Face to Face
I’ve seen a lot of articles lately (here’s one) that talk about how the church needs to get more high tech, hold internet services and substitute small groups with online forums. But while Twitter really may be the future, we need to keep perspective. Tonight I was reminded of something through 2 John 12:
I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.
My facebook friends are not all my friends. Nothing can replace seeing someone face to face. I know the internet is revolutionizing our society and adding new dimensions to community, but it can never replace the richness of the interactions that occur in person.
You can’t see someone’s eyes light up through a text.
You can’t overhear your friend’s tone of voice through a Gmail chat.
You can’t lay hands on someone through Skype.
You can’t kiss your sweetheart through your MacBook Air.
There’s something really beautiful about sitting down and having coffee with someone. Also, I love meeting every week with my small group to worship, discuss the Bible, and just have conversations. And Nothing beats catching up with an old friend over lunch.
The closer we are to other people, the greater the potential to experience love. Sure, it’s great and increasingly necessary to have online ministry, but the need for deep personal interaction is not going to disappear. Come on, make our joy complete already.
Hey, Marc, thanks for the link. Of course, you’re right about personal, face-to-face conversation and relationships. What I was writing about, which actually got picked up by several others, was the paradigm shift in society and culture. It’s not a matter of going high tech so much as it is recognizing that we live in an age of discontinuous change and the old rules don’t apply. Thanks for giving an added perspective to this topic. -Chuck
Thanks Chuck, you’re very right about the paradigm shift. It’s harder for me to see growing up with the internet. Your post was just the one off the top of my head. Hope I didn’t come across as contradictory! I just trying to express my thoughts.
- Marc