This blog articles featured in this post have been revised and turned into chapters in The Rethinking Series.
The series includes each book in PDF, Kindle, and Nook formats.
Click here to view the Table of Contents for each book and how to get it
Frank Viola | Beyond Evangelical
Official Blog of Author & Speaker Frank Viola. Digging below the surface and moving beyond the shallows in today's Christianity.
What Captures Your Attention?
Beyond Evangelical: Part VII
Hi Frank,
A couple of things come to mind:
Style, perceived impact, social networking intentions, actual first reader response.
Your style in the first article is very telling. The art of speaking came through the writing, by establishing the theme and speaking each point to it, passionately and personally it was obvious by the second time you called sisters, that a re-post on #fb or #t was in order.
Perceived impact can work either way:” eek he’s to hard for the #fb people i know, so i don’t think i’ll bother”, or ‘man, i wish my friends knew about this’ factor. I have my own hang-ups about what i post on #fb, primarily due to audience, and sometimes the thoughtful comment of my wife will make me remove a #fb. post. I am connected to a lot of family, and sometimes youngsters, and some topics may not be that helpful for some of them, and i’m not really brilliant at categorising everyone and rating all my shares.
Another perceived impact issue is that the current day’s news – like in your newsweek article #forget church etc.. is quite relevant, people may find it valuable to them due to the current happenings in media. At the moment there is a lot of ‘atheist’ related posts in Aust. because there has recently been given a lot of air time on national TV broadcasters, and an atheist convention in melbourne. So people are posting atheist stuff, sharing links etc from both sides ad-nauseum.
Social networking intentions are for me sometimes just blatant self promotion. Sometimes they’re earnest shares, sometimes ranting. If i actually want someone to know about something i’ve read, i’ll tell them, or directly email them, share on their #fbwall. Otherwise it’s a bit random, and the expectation has to be low, unless you’re trying to bait your #fb audience into a response by posting something with a controversial title.
And lastly, and probably most importantly the readers actual response. I don’t know quite how high this rates on peoples retweets, or #fb shares, but If i come across things in God’s Word that cause me to repent and change, sometimes they’re worth bringing up. If i expect there to be a common interest in deep changing stuff, it’s worth a mention.
A friend of mine started sharing on #fb his “Preparation for sunday:” where he would simply choose a passage and in front of his friends tell himself the Gospel or whatever happened to be said by that passage, and it appears that the personal and devotional life-affecting response is worth a #comment, #like, #share far more than a link, or “These are not the droids you’re looking for” photo – but somehow, the droids get the posts because they’re fun.
Warmest Regards in Christ,
Dave.
I doubt I’m the first to say it, but I think these posts are popular because they all touch, in some way, on the deeper Christian life. More and more people are coming to the conclusion that there has to be more. There has to be more to Christianity than giving up an hour or two a week. There has to be more than just repeating a prayer and wearing a t-shirt and watching different movies or listening to different music. If God is real, and if Jesus is alive, and if the Spirit is testifying to these things right now, we want to hear him speak. We want to follow wherever he goes and not just follow tomorrow’s charismatic preacher, whoever he or she may be. We want God, expressed through Christ, illuminated by the Spirit.
And these posts tell us we’re not alone.
Overall, I think a hidden yet overarching theme is the human condition which calls us to attempt to make sense of what is happening within and outside of ourselves. The quickness by which we are able to consume information is a vehicle to give our desire to know and be known, a lens through which we attempt to filter our lives. All of your blog posts, in one way or another, speak to such desire.
Interestingly, the topics in the list are the same issues that appear throughout linear time within the Christ follower realm. Many of which are reflections of the same issues the early church appeared to be trying to rectify and explain as well. All of them seem to be begging the same question – How do I rectify my humanity with Christ’s divinity so that my life may be less consumed with my human condition and more consumed with right knowledge and relationship with Christ.
