One thing I would like to do with this site is share information related to what we are discussing on Tuesdays, but not necessarily on topic. One such topic is social media. There are many different definitions for social media but basically it is the label that has been put on variety of Internet applications like Facebook, Twitter, and yes, blogs. This past Tuesday I attended a webinar titled “The Social Network: Church Style” by Kimberly Knight. At the beginning of the webinar Kimberly played this video on YouTube (please click the link), which I think does a good job of putting into context the topic of social media.
How is this affecting churches today, and how will it affect churches tomorrow?
Learning From Others, Seeking The Way 
Sounds like an interesting webinar. I watched the video clip which only made me glad that I am not 20 years old anymore, I can’t keep up with all the technology out there. I did get a Facebook account for myself but Twitter and all the others out there are beyond me. I guess I’m dating myself but already I’m way behind and it ‘s only going to get worse.
All of the different social media web sites and apps can be overwhelming. You don’t need to use them all, and there is nothing wrong at going at your own pace.
I think this has interesting implications for the church community. Striking a pleasing balance between face-to-face and electronic communication is an art. My mother is not satisfied with anything but at least a half an hour on the phone. My children recoil at anything more than a sentence on facebook.
We do have a Facebook page, if you go into Facebook and search for Hope Lutheran Church, Farmington Hills, MI you should find it, or here is a link: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hope-Lutheran-Church-Farmington-Hills-MI/8257763598?sk=wall
I admit that it hasn’t had much use and we could do more to take full advantage of it.
Our web site software supports both audio and video media. Our biggest problem is the time it takes to pull the audio and video of the sermon out of the DVD recording of each Sunday’s services.
For a while I was making the audio and video and it was taking me hours to rip the DVD to PC, then edit out the snippets for the sermon. Ideally, what we would need is a separate audio or video recording made of just the sermon so that we could just publish it. The problems we have are regardless of where we publish the output. (YouTube or our web site.)
By the way… there is also a YouTube channel for Hope.