Gabe Lyons on Doing Internet Ministry Despite an unChristian Perception
Gabe Lyons, co-author of unChristian, gave the Internet Ministry Conference’s first keynote about how the research might affect Internet
Ministry in general relates to mission, and mission in general relates to context. You need to understand the context of the world your ministry is trying to reach.
Non-Christians aged 16-29 years old were asked, “What is your current perception of Christianity?”
- 91% said antihomosexual
- 87% said judgmental
- 85% said hypocritical
- 78% said old-fashioned
- 75% said too involved in politics
- 72% said out of touch with reality
- 70% said insensitive to others
- 68% said boring
- 64% said not accepting of other faiths
- 61% said confusing
Which perception most closely applies to your Internet ministry or Internet persona in general?
How did we get here? Maybe we actually are these things.
MISTAKES WE HAVE MADE
- Uncritical embrace of modernism.
We focus too much on numbers and progress. We speed things up into a microwave mentality. Essentially, we adopt a half-story gospel (just focusing on the fall and redemption rather than the complete picture of God’s plan from creation to redemption). Christianity is not just about redeeming souls but redeeming cultures. - Christians separated from culture.
We lost the culture war. Us against them is not a Christian idea. There should not be an “us” but a “we.”
How has your view of the gospel directly affected the way you do Internet ministry with others?
CONTEXT OF THE INTERNET
The medium is the message. For example, projection screens and microphones can communicate disconnect - the idea that the speaker is a celebrity, etc. In the case of the Internet, multi-tasking with numerous choices is the context.
- The Internet is is technology adolescence.
The Internet is still dramatically growing and evolving. - The Internet is a social lubricant.
It causes people to say and do things that they would not say or do in a different context.
How do we navigate the tensions that we encounter in the Internet world?
We need to be the change we wish to create.
Bunk Said,
October 20, 2008 @ 8:28 pm
I agree that the internet is still in its adolscence. I firmly believe that as Christians, we should strive to cultivate in all we do. We have tried copying culture, we have tried creating new culture(s), but have we really tried cultivating the culture(s) we have been place within…..whether it be online or off.
Micah Davis Said,
October 20, 2008 @ 10:30 pm
Thanks for the update Kent!
Eugene Said,
October 21, 2008 @ 7:10 am
looking forward for more information about this. thanks for sharing. Eugene
Dave Ingland Said,
October 22, 2008 @ 3:45 pm
Kent, I’m not surprised by the responses to the question of how the younger generation views Christianity. However, the one thing that does surprise me is how often I see the church and Christians trying to separate themselves from the rest of society and culture. It causes us to no longer be relevant and it becomes an us against them environment where our Christian witness has no power or meaning to the world because we are so unlike the world. Not being of the world is critical for our walk with God, but we are forced to live in the world until we are taken up, so why not just accept that and do our best to relate to others rather than antagonize them?
Thanks for posting!
Jim Said,
October 24, 2008 @ 1:12 pm
It looks like you could probably apply the same numbers to a teenagers perception of their parents. Interesting paralell don’t you think?
Kent Shaffer Said,
October 24, 2008 @ 4:03 pm
Very interesting perspective, Jim.