And Then There Was Zoom: A Catholic Theological Examination on the Development of Digital Youth Ministry
Abstract
:1. Introduction
1.1. Research Methods
- Explore digital youth ministry, in relation to the Trinitarian language of ‘communion’ and accompaniment, in conversation with that of digital spheres and the field of youth ministry (see).
- Propose why digital youth ministry is an independent ministerial approach (judge).
- Offer a set of frameworks that may help ministers and youth programs put digital youth ministry into practice (act).
1.2. Limitations
2. Digital Youth Ministry
2.1. What Is Digital Youth Ministry?
2.2. Digital Communion
Despite the perceived limitations of the Web’s mediated relationships, the reality and the prevalence of such relationships require that we not dismiss them categorically but attempt to recognize their existence as well as to see how they may help expand present parameters for what it means to be in relationship. Online relationships do not always necessarily represent a desire to escape real-life relationships but in a way symbolic of the deep human desire to communicate with others. The various Internet applications that help people engage in building relationships, sharing information, exchanging ideas, creating new forms of entertainment can persuasively be said to reflect the desire for interconnectedness that are rooted deep within the human spirit.
3. Digital Youth Ministry in Practice
3.1. Digital Accompaniment
In the modern world, marked by an increasingly evident pluralism and by an ever-wider range of possible options, the theme of choices arises with particular force at a variety of levels, especially in the face of life journeys that are less and less linear and marked by great precariousness…
Accompaniment for the sake of valid, stable and well-founded choices, is therefore a service that is widely needed. Being present, supporting and accompanying the journey towards authentic choices is one way for the Church to exercise her maternal function, giving birth to the freedom of the children of God. Service of this kind is simply the continuation of the way in which the God of Jesus Christ acts towards his people: through constant and heartfelt presence, dedicated and loving closeness and tenderness without limits.
3.2. Practical Frameworks for Creating Effective Digital Youth Programs
3.2.1. Understanding the Digital Youth Audience
3.2.2. Being Christ-Like Communicators
It is not enough to be passersby on the digital highways, simply “connected”; connections need to grow into true encounters. We cannot live apart, closed in on ourselves. We need to love and to be loved. We need tenderness. Media strategies do not ensure beauty, goodness and truth in communication. The world of media also has to be concerned with humanity; it too is called to show tenderness. The digital world can be an environment rich in humanity; a network not of wires but of people…. Personal engagement is the basis of the trustworthiness of a communicator. Christian witness, thanks to the internet, can thereby reach the peripheries of human existence.
- A developed theological and professional language
- Transparency (keeping communication in public spaces)
- Policies on what should/should not be posted or commented on
- A list of approved digital devices and platforms
- Procedures for addressing inappropriate behaviors6
3.2.3. Reaching Out to Youth on the Digital Margins
We are living in an isolation that would have been unimaginable to our ancestors, and yet we have never been more accessible. Over the past three decades, technology has delivered to us a world in which we need not be out of contact for a fraction of a moment…Yet within this world of instant and absolute communication, unbounded by limits of time or space, we suffer from unprecedented alienation. We have never been more detached from one another, or lonelier. In a world consumed by ever more novel modes of socializing, we have less and less actual society. We live in an accelerating contradiction: the more connected we become, the lonelier we are.
4. Conclusions
Funding
Conflicts of Interest
References
- Campbell, Colleen, and Thomas Carani. 2019. The Art of Accompaniment: Theological, Spiritual, and Practical Elements of Building a More Relational Church. Washington: Catholic Apostolate Center. [Google Scholar]
- Campbell, Heidi A, Stephen Garner, William Dyrness, and Robert Johnston. 2016. Networked Theology (Engaging Culture): Negotiating Faith in Digital Culture. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, Available online: http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=5248646 (accessed on 8 September 2020).
- Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. 1992. Some Aspects of The Church Understood as Communion. Available online: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_28051992_communionis-notio_en.html (accessed on 3 August 2020).
- Esler, Philip Francis. 2005. New Testament Theology: Communion and Community. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. [Google Scholar]
- Faix, Tobias. 2016. Hybrid Identity: Youth in Digital Networks. Journal of Youth and Theology 15: 65–87. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Flynn, Nancy. 2012. The Social Media Handbook: Rules, Policies, and Best Practices to Successfully Manage Your Organization’s Social Media Presence, Posts, and Potential. Hpboken: John Wiley & Sons. [Google Scholar]
- Gardner, Howard, and Katie Davis. 2013. The App Generation: How Today’s Youth Navigate Identity, Intimacy, and Imagination in a Digital World. New Haven: Yale University Press. [Google Scholar]
- Kendall, Peggy. 2007. Rewired: Youth Ministry in an Age of IM and MySpace, 1st ed. Valley Forge: Judson Press. [Google Scholar]
- Le Duc, Anthony. 2015. Cyber/Digital Theology: Rethinking About Our Relationship with God and Neighbor in the Digital Environment. Religion and Social Communication 13: 132–58. [Google Scholar]
- Le Duc, Anthony. 2016. Cybertheology: Theologizing in the Digital Age. SSRN Electronic Journal. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Marche, Stephen. 2012. Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?—The Atlantic. Available online: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/05/is-facebook-making-us-lonely/308930/ (accessed on 2 October 2020).
