App provides daily reminder of faith
A new application created for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus encourages teens and young adults to help others through an act of kindness during Lent instead of giving something up for the 40-day season.
The app, called Face Forward, came out of a marketing push the diocese has been working on for years.
In 2009, a priest and then-director of vocations at the diocese, the Rev. Jeff Coning, reached out to MJ2 Marketing in Dublin for help reaching a younger crowd, and drawing some into the priesthood.
“The vocations director approached us to help him particularly with faith-filled messaging in the communities kids were hanging out in,” said Megan James, president and digital strategist at MJ2 Marketing. “He called Facebook the new town square and he wanted to permeate it with messaging that reflected faithfulness.”
Now, Face Forward, an online platform, has a presence on several social media sites, a website and a blog. The blog includes posts about Lent, and “paying it forward.”
The Rev. Paul Noble, current director of vocations at the diocese, has helped with the development of the app, and hopes it offers Danae King ................................................. 614-461-8756 Email: dking@dispatch.com
Catholic teens a “spark to think about” religion.
“I hope they are thinking about their relationship with the world around them, and with God and God’s plan,” Noble said. “They’re bombarded by a million things on a daily basis. I hope one bombardment will be ... affirming and caring.”
Kristen Moses’ sons, ages 16 and 13, use the app every day. Moses, the outreach coordinator at MJ2 Marketing, made her sons download it when it came out, and the family uses it together as a reminder to do good deeds and pray for priests and seminarians.
The app offers a daily verse, a prayer for priests, a saint and a quote about the world around them, called the Common Home.
“It’s faith at your fingertips,” said Anne Harkin, director and content strategist at MJ2. “Small chunks of info ... like sound bites.”
Noble hopes the application will be a resource for young men hoping to become priests and help them learn more about seminarians.
“What I want them to be thinking about is how are they in service of the community?” he said.