I clicked on a religious google add this morning, something that i NEVER do, and found myself reading L. Ray Smith. I read his long article on why Christian Tithing is Unscriptural and the one on a literal hell being “a Christian hoax”. And I was thinking to myself about how much information is available to everyone on the internet, and how more educated people are getting. Those who are communicators can no longer assume ignorance on the part of the hearers, as in the days of widespread illiteracy. It might be safe to assume that people have often examined both sides of an argument before they hear a message.
All of this makes Tim Bednar’s title “We Know More Than Our Pastors” sound more feasible.
In his book, “Everything Bad is Good for You”, Steven Johnson argues that the population has grown much smarter, IQ’s have increased, and it is not because of the education system. He says it has more to do with video games, multi-tasking, channel surfing and other things that make us think and react in new ways. I would add that the internet has given us information (not perspective) at our fingertips and we feel more connected to that information and empowered to react to it. Anyway . . .
Andrew–I’m right now re-writing that paper as an ebook. It will be broader than just blogging but really act as a primer for pastors on how to reconnect with a generation that has been radically transformed by their use of the Internet.
I will be bugging you to help promote a survey again;) I’m very interested to follow up with many of the bloggers I originally interacted with and hear what they think now…
tim
you should really do that and publish it. its a fantastic piece – i read it again in the bath tub this morning.
i think it is timely with george barna’s book coming out in october which will raise the question of “cyberchurch”
and you have two paragraphs on cyberchurch that should be read by everyone . .
I will quote you . .
“After a year of blogging, I no longer seek to be “the” cyberchurch, as the name ”e-Church” implies, rather I participate with bloggers who collectively link the cyberchurch into existence. (It is Alan Sondheim who said, “I write myself into existence. I write myself out of existence.”)
As believers use blogs for spiritual formation and organically form the cyberchurch, the memes we co-create are emerging from cyberspace and beginning to transform the traditional church. I believe this change will result in what may be called the “participatory church”.
dynamite stuff – hurry up and repackage it, take it further, and change that horrible title to something more palatable to pastors.