Mitch asked me to put something together for a section in the new church website, which is due out soon. So I put together this:
Reimagining Community
Ever read those articles which start by stating a question, and then, in the process of attempting to answer that question ends up revealing more and more questions? This is one of those articles.
I am very much a 21st century man; a typical Gen-Xer, if you will. And I have been trying to imagine how the church will, and should, change in order to better meet the needs of this century.
My area of concern is that of communication. In many ways it would appear that we are trying to communicate in exactly the way that Jesus communicated; we have confused the medium with the message. Jesus was a thoroughly modern man – he communicated using the methods and style of teachers in his day; parables, groups of disciples, preaching on the hilltops were all things of his time. But what of ours?
People are just beginning to catch on to the televisual media that has been so embraced by our culture. Churches are beginning to use video and music to challenge and teach. This is brilliant; this is so last century.
Welcome to the 21st century; this century is one of interactive media, of websites, instant messaging, discussion forums and podcasting. And no, podcasting is not a reference to the parable of the sower!
Do you have an email address? A website? A weblog? Any online friends? An instant messaging account? An mp3 player? An RSS feed reader? If you don’t know what these things are, then maybe you should find out. The iPod generation is upon us (no matter how much the mindshare annoys me).
What would Jesus do? Well, I reckon he would embrace these media, because they are the media of the day, and he would use them to promote His message – the Good News, that is timeless – forever cultural and yet ultimately counter-culture.
mrBen