In a nutshell, Context & Voice by Vince Marotte is a commentary on the Internet and social media:
“We need to stop separating Internet culture and community from real life. I think we miss the point and we lose opportunities when we separate the two… The internet and social media are simply tools by which we communicate with each other.”
It’s a commentary on the status of church communication:
“Something is broken in the way that the church communicates. There is a serious disconnect between how the culture communicates and how the church does. This is in stark contrast to the church of a hundred and fifty years ago which was the catalyst of cutting edge communication technology and strategies.”
And what the two together mean:
“But, if we can see that these simply are just tools for communication we can then formulate plans and strategies to use them to enhance our already existing Christian communities and to possibly create and develop Christian communities that simply would not have been possible without this technology.”
This book discusses “front door” content (content for new visitors and believers), how to handle some of the ins and outs of social media, the problem of Christians creating content just for Christians, and why the “creatives” need to be taking a larger role in forming the content for a church. One point Marotte emphasizes is the need to utilize as many communication channels as possible, not just Sunday mornings.
This book makes some good points, and adds to the many discussions currently going on in churches everywhere, but is hindered by the stream-of-thought and unorganized manner in which it’s written. He provides practical application suggestions but, in my opinion, does not go in-depth enough on how to implement them. For example, he suggests pastors of small churches either delegate more or recruit volunteers to create more channels for communication. But what would this actually look like for small-church pastors, staff and volunteers who are already stretched too thin?
Don’t get me wrong, Marotte has some real good stuff to say, and the book is good food for thought. It just needs a little better editing to make the book easier to read. You can buy the book here and decide for yourself.
More:
- Read our guest post from Vince Marotte, Bridging the Communication Gap.
- Buy a copy: Kindle | Other Versions
- Check out Vince’s blog.
