Ok, I know this is really old news for the blogging community, but when I read this on Wired’s News this morning, it brought a few things to mind thatmade me want to join the chorus of bloggers blogging the breakthroughs in politics the Dean campaign is realizing thru the Net.

“The Internet community is wondering what its place in the world of politics is,” Dean says. “Along comes this campaign to take back the country for ordinary human beings, and the best way you can do that is through the Net. We listen. We pay attention. If I give a speech and the blog people don’t like it, next time I change the speech.”

Of course, I carry this over into lessons for the Church

It continues to sicken me when i see the Church missing this so badly. They don’t listen, and they don’t pay attention. It continues to use the Broadcast model; top down, pronouncements from above. The ones who DO talk about “community” do so in an empty, corporate sense. They speak of community as those who “care about all this stuff that they are DISPENSING/PUSHING to us. It’s all about THEM. “OUR denomination is doing this, our leaders say this, our Churches are wanting you to join.”

But when one looks around at the sites of these Church “communities”, there is next to NO conversation happening on a medium that was begun by conversation and collaboration. It seems that they downplay the value and potential for human conversation so they can supposedly put more bodies in the pews, but the “potential pew sitters” aren’t buying it. And in particular, the ones who are leading the mini-revolutions in conversation are not talking about the Church becuase the Church has not recognized the power of the conversation.

I find this disturnbing and sad. In my spiritual “inheritance” from the Church of the Saviour, there is the sense that we all have a CALL, and in order for this to be nourished and “midwifed”, there MUST be plenty of opportunities for exploring this with the community. But we don’t know each other. We have no clue what CALLINGS are bubbling around us, and when this passion is given no outlet, then other avenues are sought. Weblogs have unleashed a torrent of political engagement. The Dean campaign , as in the quote I began with, LISTENS, and has built an environment onthe Weblog technology that provides a place for speaking and listening to what we care about.