I attended A&M United Methodist Church with Pam Witte this past Sunday. Considering there were two different types of services offered, Contemporary and Traditional, we attended half of each service. As was expected, the traditional service had little to no use of media during the service. We sang out of hymnals, and there weren't any screens or references to media during the sermon. However, the contemporary service had a large projection screen for lyrics to worship music, announcements, and power points for the sermon. The pastor made a few references to twitter and facebook and mentioned his own facebook account. There was also an announcement concerning their "e-Prayer team" online, suggesting that the members submit their prayer requests online so that a prayer team can pray for them after receiving an e-mail. It was very clear that the church is trying to satisfy all generations and opinions on the use of new media in religion with the differences in the two services.

A&M United Methodist Church

    Sunday I was able to visit A&M United Methodist Church with Caitlin Mccoy. There were three service times, two of which were Traditional services and one Contemporary service. Caitlin and I went to half of each service to compare the two. While the traditional service lacked media, the Contemporary service contained a projector, loud music, and power points. The pastor also mentioned his Facebook account in this service. Paper bulletins always advertised the church website thus emphasizing their belief in a connected church body. The church services revealed a connection to historical roots as well as innovations for today's society.

Chabad Student Center

I attended the TAMU Chabad Student Center this past Friday night along with Mallory and Stephanie.  We interviewed Rabbi Yossi Lazaroff and learned that the center serves as an institution for education where Jewish students come to learn. This particular community would be defined as Orthodox, in that they follow the laws of the Torah. There was no social media used at all in the service as the Rabbi said, their “media” was the use of their mouth, in that this was the way they revealed thought.  Although the use of media is not used whatsoever in the service, this does not mean he discourages its use altogether.  Rabbi Yossi has a Facebok, Twiiter, Youtube, Website, and is a user of many more social media websites as he said this was his way to make himself “relevant.”  Reflecting back on the interview, he was one of the most knowledgeable people on social media I have ever met.   

Rohr Chabad Jewish Center at Texas A&M University

I had the opportunity to visit the Rohr Chabad Jewish Center in College Station one Friday evening. The Friday evening services are significant because they mark the beginning of Shabbat, or the Jewish Sabbath. This organization is part of a smaller sect of Judaism known as the Chabad Lubavitch movement. During the service, the congregation refrained from using any and all media resources in observance of Shabbat. The 45-minute service consisted of prayers spoken in Hebrew from the book of Psalms. Although media was absent from the service, I admired the Chabad Lubavitch traditions and culture.

Media in LDS Worship

Sunday I attended Sacrament Meeting and Sunday School at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints with my two new friends, Elder Chang and Elder Stephens. Coming from a conservative, Reformed Christian background, this was a stark contrast to everything I know. The most surprising factor in my eyes was how ambiguous and bland the services were in a technological aspect. Virtually no information was provided prior to each one-hour segment in what we would be studying or learning about, or even really what we were doing apart from the titles of each event. For how accepting the LDS church is of technology, modernity was absent from weekly worship.

Looking at Local Religious Communities Engagement with Media

In week four you will be asked to do participant-observation in a local religious community and reflect on their engagement with media.  This also relates to section four of your first paper for COMM 460.  In order to complete this assignment you will need to take note of and respond to the following questions:

• What forms of media do you see displayed or advertised in the worship building?
• What media forms are used in the worship service?
• How are attendees instructed/encouraged to interact with the media in certain way?
• What seem to be the core beliefs/values of the community emphasized in the service?
• What seems to be the relationship between the community and the larger world/culture and the media?

Based on this please post a 50-100 word summary as a comment to this post summarizing where you did you observation what you learned about the particular group's use and negotiation with media before class on 27 September.  Looking forward to hearing about what you learned!

What is Religion?

Religion is a term which evokes many ideas and images, meaning different things to different people.  Based on our class discussion up to this point how would you define the term "religion"? Finish this sentence, "Religion is...."  Write your answer as a comment to this post.