The Good

The changes and influences of the world and the information age don’t all negatively impact our ability to minister.  As stated in the previous entry on the topic, the tools that the internet provides make it easier for our leaders and the pastors to keep each other in touch and accountable.  Services like X3Watch and other accountability tools help keep everyone accountable to each other, and protect us from ourselves.  Communities like Facebook and Twitter help keep each of us connected and provide a simple and easy to use tool for share resources, information and planning.

There are hundreds of sites that help with ministry planning, ministry organization, idea and creativity resources and multimedia resources galore. Anytime the week has been to chaotic or hectic to right a sermon or prepare visual aids, there is always a solution found somewhere on the internet.  The online communities allow us all to gauge how the community is doing, what is most affecting them and how we might best impact our fellow believers.  They also offer easy means of providing feedback from the community after events and activities.

The Bad

We all know that the overly connected world can do the exact opposite and be very destructive too.  We hear far too often about an adult being arrested for pursuing a minor or crossing boundaries.  The anonymity of the Internet tends to cause even the most mature adult to regress into their juvenile self and believe that they are invisible to the consequences of their actions online.  The scariest part is when it translates into everyday life and the user’s corruption and baggage online becomes real-world corruption and baggage.

Pride always leads to a downfall, and the large majority of those downfalls are sexual in nature.  When you are too proud to answer to others, to do what is right and to protect yourself, then you are also too good to obey the laws of your heart and the laws of the land.  This translates directly into sexual sin against oneself and others, and then can quickly resolve in to sexual sins involving others.  Sexual sin and pride do not require the Internet to sprout from seeds easily planted in one’s heart, but the Internet, the anonymity and the plethora of porn in every imaginable taste, make it too easy for the seeds of corrupt nature to grow violently.

This is where the honesty and accountability really come into play.  But…  The reality of it is, that if the person, your leader, doesn’t want to get caught, they do have the smoke and mirrors to hide behind now.  They are less likely to get caught surfing for porn and downloading pirated content over the Internet than they are to be caught walking into an adult bookstore or the shady side of the flea market.

The Unsettling

There is also the unsettling part about the Internet.  The information part.  I’m not referring to the information and communities that you don’t agree with, I’m referring to the life and lack of death of information.  Almost everything said and uploaded to the Internet is cache, archived and indexed in some form or fashion.  Every stupid mistake, every angry word, every incriminating photo, and every vocal opinion.  Individuals cannot escape their own sin now.  Not only does the Internet remove the personal connection between people and make it easy to judge them without regard for their well-being, but it also provides a wealth of information from everyone’s past to feed our opinion and desire to judge the “soulless” personality some where out “there”.  We’re so removed and disconnected that even the person down the street can be viewed as an object and not an individual simply due to the proximity vacuum produced by the Internet.

Everyone’s mistakes and pain are indexed and searchable by everyone else on the Internet.  This means that anyone that has ever had a past that isn’t perfect will be haunted by when their move on to do God’s work.

The Baffling

The baffling part is that our reach may extend far beyond our physical community.  Our stray words on our blogs, websites, community forums, and other social networks can spread like wildfire and reach people in other countries, cultures and places in life.  Our light can shine farther and faster than ever before, even in the overly black and life sucking void of the Internet.  Your pray, encouragement and relationship with God can influence someone in Japan, China, South Africa and Chili the same way it can impact your neighbor down the street.  Due to the technical nature of the content of my blog I’ve had several people visit my site from all over the world.  The largest international groups have been from Denmark and Japan, but I’ve had several visitors from Brazil and other countries around the world.

It is just as easy to provide inspiration for believers all around the world as it is reaching your leaders and members of your congregation.  And the larger the impact you have in your local community, the larger the impact you’ll have online.  If you can balance both your communities local relationships and growth with the influence and connectivity within your online community then your impact on the world will become a lasting one with far reaching arms and exponentially warm hearts.