If you met Mark Horvath two years ago, you might not have been pegged him as a revolutionary. In fact, as the Director of Communication for a megachurch, you may have thought he was like most readers of churchproduction.com. (Mark told me he thought it was funny that Church Production didn't cover his project when he was actually in church production, and now that he's not, we've called him.)
When Horvath's position was downsized, he hit a personal financial crisis. While scary to any of us, for Mark it hit home a little more than most. You see, he had lived this scenario before. Fourteen years ago, when he lost his job as a television executive, he found himself living on the streets of Hollywood Blvd. Mark rebuilt his life back to a three bedroom house and a 780 credit score only to find himself losing everything including his house to foreclosure this last May. Rather than let fear paralyze him, he got busy. Horvath picked up a camera--a tool with which he had years of professional experience--and began listening to the homeless allowing them to tell their own stories… which he posted unedited, uncensored and raw to create the vlog, invisiblepeople.tv.
Horvath explains, "It isn't hard to comprehend a man's slow spiral into invisibility. Once on the street, people start to walk past you, ignoring you as if you didn't exist… much like they do a piece of trash on the sidewalk. It's not that people are bad, but if we make eye contact, or engage in conversation, then we have to admit they exist and that we might have a basic human need to care. But it's so much easier to simply close our eyes and shield our hearts to their existence."
What Horvath couldn't have predicted was how a video log and the social media outlets he had initially set up for his job search in marketing would be transformed into advocacy for the homeless. Hardlynormal.com and @hardlynormal on Twitter have become a medium for bringing the story of homeless individuals to a demographic that might never otherwise hear their names. Even more unexpected are how Horvath's efforts have gone viral drawing the interest of CNN, various charitable groups and even the Ford Motor Company--who sponsored a road trip for Horvath to tell the story of people across the US displaced by the downturn in the economy .
"A year ago, social media was the only tool I had." Horvath says. "The real miracle of social media is when you take it from the virtual world and bring it into the real world to affect real positive change "
"It be great if we used social media not just to fill our own seats but to communicate with each other. For example, one day I was at Thompkins Square Park in the East Village (NYC). Over the course of two hours, five different churches came and fed the same people. Five blocks away, there is a faith-based rescue mission that helps with housing and jobs. If the churches had coordinated, the rescue mission would have been able to save their food budget and pour into housing and jobs." Horvath explains that it isn't enough just to take sandwiches to a park and talk with people for an hour. "We have to get them out of the park."
In taking his fight against poverty online, Horvath has drawn support outside of the local church. "For the church to be able to really embrace social media," Horvath explains, "they need to be able to embrace different people. I get support from people who know I love Jesus, but I also get support from communities outside that. If you really allow social media to have its full affect it takes church and puts it where you really are. I'm for Sunday mornings. But as long as we only focus on Sundays and a building we won't have impact. Church is what happens after we leave. We have a crisis coming and as the economy gets worse we need to get better. Every night that I help a homeless family find shelter I am having church"
Horvath explains that a game-changer is the level of transparency that social media requires. "For social media to work, you have to be willing to be transparent. With transparency, your world really becomes small in a way that you've really got to look around. When we are only looking at ourselves, our world is big, but once you start opening doors, it becomes small. Not everybody wants that. Churches and nonprofits don't want to change. Social media is about listening and engaging people right where they are at"
While there are many moving stories at invisiblepeople.tv, perhaps the one most compelling for me personally was that of Joe, whose story is written in poetry at hardlynormal.com. I cried for Joe's death after reading the poem (And am fairly certain I am not the only one.) Horvath is changing the world through social media, and it occurs to me that if he hadn't engaged, that Joe might have remained invisible. Instead, his life is honored and his loss is mourned.
If you want to join Horvath's revolution--you can actually do it via social media yourself. Take the posts that move you and let them go viral. Then, when you are ready to translate from social media to the human connection, partner with your community's rescue organization and join them in the fight.
