A couple of weeks ago, before the vacation and before a big push at work to get some urgent projects done, I brought up the subject of church and social networking. I had to scroll back and find when I had done that, since the busyness of the past couple of weeks has apparently pushed that thinking and motivation to the farmost back burner. The post prior to that one, on Church Stories, is even more to the point of what I hope for from Web 2.0 (or if there’s a 3.0 coming). I’m looking closely at what I want to do re: a smart phone (ala IPhone, pocketPC, whatever).
I’ve sort of given up finding much of significance STARTING with the Web in the area of Theological/church community. It seems as though the web interaction I was having in 2004-2006 has slowed quite a bit. Maybe that has come into sharper focus as my frustration with the lack of church in my life has grown since being exposed to the Hauerwas’s of the world who have lifted up a focus on the church as the formative body , without which we are sitting ducks to be sucked in by the culture and further isolate ourselves from the resistance we are called to build in a city made from the building blocks of the Kingdom.
During that period, I also visited the Church of the Saviour a couple of times, and there too, the call to the church as the “alternate society” that enables us to overcome our addiction to the culture is continuously held up.
Why on earth isn’t this a common cry in blogs of other “orphaned” seekers everywhere? I know there must be others. I’m not just talking about a general dissatisfaction with the church as it is (or seems), but a longing for an intentional association where the individualism is swept away in favor of accountability that would consider it nonsense to be so unaware of what others in our community are experiencing in their lives. This idea of sitting and listening to religious-social commentary being offered up to us as some sort of Salv for our consciences, and the churches acting as if this should be sufficient (and none of the churches would say that Sunday attendance is “sufficient”, and yet they never get at just what constitutes the real requirements of a formative body that we are supposed to be )…this idea represents an avoidance of the revolutionary nature of the church. It poses no threat to the status quo, as it seems to exist solely to soothe us and assuage our consciences enough to placate us for another short period.
It’s been a great disappointment to me over the past couple of years that nobody who knows me and reads this blog has ever so much as commented or emailed or called me up to say that they’ve heard me, or to react in any way. I would have expected, in my apparently idealistic notion of online community, that SOMETHING would have come of my nearly constant revealing of how utterly isolated I have come to feel re: the church, and if there will ever be anything “close enough” to a match that would give me a notion to “try”. I feel a great sense of resistance to “trying” in a context where there is never any sign of the notion that accountable community is not just an option, but that our very existence as a church depends on our expecting that of one another. From my end, right or wrong, I have come to feel that no one is really interested in “how I’m doing” beyond the casual sense of that question , to which one is socially obligated to say “I’m good”.
Barista,
I really appreciate your words. It is indeed sad that we choose (I choose, also , in this case, so far at least) to “adapt”, as if it is expected (in some twisted way it actually is, but that’s our culture, and not much said in the church to not only disagree, but to attack and dispel that notion re: our own way of relating to one another. A whole generation of evangelicals,mainliners, pentecostals , and Catholics ave grown up hearing God’s story told as an individual spiritual battle. Very few put up a good fight against it, even as they may payt lip service to how we’re a “family of God” and “community”. It gets to the point sometimes that the church is no better at embodying this than the secular companies who call themselves families or communities. At least in the church there is always the possibity that they might accidentally hear something from God about being called to be a unique city and a different politic, and change takes place and they start being a church.
Thanks again for your thoughts and encouragement.
Dale,
Isn’t it tragic that we live in a culture that elevates individualism while also diminishing community and leaving us feeling alienated and alone?
And isn’t it equally, if not more tragic, that the church, which should be a community that assists us in the desert of loneliness, is not consistent in offering it?
And, finally, isn’t it sad that we adapt individually to our aloneness and fail to reach out to each other even when we feel alone ourselves?
Take heart. Know that there are others out here yearning for the same. As you say, we need to be more responsive to each other.
I DO indeed listen to InternetMonk. I may go and see him some day. He is my age, and grew up in the same hometown (Owensboto KY), and we both attended Southern Baptist Theological Seminary , but I only know him from the IntenetMonk site. He’s written a lot of good stuff. He is a long time mainstay in my RSS feed. I think I remember the post you are talking about.
Thanks again for posting, Gary. Drop by anytime.
As an Ekklesia Project member, I’ve also been influenced by Hauerwas, but have also had some mixed influences from other theologians, primarily NT Wright and Dr. Gene Davenport (cited in Hauerwas’ commentary on Matthew) a retired professor and friend.
Do you ever listen to Internetmonk? He talks about the evangelical wilderness and in a recent podcast mentioned his affinity for Saint Francis because Francis seemed to be shaped by the changes he wanted to see in the church, and was able to influence others along that path as well.
He encourages those of us who feel that we are wandering in the wilderness to avoid cynicism. It’s a good reminder for me. I am fortunate that I have a church home, but I often wish for one that was a little more Mennonite, or a little less Baptist, etc.,. etc.,. Well, obviously I could talk all day about this. I should have gone to EP this year just to remind myself that I’m not alone, but I didn’t have the time. Good to “meet” you.
Gary,
Thanks for posting, and I’m glad to know you’ll be checking back. I met Kaz and Charlie thru Eric Lee, who soon will be heading to Nottingham to study with Conor Cunningham (you may already know that). I got to meet all three of them face to face in January 2007 when we all came to a theology conference in KC. Stanley Hauerwas, one of the featured speakers at the KC event, has played a huge part in my present dissatisfaction/disappointment in the church as it seems to be around here, as well as the Church of the Saviour in Washington DC, about whom I often rave and desire a commmunity of that sort (I have a couple of related books from that community under my “Church of the Saviour” tab, as well as a tag for posts about them or mentioning them.
Again, thanks for registering to comment and all you subsequent comments are automatically approved. I look forward to hearing from you in the future.
Dale
I went to the trouble of creating a wordpress account just to post here, all because you have some of the same friends I do, (Kaz, Charlie) so there’s something encouraging about web community, but you’re right, it’s not a great place to start. It’s helpful for maintaining ties, not starting them. I’ll subscribe to your blog now though, so keep telling me how you’re doing.
Peace.
-Gary