Focusing Observations and Looking for Trends in Lived Religion Online

This week I've decided to focus on River Pointe Church and how they communicate religion through their Facebook page.
       Something that they are focusing on in church currently is "Brush with Greatness". Being motivated in your everyday life by your love and faith in Jesus. While most churches/ members of the Christian church may communicate this by just posting a bible verse, the pastor at River Pointe, Patrick Kelley, posts his own interpretation of what "Brush with Greatness means instead of solely scriptures from the bible:

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Through these #BrushWithGreatness posts, River Pointe is trying to communicate the importance of faith in Jesus Christ:

 

                                       

Many people say that they do or do not have Faith in Jesus Christ, but River Pointe is trying to communicate the idea that sometimes people may lose sight, or may not have ever known what faith actually is. This allows members of the church and religion the opportunity to reflect on their own lives and what they think faith is to them. They're communicating the idea that in order to have a Brush with Greatness, you have to have faith in Jesus Christ and faith that he is going to guide you to where you need to be.  They also include a hashtag so that members of the River Pointe church may respond through tweeting or making their own Facebook status about what Faith means to them and how they are trying to live this message out in their every day lives. River Pointe is very much about allowing the congregation to have a voice in the church and how important community is to their mission and values, and that is why things like hashtags and the ability to comment on these different quotes are encouraged throughout River Pointes Facebook page. 

     Another thing that is happening currently at River Pointe church is that Patrick Kelley is  traveling across the globe to speak with different famous figures about what role Jesus plays in their life and how they live their life accordingly. The first segment of this series included Patrick speaking with Dave Turin, from the History Channel's series "Gold Rush". In case members were unable to attend the service this past sunday, River Pointe has posted the main take away as well as the video that was shown during the service: 

The first way that River Pointe communicates religion to it's audience through this is by sharing what they think the take away message from the interview was. "I'm not about rules and regulations, I'm about a relationship with the creator of the universe." In this interview Dave talks about how he grew up in the Catholic church and how there were so many rules that he felt like he had to follow in order to be a good Christian and a good person. He says because of this he felt like he could never be good enough, and it wasn't until he joined a non-denominational church and developed his own relationship with Jesus that he started to feel like he was living his life to the fullest and living his life for his Jesus. This is important to River Pointe because they too are a non-denominational church that strives to get the message across that a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is more powerful and fulfilling than the many rules and regulations that other church's believe are important in order to get into Heaven. This and the fact that Dave Turin is a famous celebrity strongly encourage these ideas and communicate that even celebrities have a relationship with Jesus and are able to avoid the temptations and negative aspects of fame because of this.

   

   Patrick Kelley has interviewed several other celebrities like Dave and throughout this series plans to share their stories in hopes of communicating this idea that a relationship with Jesus Christ is the best thing that we can do for our lives. The next interview with a celebrity that River Pointe plans to share with their congregation is with Kylie Bisutti, a former Victoria Secret model who left the world of Super modeling in order to become a proverbs 31 woman and wife: 

This interview will speak more to women and how Fame, Beauty, and Glamour often cloud our minds as something that is supposed to be important. Through this interview, River Pointe is hoping to express that a relationship with Jesus Christ and being a strong woman of faith is more important than any of these other ideas that many women struggle with through out their lives. By interviewing a former super model, someone who was constantly surrounded by all of these ideals, and how she has bettered her life by leaving these behind in order to grow closer towards life, River Pointe is communicating the idea that this strong relationship with Jesus is so much greater than fame, beauty and glamour combined. They will most likely post the link to the interview along with the take away message this sunday after the service.

Not only does River Pointe try to make an impact on it's members during their church service through the many interesting series and messages that they share, but they also strive to impact their members on social media as well. When you are a member of River Pointe, church does not end on Sunday if you are a part of their Facebook page. They are constantly posting things in order to keep their members engaged as well as to communicate their main idea that a strong, personal relationship with Jesus Christ is more important than any of the other things that we think we need. Through their posts, they try to communicate the idea that the best life is had through our faith in Jesus and his plan for all of us. I think that this aligns very much with the emerging church movement and the mission of many non-denominational churches. They strive to encourage just the idea of faith and love for Jesus and all of his children, rather than preaching about all of the different things that you cannot do in order to have Jesus's love and acceptance. Through the non-denominational churches, there is no such thing as "I'm not good enough". They preach the idea that Jesus's love is unconditional and he loves you and is there for you even if you don't deserve it. They communicate that if you have faith in Jesus and that personal relationship with him then he will lead you to the promised land and will help you live a happy life.

