First, congratulations on being this year’s Time Person of the Year!
The annual honor went to “anyone using or creating content on the World Wide Web.” Time noted “the shift from institutions to individuals—citizens of the new digital democracy.”
Hmmm? This caused me to remember a newspaper column I wrote nine years ago (9,000 years in Internet time) about the effect of this new technology on Christianity:
There are some wonderful web sites devoted to serious Bible study and getting to know God better. (Check out www.BibleGateway.com) But, is Bill Gates going to hold your hand at the funeral home or hospital room? Does America On Line serve communion? Does Netscape let you borrow folding chairs for your graduation open house? Not really.
Real churches don’t hide behind glitzy graphics and ghost-written copy—all perfectly packaged by some over-paid computer genius. Real churches feature imperfect pastors and parishioners. And sometimes the music is dated, the doughnuts are stale and the sermon is boring. But it’s real.
Real is messy. Real is sometimes boring. Real doesn’t have all the answers.
But real is a Sunday school teacher who still loves you after you throw up in the sand box. Real is a pastor who gets out of bed at 3 a.m. to meet you at the emergency room. Real is tears of joy when a member celebrates another year of sobriety. Real is a God we can call “Father.”
So, are cyber churches the wave of the future?
Get real!
So, in this interactive, participatory medium, what do you believe?
And, again, congratulations on your well-deserved honor!
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December 17, 2006 at 18:44
People don’t like messy, Mr. Watkins….or can I call you Jim?
People, even christians, want things clean. None of that messing around with sick people, people who dress different, people who don’t listen to Air1 or K-Love, people who smell like cigarettes in church, guitar players who can’t “jam for the Lord with his instrument of praise”, teens who don’t wear ‘Jesus-The Real Thing’ T-shirts, 20-somethings w/out soul patches and goatees, people who don’t worship at the local Christian Starbucks…well…you get the picture.
Yaconelli called it “Messy Spirituality”. And that’s what it is because people are messy. They have messy lives. They have messy thoughts. They have messy relationships. They have messy minds.
As Jars of Clay said, “You will be the first one, cleaning up this mess…”
Fortunately, Jesus sees through the mess…wades through it, not caring about it.
Unfortunately, the internet gives us a nice, clean, freshly-scrubbed Christian life. But in reality, it can be, like many of us, a white-washed tomb.
My 2 cents.
Eric
December 17, 2006 at 20:21
Some early churches only had the letters of their original church planters or even third generation church planters to keep them fed. This is how scripture was before it was canonized. Now, my church will launch an internet church campus. Why? We already have a campus out of town, akin to circuit riders of old. The technology of offering messages, worship and other tools to people who share the mission we share is indeed participatory and for some who will be serviced in rural areas most people pass over, this is a must. Pioneering in this medium is tricky, though. What will come next?
December 18, 2006 at 00:40
Looks like everybody is blogging this one, but you guys have presented an interesting perspective. Nine years ago, I’m not even sure ‘blog’ was a word. It definitely wasn’t on the lips of 98% of computer users. Funny how a little time can show us what is possible.
December 18, 2006 at 11:35
I got pretty excited about this (it’s going on my vita) till I looked at some of the other winners:
Nixon
Clinton/Ken Starr
General Westmoreland
Ayatullah Khomeini
Hitler
Stalin (twice!)
Okay, it’s coming off my vita.
December 18, 2006 at 11:36
Good post. You made some fine points in the column you wrote nine years ago. And the image remix of the Time magazine is so cool, I’m going to do one for my blog.
To Eric, you made some really good points too. Indeed, we are quite messy.
December 18, 2006 at 11:54
First, I would like to thank the Lord for giving me enough extra cash to buy a laptop. I’d also like to thank my parents, Al Green, and our family dog. And I wouldn’t be what I am today without Wordpress. You guys rock.
J/K…kinda, LOL. Technology and ministry have merged in a way I never would have imagined. Blogs? I didn’t even know what that was 5 years ago!
December 20, 2006 at 18:43
I’m all for the Real connection. I got excited about the award, too, until I saw that everyone else put it on their blog. I’m with Brad on this one.
December 21, 2006 at 10:37
Hurray for us!
I don’t believe that the internet can ever replace a hug or seeing someone smile just because they see you. The internet is less messy, but the messy is what makes us human. My 3 cents (due to inflation).