I am just now catching up on past posts. I shared ‘God’s View of a Woman’ on face book by copying and pasting the URL and didn’t even think about the share button. I resonated with the article as my thoughts had been dwelling deeply on the subject recently for many reasons. It was one of the sweetest, clearest images of how Jesus treated women and therefore how He viewed them that I had ever read. To me it had broad audience appeal (not much to argue about) and was such simple undeniable evidence of our Lord’s heart toward sisters. It felt like a GUSH OF FRESH AIR following suffocating theological wranglings and flat-out arguments I had been steeped in prior to getting that post in my inbox. I was deeply encouraged and wanted to share the love with others. Thank you for the clear and timely bird’s eye view of Jesus Himself interacting with the women in His earthly life. On other posts, I usually copy the URL and send it via e-mail to a few selected recipients that I know are interested in that subject rather than shotgun to face book.
I haven’t been sharing your posts lately is because I’ve been traveling for the past month and I haven’t been spending as much time reading any blogs. Once my routine gets settled I’ll pick things back up and share more often again.
On a larger scale, I agree with Mark that the reasons why some posts don’t have as many shares is a combination of how Facebook shot-guns updates to your network of friends and how controversial the blog post feels to the reader.
Even though Facebook allows you to make lists for your friends, it was still an afterthought and I don’t think their usefulness has been realized for most users yet. (For those who do use them to create groups with shared interests, this situation wouldn’t apply because you could control who would see your share.) Despite that, maybe why you still see more shares on Facebook than Twitter is because some people like to give a preface/description with the link that’s more than 140 characters. It’s like even though your Facebook network isn’t as exclusive to a particular interest, you can at least try to put up a decent buffer between you and the hornet’s nest your link stirs up.
Also, I think since a lot of brothers and sisters aren’t coming from a grace culture, but a law and death culture, they might scared to color outside the traditional lines right away. (“You mean I don’t have to goto seminary to serve the Lord?” “You mean, God just loves me for who I am?” “So I’m not a sinner bound by the law anymore, but a Saint just because God said Jesus’ blood was enough?” – Those are all really mind blowing truths that might take longer to process than other posts and readers may not be ready to share them right away.)
Another thought… I don’t know what percentage of your readers are new to leaving the institutional setting, but I think it takes time, experience and revelation from the Holy Spirit for people to really see Jesus for all His worth. So posts about who Jesus really is might get glazed over – “Yeah yeah, okay I know about Jesus, but I want to know how I can be a more effective blogger so when I talk about Jesus more people will be convicted and accept Him as their Lord and Savior.” Unfortunately for a lot of Christians, Jesus Christ is still just an addition to the 15 million other things we could be *doing* to be more “effective” for the Kingdom.
When it comes to posts like ‘Who is Jesus, Really?’ and ‘B.E VI: The Uneasy Conscience of Evangelism’, I wonder if they haven’t been shared as much because they shake identities and make us uncomfortable. Not saying that isn’t good for us.. anything that gives us a different identity than the one Jesus has given us should be pruned. But since we’re not always ready to be pruned, those sorts of posts hurt to read, let alone share with others.
I also think God has been focusing on his heart for women a lot lately. I’ve heard and seen multiple Christians – who don’t even know each other – share revelation on the role of women within the Body or on a woman’s value within the Kingdom. I don’t know what you’d call it.. an awakening maybe? But that might be why ‘God’s View of a Woman’ was shared so many times. (I think ‘A Farewell to Self-Righteousness’ would have probably been shared more often too, but at first glance most readers wouldn’t know it talked about Mary Magdalene and her value within the Kingdom.)
Thanks for the thoughtful comment, Ashley. Just a note that *most* of my readers are in an institutional church of some sort. And this blog doesn’t in any way try to get them to leave. In fact, given the new season of ministry I’m now in, I’m not talking about organic missional church on this blog. It’s rather focused on the four keynotes of beyond evangelicalism, which applies to every believer regardless of what kind of church they are part of. You’ll notice that in the top 10 posts even. Nothing about church structure of form.
Love sharing your Posts Frank, I will admit though that I tend to read your blog during the day at work and internally we are restricted from social networking sites which does not allow me to hit the share buttons as I would like. The onese I do share are usually done when I get home or when I am able to on my cell phone.
