No. Neither of these are true but I know I would get a gazillion comments on that post. What really sucks is this:
My previous post is about one million people deciding to follow Jesus with the assistance of some new web tools and only two people thought it interesting enough to comment on. Sometimes the blogosphere seems very shallow to me. I wonder what tasty pieces of trivial gossip will be served up today?
Technorati Tags: driscoll, mclaren, sucks, the inherent shallowness of the blogsophere, things that piss me off
Andrew Jones launched his first internet space in 1997 and has been teaching on related issues for the past 20 years. He travels all the time but lives between Wellington, San Francisco and a hobbit home in Prague.
I’ve just left a comment on the previous post. Hopefully it will start some discussion.
Give us a break mate. Allow at least 24hrs for us to comment before you start pointing the bone at us for shallowness! Some of us are only part-time cyborgs. Personally I got both the posts delivered at the same time when I logged on this morning.
no excuse, John, I am still going to come over to your house and kick your butt. i know where you live!
nahhhhh . . . let you off this time . . .
OY VEY! – ummm i went over to the site and prayed! Plus, i don’t read your blog religiously 😉
xoK8
Thanks for the post yesterday… and the kick in the pants today.
I was really touched by the site. I just wasn’t able to comment. But it is a good point. Love your blog! It keeps me on my toes.
Hmmm, aside from the fact that I’ve never commented here, I (maybe too quickly) assumed that the “1 million deciding to follow Christ” site was sort of like people getting married on facebook. I still don’t get that, “We’ve been married for 23 years in real life and now we’re married on FB.”
I think I speak for many of us here: We want to hear road reports from the maiden voyage of the TallSkinnyKiwi-mobile. If you guys could just get a big poodle to go along with you, it could be Travels with Charley 2.0.
road reports will start soon. thanks for your encouragement. still fixing up the truck and getting rid of junk.
C’mon, I swear I get an invite a day to put my name on some list saying that I did something or support something. It’s a waste of time and does nothing more than bloat the head of whose idea it was in the first place.
You seem to have enough people on the post pointing out valid reasons to be skeptical, or at least giving you reasons as to why there may not be as many posts as you hoped for on the previous post.
hey man i just got online after being off a few days and have not even read the post yet…I do get what you are saying though…seems people do tend to go for the gossipy stuff more
Nathan, all the skeptical comments are from westerners who are naturally skeptical, especially the religious community who have good reason for their skepticism.
i am a little skeptical of our skepticism, and of our immediate need to declare publicly our skepticism, because watching the decisions pop up on the map [tunisia, then turkey, china, morocco, etc] seems to coincide with the same places around the world where thousands upon thousands of people are believing in Jesus.
Despite our skepticism, this is normal. Millions around the world are becoming believers of Jesus, often connected with miracles and dreams, especially in Asia, India, Bangledesh, Turkey, and the other countries on this map where decisions are being registered
a little childlike naivity would be a fresh gift to a stale western church.
ok – i admit i had some attitude this morning. watching House on tv must have rubbed off. sorry.
i considered my decision not to comment on “click here to accept jesus as your savior” as an act of generosity towards you and the lovers of god who worked hard to make it happen and who are celebrating with the angels over whatever good it was that came out of it.
Andrew, this disconnect between the Western church and the church in the Developing World was eloquently expounded by your friend Carl in GloboChrist. He warns the emergents not to be too tied in to uber-hip urban youth culture and the aesthetic of being cooler than thou. And while the Westerners sit around being skeptical sipping their “fair trade” coffees worrying about their “carbon footprints” (see the comments in your post on your “Adventure After Advent post) the rest of the church (the REAL church) is putting their lives on the line and in some cases dying for the gospel. Not to mention Islam is growing like kudzu in many areas around the world. Yes, there IS a disconnect with the Western church and the church in the rest of the world. You alluded to that in the post yesterday entitled “Postmodern Doubt & African Certainty”).
