The Church and a bit of technology

Let's take a deeper link.

The opening statements of my graduate thesis read:  “The increasing emphasis on the production, storage, and distribution of information demands that the field of mass communication collide with science and technology.  This collision, most communication researchers and social forecasters agree, will be the single most revolutionary alignment in modern history.  If current predictions are accurate, the convergence of new technologies into the “new media” will literally dwarf the sociological effects of the Industrial Revolution.”

That was August 1988.  Old (media) news now.  

Nearly 20 years later, internet technology, ubiquitous as it is on this side of the global digital divide, is still an unfolding, organic, embryonic force.  The evolution of the semantic web places us on the cusp of something, but nobody can predict exactly what it is. In many ways, our previous predictions have yet to fully manifest.  We are still groping for and grappling with what the future holds in light of media transparency and we certainly haven't figured it out.  There’s no fault here, simply an inability to accurately extrapolate the exact trajectory of the Information Age.  It could be noted that Johannes Gutenberg never foretold the Renaissance either.

For example, communication technology promises an interconnected world, but the haves and the have nots still have not met.   While Western children are viewing each other while talking on the latest cell phones, the children in Mozambique have yet to see cameras.  (Children swarmed my husband on a recent mission trip there upon realizing they could see themselves in a picture for the first time.) 

Where, when and how should the Church evaluate and utilize the new media?  Do web 2.0 applications empower the Body of Christ, creating richer communities with instantaneous accessibility or do they foster shallow relationships where often the wounded find their anti-church voice.  Are our online relationships prudent, useful, effective?  Is technology helpful in serving the Kingdom of God?  The dialog is real, the debates are profound, and the conversations are taking place between believers and non-believers alike. 

No, thankfully I do not always post with this kind of semantic web synergy.  But, I'm excited about our digital.leadnet.org blog and the opportunity to pursue how the Church will employ the age of hyperlinking to present the Gospel of Jesus in a dry and weary cyberspace where there is very little living water.