I also will cut the URL and forward to others via email.
For me, the titles usually draw me in. The ones listed above are very intriguing and attention getting. (Very vague in regard to the subject). Whenever a blog has a great “thought” imbedded or an “aha!” moment, I am very compelled to share, wanting others to share the experience. A good thought, point, or idea will most always create an emotional attachment to it, and the reader almost takes ownership of it (as far as what it means to them) and want to see others “get it” also. Your writing does a great job of this Frank! Keep writing!!
Had to laugh… I was reading this post and wondering why I did not see this on FB yesterday? Then I figured out that I was not subscribed!!! I am subscribed to “ReChurch”! (I have corrected that little problem)
In answer to your question –
They hit a cord with the reader and they like to share with others. Not everyone is a teacher or encourager.
I have not read them so can not comment on question 2, but my experience is that I don’t get comments on things I do share, so that makes me share even less than what I maybe should share.
I have learned so much from your writings (have read and studied your books/audios, and used them in teaching others). Keep sharing what God puts on your heart.
Thanks. Glad you will read the posts in the list.
Like one of the other responders mentioned, I usually copy/paste links, too, rather than clicking the “Share” button. It’s a habit I should break.
I usually share blog posts and articles that have to do with a topic I’ve been recently studying or something that God has been speaking to me about.
Word.
Hi Frank – Firstly, thanks for all that you tirelessly give!
Why most shared? I think many believers are very hungry for truth re-revealed (BTW same ‘old’ truth, however tis now being seen with new and opened eyes). See your post regarding views on women. We know there’s more truth to be revealed – and we’re hungry to see the word of God taught resulting in true freedon and love of Christ. For me, I was afraid to ask obvious q’s for fear of rocking the boat; I was afraid to be the voice of dissent. However, fear is being defeated by love all around us more and more – so it seems to me anyhow. Seems to me the Holy Spirit is doing something very, very beautiful in our time!
And I think they have in common a ‘re-thinking’ of important truths. The truth (re-revealed even) will truly set us free. Free believers ( of all convictions, shapes and sizes) are then free to obey Jesus – and Jesus is truly glorified. I ponder – what are you bringing about Jesus – what’s next – we live in truly wonderful times.
Frank,
i’m chiming in with Kelly on the “identity” (some of us are new to)and want to dig deeper in to. i do share a lot of your posts and have noticed more “likes” from my female friends, fwiw 🙂
Frank, I share your posts on Facebook quite frequently — but now I realize I might be going about it the wrong way! I tend to forget about the “share” buttons; instead, I’m copying & pasting the URL. Don’t ask me why, because I know this is more “work” than the “share” buttons (and it’s not like they’re hard to spot)!
If you’re rolling your eyes at me now, I don’t blame you one bit. 😉 I’ll endeavor to make more use of the buttons.
As for which posts get shared and which don’t: I agree with “mark,” the first to comment above, that it likely has to do with the topics that your readers have most on their hearts. As a woman who grew up in a denomination in which women aren’t allowed to speak in the assembly, you better believe I shared “God’s View of a Woman”!
And I’ve also shared the “Beyond Evangelical” posts, because every point in those posts resonates with me. I remember what it was like to sit in the pew every Sunday and think “There has got to be more than this!” — and to believe I was the only one harboring such “rebellion” in my heart. Now, I know better, and I know there are many others still sitting in the pews, harboring those thoughts and feeling terribly alone. I share your posts in the hopes of helping make that loneliness disappear.
Anyway, there are some of my own reasons for sharing. I’m sure there are as many reasons out there as there are readers!
Keep doing what you’re doing, brother.
Well, since you “axed” for our input…they do have the name “Frank Viola” in common. But I’m not sure any of our guesses as to why they were the most shared are the real reason. We can’t know what is happening (daily, seasonally) in the personal lives of your “following” population that could account for “greater than” or “less than” sharing. That’s the problem with “uncontrolled” statistics. It can be as random as “fewer people were online” one day than another day. You’ve got a finite number of followers in each media network on a given day and some of them might not “share” if they see a number of their mutual connections sharing the same thing. I’m looking at this more from the standpoint of statistical possibilities (and you really need a “control group” to generate reliable statistics) than from the standpoint of content.
