DM006 Digital Ministry with Cliff Ravenscraft, the Podcast Answer Man, on techniques and technology around all things podcasting. Recorded live on February 10, 2011. Produced by aNunsLife.org ministry. Be inspired by technology, technique, and theology.

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Guest: Cliff Ravenscraft, the Podcast Answer Man

Cliff Ravenscraft is the founder of GSPN.TV and is a full-time podcast producer and consultant. Among his shows is Podcast Answer Man, a weekly broadcast on techniques and technology around all things podcasting!

Topic: The nuns talk with Cliff about podcasting, what it is, how to get started, tips and secrets to a successful podcast, and growing online community.

We welcome  your questions for our guest. Please submit them using the comment box below or you can type them in the chat room during the live broadcast.

Show Notes

• what is a podcast and podcast basics
• The 11-step Checklist to Starting a Podcast in depth
• how does a podcast compare to a blog?
• what does an RSS feed have to do with a podcast
• deciding to go from podcasting as a hobby to podcasting for a living
• how do you make money as a podcaster?
• gaining financial insight from Dave Ramsey
• understanding podcasting and online community as a form of ministry
• the influence of Leo LaPorte
• the Generally Speaking Production Network – gspn.tv
• growing online community
• getting past the dreaded episode 7
• crossing multiple genres (entertainment, tech help, spiritual, etc.) in a single brand and keeping consistent
• do you need special equipment if you are starting out as an amateur?
• how do you “structure” your daily “work” day when there’s so much to be done to produce a podcast?

Digital Ministry covers a mix of things covering techniques, technology, and theology in order to enhance one’s capacity to do ministry, to witness to the Gospel in every day life on the Internet. The show airs on the second Thursday of the month (today was an exception) from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central Time. Visit the Digital Ministry web page for more information including how to download this podcast after the live broadcast and our full podcast schedule.

DM005 Digital Ministry with Father Robert Barron on the theology of ministering online, how to proclaim the Gospel in a digital age. Recorded live on January 13, 2011. Produced by aNunsLife.org ministry. Be inspired by technology, technique, and theology.

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Guest: Father Robert Barron

Father Robert Barron is a sought-after speaker on the spiritual life-from universities to YouTube to national conferences and private retreats. The Catholic theologian and podcasting priest is one of the world’s great and most innovative teachers of Catholicism. His global media ministry called Word On Fire has a simple but revolutionary mission – to evangelize the culture.

Topic: The sisters talk with Father Barron about WWJD? What would Jesus do given today’s digital technology and media? Does Scripture give us any clues on why or how we might use digital media for the sake of the Gospel? We discuss these topics and more on this episode of Digital Ministry.

Show Notes

• Fr. Barron’s ministry at WordOnFire.org and teaching at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake Mundelein seminary in the Archdiocese of Chicago
• the variety of media that Fr. Barron uses to minister online
• the importance of reading and studying theology and the faith before ministering online
• using other people’s language to communicate the Gospel
• talking about the Gospel to people who are unchurched, or unfamiliar with religion
• like Jesus, hanging out in the “courtyard of the Gentiles,” a place where unbelievers can engage with the Catholic faith
• YouTube and the Internet as a virtual Areopagus (cf: Saint Paul preaching in the Areopagus, Acts 17:16-34)
• how ministering online affects one’s own prayer life
• the influence of Fulton Sheen
• the “YouTube heresies”
• Father Robert’s reviews of the movies Gran Torino and True Grit
• responding to people who show anger in their comments on YouTube or other websites
• thoughts on WWJD — what would Jesus do in today’s digital world
• themes from scripture that can encourage us in our online ministry
• the spiritual needs of people online and adapting to them
• balancing multiple ministry responsibilities and interacting online
• and thoughts on what sermon Fr. Barron would ask Jesus to preach!

Digital Ministry covers a mix of things covering techniques, technology, and theology in order to enhance one’s capacity to do ministry, to witness to the Gospel in every day life on the Internet. The show airs on the second Thursday of the month (today was an exception) from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central Time. Visit the Digital Ministry web page for more information including how to download this podcast after the live broadcast and our full podcast schedule.

For more information, including upcoming guests and our full podcast schedule, visit the program page of Digital Ministry.

Continue the conversation day or night at the A Nun’s Life Community Forum and look for the topic “Digital Ministry Podcast Listeners.”

