Rob “Rounds Me Out” on youTube/mySpace

Rob over at eministrynotes.compresented “the other side of the coin” on the youTube issue  as we talked a bit by email this morning.   I respect the work Rob and his team does to try to make the web a tool we can use for ministry and discipleship.  But first things first: congrats go to www.eministynotes.com

Outreach Magazine has put together their Top 20 Web Sites for Church Communicators for 2007 where…you’ll find 20 killer sites that can inspire you, save you time and help you do your job right. In short, they make your life easier. Isn’t the Web a wonderful thing?  I’m kinda partial to number 14 [www.eministrynotes.com]  –Rob

So, the esteemed Rob’s point on this subject was the we can choose to be light in the dark, just as we can be with a presence at myspace and other social networking type avenues out there. 

While youTube may not be the best service to host and share my baptism videos or home family videos, there is still room for Christians to post things there to attempt to bring light.   I hope we CAN make a difference in the ads seen there.  I think we can! 

End result?  Let’s keep our avenues open for ministry, and decide when those same avenues may not be appropriate for families.   While it may not sound like both can co-exist, they can.  It’s hard to know where to draw the line.  For instance, our church youth group put up a myspace slideshow last week on their “new spot”.  The first middle ad on that spot for that day, in between Compassion International type ads we COULD choose was this main banner THEY chose for us…

( I can’t upload it at the moment.  Showed Tyra Banks in a strapless bikini with the question:  “Is Tyra Banks fat?” )

I chose to not put up with that kind of advertising I have no control over on my own website.  But, that is a risk we are taking to try to engage in the culture of our youth, myspace is so much a part of their culture today.  I hate to think my son is almost near the age of having to address it at all, and pray we can build other platforms that respect our values more.  Lord, help!

Back to youTube:  in researching today, I found that youTube DOES post a code of conduct to help keep lewdness and “shock value videos” down so that the heinous things I mentioned yesterday can be checked.  Here are the guides :  (http://www.youtube.com/t/community_guidelines).   ALSO, there is also a way to flag a video as inappropriate.   I did not click on the video to do so.  Just avoided it and got disgusted.  We NEED to stay involved and keep that stuff pushed back from mainstream.

It’s hard to walk on both sides of the fence depending on goals and mission, but that’s what each of us must do.  Thanks so much Rob, for “rounding me out”, and thanks for inviting me also to respond to your web ministry post on the subject when you get it up presenting the “family point of view”.  When that goes up, I’ll invite you to go check it out.

Walk Strong!

~Maggie