Andrew this is something I would like you to tweak out and develop. You have the love, wisdom, and respect to say tough things to both sides i believe. Heck, even in your grumpy, post-“House” moments you’re still pretty darn nice 🙂
Wow, did do gay churches exist?!
🙂
Please ‘did do’ ignore that last comment 🙂
I must say that I too was a little skeptical reading about those ‘online’ conversions but Greg is right; sometimes I need to be shaken out of my skeptical, pomo, meta-mood and realize that Jesus is still building His Church while I update my facebook status…
But at the same time Dave, I don’t want to make it sound like somehow those in the Western church are not as “godly” as they go about updating facebook statuses or sipping their fair trade coffees. Jesus always brought it back to the heart and so should we. The strange irony is that, for me, it’s easier to be a person of faith living under a certain amount of danger and persecution rather than living in the safety and comfort of the suburbs.
I think about two books I read in high school – “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley and “1984” by George Orwell. One society is ruled by pleasure and libertinism while the other is ruled by an authoritarian dictator where fear and control abound. Now which society do you think would be easier to be the church? We could make a case for both – b/c the gospel is powerful and transcends many types of cultures – open or closed. However, the irony is that, in my thinking, a 1984 type society (like China) would be better ground while a Brave New World type society (perhaps northern Europe and Amsterdam in particular or perhaps Bangkok) would be much harder ground.
What does this say about human nature? Volumes, I believe. Thoughts?
Andrew,
Honestly, I thought yesterday’s post was a sarcastic joke. I didn’t even follow the link. My bad.
Please remove my name from the shallow list. 🙂
I followed the link and was too amazed by what a good looking site it was to come back and comment. That, and I was at work.
To be honest though, my sinful flesh is usually attracted gossip and sensation. Thanks for the rebuke.
On top of that, I had a similar frustration trying to rally folks to pray for the persecution in Orissa. You had posted about it one time, I half-heartedly read it, and it wasn’t till later reading it again that I was captivated by it enough for it to consume me to pray and fast for a period of time.
Thanks again for continuing to post this stuff Andrew. You inspire me more than you know.
Sorry Andrew – I thought you had found a parody site. But you’re right – it is truly amazing to see how God is working outside our borders.
BTW-According to DA Carson, how could Brian repent when he doesn’t believe anything in the first place. Can one repent ex nihilo? |-) |-) |-)
Don’t get me started on repressed homosexuality among the “Muscular Christianity” crowd. :*)
RobbyMac – probably half my fault because sometimes I link to those joke sites, and sometimes i link to silly christian sites, without a warning or explanation, so when i link to the real thing, its not always obvious.
Hi Andrew!
Here are some more thoughts on this.
I still think it is very difficult to know how many who click actually do become Christians. I’m not convinced that it is very clear that clicking on the prayer equates with a lifetime commitment. In a similar way I think it is often not clear what raising a hand in an evangelistic meeting really means. There is a tendency amongst believers to assume that praying the prayer, raising your hand, going forward, etc equates with conversion. But from the point of view of the responder – at least in my limited experience in the West – that is not always the case.
If someone is interested in Christianity and getting converted they may well search the internet for information and click through this site, particularly in countries where Bibles and other literature are scarce. So if this isn’t clear that clicking equals committing then I also wonder how much clicking on this site is actually the way God brings people to himself.
In the light of this I think we all have a responsibility to represent the gospel well on the internet – to be accessible, but not over simplified or sentimental – celebrating, yes, and critiquing each others work.
Does that make any sense?
hi david
yes – i am sure many who click may not genuinely be turning over their lives to Jesus but rather registering a first step toward him – same as a crusade or a quick prayer after reading a tract.
Of course its more than a click. This website, which is already in many languages, leads people through a process and at the end of that process invites a decision.
i guess i am not as skeptical as some because i have met Eric and have heard stories and it really is something to celebrate . . and to consider regarding the next steps.