Religious Leadership/Digital Age

IST - 2163 1 (Hybrid)

Spring 2019

Instructor: Jeffrey Mahan

Contact: jmahan@iliff.edu

Campus Meeting: Thurs, April 25, 1:00 - 5:00PM, Fri, April 26, 8:00 - Noon

Religious leadership must be appropriate to the culture within which one leads. We live in cultures increasingly shaped by the digital. This course explores ways that understandings of church, membership, religious identity, are changing in digital culture, and examines how both online and face-to-face expressions of faith are adapting to that. It asks what sort of leaders will guide faith communities into effective life and service in a culture shaped by its digital experience.

Below you will find links to the required readings, assignments, and an outline of the course organized by week (Click the text to download, or the link to open the document within Canvas.

Readings:

Purchase or borrow two books:

Media, Religion and Culture: An Introduction, Jeffrey H. Mahan (2014, Abingdon: Routledge)

Note #1: This volume is now selling for $50.00. You can access it digitally through the Iliff Library. Or, I picked up a few copies with an author's discount and would be happy to pass the savings along. Let me know if you want one for $25.00. JHM

And, one of the following:

The Social Media Gospel, Meredith Gould (2015, Collegeville: The Liturgical Press)

Or,

Click2Save Reboot, Elizabeth Drescher and Keith Anderson (2018, New York: Church Publishing)

Or,

Net Smart, How to Thrive Online, (Howard Rheingold, 2012, Cambridge: MIT Press)

Note #2: We will also read and discuss several essays or book chapters to be posted in Canvas.

Assignments and Grades:

Participation in online discussion: 45 possible pts

• Engagement with the assigned readings (9 chapters) 3 possible points per reading,
• Responses to the Instructor’s remarks (6 posts) 3 pts possible per posting,

Group project: 25 pts

• Read either The Social Media Gospel, Net Smart or Click2Save
• Participate in small group discussion of the book, and
• prepare with the group a Canvas presentation on the book. Due Week 8, 9 or 10.

Gathering Days: 10 pts

• Be present, prepared, engaged.

Locating ourselves in Social Media: 5 pts

• Spend several days paying attention to your own involvement in social media (Facebook, Twitter, Snap Chat, Etc). 1) Reflect on the family, social, community, and professional links that are part of your online network. How do you present yourself to these various groups? What overall picture of you, your style, interests, commitments, and values are you presenting online? 2) Think about the online presence of people you think of as leaders within your social media networks. How do they present themselves? How do they use social media to lead? What do you like, and/or what troubles you about your own and other leaders use of social media. Write a 2 – 3 page reflection for the instructor. Due end of Week Two.

Interview a Leader: 10 pts

• Choose a leader in an area you are involved in, or preparing for, whom you admire. Interview him/her about:
  • their understanding of what constitutes leadership,
  • how they understand religious identity to be formed, and the role of leaders in the formation of religious identity,
  • the nature and importance of community and networks in a culture focused on the individual,
  • if/how, and why they think the church is changing,
  • whether they think of, and use social media, as a tool for leadership.

(This may take several conversations. If possible interview them face to face, but phone or online is necessary.) Post a 2 – 3 page, reflection of what you have learned for the instructor’s review, in week 7.

Final Short paper: 15 pts

• Write an 8 page reflection on your own current or future leadership in ministry. Considering how ideas about leadership, religious identity formation, community/networks, and the nature and mission of the church shape your thinking about your vocation.
• Due the beginning of week 10.

Grades:

Quarters Grades as follows:

A+       100 - 105

A         93 - 99

A-        90 - 92

B+       87 - 89

B         83 – 86

B-        80 - 82

C+       77 – 79

C         73 – 76

D         60 - 69

Religious Leadership in the Digital Age

Spring 2019

• Mar 25 – 29 Leadership

Monday, Intros, leadership setting, media experience and training

Tuesday, Mahan remarks, “Net safety – Google yourself”

Wednesday, Read and discuss: Trustworthy Leadership, link posted in Canvas

Thursday, Mahan remarks, “What difference does the digital make?”

• April 1 - 5  Digital Culture, Networked Relationships

Monday, Read and discuss: “Relating Media, Religion, and Culture,” in            Media, Religion and Culture

Tuesday, Mahan remarks, “The church in digital culture”

Wednesday, Read and discuss: “Networked Religion: Considering How Faith is Lived in a Networked Society” in Networked Theology, Heidi A. Campbell and Stephen Garner, posted in Canvas

Friday, Due:  Ourselves in Social Media assignment

• April 8 - 12  Religious Identity

Monday, Read and discuss: “Making and Articulating Religious Identity”, Media, Religion and Culture

Tuesday, Mahan remarks, “Identity”

Wednesday, Read and discuss: “Believing and practicing in a digital world”, Media, Religion and Culture

• April 15 – 19 - Church

Monday, Read and discuss: “Stability and Change," Media, Religion and Culture

Tuesday, Mahan remarks,  “Communities and Networks”

Wednesday, Read and discuss: “Organized religion in the age of digital religion,” Media, Religion and Culture

• Gathering Days
  1. April 27 1:00 – 5:00,
     1. Tom Wolfe, Leadership (60 min)
     2. Read and discuss: “Authority,” Pauline Hope Cheong, in Digital Religion, Heidi A. Campbell, ed., posted in Canvas

1. April 28 8:00 – 1:00
   1. Read and discuss: “Leadership is Convening”, in Community: The Structure of Belonging, Peter Block, posted in Canvas
   2. Mahan remarks, “Leadership in digital culture”

• Planning for group presentations (Note: read the introduction, look at the organization of the book you selected to present on.

• April 29 to May 3 Recovery Week  - No assignments

• May 6 - 10 Interview a Leader

Tuesday, Discussion of interviews with class

Thursday, Due: interview reports for instructor

•   May 13 - 17 Group consultation and preparation for presentations

• May 20 - 24 Group presentation and class discussions,

Monday, Group posts Click2Save Reboot,Elizabeth Drescher and Keith Anderson

Tuesday, Group posts Social Media Gospel, Meredith Gould       

                  Discussion of Click2Save presentation

Wednesday, Group posts Net Smart, Howard Rheingold,

                  Discussion of Social Media Gospel presentation

            Thursday,  Discussion of Net Smart presentation

• May 27 – 31 Closing Discussions

Monday, Closing Discussion

Tuesday, Instructor Feedback

Wednesday, Due: Final short paper

The Rhythms of the quarter: As  you review these materials you will see that we are engaged with each other online quite intently for the first four weeks. Then week-five, we are together f2f for Gathering Days. We will take a recover week after Gathering Days and then we move into a less intense reporting period for weeks 7 - 10. We will continue to connect online but you will have time to talk with a leader you respect about their work and the conversations we have been having, to engage the additional reading, to work on a final short paper, and to report out about these things. JM

Potential Graduates, please note : You are final paper must be submitted no later than noon on May 23, so that I can confirm that you are passing and keep you on the graduation list. Simply post it early in assignment slot for May 28. JM