Face to face

Two different articles from The Guardian, both relating in some way to mental health.

Firstly, How to beat depression - without drugs, looks at the work of Dr Steve Ilardi, and his book, The Depression Cure: the six-step programme to beat depression without drugs. Dr Ilardi isn't saying anything particularly new, but he does note one thing especially:

Social connectedness is important to Ilardi. In The Depression Cure, he argues that the brain mistakenly interprets the pain of depression as an infection. Thinking that isolation is needed, it sends messages to the sufferer to "crawl into a hole and wait for it all to go away". This can be disastrous because what depressed people really need is the opposite: more human contact.

Which is why social connectedness forms one-sixth of his "lifestyle based" cure for depression. The other five elements are meaningful activity (to prevent "ruminating" on negative thoughts); regular exercise; a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids; daily exposure to sunlight; and good quality, restorative sleep.

And social connectedness is the focus of the second article:

the lack of face-to-face interaction can make the world wide web a lonely place sometimes. But fear not, for not only can you use the web to order your takeaway and DVD, now you can also use it to order the friend you share them with.

Rent a Friend, which already offers its services in the US and Canada, is being launched in the UK this week to give people the chance to overcome their British reserve and hire someone to keep them company. Unlike the myriad dating websites, which cater for everything from a long-term relationship to a no-strings fling, Rent a Friend advertises itself as "strictly platonic", while also emphasising that it is not an escort agency.

So face-to-face contact may be coming back into its own.

Leaving Bebo

On his Liturgy blog the other day, Bosco Peter pointed out an article from his local newspaper which described the probable closing down of Bebo. He quoted the following from the article:

The site has lost members to Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

Kaila Colbin, of Christchurch social media consultant Missing Link, compared Bebo to a party that people wanted to leave.

“You go to a party, everyone’s having a good time, but suddenly the momentum changes and someone says, `Let’s go to the pub’,” Colbin said. “And people start flowing out. And when people flow out, there is no way to recover that energy.

“The more you try, the more desperate you look and the more people want to leave.”

Bosco comments: Now reread the above, and instead of Bebo think “church” – your parish, diocese, whatever. Any echoes?

Check out the rest of what he has to say....it's quite thought-provoking!

Closer than everywhere else

The concept of six degrees of separation, sometimes referred to as “the human web” has applied to human social engagement for many years. According to the new mobile provider; 2 Degrees, “in New Zealand everyone knows someone, who knows someone who knows them,” making it two degrees of separation.

This has to be good for mission in our community.

Thanks to Social Media and the expansions of Web 2.0 communities the degree of separation between you and spiritual seekers is closer than you may expect.

Adapted from a piece in BusinessBlogs.

Church Growth Principles Remain

In an article entitled The Top Five Church Growth Principles, by Charles Arn (the son of Win Arn), briefly discusses the five main reasons why churches grow. It isn't programmes (we knew that, didn't we?); it isn't sound and light and huge displays of talent (of course!); it isn't a host of other things we've come up with over the years.

The five things are simple, and have been with us for a long time:

1. Disciple-making is the priority. Yup, that's what churches are there for.
2. Social networks are the vehicle - and while Mr Arn probably doesn't mean virtual social networks, it's that old connection of people to people that counts.
3. Felt needs are the connecting point. Starting where people are at...
4. Relationships are the glue. Being connected to people in the church is what stops people sliding out the back door.
5. Transitions provide the window of opportunity. When someone's going through a crisis, then they need Christ.

The links throughout are people, community, friendships, caring for others, love. Pretty simple, really. Now, go forth and multiply!

Value

And without wanting to overload you with Seth Godin, here he is again, this time telling us in about two minutes, where value lies in social networking, and where it doesn't.




We've talked a lot - and with enthusiasm - about facebook, twitter, and so on. These things are of value when there are real connections. Yes, it's great to have lots of facebook friends, and lots of followers on twitter - but in both cases there has to be a connection that makes the friendship and the following real. And that does happen: not with everyone, but certainly with some.

So you still don't think NZeders use the Net?

In a media blurb sent out about a week ago, Nielsen Research gave an overview of some recent research into how New Zealanders are using the Net.
Over the last four weeks,
1. "(48%) of us have created, updated or looked at an online profile on a social networking site; and nearly (30%) have contributed to a message board, online forum or wrote/commented on a blog.”
2. "...two out of every five have uploaded pictures (41%), uploaded music (12%), uploaded videos (10%) or posted a review of a product or service online (9%)."
3. "...almost half of the Internet population have downloaded, streamed or watched a video clip online (45%); or downloaded, streamed, or listened to music (37%)."
4. "...people using online directories (47%), reading newspapers or publications online (79%) - and a staggering (81%) using search engines..."
5. 81.3% have used internet banking.

If, as ministers, we're still not considering that the Internet has a part to play in the future of our churches, I suspect we're deluding ourselves.