The Power of Multiplatform Ministry Transcript
by Ben Ogilvie
Introduction
Ben Ogilvie:
Welcome. My name is Ben Ogilvie and I'll introduce myself properly in a minute. First, I want to introduce this video.

This is a story about a revolution occurring in our congregations. The silver lining of the pandemic. The ability to serve in-person and remote participants simultaneously in worship and other church activities. This is a huge advance for accessibility, inclusion, and outreach, but only if remote participants feel included and valued. All advances hinge on that. And it doesn't happen effortlessly. 

This video is about the tremendous advantages of multiplatform ministry and what it takes to make it happen. But first, I have some questions for you. Have you had the opportunity to experience worship both in-person and remotely, at your own or in another church?

And if so, did you feel just as engaged when you were remote as when you were in person? If you felt less engaged when you were remote, can you put your finger on why? What was missing for you?

Did it have to do with not being able to hear or see everything? Not being able to interact with in-person attendees? The language that was used? Or something else? What might have made you feel more included?

And if you had felt truly included, what difference would that have made to your experience?
Multiplatform Ministry – What and Why
Hi. As I mentioned before, I'm Ben Ogilvie. I also go by Beth and either name is fine. I use she or they pronouns. I'm a light skinned white woman with short salt and pepper hair, and I'm wearing a light blue gray cardigan over a darker blue tunic. The wall behind me in my home office is a warm red.

I'm a member of Starr King UU Church in Hayward, California, on the unceded land of the Lisjan Ohlone. Our church introduced zoom inclusion to the wider UU community with a workshop video at GA in 2023. After GA, we hosted a discussion of zoom inclusion attended by UUs from all over the country. This was the start of a community and a movement. Please join us! More on this at the end.

One reason I created this video is that there is a common belief in brick and mortar churches that the in-person worship experience is innately superior to the remote one; that this is just a fact of life; and because of this, people who choose to attend remotely instead of coming in person are intentionally choosing a second rate experience. If they wanted a better experience, they would come in person. 

At the same time, we all know people who can't come in person because of health or distance or other life circumstances, and they are not choosing to be remote. This includes some of our most vulnerable members. If you could give these folks a first rate worship experience, wouldn't you do that? As a gift of love? As ministry? That's what this video is about.

Perhaps you've heard about zoom inclusion, remote inclusion, multiplatform ministry and thought it was just about worship tech. More cameras and more microphones. And you may have thought, sure, we should do that. It just is not my top priority right now. And technology IS a part of it, because this amazing video conferencing technology is what has made meaningful multiplatform experiences possible.

But the heart and soul of multiplatform ministry is not technology, it's community. It's making sure that all our people feel included and loved. One group of participants gets excluded pretty often, and that's the remote ones. So the work of multiplatform ministry centers on them. That's why the goal of multi-platform ministry is the loving inclusion of remote participants in all church activities. The loving inclusion of remote participants in all church activities. Community. Ministry. Accessibility. Love. Loving inclusion. 

Now, maybe you're thinking we're already into all that, so why would we need a workshop? The answer is that inclusion, like love, is only meaningful in action, and only if those actions land in a way that feels inclusive and loving to the recipient. Everything we do or say sends signals that either draw people in or push them out. This workshop will help you recognize the kinds of signals that tell remote participants that they matter, or that they don't matter, and how to send more of the good signals and less of the negative ones. It will give you keys to the loving inclusion of remote participants in all that we do.

We will also share some of the inspiring ways multiplatform ministry expands and deepens our ministries. Dr. Melissa James offers a UUA Congregational Life staffer's view of how it can unlock the power and potential of our faith movement. And a retired UU minister, the Rev. Makanah Morriss, shares her vision of how churches like hers, the UU Congregation of Lynchburg, Virginia, churches that are islands of liberal religion in a sea of conservatism, can extend their radius of love and support to people who are too far away to come in person every week, but close enough for support, activism and prophetic witness.

