One of the problems missionaries can face in using New Media is being too serious or too formal. Don't get me wrong -- our messages about Christ or the Restoration are super serious! But the way people understand the importance of our message isn't always through stating that message like a sermon or a formal lesson. (Remember: A blog is not a pulpit.)
Let's say I want to tell the world about the importance of families. I could quote the Family Proclamation (which I believe in strongly). But I think I'd rather start with a clip from some family time at the Burton home:
That little clip has been played over and over in our family. Maybe it's not funny to you the way that it is to us, but this has now become part of our family folklore. Do you have moments from your own family life that have become enshrined in your common memory? My son is now 14, his voice deepening, and of course that little Mickey Mouse voice now just seems all the more funny to us. I love that video because it reminds me of lots of good times, just like that one, when all of us have been together laughing. Even as I write this blog post, right now, my wife is getting a picnic ready for us. We're going to go down to the lake and throw a frisbee, putting off yard work so we can enjoy time with our two younger sons.
"Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities," says the Family Proclamation. True words, and I hold to them. But I first want people to know me, know my family, and then they will believe such words. It doesn't work as well the other way around.
I'm so glad that with New Media I can show my beliefs, not just tell them. I can be personal without getting into others' faces (they can always click away, right?). I will keep stressing the power of the personal because this is where New Media and our faith combine so well: people believe what they see evident in your personal and everyday life. They are more likely to believe that the Burton family lives by the principles of the Proclamation when they can hear us giggling at a two-year old Inigo Montoya saying, "Prepare to Die!" with his cardboard sword.
Okay, my wife just came in while I was blogging, insisting on watching that video again. Now she's saying the lines from it as she is blow drying her hair. We smile back and forth to each other. Time to go gather the boys up and head to the lake. Life is good.
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