Change
5 Thursday Morning Online Gatherings to journey with the video series produced by Faith Nurture Forum based on Lorenzo Lebria’s TryTank project
Not sure but you may need to be a member of the ITsForMinistry FB group to join the ITForministry FaceBookk Room….
You can join at: www.facebook.com/groups/itsforministry – and answer a few questions and accept group rules…
Audio
As restrictions ease and the frequency of what have become known as ‘on-site’ or ‘in person’ meetings increase, so too increases divided opinion between ‘on-line’ and ‘off-line’. Is there a third option between the polarity? Of course there is, it’s known as hybrid.
Some don’t like the idea of hybrid and consider it a miserable experience; they think everyone should be ‘in the room’.
Some don’t like the idea of hybrid and consider it a sub-optimal experience; they think everyone should be online.
Some like the idea of hybrid and consider it the win-win option allowing each participant to engage bringing their strengths and personality to the encounter.
We have been doing a different kind of hybrid meeting for years, as different personalities gather to generate ideas, seek solutions, solve problems, progress projects, set policy and make decisions.
I like hybrid. I like to explore and experiment. I’m an ENFP Myers Briggs personality type, and like to think that I am aware of differing needs in those with different personalities.
There is a good article explaining the different ways different personality types engage with remote working at: https://www.fastcompany.com/90582809/a-practical-guide-to-working-remotely-with-all-16-personality-types
Some will clearly thrive in the online space, while others are at their best in physical space with others . No rights or wrongs, we interact differently.
There are many pitfalls to online and hybrid meeting. There are many pitfalls to on-site meetings. There must be honest reflection on whether the negatives are because of the online context, or because of the culture, experience and expectation that we bring to any meeting.
Hybrid gatherings bring many advantages including:
I recently drove 5 hours to attend an ‘in person’ consultation. Similar events had been online. It was really good to see people ‘in real life’. At the online events at least as many comments and ideas as people present were captured. At the ‘on-site’ meeting – the number of contributions ‘from the floor’ represented about 10% of those in the room! Enough said…
IRL, or ‘in real life’ enters our vocabulary. We talk of virtual meetings, and of ‘in person’ gatherings. Can I suggest that there is nothing virtual or any less ‘in person’, when we encounter one another using current technology.
In recent years, I have facilitated small hybrid meetings with participants around my rural congregations at virtually no cost, have facilitated hybrid Presbytery meetings with around 40 participants half online half in the room with a portable set up with a few hundred pounds worth of kit, and lead the brilliant team that has enabled a General Assembly with around 700 participants to meet, costing several tens of thousands of pounds in tech and people hours.
Hybrid is technically complex to achieve, but quite achievable as long as you can put in a little more effort and expense than simply plonking a laptop in the centre of the room and expecting everyone to have a satisfying experience.
For a small group of up to 6 or so meeting together sharing with a number of participants that can be seen in one screenful, the single laptop solution will work.
Beyond that, you need to consider:
From experience, I’d say don’t try to facilitate or chair anything beyond the simplest of meetings yourself and keep an eye on all the tech aspects. Have someone else admit participants, watch for virtual hands, human hands, chat messages and ensure that online participants are brought into discussion as seamlessly as if they were in the room.
You need to get audio into the computer running the on-line platform usually via USB. For a small meeting a single mic may suffice. Boundary mics are designed to pick up voices from a wide area and placed in the centre of a room will be effective. For larger spaces multiple mics will be required in which case an audio interface (analogue to digital/USB) will be required to connect mics (via XLR or jack plugs). An audio mixer can be connected to an interface, and many are available with USB connection built in.
Zoom, MS Teams and many other conferencing solutions provide very good ‘audio cancelling’ meaning that you don’t get feedback causing noisy audio. Experiment with the set up before the first real meeting!
The internal speaker on a laptop will probably not be sufficient for all but the smallest of meetings. Connect a Bluetooth or wired speaker. You will want to check on the position of the speaker to avoid possibility of feedback – but generally if you face the speaker away from the mics it should be good. Speakers will have a rating in Watts – a general rule would be 1W for every participant in the room. 50 folk in the room you want a 50W output to fill that space.
