@stickyJesus. Toni Birdsong

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ —Dennis Gabor, British physicist, 196

      what does it all mean?

      It means anyone with an imperative message to communicate has to think bigger. People are migrating online. And as they continue to build niche communities, a significant window is open that should have every person who is concerned with the things of Christ sitting upright and being fully engaged.

       The Web has a culture all its own.

      This dramatic shift in communication and the growing hunger for human connection online have spawned a new mission field unlike any the church has ever seen. This mission field has a language and culture all its own. You haven't trained for it. You're not exactly sure how it works. Its velocity can be intimidating. The reference books and mission training programs tailored to impact a Web-based world...well, they simply don't exist.

      You stand here as a Christ follower in a definitive moment in time; you are an ordinary person called to usher a holy Kingdom into an increasingly fragmented world. It's the perfect scenario for God to move in big ways, just as He always has. Just as God called Esther, Joseph, and Paul to go before the world's kings at appointed times to alter history, He now calls you to log on and upload what's critical to today's conversation.

      While everything changes at warp speed, the holy mandate remains: to communicate the gospel in the most relevant channels available here, there, and everywhere.even if "everywhere" includes foreign lands with peculiar names like Twitter, Facebook, Google, and Plaxo.

      the lay of the land

      What does this new mission field look like, and who dwells there? It's unique, a place where increasingly "connected" people can easily become more spiritually disconnected. Amid the urban sprawl of technology, they congregate, shop, work, share, play, and live online. It's a shiny terrain, indeed.

      In The World Is Flat, author Thomas L. Friedman asserts that there's no turning back from this "mobile me" era; that the cheap availability of software and broadband Internet has leveled the global landscape, rendering the world more "flat" than round. Connectivity and collaboration have opened the global political, economic, and cultural playing field to everyone previously excluded from circles of wealth and power. The future will not resemble the past; to succeed from this point forward, individuals and companies must develop strategies that fit the global realities.⁶

      So how do you influence this 24/7 streaming global conversation? By doing what you do best—and what human beings have been doing since God established the twelve tribes of Israel—you reconnect to and mobilize the tribe.

      In his groundbreaking book Tribes, Seth Godin reconnects us to our human tendency to create tribes. A tribe, says Godin, is a "group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. For millions of years, human beings have been part of one tribe or another. A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate."⁷ The Internet provides the communication channel for the world. Jesus provides the channel and the leadership to you, the Christ follower. Can you hear your Tribal Leader over the noise?

let's go there...

      It's midday in Galilee. The sun is hot; a blanket of dust covers the weary traveler who comes into town by way of Judea. The townspeople have heard of Him and knew He was coming. Word traveled quickly of miracles, prophecies, and outlandish claims made by this very peculiar, humble carpenter from Nazareth.

      "His name is Jesus. Says He's the Messiah," they whisper as He passes. "Son of God He claims...but we all know nothing good comes out of Nazareth." He meets their critical eyes with an expression that lacks both worry and offense. They whisper, unaware that He can hear their hearts. While they are entangled in their quiet chatter, this Tribal Leader hears only their overwhelming need.

      The Scripture provides the first lesson in social networking and the importance of community. It points to Jesus as one of history's first influ-encers to say, "Follow me."

      ............................................................................................................

      "As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake,for they were fishermen. 'Come,follow me,'jesus said, 'and I will make you fishers of men.' At once they left their nets and followed him." ........................... Mark 1:16-18, NIV ........................

      then and now

      That day in Galilee, Andrew and Simon dropped their nets and followed Jesus. Since that day, millions have decided to do the same. Jesus promised before He ascended to heaven that He would send His Holy Spirit (the Power Source) to enable His followers to do greater things than even He had done (John 14:12). Give yourself a minute and reread that sentence.

      Do you really believe you can do greater things empowered by the Holy Spirit than even Christ did while He walked the earth? Perhaps if you did—if we all did—things might look differently around us.

      Jesus charged His believers to get up and go, to share the truth about Him with the world. He called those believers, and He's calling you, a "light."

      ............................................................................................................

       "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden."

      ...................................... Matthew 5:14, NIV.....................................

      What does light do? It makes things visible and more easily understood. God's light helps others see what they didn't see—or couldn't see—when the lights were out. Your presence as a believer in social networking circles "sheds light on" cultural, social, and political issues, world events, personal struggles, and issues of morality that a global culture all but shrouds.

      You will find in this new frontier that influence, persuasion, marketing, vanity, and jockeying for position are the universal currency. Your presence is to be monetized; your message is to be marginalized, to make room for the next, best thing in the Land of Shiny Things.

      But your job is to illuminate and celebrate truth in a whole different way.

      .....................................................................................................................

      "Remember, our Message is not about ourselves; we're proclaiming Jesus Christ, the Master. All we are is messengers, errand runners from jesus for you. It started when God said, 'Light up the darkness!' and our lives filled up with light as we saw and understood God in the face of Christ, all bright and beautiful." ....................... 2 Corinthians 4:5-6, THE MESSAGE ...................

      In this passage, Paul tells us that light isn't content to simply shine on itself; it must inform and proclaim a higher message. It sees, understands, shares, and illuminates for others the face of God, that is, Christ.

      So in such a time as this—the predetermined time to which you were born— how do you follow Jesus in a Web-based world СКАЧАТЬ