Hey all,
I could use your prayers for wisdom and confidence. I have a couple things coming up in the next week that are making my “impostor syndrome” flare up (you know, that sinking feeling that you’re in the midst of people a lot smarter and more capable than yourself and that, at any moment, they’ll “find you out” for the average person you really are).
. . .
I’ve shared before the issues I have with self-confidence. I’m coming to think that these persistent misgivings may be something that I deal with for the rest of my life. Not sure why I have a hard time seeing myself and my contributions the same way others do. I appreciate your prayers and am thankful for your friendship and the opportunity to share all of this with you.
I posted this note to my doctoral cohort in late February. Within 24 hours I received a flood of responses by my colleagues from around the world (Kenya, Burundi, UK, Hong Kong, Canada, and Australia). They said things like, “You are an invited voice for a reason, you have a perspective to give. I’ll say it again, ‘who made your mouth’?” “Andy, you are among our best and our brightest, and I don’t doubt you in this regard for a moment. Tell your ‘inner impostor’ to shut up!” and “You were made for this. Stretch into the spaces God is opening up for you.” What an incredible outpouring of support from a wise group of men and women with whom I’ve formed quite a bond over the past two years.
What is remarkable about this exchange is not its content, but the vehicle used to deliver the content. This was not an email exchange or a forum post in some closed learning course management system. I posted this in my doctoral cohort’s Facebook group.
At George Fox Evangelical Seminary (GFES), we offer a diverse number of hybrid, or blended, learning courses. As with many D.Min. programs, ours is designed to be completed while our students remain in their full-time ministry settings. This means that most of their coursework is completed from a distance.
Traditional online or hybrid learning programs tend to utilize closed learning course management systems (LCMS) to create spaces for academic engagement. While a LCMS like Blackboard or Moodle does a great job at providing a sheltered structure for course delivery, it does a poor job at fostering community.
“Be Known.” That’s the simple promise of George Fox University, of which GFES is a part. What does that look like in a blended learning environment when students are only physically present with one another and their instructors once or twice a year?
I think that the incarnation is helpful here. Paul writes in Philippians that Christ “made himself nothing” and took on “the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (2:7). In order that we might be known, Christ came to meet us where we already are. He moved into our neighborhood.
Similarly, when we want to really know others we have to meet them where they are. One of the reasons that LCMSs don’t foster opportunities for people to be known is because that’s simply not what they’re designed to do. So, if those of us in blended learning want to know our “online” students, we need to be present online where they are.
A few weeks ago a colleague stopped by my office after a presentation I’d given on utilizing social media in higher education. She wanted to know how I decided which social media spaces to utilize in developing the seminary’s online presence. I told her that I go where our students and prospective students already are. For us that’s mostly Facebook and Twitter.
As a campus minister, you need to be present where your students are, and this includes having an online presence. That, more than anything else, will determine the services with which you engage your students. Maybe it’s Pinterest or LinkedIn or Google +, or perhaps your students are in World of Warcraft or Second Life. Wherever they are, meet them there.
At GFES, each of our D.Min. cohorts has a closed Facebook group that they’re a part of with their colleagues and our program staff. We use the groups for program announcements, sharing resources, and exhorting and praying for one another. Pastoral care happens in these groups. These ministry professionals share doubts and fears with one another that they could never share with those in their immediate ministry contexts. We create space for our students, wherever in the world they are, to be known. Do the same for your students. Let that guide what technology you use and how you use it.
[ BACK TO THE TECHNOLOGY, SOCIAL MEDIA & MINISTRY HOMEPAGE ]
22 thoughts on “Life (Online) Together: Practicing Presence in Social Media Spaces”
I totally agree with “inner imposter, shut up!” You are so vital to everything we do here, Andy. Believe it.
Thanks, Dee.
What a great post. And I love that your example shows an actual “engagement” with these social tools. It’s not enough to be a lurker. You have to roll up your sleeves and actually interact!
Jennifer, that’s so key to incorporating social media tools into ministry work. Lurking is creepy, always. Engagement is harder, but more faithful (imho).
Excellent thoughts. I’m sharing them with our Campus CrossWalk group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/13743904846/
Thanks Steven. Honored that you’d pass them along.
Andy, I agree with you and I find it very fascinating to be a student and “be known” from the least known country in the world.
