I was happy to be invited to contribute to Jody’s podcast, around vulnerability in shielding. There are three to listen to before today’s episode (on vulnerability, resilience and weakness), in which Jody and I both share thoughts and reflections on ‘wellbeing’. Can you be both sick and well? Many chronic illnesses (including cancer) are invisible, so we miss what many others are dealing with. Just 15 short minutes here:
I met Laura at the Premier Digital Conference 2019, and we got chatting. Earlier this year she sent me a list of questions, and (for once in my life) I didn’t overthink the answers. The response to the first question:
1) What is your name and what does it mean?
My name is Bex, short for Rebecca, which apparently means ‘servant of God’ in Hebrew, although a mug I have also says that it means ‘bound’, as in ‘bound to do what is right’, and an online site says it could mean any of: tying firmly; fastening; binding; noosed cord; captivating; snare; beauty that ensnares, grace that enraptures. Online you’ll typically find me @drbexl.
Read the full interview.
Those Who Wait: Finding God in disappointment, doubt and delay by Tanya Marlow
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
As I wait for results from bone/CT scans to see if the cancer has spread across my body, I turned to Tanya’s book – which I’d been watching and waiting to see as it has developed. Tanya’s cheerfulness in the midst of her struggles and waiting is encouraging, and provides an excellent starting point for her book, combined with her clear theological positioning at the outset.
I really enjoyed reading through Sarah, Isaiah, John the Baptist and Mary’s story. I love the ‘novelisation’ way in which the stories are told, and was left wanting more as each Biblical ‘character’ reached the point at which the waiting was over – which I guess, leads us back to the Bible.
I enjoyed reading the book as an individual text (and didn’t undertake any of the interesting options for activity). I can see how it would work well for churches and youth groups, especially over Advent, but waiting is a year round activity.
I received an advance copy of the book, and voluntarily reviewed it.
I wrote a chapter in a new book, Theologians and Philosophers Using Social Media: Advice, Tips, and Testimonials edited by Dr. Thomas Jay Oord – awaiting my copy, but here are the triggering questions:
I’m looking forward to seeing what others have written – and here is the blurb if you are interested in buying a copy:
The insights in these 90+ essays are nothing short of inspiring! Their tips on best practices for social engagement, time management, social media as a resource for scholarship or creativity, technology and pedagogy, etc. will help readers tremendously.
The contributors are diverse. They include….
– Public theologians like Ben Corey, Brian McLaren, and Richard Rohr
– Younger scholars like Tripp Fuller, Jorey Micah, and Alexis Waggoner
– Biblical scholars like Michael Gorman, Joel Green, and Daniel Kirk
– Philosophers like Helen De Cruz, Aaron Simmons, and Kevin Timpe
– Establish scholars like James Crossley, Kwok Pui-lan, and Amos Yong
– Scholars outside North America like Deane Galbraith, RT Mullins, Hanna Reichel, and Atle Sovik
– Pastoral theologians like Patricia Farmer, Len Sweet, and Kurt Willems
– Historical theologians like Kim Alexander and Christine Helmer
– Science and religion scholars like Ron Cole-Turner, Karl Giberson, Lea Schweitz, and Jim Stump
– Constructive theologians like Oliver Crisp, Grace Ji-Sun Kim, and Jason Lepojärvi
– Ethicists like Miguel De La Torre, David Gushee, and Michael Hardin
…and the list goes on!
Whether the reader is an armchair theologian, a professional scholar, a graduate student, or simply interested in how social media is changing religious and philosophical studies, that reader will find Theologians and Philosophers Using Social Media of great help.
