What Does It All Mean?

My friend, Jim Blechl, sent me a video this morning. (Jim and his wife Barb shared their story this last weekend at our services.  One word: AMAZING!)

I watched the video immediately following my morning watch in prayer.  Moving from the quiet  to the onslaught of intensity and information was a bit jarring at first.  But, intensity and centeredness actually can exist simultaneously.  That's the alchemy I'm looking for actually.

This video triggered a chain reaction of ideas, thoughts, and questions in my mind that I'll be thinking and praying about today.  The video ends with a very powerful question.  I would love to hear your thoughts in response to that question.  Drop a comment and let's see what we can learn from each other. 

Shift happens. 

Comments

[Jim Henry]

whoa...that was powerful. To me, it means that our opportunities to make a global impact for Christ are growing faster than we can even process. If we can ride the coat tails of technology, we can have a tangible effect on the overwhelming population growth. From one stand point, these were staggering statistics, but from another, I think they represent an exciting oppotunity! Great Video!!!

[Matt Metzger]

I think one of the many things is means is that each succeeding generation will become further and further separated from the previous generation. The world I "grew up" in is vastly different than what my parents knew while growing up. The world my daughter will grow up in will be exponentially different still.
I'll admit apathy towards any message/product/marketing geared towards my parents' generation, and with that comes a tendency to want to dismiss all things related to their generation (their "old school" ways of thinking and acting). How much more will my daughter not care about all things related to my generation?

[Matt Metzger]

along with that, to reach each succeeding generation, methods and modes of communication will need to change drastically, as will the need to frame the message in context of the generation you are trying to reach.

[Rob Wegner]

I hadn’t considered that stream of thought yet. Great insight! Relevance is a moving target. The question is, “Will “relevance” begin to move so fast and become so nuanced within each sub-group that the only way to bring the gospel in a relevant way will be highly focused, missional individuals who, like Jesus, enter incarnationally and fully into that sub-group?” I wonder if "large scale" evangelism for the masses will become more and more difficult to make effective?

[Sherry Ingle]

One thing that I felt when I watched this was that the faster technology moves the more discontent society becomes. What used to resonate within us barely moves us...by the time we discover a way to be relevant to the world in our evangelism, it is outdated and boring. How do we present the Gospel to a world with such high expectations? Will they be satisfied or even understand the simplicity of it? Very thought provoking video.

[Tim McDaniel]

Not only will we continue to become more distant each and every generation, but the question of connection, intimacy, and relationship (dare I say, tribes?) will be in the BACKGROUND of people's minds publicly but in the FOREGROUND privately. WHO will I connect with? HOW will I connect with them? WHERE will I connect with them? And WHY connect with them, since everything that is constant, changes?

[Theresa]

What a powerful video Rob. When I first saw this video, my immediate thoughts are with my kids. I feel even more passionate about teaching my kids about quality family time, alone time, quiet time, true & intimate relationships. I need to stay ahead of them and constantly model this. It is not about withdrawing...it is about truly knowing who they are and being grounded that while all of this changes around them, they can have quality conversations and dialogue to impact their circle. I hope that our parenting now and through all of this will help them be content with themselves...while still learning and engaging all the the changes around them. I also think this is a huge wake up call for our generation to understand the role that higher education and competancy will have in our childrens lives. They will need to know, remember and be "the best" in whatever they decide to pursue in life. As parents, we need to demand excellence in our children, our schools, our finances, our marriages, our work ethic etc. I really believe that this is what will be necessary for our kids to lead and have influence (which allows them to make the rules!)...without it, they will be forced to merely follow others.

[Michelle Wegner]

Theresa needs to start a blog. :)

[danblacketor]

I've seen this video someplace else in the last few months. As you know Thomas Friedman addresses several of these key issues in his book, The World is Flat. When you lay the premise of The Spider and the Starfish on top of this the question I have is with the speed of change and informational change occurring how do we transfer truth while holding loosely to the distribution channels?

[Benjamin Anderson]

While Thomas Friedman does talk about these issues in his book he doesn't really provide real answers about it, he just provides more questions. He does discuss the fact that social skills will make or break the organization's and an individual's ability to sell themselves in the "future" markets.

In a world of information and information based economies, which is where we're all headed and presented as the basis for the video, the only thing that will sell and differentiate us from everyone and everything else is not what information we provide, but how we connect and convey the information. It isn't so much a medium or a message delivery system that will determine the effectiveness of the message, but the social connection. The trends will change faster than anyone will be able to keep up, but the basis of human connection and genuine affection will always remain a constant and reliable means of communicating our message.

With a barrage of information from all sources, the only way we can make ourselves heard is through a relationship, a true social connection. All other forms of communication and connection will be over saturated and callous to our attempts to connect, communicate or even prompt a response. Just as the information has exponentially grown, so has the amount of commitment and numbers required to successful minister and connect with one individual. More than ever community has the be the message delivered, it's almost more important now than delivering the salvation message since the salvation ultimately doesn't mean a thing unless they continue to grow in their faith, in their maturity and in their own ability to disciple and mentor others. Small groups, individual discipleship and restaurant meet ups are far more important than the information dump and individualistic experience church services provide today.

More than ever, as our nations and economy begin to reflect the decaying Roman empire of the early church, our outreaches and ministries have to reflect the original Acts community, drawing more people in as a part of the leadership and community. In order to overcome the noise of the world everyone has to become the pastor, and the paid church staff has to step away from teaching role of the congregation and become more of a governing and guiding role for the leaders.

If you look at businesses and schools, community isn't built in the classroom or the business meeting, it built in the times outside of the structured, agenda-driven and directed information dumps. The lectures and sermons of the modern church will not connect or persuade the overloaded heart and mind of the information saturated youth. It will require the one-on-one social interaction with real people that show them that the church body really cares, just as Christ cares.

For anyone that hasn't read Thomas Friedman's book "The World is Flat", I'd recommend picking it up, or at least getting the audio book. It will make you think more about where we are headed and we we already are in relation to a relatively social flat world.

[rosy]

Hi, my name is Rosy. Just wishing you a sincere Merry Christmas and for you to check out thegiftrevolution.com website =)

[Laura Gekeler]

How we connect and convey the information is the key says Ben Andersen. In such a world painted by the video (which all of us have implicitly agreed is a truthful representation) there is more to Jesus still than information.
Is the good news merely information?
Is information analagous to the seed in the parable which doesn't become anything unless it's transformed? Information transformed. Would that be a transformation into knowledge and then to wisdom? THAT'S where relationship, connection, and community act as the soil in which the transformation occurs. Good soil. Soil for Theresa's children, and mine.

[Dan Vukmirovich]

Cool!