Become a #Digidisciple

We’re keen that being involved as a #digidisciple in the @bigbible project is a pleasure rather than a pressure, so here’s some guidance about what we’re looking for, and you can decide whether to partake or not in our section reflecting upon “living Biblically in a Digital Age”.

Contents

1 What are we asking our #digidisciple(s) to do?
2 How often do I need to post?
3 What do I post?
- 3.1 Tweetup Blogs
4 Does it have to be a particular format?
5 Can I sign up?
6 So what next?

What are we asking our #digidisciple(s) to do?

We are looking for Christians who who would be prepared to blog on a regular basis on The Big Bible Project site, allowing us to share your journey in the digital space(s), from whatever perspective… and let’s have ‘Bigger Bible Conversations’, flooding the online space with positive Christian material.

How often do I need to post?

We seek to provide at least one story a day on the Big Bible site, but, with careful planning, could take 4-5 a day.

You can define whether ‘regular’ for you means, e.g. monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, bi-annually.
We do ask that you commit to a regular schedule/specific dates, as we will be creating an overall schedule (currently experimenting with Google Calendar)
If you want to take a sabbatical, change the frequency or focus of your posts, etc. just keep us informed in plenty of time please.

What do I post?

We’re all for authenticity here, so we’re keen for you to post about the things you are already interested in/involved in/want to experiment with. People who blog about the things they are already passionate about… the passion comes across in the blog post!

See what others are blogging about, or suggestions include:

Find topics that will get people talking to each other (whether that conversation occurs on the blog, through Twitter, Facebook, etc.): bring offline conversations online and allow them a bigger audience.
Think about how being a Christian changes (or could change) the way that you engage in digital spaces (where possible supported with appropriate Biblical texts), and potentialy change the way that others work online.
Think about how the digital world allows our conversations to change, and how to we have ‘bigger Bible conversations’ digitally, or in physical housegroups (especially encouraging those who might set up a new housegroup for The Big Reads), or how the digital contributes to the ‘blend’ of conversations and activities (e.g. have you ever tried geocaching!).
Find ways to share information/build networks so that the wheel is not being constantly re-invented, and, in these times of tight resources, share our expertise with each other.
Highlight postive Christian work already occurring, allowing others to be inspired. This can include reflecting upon how digital tools have increased your Biblical literacy, or changed the way you engage with the Bible.
Encourage those who are too scared, or don’t understand why we need to be in the digital spaces, with practical advice, convincing argument, stories that demonstrate how you have grown, or seen the value of social media at work.

We will seek to provide further suggestions for topics for blog posts, and are planning some ‘themed’ events. We are interested, however, to see what you feel you can offer… from philosophy to the practicalities.

Tweetup Blogs

We have already arranged a number of ‘Tweetups’ (Twitter account not required), where discussions of this nature have occurred. We will arrange more, including sessions where we will work collaboratively to produce #digidisciple themed blog posts by the end of the session (others please let us know if you’re doing the same).

Does it have to be a particular format?

The Big Bible Project uses WordPress, which allows most types of electronic format… text, images, video, audio, slideshare… so there should really be no limit aside from what helps you get your thinking or your message across!

We are keen to encourage creative expressions, and in the words of Erin McKean, it’s not always about ‘putting a plug’ on what is already pre-existing, but the old ways are also sometimes the most appropriate, so please don’t let the technology impede your content! If all you are comfortable with is emailing us with content for us to upload, that’s OK, although we will try to provide you with enough information to do it yourself if you’d like to!

Can I sign up?

Yes! It doesn’t matter if you’ve never touched a computer before, but are keen to share your journey (the good, the bad, and the ugly) with others as you dip your toe into the digital waters; whether you work with social media for a living and are keen to share your insights and expertise; whether you are a philosophiser/theologian discussing the issues that the digital space has raised; or something else that seems to fit within The Big Bible Project remit, we’d love to hear from you, and be encouraged, inspired and challenged by your insights!

We are all on a journey in the digital space, and can help each other along… as with the Christian faith, there may be no ‘gurus’ or ‘experts’, but some can lead us along the digital space, whilst we can all encourage others. As you can see from The Conversation Prism, there’s many different social networks and no one can be an expert in all of them!