Being the Church, Wherever You go...
If you are not into computers please bear with this article because, trust me, It will have something for you too.
During the time I was gone I attended the 2009 MidAmerica Wee Kirk Conference. Wee Kirk is a ministry to Members and Leaders of small churches co-sponsored by Presbyterians for Renewal and the denomination and subsidized by generous churches. It is by the way, one of the best deals in the Presbyterian church, a three day two night conference including room, food, and the conference for under $100 per couple (or family if in one room) and even less for individuals. I only tell you this because on this trip, I completed my last obligation to the Mid America conference and next year will be trying to convince some of you to take a much shorter journey with me to the one right here in PA. (This year's was in Mount Pleasant)
Anyway to save money on travel for workshop leaders they get as many planning team members as possible to lead workshops, so while I was there I led the 1 hour workshop "His Space: using Social Networking for ministry in the Wee Kirk." For those of you who use Facebook or MySpace or any number of other of these sites you know what "Social Networking" means. For anyone else, it suffices to say that an awful lot of people are using these sites on the Internet to stay connected to friends and family around the world, down the street, and even in their own house.
Another old friend of mine Dr. Douglas Estes, who I reconnected with on Facebook, had at the same time just published a book called SimChurch: Being the Church in the Virtual World. He sent me a copy of the book while I was in Oklahoma. His book takes ministry on the web a step even further, exploring and instructing about an ongoing practice of some believers, "virtual churches". These are churches that exist on the internet for people to participate in on the web, apearing there as "avatars" animated representations of themselves. Now if this sounds weird to you I'll grant you that, But...
The World has become weird.
And Wired...and Wireless.
Technology, for better or worse has become an increasing part of our lives and more and more a part of the way we communicate and relate to each other. And people are spending an increasing amount of their time online.
So whether you like the online world or not, whether you own a computer or not, the challenge remains the same. Mark 16:15 records Jesus saying "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation." Go into all the world...to me, means go where people are. Online, Offline, Virtual, "real" world, wherever you are, you are the church. Wherever you find people, those people need to hear the gospel so they can respond to it with faith. People of faith need encouragement, wherever you can find them. People need Jesus. Obviously, not all of us are called to jump into ministry in virtual environments, but we are all called, wherever we are, to be the church, representing Christ to everyone we meet, everywhere.
In Christ and on the Shepherd's Path,
Mark
