –and will remain—a stranger to the people of the community for which it was built. But, unlike St. Joseph, the reason the man’s background is unknown is that he is a prisoner. He is housed in the T.L. Roach Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. His name is a series of numbers. His past contains a darkness that, to this day, haunts his deep-set eyes.

Let’s call him Joe.

Over a period of months, “Joe” toiled in a tight space in a crowded workshop. To his right, an inmate painted team emblems on ceramic footballs. Across the aisle, other inmates hand-tooled leather and crafted cowboy boots. When I would check on the pulpit’s progress, Joe’s arms would be coated with sawdust.  He’d smooth his hand across planed boards and talk about the absorbency of cedar as opposed to oak. We’d inspect sandpaper, scrutinize stain samples, sketch designs then measure and re-measure dimensions. The project required more time than estimated. Joe often looked tired and his shoulders slumped more each week. In the end, his hard work produced a stunningly beautiful ambo.

I would like to report that Joe found the work spiritually fulfilling, but Joe is a quiet man and not prone to self-revelation. He is a former Marine. His speech is comprised of short phrases delivered in a staccato pattern. Occasionally he’ll mention a memory from years back—life on the outside—or refer to a member of the family that disowned him after his trial.

I would like to ask Joe what he pondered as he labored on the ambo week after week. Did he imagine himself at work beneath the gaze of St. Joseph? Did the smell of the lumber make him think of the workshop in Nazareth?

Did the ache in his hands seep into this wood that would bear the Word of God who once bore the sins of the world on the wood of the Cross?

Joe was raised in a non-liturgical church. I once asked him why he attended the weekly prison Mass. He said he liked the Catholic notion of sacrament, mainly Confession. Someday he hoped to muster the courage to join up and actually do it.

“The way you describe Confession,” he held out his hands and cupped them. “It’s something solid.”

I once read about a pulpit in a European cathedral that had demons carved in its railing. Their snarling faces reminded the preacher, as he ascended the steps, of the wages of sin. Today, when I approach an ambo built by a convict, I too am reminded of the power of sin. But soon, in the grip of my hand, I sense the power of mercy. God’s mercy. Its promise flowing down diagonal grooves. Its hope as strong and solid as wood.

A recent article in USA Today indicates that while a vast majority of Americans think Christmas is a religious holiday, only “58% say they ‘encourage belief in Jesus Christ as savior.’” That made me think of an article on the Today’s Parish website in which Sylvia DeVillars writes:

Catholic evangelization is now more than ever understood as the “essential mission of the church…bringing the Good News into all the strata of humanity, and through its influence transforming humanity from within and making it new” (On Evangelization in the Modern World, 14, 18). All Catholics are urged to speak out, reach out, and live out the Good News of Christ Jesus, and many parishes seem to be getting the message.

If Catholics have been shy about evangelization in the past, it’s time to start speaking out and reaching out now. Fortunately, Sylvia suggests some concrete strategies that work. Be sure to check out her ideas.

Many parish leaders seem mystified by mystagogy. Often, we limit the idea of mystagogy to the 50-day period after Easter and to the post-baptismal catechesis of the neophytes. Mystagogy actually has a much broader application. It is the ideal formation process for all Christians.

Here is a simple intergenerational process you can use after a sacramental celebration.

Gather the family and accompanying adults and ask:

• When you remember the celebration of the sacrament, what spoke to your heart the most?
• Did you feel the presence of Jesus? What helped you experience that presence?
• What were the most important signs and symbols in the sacrament you celebrated? What did they mean to you?
• What does your experience of the celebration of this sacrament teach you about who God is and how God acts or desires to act in your life?
• What do you think Jesus wanted you to know when you received him in the sacrament?
• In what way does this sacrament invite your family to grow closer to each other and to God?

You can read more about mystagogy as the model par excellence for ongoing formation in Mary Birmingham’s article, “Discover the Hope of Christian Formation,” on the Today’s Parish website.

What is your experience of mystagogy? Are you using a mystagogical formation process in other areas besides the catechumenate? Please share your thoughts.

There are some things that Catholics just know. I was talking with a friend yesterday who was having trouble with her computer. I’m no expert, but having had plenty of computer woes of my own, I’ve picked up a few tricks over the years. So I gave her the benefit of my limited knowledge and concluded the impromptu tech session by saying, “Try that, then reboot and say a prayer to St. Jude.”

St. Jude, of course, is the patron saint of hopeless causes. If my friend were not Catholic, it wouldn’t have made sense to her. But Catholics know what that means.

