Chris Rodkey uses the image of a rhizome (from Greek: rhízōma “mass of roots”) the horizontal stem of a plant that is grows underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes as a visual description of the relationship between churches and Facebook. “As an image of the church, it’s a shift away from church as a building or institution toward genuine community and organically connected individuals.”
I worshiped in a large evangelical Charismatic church in Oxford for the last six years (though we no longer worship there) and was facebook friends with probably over a hundred individuals from church.
Now, I love, enjoy and am interested in people. However, my personality is right on the line between extroversion and introversion in Myers-Briggs or any psychological profiling. I would find it challenging to keep in touch with more than a dozen people on a weekly, face to face basis.
Still, there was a pleasure in coming into church and spotting people who had commented on my Facebook statuses and vice-versa, in knowing what was going on in their lives, and vice-versa, in being able to speak and hear appropriate words of encouragement, comfort, congratulations, and (I hope!) wisdom.
This sharing of lives, even though not as deep as hours over coffee was still better than no sharing at all.
* * *
Facebook, Twitter and social media can have as profound an effect in undemocratic churches as it did in the Arab Spring.
Jesus advises the one offended by his neighbour to go to him directly, and sort things out.
Painful though that is, it is, hands down, the best way.
Painful though that is, it is, hands down, the best way.
If you are blown off, then go with a witness, then many witnesses.
Sometimes, one may feel alone in one’s conviction that there is something rotten in the State of Denmark. Or the state of your church.
The response to a facebook status, or a tweet, or a blog post, can tell you that you are not alone.
I once knew a church with distant controlling leadership, who seemed far more interested in their grandiose, self-glorifying projects than in the congregation which financed them, more interested in fleecing the sheep than in feeding the sheep, so to say.
I once knew a church with distant controlling leadership, who seemed far more interested in their grandiose, self-glorifying projects than in the congregation which financed them, more interested in fleecing the sheep than in feeding the sheep, so to say.
Years of dissatisfaction came to a head with a unjust personnel decision, the firing of a dedicated pastor.
Outrage was expressed on Facebook, twitter and blogs. The PCC organized a petition. Scores of people signed. Without social media, they would have had no idea of where to find kindred spirits whose sense of fairness and integrity had been outraged.
Outrage was expressed on Facebook, twitter and blogs. The PCC organized a petition. Scores of people signed. Without social media, they would have had no idea of where to find kindred spirits whose sense of fairness and integrity had been outraged.
What became of it?
On the face of it, not much.
About 100 people left, many of them key givers, volunteers and lay leaders.
Many more stayed, because of social ties, and inertia, but cut back on giving and volunteering.
About 100 people left, many of them key givers, volunteers and lay leaders.
Many more stayed, because of social ties, and inertia, but cut back on giving and volunteering.
The church came to a crisis. Whereas formerly they kept expanding their budget of over a million pounds, hiring layer after layer of coffee-makers and PAs (they were infected by contemporary celebrity culture: everyone hired soon lost the ability to write an email, pick up a phone or make a cup of tea), now all the talk was of money, as giving steadily declined. Special meetings called to strategize on how to increase giving. Key ministries, like youth work, collapsed for lack of volunteers. The raison d’etre changed from loving Jesus to raising money.
A downward spiral.
Individuals experience them. Churches too.
Fortunately, God has provided a way out for both.
Repentance. Prayer. Loving God. Loving Others.
And God willing, we will all return to our first love.
Read my new memoir: Rosaries, Reading, Secrets: A Catholic Childhood in India (US) or UK.
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My book of essays: Wandering Between Two Worlds (US) or UK