Add the share/like feature to the top and you’ll get more action there. I’d leave it at the bottom, too, but putting it up top makes sure everyone sees it and plants the seed as they start reading. Of course, you can always suggest a share in the body of the text. Many times people overlook the standard features, but act on a suggestion or request.
I don’t know about your audience, but any time I do something more directed at women, I get more activity. Generally, women are more apt to share/like then men. I would guess that even the blogs not directed at women get more shares/likes from women. That’s at least true for our audience.
Randy: Fascinating observation. Thx. for the advice. I just added the share buttons to the top also as an experiment. Thanks again, bro.
I have to agree with a lot of what has been said already! 🙂
First, these blog posts impacts more women and ‘minorities’ in that those feel less loved look up and see your finger pointing towards our King. It’s a beautiful unveiling in a world that seeks to hide Him behind rules and regulations. I think we may be far more sensitive to that unveiling than most, especially those of us who have been confronted, threatened, and bullied. The words of Grace comforts us.
Second, these blog posts show a grace of God in your words, that He is working through you to reach so many people. We have forgotten what genuine vessel of Christ is like. We have forgotten what it feels to be loved by God, because we don’t always see it.
I’m not speaking on anyone’s behalf, of course, those are just my thoughts!
Love to you, brother,
Kayla
Good stuff Frank. I think more importantly than anything, you’ve been grinding it out for a long time, so you’ve developed an audience that cares what you have to say. Also, I believe that in responding to the movements around you, especially in a unique way, draws people to you.
I don’t think I’ve read all of them, and I don’t have time to at the moment, but my initial thought is that they somehow have something to do with identity: who am I as a follower of Jesus?
Thx. Since I’m not posting tomorrow or Friday, that will give you and others who haven’t read them all time to catch up.
To me the things that keep grabbing my attention are simply put, Christ Himself. I am so caught by this after so many years of other stuff. The simplicity, the beauty of the King, the Faithfulness and Majesty just keep me alive. I also love to read things about the expression of Christ in each other in the Organic life. As I am part of an organic expression here in central SC, I love reading or listening to people that have come to Know our Lord, deeply. Epignosis like knowing of the Him, that Peter writes about. The bottom line is He has caught my attention and promises to keep it, as He is the Author and Finisher of my faith! He loves me and violently Chases me. Oh how beautiful is this King…..
Thx. Greg. Though I’ve not written on organic missional church since I’ve been back and have no intentions on doing so in the foreseeable future. But your comment just demonstrates that what I have written about applies to every kind of church expression, whether traditional or non-traditional. That’s my goal.
I can’t speak for others, but your blog has, in general, helped clarify my thinking about the whole of our existence from God’s point of view. I particularly like the Beyond Evangelical posts, and I’m interested in the thoughts of N. T. Wright, so you had my attention on those points. I suppose my opinion here is deeply impacted by current reading and interest in the Kingdom (i.e., the Kingship) of God. Wright’s latest books have much to do with that.
Best regards from Georgia.
I think the majority of your most shared posts have something in common: Grace. And that includes posts like “The Art of Being a Jerk Online” and “The Forgotten Beatitude”, both of which are about the absence of grace. I’ve read almost all of your books and were greatly blessed by every single one of them, but the one that I promote like a maniac is From Eternity to Here. The reason? It did what only two other book have ever done for me (Nee’s The Normal Christian Life & Malcolm Smith’s Turn Your Back on the Problem), namely give me a mind-blowing revelation of God’s unfathomable love, grace, mercy and unconditional acceptance. And so I have been wanting to share the experience, rather than mere information. Interestingly, the one post that I have shared since you have resumed blogging happens to be your top one “God’s View of a Woman”. The reason? I wanted to share the experience of delight in beholding the mercy, favour and non-judgmentalism that characterises our Lord.