There is another ancient touchstone that Catholics should know, but mostly we don’t. What we should all know in our bones is the meaning of mystagogy and how to practice it. In an article on the Today’s Parish website, Mary Birmingham reminds us that mystagogical reflection was the normative model of instruction in the ancient church. And, because of our experience with the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, church leaders have mandated that mystagogical reflection once again become the normative model for teaching.

Take a look at Mary’s article for a clear and simple overview of how to implement a mystagogical model. And don’t miss her helpful sidebar on creating a mystagogical reflection on the Eucharistic Prayer.

Everyone knows by now that the implementation date for using the newly-translated third edition of the Roman Missal is set for November 27, 2011—the First Sunday of Advent. In the November-December issue of Today’s Parish, Francis L. Angoli discusses “What’s New about the Euchartistic Prayers.” He writes:

While the structure of the Mass is not changing, there have been additions to the Missal (e.g., new Saints, new prayers) as well as minor adjustments to the rubrics (or directions). In addition, our approach to translation has shifted. Therefore, while the Mass will look the same, it will sound different—more formal, varied, poetic, inclusive, and concrete—and more clearly reflective of its Scriptural origins.

This article is packed with specific examples of the changes that are coming. It is an especially good piece for priests to read because the prayers and dialogues you are used to will soon be different. You might need to spend a good deal of time practicing and getting used to the new texts.

Click here to check out this interesting look at the new translation.

The September 2010 issue of Today’s Parish is in the mail! One article that I’m excited about is “Learning to Delegate: A Key Leadership Skill” by Paige Byrne Shortal. Within the article, Paige lists five rules for delegation. Here are a couple of them:

• Break down your work into the smallest tasks. Of those tasks, which ones must you do? Which ones do you want to do because they are your special gifts? Those remaining can be delegated.
• Invite a specific person to take on a task, rather than a general “Who wants to coordinate the lectors?” approach.

To see the rest of the rules and read the entire article, click here.

Thanks to all of you who recently completed the reader survey for Today’s Parish Minister. I’m excited about
implementing some of your great ideas. Some of the topics you said you would like to see more of included: liturgy, parish council, hospitality, and stewardship.

Liturgy

I had heard the liturgy suggestion before the survey, and I started the “Liturgy tip” column last year. If you turn to page 5, you’ll see eight suggestions for first Communion. Tony Meadows also tackles first Communion in “Diary of a parish priest” on page 28.

Parish council

Many of you know that Today’s Parish Minister started as a resource of parish councils, and I try to maintain that tradition both implicitly and explicitly. In this issue, I asked Leisa Anslinger to write an article specifically for parish councils, “Focus on talents, renew your parish” (page 12). She gives council members and other parish leaders some great advice on how to increase parishioner involvement in the parish. Leisa’s article is a great study piece for councils, especially if you pair it with Cathy Rusin’s “The good steward” column (page 16). In this issue, Cathy gives us some excellent pointers on how to use surveys to create a greater sense of parish identity and ownership among parishioners.

Hospitality

I was glad to see the suggestion for more articles on hospitality. That’s an area of parish life that most of us could spend a lot more energy on. If your parish is ready to ramp up its hospitality efforts, check out the two dozen suggestions from Simone Brosig in “Christian hospitality: The key to effective stewardship” (page 10).

Stewardship

You’ve noticed by now that this entire issue is focused on stewardship. I’ve kept that theme for the October issue for several years now. So if you don’t find something immediately useful in this issue (and I can’t believe you won’t!), look through your October issues from past years. In this issue, besides the articles I’ve already mentioned, be sure to read Michael K. St. Pierre’s column “Tools for evangelization” (page 6). He says:

The concept is simple enough. Healthy organizations feature healthy participants.
A healthy parish understands giving, promotes giving, and highlights giving.

Then he goes on to offer three fresh, innovative ways to reimagine the “time-talent-treasure” mantra.

Also, be sure not to miss Deborah McCann’s moving description of how a parish fundraiser became “Eucharist” for her and her family. She generously shares her own story to give us five simple steps to creating that same sense of community in our own parishes (page 17).

Well, as I said, you’ve presented some exciting ideas. I hope this issue responds to some of them, and I’m looking forward to exploring a lot more of them in the future. One strong message I got from the survey results is that you are passionate about the work you are doing in your parishes. Whether you are on staff or you’re a volunteer, you’re working hard to be good shepherds and leaders in your communities. I am moved by your dedication, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the great work you are doing.

Blessings on all your efforts on behalf of the church.