The Minns Lecture, going on right now as a matter of fact, is being presented by two wonderful and amazing colleagues, Rev. Naomi King and Peter Bowden.  A month or so ago, Rev. Naomi asked me for my thoughts on how Social Media and Unitarian Universalism go together, and what my vision would be.  These were my thoughts:

My vision of how and why social media and Unitarian Universalism work well together.

Democratic Faith

-All voices important.  Social media lifts up many voices, hear different perspectives than you would in everyday life.

-Social Media is all about listening to and learning from different perspectives while developing your own voice.  So is Unitarian Universalism.

-It’s relatively easy for someone with relatively little institutional power to make their voice heard on the national stage – certainly the case with me as a young adult and my blog.

The Elevator Speech Problem

-In general, UUs have a terrible time trying to express their faith and what Unitarian Universalism means.  Not just to strangers, but to friends and family too.  Having social media graphics, shareable quotes, that are inviting and look profession is a way to let others in their social networks know about their faith and what Unitarian Universalism is.  It takes a lot of the anxiety out of the inevitable “What is UU” question as the person asking is looking at an image that represents part of their faith.

Relative Isolation

-Not a lot of us.  You might not be able to go down the road and find another UU, unlike many other religions.

-From this isolation comes a need to bond with other identified UU for those shared experiences, shared beliefs, and knowing that you aren’t alone in the spiritual vastness.

-Local congregations can provide this, but often only once or twice a week.  And only to those close by that local congregation.  And that leaves quite a large number of UUs out there who need that personal connection.

No Creed = Need Daily Inspiration

-It’s hard living without a creed to keep yourself motivated to move along your spiritual journey.
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-You need that motivation, that inspiration.  And there are very few UU churches that can provide that daily, on call, on demand.

Living my Faith

-I’m on social media anyhow.  I had a personal FB and twitter long before I started doing church work on it.

-I want to live my faith beyond Sundays.  And I don’t think we need to go live in the woods for a month to be spiritual beings.  I want to live my spirituality in my everyday life, live it where I already live my life.  And that life is, in part, on Social Media.  So my faith should be too.

My Vision:

Social media has moved from information sharing to inspiration sharing.

I no longer get on social media to see what someone had for lunch, I want to see a fancy picture of it on Instagram so I can be inspired to eat the same deliciousness.  I no longer want to see an announcement of an event, I want to be inspired to go and inspired by what was accomplished at that very event.  I no longer want to read about what a religion believes, I want to be inspired by it.

And although words can help provide that inspiration, we’ve moved towards graphics and video as the primary tool to inspire others.  And this shift isn’t easy for wordy UUs to make – condensing down what could very well be a 5,000-word essay into a two sentence long quote to be put on a pretty picture.

As a result, we’re behind the curve as a denomination, although the grassroots have begun filling the void.  Groups like the UU Media Collaborative, a small handful of UU Congregations, and motivated individuals have taken it upon themselves to get some of this creative inspiration out to the greater UU community.

And people are just eating it up.  Congregations are gratefully reposting.  Denominational Institutions repost and ask us to create images for them.

But if this remains solely the work of a handful of individuals without much institutional support, then we will have some serious problems.  We will have a problem with resources – it takes time certainly, but it can also take financial resources to make these inspirational images.  We will have a problem with the inevitable burnout.  And perhaps most importantly, we will lose a portion of our democratic faith.  We have to enable more creators, more curators, more facilitators.

In my vision, we would have free online courses provide through the UUA that teaches basic graphic design to any UU out there.  We would have content creators at the UUA working on viral, inspirational pictures and video.  We would have a point person at the UUA who is responsible for working with current creators and curators as individuals and as congregations, to facilitate idea sharing, resource swapping, idea brainstorming, and more; who would be there to facilitate, not be there to regulate.