Friday, May 5, 2023

Plotting Our Virtual Presence

So it turns out that in addition to being a pastor, I am a variety of "social media" conductor or "virtual coordinator" for things of the church. What that means essentially is that I am in charge of where our virtual presence is, where we offer up our service of worship on the Internet. But it is proving to be a bit more than that. This Daily Feed (until we find a better name) is also becoming an extension of our message as a church.

So, we worship on the Lord's Day, on Sunday. Sunday worship is at 10am in the sanctuary at our church, the First Presbyterian Church of Perth Amboy, 45 Market St., Perth Amboy, NJ  08861. This is where donations and support to the church and its mission can also be sent.

For worship virtually, this is "where to find us". We go ‘live’ on our YouTube channel, “Considering the Faith” or @consideringthefaith7530. To provide some context as to my level of expertise in these matters, I don’t know how to use that “@” part. We are also creating an “Event” each Sunday on our Facebook page, “The First Presbyterian Church of Perth Amboy”, to stream the service as well. In addition, this past Sunday, we also “shared” the service to the Church’s blog.

The Church blog is https://firstchurchperthamboy.blogspot.com/.

All of these pieces are set up on Sunday morning. That is how things are settled for Sunday worship right now. If the live feed gets messed up, because there can be devilry in the technology, none of it goes out. That has happened, but not lately, for which I am grateful to the Lord.

Now, we come to this, the “Daily Feed”. Its design is as a tie-in to the worship service and to the life of the church.

The Daily Feed is mainly posted to my pastoral blog, https://jesusannoyinghenchman.blogspot.com/.

But today's post, it is on the Church blog, where we stream the services. Why the difference? The pastoral blog is more theological (more 'thinking about God') in its intent. The Church blog is for Lord's Day worship and things more specific to our church life and structure, like this post of our virtual presence.

As a blog and a concept, "Jesus' Annoying Henchman" has been around for a number of years. It has not been until Covid and its aftermath that focusing in on our virtual presence has become a focal point of our ministry.

In addition, the Daily Feed is set up as a post to our church Facebook page, First Presbyterian Church of Perth Amboy. It is also sent out on our e-mailing list.

To be added to that list, please contact me via email at pastorpeter@fpcperthamboy.org.

Links to the blog post are also made to my personal Facebook page as well as to my Twitter account, @samuraipreacher. Yes. Samurai Preacher. Why? Because it is memorable and drawn from a book on Christianity in the time of the samurai.

Might any (or all) of this this change? Yes. There are updates and considerations of what should be posted that are ongoing. But, I will try to keep people updated here as we move forward.

Peace,
Pastor Peter