This post continues a reply to a comment by Frank to this post. Read the previous reply here.
Frank makes an interesting point:
2 John 12 is interesting on this point because it suggests that face-to-face communication is better than remote communication.
Here is 2 John 12:
2 John 1:12 (New International Version)
12I 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.
We have to obey Scripture within a technological society.
Apostle Paul used the technology he had in hand – pen and ink – to equip the Body of Christ to do ministry. When I read this passage, I have to imitate Paul’s example – I have to use whatever technology I have in hand to equip the Body of Christ to minister. This includes working to reach the lost in an increasingly online generation. I have to do my best to use Twitter, Plurk, MySpace, Facebook, Vimeo, YouTube, ooVoo, and TokBox to reach the lost and equip the Body of Christ. I have to use text based tools like email and video based tools like ooVoo. I have to use whatever is at hand to get the job done.
That being said, there is no doubt that there is a joy in meeting people face-to-face. Anyone who meets a pen pal or a blogging friend face-to-face for the first time cannot deny the joy of meeting long distance friends in the flesh.
But was the meeting sweeter for the long distance beginning? Should we not develop long distance relationships because it is better to meet face-to-face?
That isn’t what the Apostle Paul did. Even though he preferred meeting face-to-face, he still wrote letters.
If anything, this passage strengthens my resolve to use whatever means I have at hand to do the work of the ministry and the work of an evangelist. At the same time, it makes me look forward to having coffee with these long distance friends when the opportunities come.
Thoughts? Comments?
We cannot
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Another hugely insightful post, Paul. I think one of the more frustrating aspects to the critiques of online church is that it pretends a true and complete experience of God and one another is possible in the real world without technological facilitators … so where does that leave our Bibles? Our our church buildings?
First, God obviously thought that human speech and writing (symbolic meaning) were good technologies to transfer His meaning and action to us. And whether that symbolic communication is carried by a machine (a scroll, a book) a person (spoken word, deeds), or a visual sign (a burning bush, resurrection of the dead), it’s still symbolic action. And its value comes only from whether it corresponds with God’s ultimate Truth and God’s ultimate spiritual reality. (Let’s remember that Satan can deceive even believers with signs and wonders.)
So online expressions of worship, faith and community are simply ways to communicate an ultimate spiritual reality and to receive an experience of an ultimate spiritual reality. And I happen to think that the more powerful our tools for communicating, the more potential there is to for that technology to help us grow in greater faith, live more obediently in Truth and serve more fully in the body of Christ.
Philosophically and theologically, there is no black-white separation of the physical and the virtual. In the Bible, words shape hearts that shape deeds. And deeds shape hearts that shape words. Physical people, bodily and symbolically, are signifiers … and the only signified (or authentic reality, Truth) is the spiritual one — life in and through and for our triune God.
When rightly evaluating how God-honoring our online or offline culture is, physical reality alone counts for nothing (”God can raise up sons of Abraham from these stones”.) The question is whether you are present and alive! in the spirit of God in all that you do.
Excellent points. The “in-hand” concept is a very valid idea.
Paul:
I agree – we should use whatever technology we have to build God’s kingdom.
My comment regarding 2 John 12 was meant only to point out that John preferred face-to-face communication to long-distance communication. He wasn’t saying (and neither should we) that long-distance communication has no value.
I do think that the verse calls into question the common belief among Christian internet strategists today that online community is as good as face-to-face community. John obviously thought there was something better than long-distance communication, and he longed for it. As you said, however, that didn’t stop him from using long-distance communication tools and neither should it stop us from using the technology tools we have available to us today.
In my opinion, the common strategy today among Christian web strategists is to do all we can to use today’s technology without even considering the thought that face-to-face communication could be better. And that’s where my concern lies.
Frank
Thanks, Tre. I hope this blog helps in some way.