Frank,
I am a newcomer (in the past month) to your blog, and am very appreciative of the heavy lifitng you have done and are doing to help believers like me make sense of the things that have been tugging on our hearts for many years. My poor little dog jumps involuntarily every time I say “Wow!” — which happens a lot when I read your postings or listen to your podcasts.
But … I haven’t “liked” or retweeted your posts, and here is why. Facebook: everybody and his uncle is asking everybody and her aunt to “like” everything under the sun. It is wearying to have my news feed clogged up with viral advertising. I generally ignore such postings rather than exploring them. Twitter: I am being followed by, like, one person. I am tweeting in the forest.
On the other hand, I became aware of your Blog because my (awesome) pastor linked to it on the church’s facebook page and on the twitter feed. I have passed the news along to others via email and word of mouth.
I am sorry if you find this disconcerting, as it seems the least I could do in thanks for your invaluable service is like and tweet it as you request. Perhaps one of these days I will. Until then I beg your forbearance.
Ron. Thanks. I think you made the point about the importance of sharing posts, given your own experience of how you found this blog. Whether one likes FB or not, it’s a venue to share that which has impacted us.
Okay, Okay!! I’ll start sharing them more because I love almost every single one of them!! I forward them to friends and family and am going to read one (Farewell to Self-Righteousness) as a devotional to a group of ladies on a trip we take every year. I look forward every day to reading these. I have been ministered to beyond words. I fairly recently came from a church that I attended for over 30 years and feel so free! I found your blogs about the same time as we left and feel it was definitely God that lead me to them. BTW, your writings were not looked upon as biblical and we were warned about them! When I started reading them I kept looking for something to be wrong with what you wrote and I’m still looking!! I just can’t seem to find anything.
Thank you so much for helping me along the way to my pathway of freedom.
Your sister in Christ
I would say that all the posts relate to some area that we are experiencing in our own lives. Frank,I don’t understand either why more people won’t share. It only takes about 2 seconds!
I believe what they all have in common is they speak to the fact that God’s people are without an identity and anything that gives voice to, makes sense of, our condition is like a voice crying in the wilderness to rally the troops. As a believer for 30 years and a woman I have known in the depths of my being that women’s place in the church, in general, does not reflect the heart of Christ. As our role has been understood and lived out within the Church It has created an internal disconnect between giftedness, Christ’s leading and the all pervasive culture of the church which patronizingly (usually on Mothers Day) speaks of our worth and then renders us silent. Your article on Women gives voice to a huge elephant in the room. What would the church look like if women could serve their Lord and follow His leading without being viewed as rebellious or unsubmissive? What if we could be veiwed with credibility an encouraged in the Lord? I thank you for beginning to bring clarity to why things are the way they are. I would love to hear this articulated in more depth. This I would share with friends:-)
Thx yes I have gone into depth in these books http://www.ptmin.org/books
I would say that all these posts challenge conventional thinking or traditions in some way. They all have the potential to make the reader examine their own behaviour or preconceptions in light of the topic at hand. This prompts re-posting, as people are inclined to share that which causes them to re-evaluate, in the hope that it might inspire others to do the same.
Your comment, in light of Viola’s comment about the lack of reposts, leads me to consider this: You say “people are inclined to share that which causes them to re-evaluate”, yet “a relatively small number of people take the time” to share, Viola says. Perhaps part of the reason for this dichotomy is that people don’t want others to know they are re-evaluating. I used to have a “blog”, if you can call it that, on myspace. I knew who my audience was, based on the nature, tone, and language of the blog comments – the audience was the small-town church I attended at the time. I did this experiment to test my suspicions, in which I privatized the blog for one week so that only my myspace friends could read it. I gave that week’s blog a juicy title, to incite a desire to read. The “problem” I manufactured for my blog readers was this: if they became my friend on myspace, everyone would know they were reading my blog. The pastor warned people not to read my blog, so naturally, anyone who was my myspace friend would be frowned upon. I suddenly started getting friend requests from obviously fictitious profiles, some admittedly so. Of the few people brave enough to publicly be my myspace friends, some of them told me they were being hassled for reading my blogs. Maybe the same thing happens with Viola’s blogs – the spiritual police of the church might frown on other church-goers for reposting a blog by someone who wrote a book called “Pagan Christianity”. I suppose there’s no way to know for sure, but those are my sneaky suspicions.
