Nazarene Digital

A Nazarene Wrestling with Digitally Expressing the Great Commission

Tag: community

  • Our Walls, God’s Movement

    Our Walls, God’s Movement

    Look and see what God is doing, and join him in His work. If Christians around the world were to suddenly renounce their personal agendas, their life goals and their aspirations, and begin responding in radical obedience to everything God showed them. The world would be turned upside down.

    Henry Blackaby

    I love this quote that I recently heard.

    There is, however, something very scary in it, and it is how it challenges all our traditions and interpretations.

    It isn’t just the “bricks and mortar” that is being challenged. Even digital is challenged by this.

    In digital, we are very aware of platforms. The platforms shape the means and method of the message. They do not change the message.

    Walls of Bits and Bytes

    We, self-included, cannot sit within our digital four walls. We must spread out from Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, X (f.k.a., Twitter), Twitch, and whatever other digital platforms we’re on.

    Even it digital, people have already formed walls. Yes, they are only made of bits and bytes, yet, they are becoming rigid, too.

    In some ways, walls are good. In the digital realm, it can be easy to bust through digital walls, but should we? What makes a platform valuable to you? What makes a platform valuable to the people you are trying to reach?

    Walls and Culture

    This is where the four walls mindset/framework actually breaks down. The four walls of a physical local church are symbolic of the culture of the church. The four walls can be porous, rather than solid. The four walls could be so solid that nothing new gets in and everything (and everyone) become petrified.

    Digital may well have the same issues. Digital, it seems, tends to be more porous, but the platforms themselves lead to a development of a culture that is often is impossible for the unenculturated to break into.

    Oddly, that seems to be almost celebrated in digital spheres. Granted, comparing the sheer numbers in digital spheres to the normal local physical church (even the mega ones), it can seem that the digital is more open culturally. Appearances can be deceiving.

    Digital Culture Warning

    We in the digital space often point to the physical realm as the epitome of locked culture, while not recognizing our own.

    I am guilty.

    Digital isn’t for everyone, nor does all digital meet everyone where they are at.

    Those advanced in their digital realms do recognize that. I just wonder, however, if we are looking far enough ahead to see a potential issue.

    TikTok Culture Goes Where

    If it remains banned/blocked in the US, what will happen to its people? There is a culture on TikTok (neither supporting nor opposing, just stating).

    The culture developed on TikTok. Much of the culture was shaped by the nature of the platform (short form video), the algorithm of the platform, and the social interaction. The TikTok culture is unique.

    Its US users, now de-homed, will go where, exactly? They might try Instagram or Facebook, but probably not. YouTube and its shorts? Maybe. Perhaps old Vines or other short form platforms will return. Perhaps someone will be successful in creating a Mastodon or BlueSky iteration/server that will be successful (this is my hope).

    De-Homed Culture

    I don’t know much, if anything, about how a refugee really adapts to a new culture. Yes, I’ve heard stories (including from refugees). Yet, there is always something much deeper in that.

    Like physical refugees, TikTok-ers didn’t want to move. TikTok-ers are looking for the next place to be.

    Many people are looking for the next place to be. It isn’t just TikTok-ers. It’s refugees from other nations. People who feel disconnected from a culture they perceive as not theirs.

    God’s moving there.

  • Are THEY Worthy?

    As we discuss church, discipleship, gatherings, small groups, etcetera, and—in particular—the validity (or supposed lack thereof) of digital gatherings in comparison to physical ones…perhaps we ought to ask…are THEY worthy?

    It’s a provocative question. Who is the “they”? Are they gamers, unchurched, unbelievers, wounded, hurt, ashamed, insulted, assaulted? Are they “worthy”?

    Are they worthy of “our” time? Are they worth “our” time?

    Are they worthy of “our” resources? Are they worth “our” resources?

    Are they worthy of us setting aside our preferences (and, for the sake of argument, the “better” physical gathering)?

    The “our” time and resources, from a Christian point of view, are not ours. Supposedly, We are to view them as God’s. In particular, we are to view them as Christ’s. We are to view them as belonging to our Savior.

    So, let’s rephrase these questions with that ownership in mind.

    Turning the Questions

    Are they worthy of Jesus’ time? Are they worth Jesus’ time?

    Are they worthy of Jesus’ resources? Are they worth Jesus’ resources?