Identifying Trends in the Performance and Construction of Lived Religion Online

After examining the Facebook pages of  Christians as a whole, Riverpointe Church, and Breakaway Ministries, I have noticed some common trends among the three as well as some distinct differences in the way that they express their religion.
      One common trend that I saw was they each provide information on how current and potential members can participate in worship as well as other things. The "Christian" Facebook page provides different Facebook groups that people who have "Liked" the page can look into in order to find out how they can further worship. They also provide related pages that people can like and look into to see how else they can get involved. The Riverpointe Church Facebook page is constantly posting opportunities for members to get involved with their church. Riverpointe has several extracurricular events going on outside of Sunday worship service, and they always make sure to let their members know what they have going on and how members can get involved. Breakaway ministries posts every week where their service is, how members can avoid traffic and get their conveniently, as well as a quick sentence on what will be talked about that week. Each of the Facebook pages use Facebook as a means of communicating what they are doing at the moment and how members can get involved and share in worship. A similarity that I saw between the Riverpointe and Breakaway Facebook pages is that they both provide podcasts on their Facebook pages for their members to listen to in case they missed their sermon. They understand that we are a busy group of people, and sometimes making Sunday and Tuesday worship is difficult with our busy schedules. By providing podcasts and posting them on their Facebook page, members are able to easily access the sermons that they may have missed out on. When you "Like" either of the pages, everything that each church post on their page immediately goes into the news feed of each of their members, which allows members to see them immediately and to listen in.
     While there are many similarities between each Facebook page, there is also a number of differences between the three. For starters, the Christian Facebook page is more for the religion as a whole rather than and individual church. While it serves as a resource for members to find a church or group that they can join and further their worship, it is not an actual organization that members can be a part of like Riverpointe Church and Breakaway ministries are. One of the main differences between Riverpointe and Breakaway is that Riverpointe posts more content that includes scripture, videos reflecting the message of the week, statements for members to reflect on before the church service on Monday, etc. Breakaway Ministries Facebook serves as more of a resource for members to see where the service will be that week and how they can get their easily. Riverpointe uses Facebook as a way of updating their members, as well as communicating Christianity to it's members throughout the week.
   While each Facebook page has their similarities and differences, they all for sure have one thing in common and that is that they provide a place for Christians to come together online and communicate their love for Jesus Christ in whichever way they choose. They each take denomination out of the equation and allow members to worship Jesus in the way that best fits them. Where as more organized Christian churches come with rules and restrictions, the two churches I've chosen to study give members the ability to worship Jesus freely and the way that best serves them. While critics may not be the best fans of this idea, I think that these non-denominational churches best reflect the purpose of the Emerging Church Movement and everything that that includes, and a lot of that is demonstrated in how they use their Facebook pages to reach their members.
After looking at all of this information, My research question for this case study will be: "How do non-denominational Christian churches use Facebook to either communicate or not communicate religion to their members, and why?"

More investigations in Lived Religion in Social Media

To continue my observations of the way different churches use Facebook to communicate to their members, I have chose to look at yet another church that uses Facebook as one of their means of communication. Locally in College Station, we have what is called Breakaway Ministries. This is a weekly non-denominational worship service held at various locations on campus that allows college students to take a break from their studies and join together to praise Jesus. This ministry is another example of the Emerging Church Movement that is taking over today in that it uses several forms of technology and different ways of worship that adheres to the worship practices of College Students.

One thing that  I found interesting about their Facebook page is that they have included a section that allows members to review their experience at Breakaway:

This provides current and potential new members of the Breakaway Ministries to get a feel of what they might be getting into by participating. This is an excellent way of using Facebook to reach out to members that may want to worship with other Christians on campus, but may not know what the place to do so is. Instead of just the ministry talking about what they have to offer and what someone may get out of worship, this feature on their Facebook page allows potential new members to hear from current members. This gives members more of a voice.

Something that I have noticed about this Facebook Page is that they do not post about their religion. Any pictures that are posted are just pictures that show the amount of people that come to each worship service:

The most that is sad is "God is the God of everyone", keeping it very open to all religions. This shows to potential new members that Breakaway is very popular among the Texas A&M campus. In order for members to know what they're going to get out of going to Breakaway they will have to go and see for themselves. 

Most of their other posts are more about letting members know where Breakaway is going to be that week and how they can get there: 

Breakaway uses their Facebook more to inform their members on how they can participate in Breakaway each week, instead of pushing religion on them. Even the status's they post are very short and just inform and remind members about Breakaway each week.

I think that Breakaway does this because they want to maintain that anyone, of any religion, can come to worship. One of the things that they posted from one of the pictures I posted above was "God is the God of everyone". I think their message is that at the end of the day, we all worship a higher being of some sort. Breakaway aims to accomodate college students from all different backgrounds, so by refraining from posting scriptures or other Christian propaganda they let current and future members to understand that all religions and backgrounds are welcome. Yes, they are a Christian based ministry. But much of what they talk about is life lessons, adapting to college, dealing with the different things that may arise in the life of a college student, etc. They aim to attract college students in general, not just Christian ones, and they keep this philosophy by keeping their Facebook page as more of a means of communicating reminders and updates to their members, instead of communicating their religion.