Thx. for sharing your experience. I’m not sure there is anything I’ve written since I’ve returned to blogging that is so controversial that someone wouldn’t want to share it. Even though I wrote PC almost 5 years ago with Barna, my ministry is well received among many evangelical pastors as they’ve seen that church practice is a small part of my ministry.
So I’m skeptical about this. If I could guess, I just think many of my readers — for whatever reason — are not used to clicking the share buttons. Maybe this conversation will help that. We’ll see . . .
I would guess that on the surface the most shared posts are the ones that most relate to a person’s personal experiences. I would say that many folks who are finding your blog and consider themselves Beyond Evangelical have a desire to restore the place of women in the church, so that one hits big. Obviously, many of your readers read blogs, so an entry on blogging etiquette also hits big.
To go a level deeper, I would also say that these posts are hitting on an overall chord that God is striking in His people today to make Christ our center and live by His life.
(The one on N.T. Wright is probably there mostly because you made specific requests for people to share that one. I’m kind of surprised the interviews Wright/McKnight/Smith aren’t higher.)
Mark: It’s a mystery to me why the posts don’t have more shares on them. For instance, my posts generally get between 5,000 and 10,000 reads. Some more than that.
But as you can see, a relatively small number of people take the time to click “Tweet this” or “Like this on Facebook.”
I don’t quite understand it as clicking those buttons (or links if one is a subscriber) only takes a second. Even for people who send me private messages saying how impacted or inspired they were by a given post, many of those same people don’t click the share links or buttons, sharing the posts with others.
Hopefully after today that will change. We’ll see . . .
Dan talked about this at his blog Single Laughing Dad, on how he gets a lot of reads and e-mails, but not a lot of people willing to share.
I think the conclusion is that not a lot of people are comfortable yet with sharing what may bring down convo about *them* or, in this case, be controversial to their general friend base of “traditional” Christianity.
Sharing something means you think highly of something in the social media world. Just my opinion.
Additionally, I’ve had people argue with me that their tradition-based doctrine holds more truth than what you say. It was discouraging to speak with hostile people over something I shared and loved. But I continue to do so anyway. Others may not.
I think some of this can stem from being worried about “what will people think of me” if I share this. I don’t hesitate to share on twitter, as it is more of an interest based network. People following me are really following my interests (whatever I tweet about). So naturally I’ll share my point of view. Facebook is more person based. People follow me, and I’m connected there with people of many various interests and viewpoints (childhood friends, acquaintances, coworkers, family, church, etc). It’s a more mixed bag, so there is some consideration of “what will people think” or “who might this offend”. I’m not defending this, just pointing it out.
Personally, I don’t post very much on my Facebook wall, and if 90% of my posts are Frank Viola blog posts, it kind of loses its effect after a while. People just start glossing over it as “oh, another one of those”. So I try to choose wisely on which ones I share and put a brief comment as to how it impacted me or how it might impact others. I try to share posts from other bloggers/websites as well so that there is a little balance.
Hope this helps!
Since I know you Mark, I agree totally and it is for the same reason that I don’t like my posts tagged on certain FB groups. It’s the wrong audience for this blog.
But most of the people who read this blog in the 20/30 age group have different audiences, many of which could benefit from what’s discussed here. And for reasons that I don’t quite understand yet, many of them aren’t very active in the sharing department. In fact, yesterday I tagged over 40 of my FB friends and invited them to participate in this conversation on this post. So far, only a few have commented. So it’s interesting.
I rarely repost stuff. I can’t speak for others, but my reason is that if everyone reposts stuff regularly, there would be no way for others to actually read and consider what they post, unless there were more than 24 hours in a day or they were speed-readers. Plus, if someone is selective about reposts (that require more than 10 seconds to digest), then their reposts will not be taken lightly. The same concept rings true in conversation – people who say ten words in an hour-long group conversation may have more impact with those ten words than someone who jabber-jaws or monopolizes the conversation.