Of interest to those engaged with: pedagogy, religious education, philosophy, religion, theology, Christian education, activism, online education, Facebook, moocs, technology, social media
Thomas Jay Oord is a theologian, philosopher, and scholar of multi-disciplinary studies. He is an award-winning author, having written or edited more than twenty books. A twelve-time Faculty Award winner, Oord teaches at institutions around the globe. A gifted speaker, he is known for his contributions to research on love, open and relational theology, science and religion, and the implications of freedom and relationships for transformation. Find more on Oord’s thoughts and projects at http://thomasjayoord.com
I was asked to make a few edits and clarifications to my accepted conference abstract:
The church in the United Kingdom can be regarded as geographically placed and located, with an emphasis upon local church services, and services to the local community such as food banks, debt management, and children’s work. Theologians such as Rumsey (2017), Hjalmarson (2014), and Inge, (2003) are concerned with a theology of place, whilst the Church of England, the Methodist Church and the URC churches, amongst others, are organised around geographical dioceses, circuits and parishes, whilst also contributing to national and international public policy debates. With the digital age, this model has been challenged, with the digital offering a new ‘public sphere’ at a personal, organisational and political level, and has effectively become ‘the front door’ for many offline churches (Lewis, 2013). The global and perceived virtual nature of the digital also raises questions of ‘sacredness’ and ‘spirituality’ online (Smith, 2015).
The digital, whether as an overarching ‘space’, or within specific platforms, is a place (terminology varies to include world, sphere, environment and culture) in which communication, action and community participation can be undertaken online. Experience since 2010, particularly workshops and speaking engagements held as Digital Fingerprint consultancy (2008 – 2017), has shown that the strong sense of ‘place’ for the church continues, with many looking to the digital to support and enhance geographically placed initiatives, and demonstrate engagement with the local community. As Hutchings (2017) has demonstrated, for many who attend church online, whether through livestreamed services, or via interactive (including virtual) platforms, this is a supplement to the face-to-face experience, rather than a replacement for it. Where churches are ‘built’ in the virtual environment, they tend to replicate the offline churches that they are representative of, and national churches tend to retain a national feel, particularly noticeable stylistically between UK and USA churches.
This paper, an informal netnography, draws together varying strands of work undertaken in the last decade, including Digital Fingerprint, and ‘The Big Bible Project’ undertaken at Durham University (http://bit.ly/BigBible1015, 2010-2015). Within the project over 3,000 blog posts were collected from ‘voices in the pew, the pulpit and the academy’ addressing questions as to what it means to be a Christian in a digital age: how does this impact upon organisational decisions, personal behaviour and discipleship, and the call to be missional within whichever community one finds oneself (arguably including the digital). The contributors were all volunteers, a mix of church members, vicars and academics, considering how various books of the Bible could speak into digital culture. Christian discipleship texts will encourage those of faith to be ‘the face of God’ to the rest of the world, a life visibly transformed by a relationship with Jesus Christ, a ‘witness’ to the world (Logan, 2014, Peterson, 2000). In the contemporary digital age, Christians are encouraged to think about how they are ‘the face of God’ in all spheres, including online (Byers, 2014).
Drawing upon an empirical research proposal (with consequent journal article) in the early stages of planning, the paper will consider the way that social media and the digital impacts upon the public personas that the church as an organisation (at various levels), and also that of the individuals within it as representatives of ‘the church’ within their local communities (offline, and specific communities online). Churches have a long tradition of being in places of need, and can look at what they can offer the local and digital communities on a practical and spiritual level. The paper will finish with an exploration of an idea for a larger research project (with a more academic focus than the above projects), which considers what it means to be a welcoming church in a digital age. The project would consider questions such as what do churches think they are doing to be welcoming, including online, and does online/offline match; what do people ‘research’ when looking for a church to visit; does digital and social media seem to be a core part of this, and could the project provide guidance as to how the church could make use of these tools better, but also, could the experience of the church inform more general marketing practice for values-based organisations.
Dr Bex Lewis is Senior Lecturer in Digital Marketing, Manchester Metropolitan University, Visiting Research Fellow, St John’s College, Durham University, and Director of social media consultancy Digital Fingerprint.