Don’t rely on the built in camera on a laptop. USB webcams will provide a very good Hi-Definition image. Have the webcam on a tripod or mount that can be swiveled round to view the current speaker. For a larger meeting you might consider a PTZ (Pan, Tilt, Zoom) camera which can be moved smoothly, or multiple (HDMI) cameras through a video switcher such as the ATEM Mini.
Connect the laptop HDMI output to one or more (through an HDMI splitter) projectors or monitors to enable that all can see online speakers.
In Zoom there are a number of settings to consider for hybrid meetings. Other platforms will have similar options.
Enable dual screen – will give you a secondary output showing just the current (or spotlighted) speaker – which is nice and clean without the chat/ participant list, or toolbars showing on screen
There is a setting to enable Hi-Definition video for all participants which if the broadband will allow would be good to enable.
that could be said about Hybrid, why it’s good, how to effect it, how to make meetings more engaging and why hybrid is here to stay. Do comment… I sense that this is a post to revisit and revise…
Embrace it, Invest in what it takes to make it work in your context, reflect on how to make meetings better, not because they are online or hybrid, but because they are the encounters that transform, progress and deliver.
Rev Donald McCorkindale
Updated: March 2022
Change
I’m pulling together a list of resources for congregational leaders in my Presbytery and will share it here too…
What other resources would you add to the list..?
Link: churchofscotland.org.uk/news-and-events/newsletters1
You can subscribe to the various Church of Scotland E-newsletters:
Link: churchofscotland.org.uk/news-and-events2
Link: stirlingpresbytery.org.uk/page/59/worship-resources3
Link: careynieuwhof.com4
Link: itsforministry.org5
Podcast links here are to Apple podcasts, but many will also be found on Anchor, Spotify sand wherever you find your favourite podcasts.
Link: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/to-be-fair/id16065073516
Rev Martin Fair reflects on faith and popular culture
Link: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/working-preachers-sermon-brainwave/id2823649027
Link: anchor.fm/features8
Link: blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-create-a-youtube-channel9
Link: logos.com/connect/compare-subscriptions10
Link: Itsforministry.org/music11
Various links to music on the web, much of which can be used in recordings and worship streams. (Always ensure that you have the appropriate licenses in places when recording or streaming)
Link: fischy.com12
Link: trytank.org13
Link: lifeandwork.org/news/news/post/1588-beginning-a-culture-of-innovation14
A series of events will take place in March to kickstart new support for innovation across the Church of Scotland.
A joint event with the Scottish Episcopal Church, the workshops over the weekend of March 17-19 will be led by the Rev Lorenzo Lebrija (above), founding director of the US Episcopal Church’s TryTank initiative.
Canva.com is a brilliant for content creation. The full version is available freely to charities on submission of OSCR registration verification. Great tool for creating, scheduling and posting Social Media posts, creating posters, powerful presentations, graphics of all sorts.
Link: pixlr.com/16
Edit photos and create stunning designs right in your browser, on your phone or desktop for free (and paid options) Start from an empty canvas, a photo, a video or select one of the crafted templates.
Link: itsforministry.org/images17
Listing of free (and some paid) image download sites.
Link: charitydigital.org.uk/home18
Link: charityworkerdiscounts.com/19
Link: funding.scot/21
Find funding for your charity, community group or social enterprise using our free online search engine. From small grants to funding for big capital projects, we can help you track down the funding you need to make a difference in your community.
Link: beyondgiving.co.uk/22
Our aim at Beyond Giving is to support you find the best solution and turn a complex problem into a simple solution. We can also help you achieve financial sustainability through the accessing of grants and funding, including exploration of new income generation models, enabling your mission and community based projects to flourish.