Multiplatform ministry, like anything of substance, can be viewed through more than one lens. And all of these are important. 
●	We can view it from the headspace of technology, of cameras and microphones and screen shares. But first, we need to be in the heart space of ministry and community. Remote participants are precious, and caring for them is ministry. 
●	We can view it through the lens of equity, of two groups, in-person attendees and remote attendees, a privileged group and a marginalized group. What we learn about overcoming this inequity has valuable lessons for our other justice work. 
●	We can view it through the lens of accessibility, of doors opening that have never been open before. Of making it possible for more people to participate fully. 
●	And we can view it through the lens of possibility, of connection and outreach and social justice and an expansive future for our churches and our faith.

The remote experience will never be exactly the same as the in-person one, but it can still be warmly welcoming, deeply engaging, and spiritually uplifting. Together, we can do this. 

Next, we'll hear from Dr. James about why she believes multi-platform ministry is essential to the future of our faith.
Reflection by Dr. Melissa James
Hello. My name is Melissa James. I'm a light skinned white woman with brown curly shoulder length hair. I use she her pronouns, and I'm wearing a red and black shirt and sitting in front of a blurred out white background. I'm on the Congregational Life staff of the Pacific Western Region of the Unitarian Universalist Association, and I'm here to talk about why I'm excited about multiplatform ministry.

Multiplatform ministry is an essential aspect of what it means to be Unitarian Universalist communities today. There are four key reasons I believe this: creating community, accessibility, opening up potential, and meeting the moment. So first of all, creating community is at the core of what Unitarian Universalist congregations offer in a world where people are disconnected, looking for places of belonging, looking for places of rootedness. Throughout the pandemic, we quickly learned that creating community is not limited to when we get together in person. We learned to create community online and across platforms. Today, we have the continued challenge of figuring out how we build community when some are present with us in person and others are online or remote.

One of the reasons multiplatform ministry is central to building community is that our lives have changed and multiplatform ministry allows us to meet people where they're at and keep them included and bring them in to be fully a part of our congregations. There are many stories of congregations and fellowships no longer being restricted to a geographic area, but having members in different states or even different countries that have come to be a part of the community, because the community we offer is life giving and valuable. Doing multiplatform ministry will allow all to be truly a part of this community, whether they are in person or experiencing the community from a distance.

The second reason I think multiplatform ministry is so important has to do with accessibility. Multiplatform ministry allows us to take accessibility to a level that we've been striving to get to for a very long time. It offers ways for us to meet needs that we've wanted to meet and perhaps weren't able to, to provide visual descriptions, to provide access when leaving the house or leaving wherever you are isn't even possible, to give people multiple ways to enter into what we are doing as a communal life. I’ve seen this work for congregations in many ways, people of a wide variety of abilities finally feeling like they are fully a part of the community, members and friends and visitors who wouldn't be able to participate in things like evening meetings or evening programs being able to truly be a part of the leadership and the programs of the community.

Third, I'm excited about multiplatform ministry done really well because it creates so much potential for what ministry can look like. There's so much potential in thinking about what we can be as a movement that is not limited by our buildings, not limited to what physical access we have. The potential for growing community and growing partnerships is vast. We can think creatively about what collaboration is truly possible across platforms. We can think creatively about how we share resources.

Finally, multiplatform ministry is important now because it's our way to meet the moment. The way people engage with congregations and fellowships, with organized religion in general is changing. This is not new. People have been talking about this for a long time. What we see today is that how often people want to engage, and how people want to engage with each other has changed. And more and more people's lives are actually multiplatform. And so for us to continue to think about what the future of Unitarian Universalism is, what the future of community is, how we can expand that as far as possible, means being able to do multiplatform ministry well and creatively. Multiplatform ministry helps us build the muscle of being able to think creatively about what it means to be community, to think creatively about how we make sure that everyone has full access to that community and to think creatively about what church looks like, what our movement looks like now and into the future.

Ben Ogilvie:
Thank you, Dr. James!