- O’Donnell, Jayne. 2019. Loneliness Soars among Teens along with Social Media Use, Study Says. Available online: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2019/03/20/teen-loneliness-social-media-cell-phones-suicide-isolation-gaming-cigna/3208845002/ (accessed on 2 October 2020).
- Osborne, Kenan B. 1988. Sacramental Theology: A General Introduction. New York: Paulist Press. [Google Scholar]
- Osmer, Richard R. 2008. Practical Theology: An Introduction. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. [Google Scholar]
- Ostrowski, Ally. 2006. Cyber Communion Finding God in the Little Box. Journal of Religion and Society 8. Available online: http://hdl.handle.net/10504/64523 (accessed on 10 September 2020).
- Pew Research Center. 2018. Teens, Social Media & Technology 2018. Washington: Pew Research Center, Available online: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/05/31/teens-social-media-technology-2018/ (accessed on 5 September 2020).
- Phillips, Peter, Kyle Schiefelbein-Guerrero, and Jonas Kurlberg. 2019. Defining Digital Theology: Digital Humanities, Digital Religion and the Particular Work of the CODEC Research Centre and Network. Open Theology 5: 29–43. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Pope Francis. 2014. XLVIII World Communications Day, 2014—Communications at the Service of an Authentic Culture of Encounter. Available online: http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/communications/documents/papa-francesco_20140124_messaggio-comunicazioni-sociali.html (accessed on 7 July 2020).
- Pope Francis. 2019. ‘Christus Vivit’: Post-Synodal Exhortation to Young People and to the Entire People of God. Available online: http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20190325_christus-vivit.html (accessed on 4 September 2020).
- Schmidt, Katherine G. 2020. Virtual Communion: Theology of the Internet and the Catholic Sacramental Imagination. Lanham: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic. [Google Scholar]
- Seemiller, Corey, and Meghan Grace. 2019. Generation Z: A Century in the Making. London and New York: Taylor & Francis Group. [Google Scholar]
- Spadaro, Anthony. 2014. Cybertheology Thinking Christianity in the Era of the Internet. New York: Fordham University Press. [Google Scholar]
- Stinson, Rodney. 2009. See, Judge, Act: Caroline Chisholm’s Lay Apostolate. Sydney: Yorkcross Pty Ltd. [Google Scholar]
- Vatican Synod on the Youth. 2018. Final Document to of the Synod of Bishops Synod. Available online: http://www.synod.va/content/synod2018/en/fede-discernimento-vocazione/final-document-of-the-synod-of-bishops-on-young-people--faith-an.html (accessed on 27 October 2020).
- USCCB. 1997. United State Conference of Catholic Bishops. Available online: https://www.usccb.org/topics/youth-and-young-adult-ministries/renewing-vision (accessed on 1 October 2020).
- World Communications Day. 2013. 47th World Communications Day, 2013—Social Networks: Portals of Truth and Faith; New Spaces for Evangelization. Available online: http://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/messages/communications/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20130124_47th-world-communications-day.html (accessed on 2 October 2020).
- Zirschky, Andrew. 2015. Beyond the Screen: Youth Ministry for the Connected but Alone Generation. Nashville: Abingdon Press, Available online: http://site.ebrary.com/id/11221248 (accessed on 30 August 2020).
1 | In addition to the sources referenced, this article also leans on new research out of the field of digital theology and virtual communion. For those interested in the additional resources used to frame this article’s engagement with this field, see (Campbell et al. 2016; Esler 2005; Gardner and Davis 2013; Kendall 2007; Osborne 1988; Ostrowski 2006; Phillips et al. 2019; Schmidt 2020). |
2 | For more detailed information about these conferences, visit lifeteen.com (Lifeteen) or https://steubenvilleconferences.com/youth/ (Steubenville Youth Conferences). |
3 | To explore the complete history and development of Cardinal Joseph Cardijn’s ‘See-Judge-Act’ method of analysis, see (Stinson 2009). |
4 | To this point, the teachings, traditions, and doctrines of the Catholic Church are not what need to adapt or change in an effort to be more relatable to modern youth culture. Instead, this explicit point is to bring awareness to how the Church has been slow to adapt to using effective digital platforms and approaches in sharing Catholic teachings, traditions, and doctrines in the digital spaces that youth inhabit (i.e., social media, text messaging, gaming). |
5 | For a more detailed discourse on youth hybrid-identity in relation to digital and physical spaces, see (Faix 2016, pp. 65–87). |
6 | For an overview of practical ideas on how to create a social media handbook that not only explores building an organization’s social media presence but also the potential risks involved, see (Flynn 2012). |
7 | Any form of ministerial activity, online or offline, should be performed in accordance with diocesan or parish standards in relation to keeping young people safe from predatory practices. When it comes to ministering to young people, digital youth ministry is not excluded from properly established protocols for the protection of children. |
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. |
© 2020 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Share and Cite
Hunt, J. And Then There Was Zoom: A Catholic Theological Examination on the Development of Digital Youth Ministry. Religions 2020, 11, 565. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11110565
Hunt J. And Then There Was Zoom: A Catholic Theological Examination on the Development of Digital Youth Ministry. Religions. 2020; 11(11):565. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11110565
Chicago/Turabian StyleHunt, Jodi. 2020. "And Then There Was Zoom: A Catholic Theological Examination on the Development of Digital Youth Ministry" Religions 11, no. 11: 565. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11110565