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Sharing the faith through social media
A few months ago a couple of high school students in McCook came to me asking to start a Bible study. I wasn't sure if it would fly at first; but they got on the ball, gathered together a good-sized group and so we went through the Gospel of John. After that things started to grow a little; they wanted another Bible study. Now because of their faithfulness and enthusiasm I thought we could extend it to two Bible studies, the second one being led by the students' themselves. They agreed and started going around to see who was interested. But then a problem arose--all their communications and planning were posted on a Facebook group and I wasn't on Facebook. So I could either pass along every little piece of information that needed to be communicated so that they could post it on Facebook or I could take the dive and join myself. I decided to go with the latter. In about two day my jaw began to drop because I realized how powerful a tool Facebook is for communication.
About a week later as I was looking through my news feeds I noticed a few posts that shared some ideas that simply weren't true. I was still new to the social media world and didn't know the best way to respond: leave a comment, write a post, send a message, or what? Then the idea came to mind that I should try to make and post little video clips that go into the basics of philosophy, especially the philosophy of man. I started to go through my seminary philosophy notes to see if it was feasible. After some prayer, reflection, and study I decided that the philosophy of man wasn't the way to go. Instead I should teach the Catholic faith itself. I thought about using the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults as the basis but this book, while not as big as the Catechism of the Catholic Church, still had too much material for a series of short video clips. Fortunately, in 2005 Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI following the work of Bl. John Paul II promulgated the Compendium Catechism of the Catholic Church which is a 175 page "Q & A" catechism summarizing the 688 page Catechism of the Catholic Church. Needless to say, I decided I should go with the Compendium Catechism. Since I wanted to present this material in short video clips, I thought of the name "Compendium Clips" for the title.
Then the next problem came--how do you make a video? Last year I purchased a Macbook Pro and lo and behold there was a little program on there called iMovie, voila! You can film, edit, and insert images, sound bits, and transitions--everything for which I was looking. Realizing that Compendium Clips was feasible I began to plunge into the world of web design, domains, GoDaddy.com, Google Sites, YouTube, Facebook Pages, and Twitter. Now, while I didn't immediately drown I came pretty close; and so, swimming to the comfort of the shore gave up the idea for a few days, thinking 'Well...do I really have time for this? Is this what the Lord really wants me to do? Will anyone even watch the videos?' Then the difficult, yet, very fruitful, practice started to kick in--Trust in Jesus--meaning I didn't and still don't know if I am going to be able to see the whole project through or how fruitful it will be. Up to now I've had the time and inspiration, and at this point it looks promising to reach at least some.
Presently, I have the web site designed and established on the web with the URL of www.compediumclips.com. My YouTube channel is up and running with four Compendium Clips currently posted. And Compendium Clips now has its own Twitter account and Facebook page. To close, check out Compendium Clips, a series of short video clips on the teachings of the Compendium Catechism of the Catholic Church.