The Theology and Technical Training Quagmire

I followed up Seminary by selling computers,  getting my first PC,  and soon began picking up HTML from the early Web sites.  After a couple of computer support jobs,  all the while beginning to write about the possibilities I saw for Online Community and the Church (I picked up a head of steam on this after reading Howard Rheingold's The Virtual Community),  I went to work in a Church related setting.  What I had hoped would enable me to move quickly toward seeing some of my dreams of working amongst a community of people seeking ways to build online community and enabling people to find some elements of koinonia online,  was not to be.  Online community seemed to be a distraction to some ,  and therefore never a priority on anybody's list (or anybody who ultimately mattered in deciding what got project money).  It was often a time of deep disappointment,  many of those times a disappointment in myself for failing to convince;  I couldn't seem to sell it.  But this situation was not unique.  Companies and also Churches continue to miss the power of "the conversation",  and give up way too early.  When discussion forums "fail";  when activity doesn't just blossom immediately (often because they expected that somehow, these communities would happen all on their own).  Nobody expects Churches to have successful and vibrant communities by simply building buildings,  but they expect the mere existence of online forum areas to be inviting and challenging all by themselves.

So on I rant about what amounts to the cluelessness of the Church in technical matters.  Communication is such a key component in ministry,  and in the management of ministry (time management, communication management, helping the staff and members manage,  being a resource and not a clog in the commuication pipe between Church members,  between the Church and the people with whom they come into contact,  and helping the Church members get to know one another).  The last of those communication tasks is where I feel the Church is most clueless.  The Web is not a highway advertisement board,  even though Superhighway was used and worn out as a metaphor for the Internet.   On the Net, people can not only communicate stories as well as information,  they can also FIND such things if they are looking for some sort of identification and validation of their own journey in the experiences of others. 

Churches have become such EVENT-oriented places,  that people do not know those whom around they are seated,  "taking in" the performances.  One can only assume there is a tacit agreement and support for the kind of message and content being presented.  The larger the "audience",  the less likely this becomes.  Unless the people are also involved in smaller groups,  they are not exposed to the testimony of others,  except for that given in the public performances,  which are often "pre-selected" and tailored for a mass audience. 

Online, on the other hand,  if the Church can be an encourager of telling stories,  and encouraging people to express what moves them and to write wherever the spirit moves us,  about the things which we have seen and heard,  and to use the vehicle of Web communication technologies to the very heights of our creativity and "technical knowledge",  then we are being good stewards of that set of tools. 

© Copyright 2003 Dale Lature. Last update: 9/23/2003; 3:40:27 PM.