Tanya+LaSane's+ARTICLE+Page


 * 1)  Write an article for publication [2] that tells the story of your final project so that others can learn and apply what you did to their own parish or school setting.
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** Using Blogs in Faith Formation ** ** By Tanya LeSane **

Pope Benedict XVI declared a year of faith with focus on the new evangelization. Pope Francis encourages the Church to embrace the New Evangelization. In Pope Francis Apostolic Exhortation //[|The Joy of the Gospel]//, the Pope "invite[s] all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them ...." But in order to embrace the evangelization we have to know our faith.

As Director of Religious Education for a small inner-city parish, [|Holy Rosary Catholic Church], it is hard to catechize the people in our parish. Most people who are members in our parish do not live within the parish boundaries. They attend mass on Sunday but are not able to come back for any faith formation opportunities. How do you help these parishioners know their faith so they can embrace the New Evangelization?

Pope Francis in //The Joy of the Gospel// writes about one way of approaching this problem: social media. Well, to me this is almost like learning a foreign language (I was never very good learning foreign languages). I did not grow-up using social media. But that is not an excuse for not embracing this technology. How do you go about dipping your toe in the rushing waters of social media? Take a class, read a book? I did both. In this paper, I will share with you how I went about answering the Pope's request to spread "the joy of the Gospel."

Through my enrollment in [|Digital Discipleship Boot Camp], I decided to participate in creating a Capstone Project to carry out my intentions. My project was to have a book discussion blog. You might ask, "what is a [|blog]?" Dictionary.com states that a blog is a "website containing a writer's or group of writers own experiences, observations opinions, etc. and often having images and links to other websites. I decided the book discussion would be on Pope Francis' Apostolic Exhortation //The Joy of the Gospel.//

First, I choose a blogging platform: [|WordPress]. I did not choose WordPress for any other reason then it was the platform I was familiar with from class. I would advise you to perhaps research different platforms to see which one might work better for your objective. Examples of different platforms would be Blogger (www.blogger.com); Bluehost (www.bluehost.com); Host Gator (hostgator.com) and of course Wordpress (www.wordpress.com). Some platforms will cost a fee, some are free, some platform are easier to use than others, some are more accessible, i.e. you can login in from anywhere. I would choose a free domain until you decide that blogging is for you.

Once you decide on a domain, sign-up and login. I would take a quick tutorial on the platform you decide to use. YouTube has great tutorials. Also, the domain site might have a tutorial for their platform. Here is [|wordpress' tutorial].

Once I was comfortable with your domain, I installed a theme for my blog. There are thousands of themes to choose from. Click on a theme to view more details about the theme. In order for me to see how my theme would appear, I clicked live view to see how my posts and pages would looked. Many of these themes are free but elaborate, more in-depth themes are available for purchase. This being my first blog, I used a free theme. I chose a theme that best fit my blog's objective. I used my blog for a book discussion. I chose a peaceful, scenic theme. Think about the objective of your blog and from there select a theme that will enhance your objective.

Once the appearance of your blog is to your satisfaction it is time to post and create pages. What is the difference between a post and page? A page on your blog holds static content (it does not change). You usually have your pages in the navigation bar, e.g.,. About Us, Contact Us, etc. Posts are blog entries or articles, and are updated on a regular basis.

Now it is time to gather your audience. After my blog was created, I started to hand select people to be my pilot group. I decided to go with a very diverse group. I chose young adults, parents and older adults. I wanted to see how the different groups related to blogs. My group's totaled 16 participants. Some of the participants were excited about the book discussion blog, some were ok with the blog but not sure about the book //The Joy of the Gospel//, others were scared because technology can be frightening. If you decide to create a blog, you will have to decide how to invite people. Will you invite anyone or a select group? Both options have their advantages and disadvantages to consider.

I decided to have a face to face meeting with the book discussion group before we began the blog, making the experience more of a blended format. I wanted them to meet each of other and I wanted to explain to them about blogging and how to blog. It was the one and only in-person meeting we had, but it was a good idea. I explained to them how each week I would blog about the chapter we would be covering that week and leaving them questions to ponder and respond to as they read.

This format went on for five weeks. We had excellent responses and discussions. Insights were gained and I believe people grew in their faith. I did a survey at the end of our book group and the majority of the participants felt that had gained a lot from the process, but there were a few who were glad it was completed. These were the technology haters. But at least they gave it a try.

One bit of advice I would like to add is that before attempting to blog, read other blogs. It is reading and posting in other blogs that you will become better in your own blogging attempts. I hope your experience creating a blog for faith formation is as successful and as satisfying as mine was! I know from my experience that I will continue using blogs as a way to reach out to our parishioners at Holy Rosary. My next blog will be for parents of my Christian formation children.

References Catholic Church., & Francis. (2013). //The joy of the Gospel: Apostolic exhortation Evangelii gaudium of the Holy Father Francis to the bishops, clergy, consecrated persons and the lay faithful on the proclamation of the Gospel in today's world//. Boston, MA: Pauline Books & Media.