Best known as the Internet Pastor at Gateway Church in Austin, Texas, Vince Marotte recently penned a new book titled, Context & Voice. I first learned about Vince’s latest venture when he was our guest on the M2LIVE Webinar, where he spoke about the subject. I was intrigued then and believe he’s touched on a subject that’s long been overlooked by many church leaders – using the tools of communication to not simply inform, but help move people from all paradigms in the right direction spiritually.
Leading up to the recent release of his book, Vince was good enough to respond to a few of my questions.
1. When you were featured on the M2LIVE webcast in 2010, you mentioned that Christians now have the communication tools to “level the playing field.” How does the Church influence the conversation?
Web tools give us access to literally every internet connected person in the world … just like CNN, the New York Times, MGM and any other mass media company. Prior to our current reality, only they controlled channels with anywhere near that reach.
It starts with understanding that there are three aspects to influence in terms of content. A person or organization needs to understand how to balance content creation, content sharing and content consumption. Clay Shirky touches on this in his book Cognitive Surplus (which every leader must read). There is a need for balance of the three. Too much creation and you are simply a broadcaster. Too much consumption and you are marginalized by never being in the game. Too much sharing and people will tune out your channels since you have nothing fresh to bring.
2. As a communicator, how do you build a relationship and earn trust with your audience?
Same as a relationship that exists outside the context of social media … be engaged. Listen. Ask open questions. Be influenced by the audience. People want to enter into relationships wherein they have a voice to shape the others involved. If it’s only about the content you create as a communicator then you are in trouble because Rob Bell, Francis Chan, Mark Driscoll and many others do that way better than you do.
3. How do you empower your church volunteers to help create online content?
We have to give them the keys. That scares a lot of leaders but at the end of the day you have to free people up to create. They are going to make mistakes or mis-communicate some things but those are great teaching moments. Of course a lot of training really helps. That’s why I wrote Context and Voice; it’s primarily a training tool for leaders and teams looking to get into new media spaces. I worked hard to keep the book short for that reason.
4. How does a church define a voice and tone of content?
It starts with understanding content layers which define the spiritual journey of someone coming out of culture to become the church:
Culture > Front Door Content > Relationship > Relational Content > Action
First; understand the culture you’re trying to reach. Second; define the channels, voice and content types that best fit as front doors to that culture. Third; establish relationship with culture. Fourth; invite them into space where relational content can be shared. Lastly; invite them to act on that content by becoming a Christ follower.
My thanks to Vince for the gifts he shares. If you or your communications team is interested in purchasing Vince’s new book, please visit ContextandVoice.com.