David, you’re a great example of what I am describing in the post. As a pastor in Burundi, you are able to stay deeply connected to your doctoral colleagues through social media. I’m glad to be a part of that story.
Great post Andy.
Let me add one more voice of encouragement that you’re not an impostor. It’s been over a year since I left the cohort and I still read your posts because I value your insight and wisdom.
Joe, thanks for the kind words. I’m humbled that we still journey together…
I appreciated that you start this with the imposter bit; I think some of my imposter syndrome symptoms are activated when I am not handling my social media self well. Reaching out or contributing through SM puts me in a totally different mindset. Thanks again, Andy.
Manning’s idea of the ‘imposter syndrome’ has been incredibly helpful in my life. It gave me a name for a part of my brokenness that I thought was just who I was. I’d like to think that my ‘voice’ is fairly consistent, whether in a blog, on Facebook, Twitter, or other form of online communication. However, I’m still an interpersonal introvert. It is way more taxing for me to be in a big room full of people chit-chatting, than it is for me to enter into a similar kind of chit-chat using social media. I’m trying to work on the former, though…
Great thoughts, Andy. As one of the recipients of the parallel course delivery method of GFES, is echo your sentiments. I’m confident that many will see my impostor in the coming days, I enjoy the protected and course specific nature of moodle, and I thrive in the community centric nature of our Facebook group. Without all three of these aspects, my education would be lacking and wanting.
Thanks, Scott. I think that the way we do course delivery at the doctoral level lends itself nicely to incorporating Facebook and SpotOn3D as tools alongside Moodle. I’m glad that the way we knit them together adds value and cohesiveness to your education.
I often reflect on how you and I connected only in social media space when I signed up for the cohort but we had an immediate sense of solidarity with one another. Our first actual meet-up was at the “Eagle and Child” pub on a Tuesday morning in Oxford in the Inklings room for some lunch. But we had already gotten to know one another in social media spaces, this was just another chapter and it happened to be in person at hallowed ground for both of us. Our travels in person or in social media are seamless, one fabric of the same growing partnership as colleagues and Kingdom workers.
Isn’t that cool? Part of our story is meeting up in person in a country foreign to us both. But we already “knew” one another from our online interactions. I think that also says a lot about the importance of transparency and consistency online and in real life. Though there is the possibility for one to live a life online that is a departure for their offline life (and there is a place for that, for sure), when I think of utilizing social media spaces as a place for forming relationships and doing ministry, I keep coming back to envisioning it as an extension of who I really am already, not who I wish I could be.
Speaking as a member of one of the above mentioned cohorts, the beauty and success of George Fox’s model is the hybrid nature of it. Without the face-to-face times as a cohort, it would suffer. Without the weekly live interaction, it would suffer. Without the use of online discussion via Moodle (which George Fox utilizes well compared to other schools I have used this format with), it would suffer. Without the use of social media to foster ongoing connection, it would suffer. It is the hybrid nature that makes it work.
On a personal note, my cohort is not just filled with fellow students, they are fellow followers and friends! This is the intangible and priceless side of my doctoral education that a brochure or webpage can’t capture! They can call out what you aptly describe as “impostor syndrome” because they know me, my heart and my passion.
Not to overwork an oft-used metaphor, but it is a three-stranded cord approach. I’m glad to hear about the bonds that have formed in your cohort. It’s amazing that you all have only met in person once!
To me, this line says it all: “As a campus minister, you need to be present where your students are…..”
It’s just that simple! Thanks so much for this!!
Thanks Jim. I appreciate that. There is a temptation, I think, to eschew social media spaces as ‘tools’ or ‘sites of consumption.’ But so is the cafeteria or the quad or the dorm common area. If campus ministry is, in part, about strategically placing oneself in the midst of where students gather and joining them in their lives there, then perhaps we need to look at social media spaces the same way.
Having read this post only reinforces my belief that God has some amazing plans for you. Sometimes it is hard to find someone who is competent in the social media space and who knows how to leverage it from a Kingdom perspective. It is even harder to find a leader who has been ‘broken’ and willing to be transparent about their struggles and challenges. Thanks for being that person. And yes, social media does enable us to be close to those we care about and those we have the privilege of leading, no matter where they are.
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