    Now, when we talk about sending missionaries to foreign countries—especially from “the US is the best country” and a “Christian” country perspective—we say, “absolutely”. Setting aside the messianic complex that seems to often go along with that, it’s good to send missionaries. We have no problem spending hundreds of thousands (and even millions or billions) of dollars to reach “those” people in other countries.

    Yet, US church language, by and large, seems to have a completely different perspective when it comes to those that reside in the US. Church language says, they need to come inside our walls.

    More Than Evangelism

    This is not to say all are saying such. Some are utilizing evangelism and missionary language to separate digital from physical. That, at least, is some freedom to reach out digitally and to have community digitally. Yet, even this freedom still implies lesser than status.

  • New Nomads: Digital, Physical, and Both.

    New Nomads: Digital, Physical, and Both.

    It wasn’t that long ago that nomads were viewed as unstable and untrustworthy. Stability of address was part of an identity, and thus provided more assurance to ones worthiness and trustworthiness.

    However, recently that has somewhat changed. A person, for example, who remains at the same job/company for years is not the person many companies are looking for. The companies are looking for the hungry (and sometimes the desparate) to bolster the organization.

    The other reinforcement of the nomad is the freedom provided by digital. At 61, Nicky Maidment became a digital nomad. There is Katie Macleoud, who has “worked from home” in 78 countries as of 2022.

    Both Nicky and Katie are blessed with digital jobs that are easily convertible to the nomad lifestyle.

    I have an acquaintance that is travelling the world doing her job remotely. In the short time I’ve known her, she has already moved 3 times.

    Building Albatrosses1

    When we build churches and church communities, we generally build around physical locales. We don’t really trust the nomads.

    The gatherings should be, in many respects, a safe place for people, and strangers are disruptive.

    On the other hand, we are called to love the stranger. We are also called to love the nomad.

    I remember a conversation years ago in regard to college ministry. I was told we were wasting church resources on people who were just going to move away. This conversation (and the church) were in a college town.

    I wonder, how (not if) the church building, and our concept of church community, has become an albatross. Are we weighed down? Are we unable to move, adjust, go, because we are weighed down?

    Places is Good

    I don’t seek to diminish the local church. I’m a “local” church pastor. However, this seeming blindness to the world moving around us may not be good for the kingdom.

    I don’t argue (too much) that physical is better. In most cases, I do think it is ideal. I’m not, however, going to hold onto that too hard.

    Digital has places, too. Facebook, Twitter, X (the transition from Twitter to X is causing me to think of them differently, now), Mastodon, Bluesky, Instagram, YouTube are all different places. I’m not comfortable in all of them.

    Serving Nomads

    What is interesting, perhaps telling, is that my denomination, The Church of the Nazarene, has a strong missional drive. It’s not that we don’t seek out nomads.

    One of my favorite stories is Church on Camelback. To reach nomads, the Church of the Nazarene put the “church on a camel.”

    Yet, we struggle with the digital nomads. In reality, as digital networks change, the people move. It used to be Facebook. Then it was Instagram. Currently, it’s TikTok. If things continue as expected, TikTok will be banned from the US, and the people will go…where?

    Church on Camelback showed that the church is capable and even willing to go to the people. It’s only, however, with a certain framework.

    Return to Office

    I have to admit that when the big companies began to insist that their employees come back to the office now that the COVID era is mostly over, I suspected that many in the church said, “yes!”

    Things need to go back. Except, that we have yet to see what happens when the workers do return to the office. Some will go back grudgingly. Some will go back mostly willingly. What will they do?

    Some believe that those big companies are doing this on purpose to get rid of their higher paid people to bring in foreign workers. Some believe that this will ultimately reduce overhead. I believe that they will lose a lot of their institutional knowledge, and hire people back as contractors (for more money).

    These contractors? They’ll be nomads.

    Nomadic Church

    The church can’t presume buildings. Maybe, someday, we can get back to them, but it might be a very long while.

    These nomads deserve spiritual homes in their travels. Are we bowing to their selfishness? No. We’re honoring their nature.

    There’s nothing wrong with that. So, why is digital so different?

    1If you are unfamiliar with the albatross concept, it comes from the poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The general concept, in usage, symbolizes a psychological burden. Often it’s supposed to be a curse or guilt or shame.