DM003 Digital Ministry with Sr. Christine Ereiser, OSB, on using Twitter and providing meaningful content in 140 characters or less! Recorded live on November 9, 2010. Produced by aNunsLife.org ministry. Be inspired by technology, technique, and theology.

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Topic: Using Twitter and providing meaningful content in 140 characters or less!

Guest: Sister Christine Ereiser, OSB

Sister Christine Ereiser is a Benedictine nun and the prioress of Saint Joseph Monastery in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and an avid user of Twitter to promote Benedictine values. Sister Christine encourages the use of the Internet and social media within the Benedictine community and at Monte Cassino School, a pre-school through 8 grade school started by the Benedictine Sisters in 1926.

Listen to her story and be inspired!

Show Notes:

• ministry in 140 characters or less
• getting started with Twitter
• tweets and ministry potential
• getting retweets
• choosing topics or themes to tweet
• when not to tweet
• tweeting in support of corporate ministry
• the Benedictine values of hospitality and of stability on the Internet
• amount of time needed to tweet
• Twitter: distraction or ministry?
• advice for Twittering beginners
• a leader’s advice on getting leadership involved in today’s Internet communication
• and more!

Digital Ministry covers a mix of things covering techniques, technology, and theology in order to enhance one’s capacity to do ministry, to witness to the Gospel in every day life on the Internet. The show airs on the second Thursday of the month (today was an exception) from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central Time. Visit the Digital Ministry web page for more information including how to download this podcast after the live broadcast and our full podcast schedule.

For more information, including upcoming guests and our full podcast schedule, visit the program page of Digital Ministry.

Continue the conversation day or night at the A Nun’s Life Community Forum and look for the topic “Digital Ministry Podcast Listeners.”

DM002 Digital Ministry with guests Maureen McCann Waldron and Father Andy Alexander, SJ, of Creighton University Online Ministries recorded live on October 14, 2010. Produced by aNunsLife.org ministry. Be inspired by technology, technique, and theology.

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Guests: Father Andy Alexander, SJ, and Maureen McCann Waldron

Father Andy and Maureen are partners at Creighton University’s Collaborative Ministry Office and Online Ministries. Online Ministries has a 12-year history of responding to people’s needs in real language and real-life experience.

They have visitors from around the world and are conscious of tailoring their resources to fit people’s spiritual needs as well as their language, culture, and available technology. One of many current projects is to translate their resources (including their very popular online retreat) into a variety of languages, most recently Chinese!

Listen to their story and be inspired with new ideas for how you engage in  your online ministry.

Show Notes:

• starting small with online ministry
• making the online experience user-friendly, especially across languages and cultures
• getting a variety of sources of content
• promoting one’s online ministry (getting people to show up)
• how working collaboratively affects your ministry
• the inspiration behind Online Ministries
• authentic Catholic websites
• key websites for connecting with young people
• having a full-time job and ministering online as an “add-on”
• creating a website and web experience based on people’s needs
• content vs. form
• Jesus’ use of the technology of his day

Digital Ministry is a podcast on using Internet technologies and social media for ministry. The show is hosted by Sister Maxine and Sister Julie of A Nun’s Life Ministry and covers a mix of things covering techniques, technology, and theology in order to enhance one’s capacity to do ministry, to witness to the Gospel in every day life on the Internet. The show airs on the second Thursday of the month from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central Time. Tune in at www.aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

For more information, including upcoming guests and our full podcast schedule, visit the program page of Digital Ministry.

Continue the conversation day or night at the A Nun’s Life Community Forum and look for the topic “Digital Ministry Podcast Listeners.”

DM001 Digital Ministry with guest Lisa Hendey of CatholicMom.com recorded live on September 9, 2010. Produced by aNunsLife.org ministry. Sponsored by Vision Vocation Network. Our hosts talk with Lisa about social media, faith, building community and more.

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

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Guest: Lisa Hendey of CatholicMom.com

Lisa Hendey is the founder and editor of CatholicMom.com, a web site focusing on the Catholic faith, parenting and family life, and Catholic cultural topics. The site includes Lisa’s blog, articles by a variety of columnists, podcasts, videos, and many other resources. Lisa is author of the book, The Handbook for Catholic Moms.

Topic: A pioneer’s experience using digital technology & media for ministry

Show Notes:

• the meaning of “digital ministry” compared to “ordinary” ministry
• getting started with online ministry
• how being a mom helps
• a few “ah-HA” moments
• Lisa’s book The Handbook for Catholic Moms (nuns like it too!)
  
