{"id":182,"date":"2009-09-15T10:07:00","date_gmt":"2009-09-15T10:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2009\/09\/psstwant-to-hear-a-secret-about-vocations.html"},"modified":"2009-09-15T10:07:00","modified_gmt":"2009-09-15T10:07:00","slug":"psstwant-to-hear-a-secret-about-vocations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/09\/psstwant-to-hear-a-secret-about-vocations.html","title":{"rendered":"Psst&#8230;want to hear a secret about vocations?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You&#8217;re looking at it.  <\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s the web, stupid.  <\/p>\n<p>John Allen has <a href=\"http:\/\/ncronline.org\/news\/new-study-reveals-rays-light-vocations-front\">an intriguing interview<\/a> up with Holy Cross Br. Paul Bednarczyk, executive director of the National Religious Vocations Conference.  He finds glimmers of hope on the vocation horizon, and he explains one important tool that really works: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p> <a href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/Sq-g4EEvHNI\/AAAAAAAAGME\/3k1eXUgbVrE\/s1600-h\/monk.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:left;margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer;cursor:hand;width: 221px;height: 320px\" src=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/Sq-g4EEvHNI\/AAAAAAAAGME\/3k1eXUgbVrE\/s320\/monk.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>You\u2019ve got to be present on the Internet, including making use of online promotional materials, keeping your Web site up to date, and so on. Given the diminishing numbers in religious life, young people are more likely to meet a congregation when they Google \u201cvocations\u201d than physically. Having a successful Web presence helps, including social networking, Facebook and Twitter. Some communities post video clips, or invite people to e-mail members of the community. At [the National Religious Vocations Conference], we launched a vocation-network.org site in response to sites like eHarmony.com, in this case connecting candidates with communities. You can fill out an online profile, which includes things like your geographic region, desired community size, whether or not they wear a habit, etc., and at the end a list of maybe 20 communities pops up where you can begin your discernment. We used to rely on mail-in coupons, which would generate maybe 1,000 responses a year. Over three years, this Web effort is averaging about 7,000 responses a year, which obviously confirms the importance of being on the Internet. A high percentage of these Web contacts say they expect to be in an initial formation somewhere within a year.<\/p>\n<p>You don\u2019t want to be too slick, of course. What\u2019s most important is that there has to be consistency between what you say about yourself on the Web site and how your community actually lives. If a candidate comes in and senses an inconsistency with the lived reality, they\u2019ll move on.<\/p>\n<p>The thing to remember is that these are only tools to bring someone into contact with a real person. Relationships are ultimately what make the difference. Any program or event that brings a potential candidate into relationship with members of a community is very helpful, such as \u201cCome and See\u201d weekends, retreats and so on.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>  Check out the rest.  It&#8217;s fascinating.  And encouraging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You&#8217;re looking at it. It&#8217;s the web, stupid. John Allen has an intriguing interview up with Holy Cross Br. Paul Bednarczyk, executive director of the National Religious Vocations Conference. He finds glimmers of hope on the vocation horizon, and he explains one important tool that really works: You\u2019ve got to be present on the Internet,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,11,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links-r-us","category-media","category-vocations"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Psst...want to hear a secret about vocations? - The Deacon&#039;s Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/09\/psstwant-to-hear-a-secret-about-vocations.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Psst...want to hear a secret about vocations? - The Deacon&#039;s Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You&#8217;re looking at it. It&#8217;s the web, stupid. John Allen has an intriguing interview up with Holy Cross Br. Paul Bednarczyk, executive director of the National Religious Vocations Conference. He finds glimmers of hope on the vocation horizon, and he explains one important tool that really works: You\u2019ve got to be present on the Internet,&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/09\/psstwant-to-hear-a-secret-about-vocations.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon&#039;s Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-09-15T10:07:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/Sq-g4EEvHNI\/AAAAAAAAGME\/3k1eXUgbVrE\/s320\/monk.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"deacon greg kandra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Psst...want to hear a secret about vocations? - The Deacon&#039;s Bench","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/09\/psstwant-to-hear-a-secret-about-vocations.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Psst...want to hear a secret about vocations? - The Deacon&#039;s Bench","og_description":"You&#8217;re looking at it. 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