Digital Commons
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Digital Commons: The New Public Square
Why is a church community creating media? Are we looking to grow our membership? Sell our books and CDs? Is it all about numbers and the bottom-line, or is something else at stake here?
Over the years, we’ve discovered that our media is a place where we can continue to connect with people from saint ben’s who have moved on to other places. We’ve had people make connections to us from across North America and as far afield as the U.K., Australia and even Japan. Not that such long distance involvement could ever replace actually gathering on a Sunday evening or sharing a long conversation over a cup of coffee, but it does mean that as a church our field of view is substantially broadened. Based on sheer numbers, our online congregation is actually significantly larger than the one that gathers for the liturgy.
But really, this is about far more than just numbers.
We believe that one of the reasons Jesus was often found in and around the synagogue and the Jerusalem temple was that these served as the ancient Judean versions of the public square. Jesus’ story-telling, discourses and Q & A sessions with the religious leadership of the day were state-of-art means of communication. In our day, the digital commons has become a new public square, where communication includes all manner of media, from audio and video to social, images and the written word. In the digital commons, culture is not merely reflected; it is shaped, and even made. We figure that’s where the church needs to be.
In short, we’re here in the digital commons to offer resources, ideas, questions, artistic expressions and critical insights, all as our way of participating in life in the public square. And yes, we’d love for you to join us.
