Religion Communicators Council Takes On Social Media

Meeting at the United Methodist Office building on Grand Avenue in Nashville, the local chapter of the Religion Communicators Council (RCC) discovered how to use social media more in their everyday work cycle. Ben Vos who is a local marriage and family counselor and runs the sites benvoslpc.com and publicsanctuary.com came to speak about the benefits of using social media with congregations and as a religious communicator.

Vos posed the question “How do we take what is old and timeless and make it new and contemporary?”

Good question.

Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Skype, and so on raise enormous possibility, but also many questions to those who aren’t familiar with them. One RCC member posed the question to Vos, “I am bothered—really bothered—by people using electronic items [to tweet"> in a worship service. Help me see beyond that.”

Great question.

“I don’t know that there is an easy answer to that,” Vos replied, “Why I send tweets during church is that for me I recognize that I’m part of a spiritual community that is broader and greater than the physical present community that I’m in the room with at that time.”

Vos detailed how to engage members of the community who do not necessarily attend a worship service through tweeting the message of a sermon, quoting the spiritual leader, or the holy book. In this way, thousands more can be engaged in worship, although their bodily presence is not felt.

Members enjoyed the presentation and learned there are many ways to use social media for religious work, as well as many opportunities going forward for what new technology can bring to the field.

The Nashville RCC meets on the third Wednesday of each month from 11:30am-1:00 pm and updates can be found at religioncommunicators.org in the Nashville section. Members of the RCC come from many different religions and backgrounds including Baptist, Jewish, Baha’i, Scientology, Muslim and Methodist among others.