And now Rev. Morris will share her vision of what church could look like with a vibrant, multiplatform ministry.
Reflection by Rev. Makanah Morriss
Hello, I am Rev. Makanah Morris. A light skinned white woman with short white hair, wearing a light turquoise turtleneck with a teal and blue scarf. I'm sitting in front of a painting of ocean life off the coast of Kauai, Hawaii. I'm a retired UU minister living near Lynchburg, Virginia. In my previous ministries, in congregations and on the UUA staff, one of my passions has been to find ways to expand our UU outreach and inclusion in ever widening circles.

I believe that multiplatform ministry offers us amazing potential for such outreach and inclusion. In retirement, my husband and I are members of the UU congregation of Lynchburg, Virginia, a small yet vibrant congregation which for over 100 years has offered a liberal, progressive message in a very conservative area. Like many other small UU congregations, the next nearest UU congregation is at least an hour and a half away.

We are an island of liberal religious thought, and there are many folks living just beyond a reasonable weekly driving radius who are seeking for a religious community like ours. Current surveys of religious beliefs and trends tell us that there are many folks across the country who consider themselves to be spiritual, but not religious, who pursue their faith journey using a variety of sacred and philosophic sources and disciplines, and who are weary of traditional churches. They are people who want to find ways to live out their progressive values. Many come from oppressed and marginalized groups. They are looking for an open and supportive community. They are looking for us. 

My vision about the possibilities of multiplatform ministry have several different aspects. First, there's outreach and connection. In my vision, we would find these folks and let them know we are here and they would join us online. They would come to us on Sunday for Sunday services and Sunday online coffee hour. They would join online in classes and groups, movie nights, fun and fellowship times, book discussions and committee meetings. And occasionally they might come in person and we would welcome them with joy. They might make the long trip once or twice a year, and when they did, we would give them a special welcome.

We would reach out especially to members of marginalized or oppressed communities, both within our local area as well as our zoom inclusive area, people who desperately need our voices and support for situations that occur daily in their communities. We would have quick response strategies that take us to where they are at the time of social justice crisis to support them as fellow members and friends of our congregation. In-person and online members and friends would come to know, feel, sense and believe that we are one religious community.

We believe in the power of our UU love and our ability to create new forms of religious community in these challenging times. I deeply believe that multiplatform ministry is a doorway to an exciting and expanded UU future.

Ben Ogilvie:
Thank you, Reverend Morris!
Key Facets of Multiplatform Ministry
When we say “we”, who is the we?
Now I'm going to introduce some technical terms that we use in our church: Zoomies and Roomies. You can figure out what they mean. I realize Zoom is not universal, but these terms are handy, so I'm going to stick with them. Earlier, I said that all the advantages of multi-platform ministry hinge on remote participants feeling included and valued. This is the starting point for everything else. There are things we do that create community, that foster inclusion, and things we do, often unconsciously and unintentionally, that undermine community, that push people away. That's what this section is about.

Now, what I just said as a general statement, I think is correct. There are things we all do consciously or unconsciously, that draw people in or push them away. In this particular context, however, of multiplatform worship and other multiplatform events, the things that Roomies do to foster inclusion or not have a much greater impact than anything Zoomies can do. Zoomies have the power to disrupt, but not to create. In most multiplatform setups, I believe Roomies are the primary ones, creating the experience for everyone. This is a generalization. I'm sure there are exceptions, but let's go with the generalization.

So in this context, when I say there are things WE do that create community and things WE do often unconsciously, that undermine community and push people away, the “we” is primarily Roomies. I am speaking as a Roomie, to Roomies. There are two points I want to make about this. One is that when there's a dominant group and a marginalized group, members of the dominant group have extra work to do together. It's like white people's work, in which white allies work with other white people to increase their understanding, compassion, and commitment to anti-racism work.

In this segment, I'm speaking as a Roomie primarily to other Roomies for the purpose of encouraging Roomie leaders to use their power for multiplatform ministry. So when I say “we” for the next few minutes, I mean Roomies. If you are a regular Zoomie, I apologize to you for this exclusion. It is in service of this work I hope we can do together. If I miss something important or screw it up somehow, please contact me. My contact info is in the handout.

