LITMIR.BIZ

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      Every writing project, however many hours a writer might spend holed up before a glowing computer screen, is the work of many, the kindnesses of encouraging friends and rich insights of content sources all feeding the finished work. This networked participation insists that writing is always a collaborative process. This project has been particularly so, not just because it is the work of two authors, but because our work was possible only because so many friends, colleagues, and very perfect strangers shared their experiences with social media in the context of ministry with us and contributed much to our thinking about what digital ministry is and what it looks like when done well. You will meet many of these people in the pages that follow, and we are deeply indebted to each of them for their contributions to this project. We would also like to acknowledge a number of people who influenced our work on “deep background,” as it were: Greg Troxell, Meredith Gould, Mary Hess, Patricia Carr, The Rev. Gene Anderson, The Rev. Penny Nash, Unvirtuous Abbey, The Rev. Martin Malzahn, Katie Osweiler, and Linda Sevier.

      We are grateful to our keen-eyed, challenging, and affirming editor, Stephanie Spellers. She brought a quality of editorial guidance that comes as much from her experience with the sort of relational, networked, incarnational leadership we explore in the book as from her remarkable skills with words, ideas, and their organization in print. Likewise, we have appreciated the support of the team at Church Publishing, especially William Falvey, Jeff Hamilton, Ryan Masteller, Lillian Schell Ort, and Lorraine Simonello, whose many efforts put this book in your hand. And, we are beyond excited that CPI invited Angelo Lopez to contribute the wonderful illustrations throughout the book.

      Many of the concepts in the pages ahead were first developed for and tested in conversations with people from the Episcopal Dioceses of Missouri and Northwestern Pennsylvania, the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Jose, the New England and Rocky Mountain Synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Andover-Newton Theological School, The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, United Theological Seminary, St. Vincent College, and a number of churches and other organizations in and around Boston and the San Francisco Bay Area. We are both grateful for these opportunities to share early versions of our work with thoughtful, engaged digital-ministers-in-formation throughout the wider church.

      Elizabeth is deeply indebted to Kelly Simons, who does so much to make the time and space for research and writing on projects like this one possible. She would also like to thank Deborah Lohse, Paul Crowley, William Dohar, Gary Macy, and students in the Graduate Program in Pastoral Ministries at Santa Clara University for their continuing support. Special thanks, as well, are owed to Jim Naughton and Rebecca Wilson of Canticle Communications, Lisa Webster and Evan Derkacz at Religion Dispatches, Donna Freitas, and The Rt. Rev. Mary Gray-Reeves, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Réal.

      Keith wishes to thank Jennifer Anderson for her amazing love and support, and to dedicate his work on this project to their children, Ellie, Finn, Dulcie and Tess. He would also like to thank his mother, Rose Hamelin, and father, Rick Anderson, for being advocates for education and supporting him in his call to ministry. Keith extends his grateful appreciation to the people of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Woburn, Massachusetts, whose vision for sharing the Gospel inspired many of the ideas and practices in these pages and whose support and encouragement has been essential in the writing of this book. Heartfelt thanks are also due to Elly and Kathy Alboim, Susan Pursch, The Rev. Scott Howard, The Rev. Mark Huber, and The Rev. Arthur Scherer.

      INTRODUCTION

      Digital Pilgrimage

      What’s this chapter about? How a Lutheran pastor and an Episcopal professor connected through social media and what that has to do with this book, with a bit on the chapters ahead.

      OUR DIGITAL SOCIAL MEDIA CONNECTION developed a few years ago, just after Elizabeth published an article in the online magazine Religion Dispatches. The article was about the encouragement of Pope Benedict XVI for Roman Catholic priests to enter the rapidly developing digital religious landscape by blogging on faith and spirituality whenever they could. While the article lauded the pope for his concern that the church be actively represented among the many voices in the religious blogosphere, it also pointed out that the pontiff had missed the social media mark to a considerable degree because he had assumed that digital social media functioned in the same top-down, one-to-many way as mass broadcast media.

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