1: https://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/news-and-events/newsletters
2: https://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/news-and-events
3: https://www.stirlingpresbytery.org.uk/page/59/worship-resources?fbclid=IwAR2PTWhRUpkdEypMTn1cROgFYNJ-ocGsVRgoKqxlkCNo8OVCy7z2edloyc
4: https://careynieuwhof.com
5: http://www.itsforministry.org
6: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/to-be-fair/id1606507351
7: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/working-preachers-sermon-brainwave/id282364902
8: https://anchor.fm/features?fbclid=IwAR00qylTZkOprpBmAurkxmEpum9f8ak3fLwUxrkKtfKoVUPAbAMkZ8vlc
9: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-create-a-youtube-channel?fbclid=IwAR03E11VTxVzvp3ZeVhmnSjNTJ4vDP8mi9UgbjE9xbSa7Sprkv0V8Om8
10: https://www.logos.com/connect/compare-subscriptions?fbclid=IwAR2l7Nzt2Xfzo8M0iLx6-MjoOLSDINBByAHu1vvSsLrnvga8YXKFqwxgU
11: http://www.Itsforministry.org/music
12: http://www.fischy.com
13: http://www.trytank.org
14: https://www.lifeandwork.org/news/news/post/1588-beginning-a-culture-of-innovation
15: http://www.canva.com
16: https://pixlr.com/
17: https://itsforministry.org/images
18: https://charitydigital.org.uk/home?fbclid=IwAR0IwahDuUo9d5DCRwSAmrzyOL36HjZLAae1a2wQYBymM70IXqf3OeO7X8
19: https://www.charityworkerdiscounts.com/?fbclid=IwAR0z6iacKoguQgpEe29RPEyJnqPpVp2g2PsppeRK1zlsXPY6G5Pn9M7BJ6s
20: https://www.donr.com/?fbclid=IwAR2rmbaE8UWaL6tQF5gQcMwyCtInzlpn2TCT9qzkx8pq6bTb-J0QlXAzI
21: https://funding.scot/?fbclid=IwAR2-OhiCu5x6JMKD1zcuMeT5lBvwwEsUfoJ7OqhRcbebqFXNoU7Ds7PhNU
22: https://www.beyondgiving.co.uk/?fbclid=IwAR3WnzKDbweNOLDA6KDuUPVKjHun70jXdIKY8TOwJgHddfivMHA5x8vzUzU
Change
What must you do today?
What are you up to today….?
✅ What will you do today…?
✅ What difference will you make..?
✅ What will you learn..?
✅ What questions will you ponder..?
✅ Who will you ask for help and support..?
Brainstorming
I recently came across weand.me which has some wonderful ideas about how to make online meetings better with good questions, and creating involvement and engagement.
There are some freely downloadable resources featuring ice-breaker type questions – along with the more deep and meaningful…
I had posted an example on the ITsForMinistry FaceBook page:
It generated a bit of discussion – with ideas about how to do ’beans on toast’ differently – with cheese – not on top but under the beans… another suggested adding chorizo to mac and cheese…
Which got me wondering about what ingredients we might try adding to our otherwise tried and tested mission practices!
It’s good to bounce around the trivial – sometimes it prompts deeper thinking…
I’m off to have some toast on beans now…!
Brainstorming
Martin Luther King Jr Day is marked on the Third Monday January – close to his birthdate 15 Jan 1929
He famously said, “I have a dream…”
Not, “I have a plan… an idea… a project…
With the emotion of a dream he led others to action, changed beliefs, ideas, and plans… but it all began with a dream…
What are your dreams… your hopes… for the World, the Church, your nation, your community, your family, your self…
Change
“Tradition is peer pressure from dead people!”
“Tradition – the living faith of the dead
Traditionalism – the dead faith of the living”.
Change
I was looking for the George MacLeod quote ‘Take us outside holiness’ – from the prayer prayed during the rebuilding of Iona Abbey in the 1930’s.
Before finding it, I came across another George Macleod quote
“I simply argue that the cross be raised again,
at the centre of the marketplace
as well as on the steeple of the church.
I am recovering the claim that
Jesus was not crucified
in a cathedral between two candles
but on a cross between two thieves;
on a town garbage heap;
at a crossroad of politics so cosmopolitan
that they had to write His title
in Hebrew and in Latin and in Greek …
and at the kind of place
where cynics talk smut,
and thieves curse, and soldiers gamble.
Because that is where He died,
And that is what He died about.
And that is where Christ’s own ought to be,
And that is what church people ought to be about.”
