Criteria for Excellence
in Cyber-Sermons
for FUUCI

     The following criteria for cyber-sermons
were created for the members of
the First Unitarian Universalist Church of the Internet
to be used in deciding which proposal
to select to become the next Cyber-Sermon-of-the-Month.

    (These criteria should reviewed and revised from time to time
in light of actual experience and feedback from the members
and other reader of cyber-sermons.)

1. Cyber-Sermons are short.

     Because cyber-sermons are read on computer screens,
they should not take longer than 15 minutes to read aloud.
The text of a cyber-sermon is about three pages long,
1500 words, 100 sentences, ten kilobytes (10,000 ones and zeros).

    If the cyber-sermon is presented in audio or video format,
it should not be longer than 20 minutes.

     This very condensed format encourages readers
to invite others on Facebook to read them.
And when the cyber-sermons are only 100 sentences in length,
they are easier to translate in other languages.

     The authors of cyber-sermons have squeezed out
all unnecessary words.
This condensed writing style causes us, the readers,
to slow down, instead of scrolling quickly thru a text,
which we are used to doing with most poorly-written electronic prose.
If this reputation for being concise is maintained,
we will know that cyber-sermons contain no extra words.

    Perhaps, FUUCI will become a sermon digest service.

2.  Cyber-Sermons are creative and original.

     One major complaint against the very concept "sermon"
is that it is old, boring stuff that has been heard many times before.
While there might be a place for 'maintenance sermons'
in ordinary religious organizations,
review and re-statement of time-worn truths
have only a background place in cyber-sermons.

     The members evaluate every proposals
for originality and creativity:
Will the readers discover something new
---ideas they would never encounter in any other way?

3. Cyber-Sermons benefit the readers.

     Another common criticism of traditional sermons
is that they are more about what's going on in the preacher's head
than anything of interest to those who hear the sermons.
There is a place for personal sharing in sermons.
Personal stories are especially appropriate if they help us
—the readers—to identify some experience within ourselves.
Cyber-sermons are a service for the readers
rather than an expression of the ego of the author.
Because the next cyber-sermon-of-the-month
is selected by the members,
it must genuinely address issues already very
alive in the minds of the people invited to read it.

4. Cyber-Sermons are top quality.

     The readers alone are the ultimate judges
of the quality of cyber-sermons.
Readers who find a particular cyber-sermon
lacking in useful insights simply ignore it.

     The vast majority of sermons
created in the history of the human race are low quality.
In your years of listening to sermons,
how many sermons were so good that you wanted to hear them again?
This is a high standard to meet.
And it might not be achievable in the first years of FUUCI
because the number of proposals will be small at first.
But thereafter, FUUCI can ask for the very best sermon
a contributor has ever created during his or her whole career.

     FUUCI can afford to be very selective,
because it is the first (and so far the only) such organization in the world.
Local congregations must be content with
whatever their ministers produce on any given Sunday.
But this cyber-community is freed from the constraints of time and space.
We can ask for the best sermons ever produced anywhere.     
FUUCI will create meaningful ways
of evaluating cyber-sermons after they are published.
How did the members respond?
How many of them found a particular cyber-sermon
good enough to invite others on Facebook to read it?
How many of these other people eventually were drawn to FUUCI
because they found meaningful ideas in our cyber-sermons?
Which cyber-sermons created the most thoughtful discussion?

    The people sitting at their individual computer screens
are the final judges of the quality of cyber-sermons.
If an offered sermon does not measure up,
readers can stop reading.
No one is compelled to sit thru a boring sermon.

     But, of course, a cyber-sermon should not try to please everyone.
The author should not 'water-down' what he or she has to say
in order to reach the lowest common denominator
among potential readers.

    On the contrary, cyber-sermons can be quite specialized.
If the sermon has intrinsic high quality,
at least some readers will recognize its depth and significance.
Members vote for proposals that seem most meaningful to them.

    In FUUCI, there is no way to miss a great sermon,
because cyber-sermons are not limited to a particular time or place.
It will always be available in the FUUCI library,
ready to be read again
—or read for the first time by people who discover FUUCI later.
Cyber-sermons are eternal !
by James Park, webmaster. revised 1-4-2009; 1-17-2009; 4-3-2010; 5-17-2012;
4-29-2013; 7-12-2013; 12-30-2013; 6-4-2016; 10-10-2020;

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James Leonard Park—Free Library