For several years now, since the demise of ONEvoice! magazine, the Church of God in North America has been without a significant publication to convey teaching, inspiration and information. This summer, at the NAC, Communion together was introduced, and now four issues later it's time to evaluate our latest attempt at a periodical.
Unlike previous publications, stretching back to the Gospel Trumpet, Communion together is not really intended to be a broad-based magazine. Although available to anyone for download online, Ct is targeted specifically to church leaders (i.e. mainly pastors) who are automatically mailed a copy every two months. Each issue contains a wide-range of brief articles covering everything from missions, church ministry, doctrine, Church of God news and more. And it's all presented in a 24-page newsletter format with simple design. No gloss. Nothing fancy. But, it gets the job done in a straight-forward, easy-to-read manner.
It is inevitable that printed materials such as Ct will become obsolete as we move more and more toward electronic communications. In the meantime, however, Ct helps fills the gap for our need for better communication and teaching.
Nevertheless, there are shortcomings. In an age of social networks and blogs the value of interaction becomes even more critical than ever. Ct isn't setup for that type of dialogue. For example, recent issues have a section called "doctrinal discussion", but conversation is purely one-sided, with no opportunity for true discussion. As I will illustrate in a subsequent post, such interaction is needed for the true intent of Ct to be realized.
In any case, after four issues Communion together has demonstrated itself to be a valuable tool for the Church of God.
What are your impressions of Ct?
(Disclosure: I have an guest editorial in the latest edition of Ct. )
Unlike previous publications, stretching back to the Gospel Trumpet, Communion together is not really intended to be a broad-based magazine. Although available to anyone for download online, Ct is targeted specifically to church leaders (i.e. mainly pastors) who are automatically mailed a copy every two months. Each issue contains a wide-range of brief articles covering everything from missions, church ministry, doctrine, Church of God news and more. And it's all presented in a 24-page newsletter format with simple design. No gloss. Nothing fancy. But, it gets the job done in a straight-forward, easy-to-read manner.
It is inevitable that printed materials such as Ct will become obsolete as we move more and more toward electronic communications. In the meantime, however, Ct helps fills the gap for our need for better communication and teaching.
Nevertheless, there are shortcomings. In an age of social networks and blogs the value of interaction becomes even more critical than ever. Ct isn't setup for that type of dialogue. For example, recent issues have a section called "doctrinal discussion", but conversation is purely one-sided, with no opportunity for true discussion. As I will illustrate in a subsequent post, such interaction is needed for the true intent of Ct to be realized.
In any case, after four issues Communion together has demonstrated itself to be a valuable tool for the Church of God.
What are your impressions of Ct?
(Disclosure: I have an guest editorial in the latest edition of Ct. )
4 comments:
Lloyd, I find "Communion together" to be an interesting and helpful publication. As a new pastor in Michigan, I enjoy reading it when it arrives.
But I agree with you in that the era of print publications is quickly fading away. Ultimately I believe it's (a) the cost and (b) the lack of real interaction that will drive publications like this out of business in the end.
Unfortunately, I believe that the technology for encouraging interactivity and "real discussion" is not quite easy enough to use (nor standardized, in the way that e-mail has become standard) for printed periodicals to evaporate. As a case in point, I tried to use myChog to begin a discussion about the Doctrinal Discussion article in November/December's issue. As of today, my post has received responses from two other people.
(Of course, my opinion on myChog is that we shouldn't try to reinvent the Facebook wheel.)
In any case, as long as the cost of "Communion together" remains manageable, I think it's a good resource for pastors. I'm looking forward to reading your article!
--David Aukerman
Lloyd, I use Face B ook, like so many others, but I find it lightweight, faddish, and less than email. I continue to believe that while "Communion Together" may satisfy promotional needs for our agencies, there will continue to be broad-based lack of satisfaction with anything less than a hard copy broad-based subject content written by free lance and other than agency personnel. The one thing I will agree with is that the church at large is quite lacking in support of what I am advocating. However, evangelism, pen preaching, and theological discussion will fall by the wayside until we do get back to the printed page.
I enjoy Communion Together and think we still need a print publication. Lloyd,I think you're probably right that print days are limited, but I don't think we're there yet. Until we are it is nice to have the printed word.
I'm a book lover, so I still hope books will never disappear.
However, I love the interactivity of e-discussion and I think Facebook is great. A recent article in my blog was written by my daughter on her Facebook page and it was so good I copied it. We could do more with the social network sites and use them for ministry.
As the editor of Communion Together I value the discussion and feedback provided here and elsewhere.
I agree that the digital world for communication offers and exciting and interactive environment for us to share with one another. However, many still prefer the legacy of a printed publication. So for the foreseeable future, CT will be a printed publication that is also available online for download. We are exploring ways to make CT even more user-friendly online (not having to rely on downloading a .PDF file). We will continue our efforts towards improving as time and resources allow.
As for the Doctrinal Discussion aspect of CT. We have continued to encourage the discussion of those subjects identified in CT (and other) to occur at MyCHOG, the social network for the Church of God. There, we are unconstrained by print space or publication deadlines. I encourage all of you to engage in the discussion and start your own.
As to why we are using MyCHOG instead of Facebook as the primary platform, it is a matter of security and convenience. MyCHOG is a membership controlled venue for in particular, those who call the Church of God, home. We can have an honest and open discussion amongst ourselves without opening it up to any special interest group to try and hijack the discussion. I would liken it to a family having a discussion of their personal business inside their own home. They probably would not want to have it in the middle of the shopping mall where every passerby could listen in 9or make a comment). With that said, of course we are not opposed to the discussions being held elsewhere (like here for instance) or even on Facebook or other social media. The idea is to foster the discussion of key issues facing the church.
Thanks again for sharing your thoughts on CT. Please keep them coming.
Blessings,
David Farlow
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