Lord George MacLeod of Fuinary
Words which the church might ponder again as we seek to discern where God is leading in the post-pandemic world, as we rationalise the building stock, looking to ‘well equip spaces in the right spaces’, and seeking to bring meaningful relevant faith in Christ to the folk who don’t ‘come to church’.
…And then I found the quote I was looking for…. Worthy too of renewed contemplation…
It is not just the interior of these walls,
it is our own inner beings you have renewed.
We are Your temple not made with hands.
We are Your body.
If every wall should crumble,
and every church decay, we are your habitation.
Nearer are you than breathing,
closer than hands and feet.
Ours are the eyes with which you, in the mystery,
look out in compassion on the world.
So we bless you for this place,
for your directing of us,
your redeeming of us, and your indwelling.
Take us ‘outside the camp’, Lord.
Outside holiness,
out to where the soldiers gamble, and the thieves curse,
and the nations clash at the cross-roads of the world…
So shall this building continue to be justified.
George MacLeod (A prayer during the rebuilding of Iona Abbey – circa 1938)
Brainstorming
Socrates is attributed with saying “The unexamined life is not worth living”
And more recently Charles Handy quotes: “It’s like the Irishman Frances Crick once said: ‘How do I know what I think until I hear what I say?’”
Do you take time to listen to yourself..? To reflect and ponder what you really believe and think about life, the universe, faith, God, yourself and everything…
Change
What are you a member of? What groups and organisations do you belong to?
Within the Church we sometimes talk of membership, and we sometimes talk of how some of our most committed folk are not members, and yet many of our members aren’t active in the community of faith.
The understanding of membership has certainly changed over the years. In our post-modern world… are we still ‘post-modern’ or gone somewhere beyond that… there simply isn’t the same commitment to any organisation, or institution, favoring a much more fluid approach – this is part of life’s experience in this season…
I occasionally ponder my commitment to the groups that I belong to.
I am a member of the Church of Scotland, baptised in 1964, and later made my ‘profession of faith’ – I joined the Church in 1981, as a teenager. It is a significant belonging that shapes my living – not least because in 1992 I was ordained a minister in the Kirk. I am deeply committed to the Church and cannot imagine life without that sense of belonging
I am also a member of the local Rotary Club – and therefore a member of Rotary International. I regularly share in the weekly Rotary lunch meeting – although attendance has slipped a bit recently when online meetings have often clashed with other commitments. Occasionally over the years I have attended Rotary meetings elsewhere and appreciated that sense of belonging and welcome in the world wide family of Rotary, but only very occasionally have I engaged in anything beyond my local club, and when something else crops up I won’t manage the local either.
I am also a member of the Incorporation of Tailors in Glasgow. One of the Trades associations now steeped in the history of the city and continuing to do much benevolent work in the City. It is many years since I have been actively engaged – but I have kept my membership, following the family tradition from my Grandfather to my father to me.
I am a member of Mensa, the International High IQ Society, rather exclusive I know… I keep up my modest annual subscription – there’s a bit of kudos in knowing that I belong, the monthly magazine has some interesting articles, I don’t go to any meetings – although have enjoyed some of the recent online offerings.
Years ago I did some study around leadership and was introduced to the idea of folllowership. Around the Church we might call it discipleship. In the work of Barbara Kellerman – she speaks of a spectrum of followership from isolates to bystanders to participants to activists to diehards. Doesn’t that translate into the Church context?
When I ponder the level of engagement that others have to the Church, any judgement is nipped in the bud when I think of my varying commitments to other organisations – and I realise that others say of the Church:
there’s a bit of kudos in knowing that I belong, the monthly magazine has some interesting articles, I don’t go to any meetings – although have enjoyed some of the recent online offerings
And some say… I have kept my membership, following the family tradition from my Grandfather to my father to me.
Others say… only very occasionally have I engaged in anything beyond my local club, and when something else crops up I won’t manage the local either
And some say… I am deeply committed to the Church and cannot imagine life without that sense of belonging
And that challenges and motivates me to meet people where they are… and to review what, when, how, why and where we do what we do to share good, relevant, transformation news with those whom we encounter – and to nudge folk along that spectrum of discipleship…