My other point here is that it's always important to know who the “we” is. It really can mean everyone, or we can unknowingly be picturing some smaller group. How often do white people say “we” thinking we're talking about all of humanity when actually we're just picturing white people? Pseudo generic terms can be booby traps that get you when your guard is down. When I was a teenager, I read in a book that the basic needs of “man” were “clothing, food, shelter, and access to females.” <eye roll> When you think you're included and suddenly you're not, it's jarring. It's painful.

I believe there are five key facets to embodying multi-platform ministry. I'll go into each one separately, but here's the list. 
1.	Being clear about “the why” and deciding it's worth some effort. Why does multiplatform ministry matter? Why is it worth doing? We'll talk more about this in a minute. 
2.	Understanding micro-signaling, ways we consciously or unconsciously signal inclusion or exclusion, ways we create community with one hand and unconsciously sabotage it with the other. 
3.	Forming a team. An inclusive team. Roomies and Zoomies. Worship leaders and tech people. 
4.	Making incremental improvements and relishing the difference that even small changes can make. 
5.	Working on the long game, the cultural and institutional changes, and keeping at it.
Facet 1: Being clear about the why
The first key of multi-platform ministry is being clear about the why and deciding it's worth some effort. Why does multi-platform ministry matter? Why is it worth doing? These are questions for you to consider for yourself and as a congregation. Why is the loving inclusion of all participants important to you? If you didn't believe this was important, I'm guessing you wouldn't still be watching, so please stop the video for a minute and ask yourself why loving inclusion matters to you. Then ask yourself whether it's worth some extra effort to bring in the folks who have not been lovingly included.

Your Why might have to do with love and community, or ministry, or accessibility, or caring for our most vulnerable. All of those are good. The why for me is that remote participants are precious and caring for them is ministry. Their presence is a blessing and the church would be diminished without them. Also, we can open our doors wider and welcome more people in.

Now did you decide it's worth some effort? There is some work involved. We're not born knowing how to be inclusive to everyone in the world. For each group we want to include, we need to learn about them, be in dialogue with them, and broaden our culture and our practices to be welcoming and supportive. That takes some effort. Fortunately, we don't have to do it all at once! We can make small, incremental changes that will have an impact quickly. Now you're clear on the why. Let's talk about what works and what doesn't, starting with how we can get in our own way.
Facet 2: Understanding micro-signaling
The next facet of multiplatform ministry is understanding micro-signaling, the ways we consciously or unconsciously signal inclusion or exclusion, ways we create community on the one hand, and sabotage ourselves on the other. Micro-signals are little messages we send, often unconscious, unintended, and hidden -- at least from us. They're the little messages you get when you “read between the lines.” Negative micro-signals are often called microaggressions, but we prefer the term micro-signals, partly because it doesn't get people's backs up, but mostly because it includes positive signals as well as negative ones.

A study of microaggressions is unrelentingly negative. It's about what we're doing wrong and how to do it wrong. Less. Suppose you became so enlightened that you never did another microaggression. Would that make people feel included? I don't think so. 

Positive signals are at least as important as negative ones -- and let's give ourselves credit for them! Positive signals are important because they are life affirming. They signal belonging. They tell us we have a place in the world where we matter. There are gifts of love and respect and appreciation that we give one another. They range from small, individual gestures like a smile and a happy greeting, to communal gestures like a Black Lives Matter sign, a progressive pride flag, or a wheelchair ramp. We need to understand them so we can do more of them.

Here's an important point: How any message lands depends on the life circumstances of the receiver. For example, picture a church visitor card with spaces labeled husband and wife. What signals does that send? I'm sure it lands on some people in a very positive and inclusive way, but as a doubly queer person, I'd be outta there so fast there'd be a vacuum behind me.

