The Web itself is a good case inpoint that illustrates how Hyperlinks indeed subvert Heirarchy.  Church related folks are already out there “subverting”,  doing Weblogs, linking to valuable conversations,  thinking about how this thing called the Web can help the Communication tasks in the Church.  Staff to Members,  staff to staff,  layleaders to members, staff and layleaders to public;  how do we “help the Church tell its story”? 

Meanwhile,  conversations are conspicuously absent on Church sites,  Denominational sites,  and almost any kind of Church related site.  Where forums are offered,  they are not actively linked and promoted and encouraged.  Churches say that they emphasize laity and then betray this philosophy by non-verbal,  contextual clues such as putting the pulpit at the center — putting the sermon at the highest point of emphasis,  publishing the articles of staff to the exclusion of stories of experiences and opinions of the laity.   The Websites of Churches emphasize brochure stuff like Worship Service times,  pictures of the staff,  directions to the Church,  and some newsletters (although the Web version is often more than a month behind the version of the Monthly newsletter already in the hands of members). 

The days when the clergy are more educated than the laity are gone.  In fact,  where technology is concerned,  it’s almost never been the case.  Businesses and the “Business World” are on the forefront of promoting tools that connect people for every reason under the sun other than the enabling of conversation and shared knowledge among Church communities.   Weblogs are swarming over every topic under the sun,  and Church denominations are asking “What’s weblog?”,  and so the visions and ideas about what the Church can do to assimilate some technology strategies remain “in the trenches” and out of the Denominational heirarchies.