Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Are We Accomplishing Anything?
I have, of recent days, become very pessimistic about the state of Godblogging. I really wonder if we are accomplishing anything worthwhile. I am going to risk insulting a lot of people here, I don't mean to, but when egos are as involved as they are here, I think it inevitable.
With a few notable exceptions - like the affect blogs may have had at the recent SBC conventions - all I see happening is us shooting our mouths off. I don't think blogs played any role in the recent PC(USA) General Assembly which is what I know best, and I think they should have.
I just get the impression that they have become places where we vent. We vent because we can't teach what we want in church. I know if I taught the kind of class I'd really like to teach people would stay away in droves. We vent because we are frustrated professionals, with apologies to the genuine Christian professionals among us. We vent because we don't like what is happening in our churches, and we feel powerless to do anything about it. We vent because we just know we are smarter than everyone else, but nobody believes we are. We vent because that blogger over there said something incredibly stupid.
But in the end, we have affected no change, save maybe the small salve on our souls because we have vented. But that is just the point - venting is about us and I think, as Christians, we are supposed to be about others.
I worry because if there is any single characteristic that marks what I see as the continuing degradation of the church it is "faith as an entirely individualistic undertaking" and I wonder very seriously if Godblogging has not become the ultimate expression of our individuality.
Am I just in a foul mood, or am I onto something here? How do we learn to become a faith community, particular when our writing makes our differences so apparent? How do we give that community purpose, goals, aims, and direction?
How do we become genuinely effective? At anything we, as Christians, are supposed to be doing.
Related Tags: Godblogging, effectiveness, community, individualism
With a few notable exceptions - like the affect blogs may have had at the recent SBC conventions - all I see happening is us shooting our mouths off. I don't think blogs played any role in the recent PC(USA) General Assembly which is what I know best, and I think they should have.
I just get the impression that they have become places where we vent. We vent because we can't teach what we want in church. I know if I taught the kind of class I'd really like to teach people would stay away in droves. We vent because we are frustrated professionals, with apologies to the genuine Christian professionals among us. We vent because we don't like what is happening in our churches, and we feel powerless to do anything about it. We vent because we just know we are smarter than everyone else, but nobody believes we are. We vent because that blogger over there said something incredibly stupid.
But in the end, we have affected no change, save maybe the small salve on our souls because we have vented. But that is just the point - venting is about us and I think, as Christians, we are supposed to be about others.
I worry because if there is any single characteristic that marks what I see as the continuing degradation of the church it is "faith as an entirely individualistic undertaking" and I wonder very seriously if Godblogging has not become the ultimate expression of our individuality.
Am I just in a foul mood, or am I onto something here? How do we learn to become a faith community, particular when our writing makes our differences so apparent? How do we give that community purpose, goals, aims, and direction?
How do we become genuinely effective? At anything we, as Christians, are supposed to be doing.
Related Tags: Godblogging, effectiveness, community, individualism