Every demographic group is affected by a unique set of signals, positive and negative. This is why we can't just say we want to be inclusive and expect to be successful. We need to say who we want to include and then do the work. If we aren't in a particular group, we might have no idea what signals are meaningful to that group. If we want people in a particular group to feel welcome and included, we have to educate ourselves about what matters to them, we have to be in dialogue with and partner with group members about it, and we have to change ourselves and our culture to send messages of welcome and inclusion, and not the opposite. Part of multiplatform ministry is about caring for the remote participants we have now, and part of it is preparing for the ones who are yet to come. As consultant and life coach Dr. Crystal Jones says, "There's a world of difference between the generic ‘All are welcome here’ and ‘We created this with you in mind.’” We need to find out what matters to people and create it as best we can, humbly, with love.

Negative micro-signals are important because they send messages like You're invisible or You don't matter. They undermine our values and goals and have consequences like pushing people out. We say we want it to be inclusive, but on this other channel, this “read between the lines” channel, we unknowingly send messages that contradict it. This can be confusing for people and ultimately it's hurtful. The fact that we do this unwittingly doesn't make us bad people, it makes us human. At the same time, if we don't care that we're doing it, or don't make an effort to do it less, that says something about us. Is that who we are, who we want to be? I say no. We can do better than that. We are better than that.

Pick someone you think is vulnerable. Do you have someone in mind? Now imagine yourself saying to this person, “We don't care about you. We don't care if you have a good experience at church or not. Frankly, you just aren't very important to us.” Imagine yourself saying that. How do you feel? If imagining this breaks your heart, stay with me. 

Because here's the thing: If we Roomies don't pay attention to the details of multiplatform worship, to the unconscious, negative micro-signals we're sending, then we are almost certainly sending messages just like these. Not consciously. Absolutely not intentionally, but we're doing it nonetheless. Every time a Roomie says something a mic doesn't pick up, or something happens off camera, or we use exclusively Roomie-centric language, we are sending little messages to our Zoomies. And over time, these messages add up. If these things just happened once in a while, it wouldn't be a big deal. And if we're intentionally sending lots of positive messages as well, then there's room to screw up and still create loving inclusion. But if Roomie-centric things happen repeatedly in a service without any compensating inclusions, it's not good. Zoomies don't necessarily register this consciously. They might or they might not. This is how [one of our regular Zoomies] Stephanie Smith described it.

Stephanie Smith:
The feeling of not being included hurts. It's so painful. But it can also be subtle, like it never – it had not occurred to me to call up somebody at the church and say, I feel left out or something like that.

You know, it just sort of – you just sort of start to feel like, well, there's just nothing here for me. I'm just not, you know, I'm kind of … shrink and go someplace where you don't feel like that! And it's not a good feeling. But I think in my own case, I wasn't conscious that it was happening in such a way that I would have spoken up and tried to do something.

It just was better when somebody did something! It started to feel better and I realized, oh my gosh, this is really, really, really important. So thank you. 

Maria Clay-Emerson [another regular Zoomie]:
Yes, we appreciate that greatly.

Ben Ogilvie:
Here are some common negative micro-signals in multiplatform worship: words not picked up by a microphone; speakers or actions not picked up by a camera; Roomie-centric directions like “Turn to your neighbor and do <something>”; Roomie-centric language, which can happen even during attempts to be inclusive. Like “Now we're going to greet our remote participants.” Here's that “we” again. “We Roomies are going to greet you people over there..” The good news is all of these things are avoidable. Let's talk about how.

Facet 3: Forming a team
The third facet of multiplatform ministry is forming a team, an inclusive team with Roomies and Zoomies. I've talked with Zoomies who are struggling alone and trying to change their church and they need Roomie allies. I've also seen Roomies blasting ahead, making changes without any Zoomie input. Liberation comes from working together. Your team will also be much more successful if you include one or more representatives from the worship team and the tech team.