• using Facebook as part of one’s digital ministry mix
• making a website more interactive
• getting people to actually come to one’s web site or social media page
• on whether YouTube videos or podcasts should be “professional”
• advice to people starting or already involved in digital ministry
• energy for when the batteries run out

Digital Ministry is a podcast on using Internet technologies and social media for ministry. The show is hosted by Sister Maxine and Sister Julie of A Nun’s Life Ministry and covers a mix of things covering techniques, technology, and theology in order to enhance one’s capacity to do ministry, to witness to the Gospel in every day life on the Internet. The show airs on the second Thursday of the month from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central Time. Tune in at www.aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

For more information, including upcoming guests and our full podcast schedule,  visit the program page of Digital Ministry.

Continue the conversation day or night at the A Nun’s Life Community Forum and look for the topic “Digital Ministry Podcast Listeners.”

Many thanks to our program sponsor VISION Vocation Network.

Today’s Nunday has an honorary nun guest — Brother Chris Valka, CSB, of the Congregation of Saint Basil. And yes, we have his picture! Chris recently spoke on Faith in Cyber Communities at St. Joseph’s College, University of Alberta, and was written up in the Western Catholic Reporter (March 23, 2009).

Valka presented historical highlights of the Church’s mostly positive views on communications.

“History not only gives us perspective, but it also conveys the optimistic stance the Church takes towards media. The Church has never seen the media as an obstacle,” he said.

People who cannot find answers at the institutional Church of brick and mortar are searching for answers in other places, including the cyber community. This gives people worldwide a place to gather and ask life’s tough questions. In spite of the great distance between them, they can debate, discuss and live out the answers.

Be sure to read Brother Chris’s other observations and ideas about new media and the Catholic Church in the article New media can break through barriers in the Western Catholic Reporter (March 23, 2009).

I had the pleasure of meeting Brother Chris back in 2007 when he interviewed me for his podcast series Conversations with Macrina:

A Discussion About Religious Life (June 23, 2007)

What do you think we religious should be doing online? Would you like us to do more with new media such as podcasts, live discussions, etc.? Give me some ideas about what would interest you, what you think would be helpful to people.

Archbishop Claudio Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, recently gave a conference on Media and Evangelization and how the Catholic Church is committed to using new media.

What I found particularly intriguing was how the Archbishop framed his remarks about communication. He referred to the work of the late Cardinal Avery Dulles on the theology of the Trinity in order to illustrate his thoughts on communication and how such a theology is foundational to how we connect with others, especially via the new media

The Trinity is, of course, one of the great mysteries of our Catholic faith. The One God is at the same time three Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Many mystics and theologians of our faith have looked to the Trinity as a model of how to relate to and communicate with God and one another. The Archbishop quoted Dulles on what this relationship and communication “looks” like within the Trinity:

“The Trinity is communication in absolute, universal perfection, a totally free and complete sharing among equals. In generating the Son as word, the Father totally expresses himself … the Holy Spirit completes the intradivine process of communication” (The Craft of Theology: From Symbol to System).

Although this particular quote doesn’t make mention of it, love is key to Dulles’ understanding of the Trinity and of how the Triune God communicates among the three Persons as well as to all of creation. For example, Dulles writes:

“Within the Trinity the Spirit is the subsistent love breathed forth by the Father and the Son. He is the personal bond of union expressing and sealing their mutual love, and proceeding from them” (The Catholicity of the Church, 45).

Key messages about the nature of good communication can be found in both of Dulles’ quotes:

• Good communication is “a totally free and complete sharing among equals”.

• Good communication is the generation of not only words (information) but of a word about who we are; we express ourselves, give ourselves to others when we communicate with them.

• Love proceeds from good communication.

What does this mean in this age of mass communication where we can relate to and communicate with others immediately and through huge variety of media? Do we treat others as equals when we are communicating with them, especially when we are hidden behind the veil of anonymity? Are we attentive to how are words are expressing how we are? Do all of our communications (yes, even that 140 character tweet on Twitter) express love? I’m not talking about sentimental love, but a love that Saint Paul so well articulates in 1 Corinthians 13.

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Let’s talk more about this. What key messages do you hear in the Archbishop’s conference or in Dulles’ theology of the Trinity? How can we make the blogosphere, especially the Catholic blogosphere, more of a place where good communication is the rule, not the exception?

Other thoughts, ideas, wonderings …