Here are few guidelines on how to engage
with others online for creating and living within a healthy society. How
do we facilitate a faith group online that focus on enabling the
participants to live their faith than just learning about their faith. In place
of meeting in person, how do we move into meeting online? What skills does an online facilitator need? Here
are few tips.
A.
Listen
- To listen and not hear with subjective
interpretation, prejudice, hasty judgement that mostly resound echo of our own
thoughts.
- To “Listen with the ear of the
heart” (St. Benedict)[1], so
that what you listen to, helps you “to inform your understanding”
- To avoid talking too much.
- To avoid responding always with “churchy”
answers to all the questions they ask
- To know when to encourage someone to speak more
- To know when to keep someone from hogging the
conversation by “gatekeeping.”
- To summarize what participants are saying and
use that as a springboard to move onto something new.
- To charge your thinking,
change it, change your words for better understanding.
B.
Accept
ALL as they are, as Christ accepts
- To trust in the wisdom of the group and the presence of Christ in each of the members of the group.
- . To engage the other with respect, honor and dignity.
- To acknowledge the God-values and Creative-Spirit within each one.
- To recognize that ALL are equal-in-God, - a foundational human commonality.
- To consider all those who share Christian faith (Gal. 6:10) as well as ‘others’ as pilgrims journeying together, thus embodying the life-in-Christ to others.
- To invite everyone to come with their gifts and allow a feast to come out of it
C.
Be a bit
humble and simple
1.
To avoid being a know-it-all facilitator.
2.
To be frank, honest and
willing to confess own weakness and ignorance.
3.
To admit mistakes done, or
misunderstood, and apologize, for the consequences fell on others.
4.
To believe we are not the
best, that we need less of praise, notice, or try to project the self as
know-all-stuff.
5.
To speak up, gently,
succinctly, without raising our voices, thus getting past an initial reaction
to a more thoughtful response, if it is necessary at all.
D.
Joy, Youthfulness
and Laughter
1.
To laugh, but guard against using
false humour at the expense of another, to debase, or to dismiss.
2.
To avoid sarcasm and jokes that
are dishonest and unclean.
3.
To shower mercy and joy
through shared laughter on what is beautiful, good, and true,
4.
To offer all of the participants a sense of
unconditional positive regard.
5.
To celebrates the other, by
being a great ‘joiner of souls and healer of rifts’.
E.
Run the Way
of the Lord.
1.
To ‘run on the path of God’s
commandments’ (Ps 119:32), making our hearts overflow “with the inexpressible
delight of love.”
2.
To think on how Jesus would facilitate a group.
a.
When he argued with
Pharisees and showed pity on those who were sheep without a shepherd, he wasn’t
known for saying, “I’m sorry, Peter and John, but you’re just wrong; let me
[teach you] something’ about God and truth.” Instead Jesus asked questions
of those who were with him. Think of his first encounter with Bartimaeus when
he asked, “What do you want me to do for you?”
b.
Jesus invited others
to be with him and have dinner with him (e.g. Last Supper.), and he said, “I am
the way, the truth, and the life.”
3.
To invite them like Jesus, into a process of
discovery in finding “the way.”
5.
To replace them with reading
of Scripture, lives of the saints, instructive treatises and novels, to
increase one’s point of view and refresh the mind and soul
6.
To re-enter the fray energized
with a healthier frame of mind and body.
7.
To restore the health of our
society by reason, religion and loving kindness.
F.
Use a
“language of mystery” with poetry and beauty in hearts:
1.
To act not as teachers of a
subject but facilitators of an encounter to deliver the content.
2.
To create a climate of prayer
by a conducive background in the room.
3.
To employ a language of
mystery through colour, background display, quotation, etc.
4.
To utilize: music/singing,
silence, storytelling, sign and symbol, charts, ppt presentation, board, movement
and gesture, sacred space, ritual, and works of mercy.
5.
To trust that participants have as much faith in
God as you have and allow them to share it.
G.
Technique to lead the group in
productive ways.
1.
To invite others to share their own answers to
the question presented
2.
To admit if I don’t know something and promise
to get back to the person later with a response.
3.
To know that they are not always interested in
answers;
4.
To invite them to their vulnerability and that
they aren’t the only one who struggles
5.
To fulfill their desire to connect and feel
connected to others in their faith.
6.
To make it a journey into the process of coming
closer to God and not a class, nor a lecture, nor a chore.
H.
Demonstration: e.g. Having an
online book discussion group
This
can be part of an adult faith formation programs in the parish over a video
conferencing through Zoom call.
1.
Not needed to invent new content or new
approaches; just begin doing what you do during a personal call on the
Internet.
2.
Participants with their computers/ smartphone/
tab participate for one and a half hours.
3.
Doing a pattern of six-week modules each for Lent,
Easter, Advent, and same between Sept-Oct, New Year to Lent, and six weeks
after Easter
I.
Format for an Online Session
1.
Everyone checks in with each other.
2.
One person is selected to give an update on the
week and invites everyone to do the same through a group discussion.
3.
Person who speaks chooses the next speaker until
everyone shares. (“popcorning,” with effects on power structures in
multicultural groups as well as equalizing gender differences. (See Mutual
Empowerment Method in Eric Law, The Wolf Shall Dwell with the Lamb)
4.
Then pray on anything that was noted in the
check-in: a birthday, an anniversary, a parent who is ill. Thus exploring
group’s energy and experience
5.
Begin to discuss the book reading for the week
and identify any strengths that we saw.
6.
Use the same technique as used in the check-in,
allowing everyone to speak.
7.
Provide a 10-minute prepared observation about
the reading in order to go in depth on one or more of the subjects.
8.
Everyone discusses what they think of that
prepared observation.
9.
Close with a “check-out” just like the check-in,
along with the basic question: What are you taking away from this evening?
It might be something from the book, it might be something that the presenter
said, something that a fellow member of the group said. It builds a real sense
of affirming the goodness and faith in one another that takes hold of the group
when done in a trusting and supportive environment.
J. How
to interact and follow protocol ?
1.
A video conference has to have clear rules.
2.
Poorly run video conferences lead to a draining
of energy and time.
3.
Have a clear and empowering way to hold a
meeting, especially on Zoom.[2]
4.
Remind when someone finishes speaking to pick
the next speaker …
5.
Always have a prayer moment at the
beginning but we wait until everyone has checked in.
K. What
challenges are faced doing an online group?
1.
Empowering participants to stay engaged.
2.
The above methodology forces people to stay
engaged.
3.
Participants don’t know if they will be picked
next.
4.
All form part of the conversation, waiting for
their unexpected turns, while developing a trust.
5.
Participants feel quite close to one another and
supportive, and wait eagerly for the next meet.
[1] Cf. Elizabeth Scalia, Engaging Online: Five Tips From St. Benedict,
Word on Fire Blog, July 14,
2020.
[2]
Cf. Joe Paprocki, Facilitating a Small
Group Online: St. Andrew Parish in Chicago, https://catechistsjourney.loyolapress.com/2020/07/facilitating-a-small-group-online-st-andrew-parish-in-chicago/, 17.7.2020