Facet 4: Making incremental changes
The fourth facet of multi-platform ministry is making incremental changes and relishing the difference you're making. Once you have your team together, you can start creating more good vibes and fewer bad ones. All the changes we're talking about require either cultural changes or technology changes, or both, so they'll need to be negotiated with someone or some group. Having representatives of key groups on your team will make this much easier. Enlist your minister's support as early as you can. If you are a minister watching this, please support this initiative

For changes you can make, we've shared a lot of ideas in last year's video A Zoom Transformation: Build Community, Practice Inclusion. It's still available and if you haven't seen it already, we encourage you to watch it. The link is in the handout. Here are a few ideas from that video: 

1.	Commit to saying every word into a microphone. Authorize participants to intervene when someone forgets, which will probably happen often, to say “Wait for the microphone! And when you get it, please start over.” 

2.	Add zoom inclusive elements to your worship script. The initial welcome. The invitation to visitors to introduce themselves. Joys and sorrows and so on. Just for example, we light two chalices, one in the physical sanctuary and one in the zoom sanctuary to show you that the zoom space is just as sacred as the physical space.

3.	Have a greeter for your remote attendees, just like you do for in-person attendees. 

4.	Arrange ways for Zoomies to see Roomies and vice versa, and to interact. We've added what we call the faces camera in the front so Zoomies can see who's in the room, and we put the Zoomies on the big screen in gallery view several times during the service so Roomies can see them. We wave a cheery greeting to each other at the start and end of the service. We call it the Wave. Here's what it looks like in our church. And our mobile zoom station allows Roomies and Zoomies to interact after the service and during meetings.
Facet 5: Working the long game
Ben Ogilvie:
The fifth facet of multi-platform ministry is working on the long game and keeping at it. While you're making incremental improvements and people are seeing the difference it makes, start spreading the word and gathering support. Recruit the minister if you haven't already, the entire worship team, the tech team, and your governing board. Get a church policy approved. Get the worship script changed. Promote the attitude that remote participants are just as important as in-person ones, and we include everyone because we care about everyone. Once you get pretty good at it -- and this will be determined by your Zoomies -- then the amount of effort drops way down because you will have institutionalized the changes and developed cultural habits of inclusion. But backsliding can happen so easily. Plus, there's always room for improvement, so regular assessment and feedback is essential.
Summary
Okay. Wrapping up. Let's recap a few of the WHY’s of multiplatform ministry, the loving inclusion of remote participants in all church activities. 
●	Remote participants are precious. Our communities would be diminished without them. We don't want them to leave. And we want to treat them lovingly. This is who we are. 
●	Caring for our remote participants is ministry. It's inclusion, pastoral care, prophetic witness. Caring for some of our most vulnerable members. Reaching out to members of marginalized communities in our zoom inclusive zone. 
●	Multiplatform ministry allows more people to come to the table, enabling full participation for many who couldn't before because of health, distance or accessibility. 
●	And this is our way to meet the moment, a doorway to an expansive new vision of community, church and Unitarian Universalism.

The HOW’s of multiplatform ministry include creating an inclusive team, getting started with incremental changes, appreciating the changes, and making steady progress on the long term cultural and institutional changes.

Call to Action
If you have been moved by this video and I hope you have, here are some things you can do:

●	Watch our video from GA 2023:  A Zoom Transformation: Build Community, Practice Inclusion. It shows what we did, things you can do to and the impact it had and continues to have on our church community. It's still available. Anyone can watch it and the link is in the handout. It's a good video to use with your membership committee, worship committee or governing board.

●	Share this video (from GA 2024), The Power of Multiplatform Ministry, with everyone! 

●	Evaluate where your church is on multi-platform ministry. Our Multiplatform Ministry Startup Kit can help with this. Identify opportunities. Get started..

●	Learn more about micro-signaling. We have a handout: Micro-signals: Key Concepts. It’s worth a whole conversation in itself.

●	And last: Please join our community. We can help. We're a learning community. We have regular monthly meetups and we have a Google group for communication. 
○	Please join us Monday, August 26, 2024, 5 pm pacific, 6 pm mountain, 7 pm central, 8 pm eastern for our first post-GA meetup! Register here
○	Join the UU Zoom Inclusion google group to get meeting notices and correspond with other community members.

Feel free to send questions and feedback to me. Ben Ogilvie, at zig@starrking.org. Thank you!