@stickyJesus. Toni Birdsong
human
The degree to which people now use social media tools is jaw-dropping to techies, the press, businesses, and even the college kids who unwittingly designed some of the sites just for fun. But if you were to peel away the layers of any social network and look beyond the graphic interfaces, lingo, widgets, and apps, you'd find beating at the core the universal human need for relationship. That we tend to thrive—and survive—in relationship with others is the core of our humanness and a reflection of our Creator.
In his book The Church of Facebook, Jesse Rice accurately frames this online migration as the human need for home and writes, "At the root of our human existence is our great need for connection: connection with one another, with our own hearts and minds, and with a loving God who intended intimate connection with us from the beginning. Connection is the very core of what makes us human and the very means by which we express our humanity."1
That expression of humanity is streaming online twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and it spans the entire planet. In fact, if you were to dip a ladle into any social networking sphere during any time of the day, you would find people from every country, race, and creed reaching out, venting, educating, joking, grieving, making money, spending money, celebrating, polarizing, unifying, inspiring, advising, and even praying. It's a cacophony of human dialogue similar to what you would hear while eavesdropping at a food court or an after-hours business mixer—only it's taking place in a digital environment.
how we got so chatty
It's fun to skip a rock across the history of this cultural phenomenon of social networking. Remember the BBSs (bulletin board systems) of the 1980s as the primitive network messaging boards that allowed users text-only discussions, file sharing, and online games? BBS pioneers (geeks, coders, and gamers) gained momentum throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s when Prodigy, CompuServe, and AOL logged on to the action and stepped up the interface a notch for a monthly or even hourly fee. The social side of those networks stimulated Web sites such as Friendster.com, Classmates.com, and SixDegrees.com, where everyone on the planet was determined to trace his or her social lineage within six people, or connections, of Kevin Bacon. It was a seemingly wild but absolutely probable notion that sparked a quest for faster, deeper, and higher degrees of social connection. These rudimentary social platforms were baby steps toward meeting our need to connect online.
The globalization of the world economy—faster, better communication technology between all countries—encouraged this overall social connectivity. Over the course of thirty years, the social networking phenomenon went from crawling to standing upright with Netscape's browsing capability, which opened the door for Aunt Fran to surf for holiday recipes and cures for her sciatica. Then, as the general public became more reliant on technology, the press outrageously compared Google to God. After all, the talking tech heads of the day reasoned coyly that Google is wireless (everywhere), knows everything, and can answer any question that anyone asks. And if information is power, then Google's ranking is right up there next to God, right?2
Just because a technology evolves, there is no guarantee that a demand will support it—at least not to the degree that social media exists today. Remember the Microsoft Zune? The Apple Cube? How about electronic currency? You don't remember the technology failures because, well, they pretty much...failed. Multiple factors can be attributed to why social media hit overdrive in the past several years, including cheaper broadband, a fire to innovate, and the global economy shift. As unprecedented economic, political, and social factors continue to fragment continents, cities, and even homes, words such as connection, community, and relationship increasingly dominate the conversation.
The evolution of globalization is the progress of ideas. It's the anticipated economic equalizer brought on by relatively inexpensive Internet, browsers, and the fact that no one owns the Internet (yet). All of this has linked us all closer than anyone could have imagined just a few decades ago. This moment in time is the perfect communications storm—a global shift, economically and socially, that has leading thinkers today rendering the world more flat than round and shrinking by the moment.
Connectivity, content, and community—the three Cs—are changing the very shape of the planet. To be heard from this point forward, individuals, companies, organizations, and governments with essential (and profitable) messages to communicate must develop strategies that fit the global realities, or as Bloomberg.com warns: "catch up...or catch you later."3
it's sticky
As a follower of Christ, you have an imperative message from Him. The message is as sticky as it gets. It's a message that holds fast; it adheres and clings to the heart of every generation. Sticky content is independent of time, change, and cyberspace. The Apostle Paul, no doubt a thought leader of his day, knew the message was unlike anything else the world had ever known, and he wrote,
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"We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots ofour ordinary lives."
...................2 Corinthians 4:7b, THE MESSAGE ...................
Adapting to technology does not mean you change the message to fit the culture. The Word of God stands and does not need to be spiced up or watered down to fit the taste buds of any culture or generation. The Word is as alive and active as it was when God spoke it into existence. The only thing that must change is your mind-set about how you must now relate to the culture around you.
Paul got that. When he was with Jews, he kept Jewish laws, customs, and covenants. When he went to the Gentile part of town, he shape-shifted his communication style so as to appeal to the Gentiles. Was he a hypocrite? No. No more than a president who quietly thanks God before a meal in Thailand where Buddha hovers over the dining room and then respectfully joins his host in bowing his head for a Buddhist blessing. If anything, Paul was simply appropriate. Paul respected and adapted to the culture in which he found himself. Why? Because he was mission-centric; intent that he might "save some." Can you hear Paul thinking? Hmmmm...should I eat kosher chicken today...or should I watch the guy across from me burn in a pit of sulfur and be separated from God for all eternity? Say, Levi, pass me that chicken!
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"When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some. I do everything to spread the Good News and share in its blessings."
.......................1 Corinthians 9:22-23, NLT .........................
Writer and theologian Francis Schaeffer said that "each generation of the church in each setting has the responsibility of communicating the gospel in understandable terms, considering the language and thought-forms of that setting."4 It's easy—and even comforting at times—to grumble about the head-spinning rate of change and the acute pain that comes with it. But as a believer, you have to realize that it's time to dig down into the core human need creating the demand for connection and respond to the mission field at your fingertips. It's time to care more deeply and communicate better to the world without conforming to it...just like Jesus did.
Connection is about joining and fastening things together. Relationship is about creating a sense of belonging.
The world is wired for 24/7 connection, but you've secured the most coveted connection—Jesus Christ. And while the world oozes multiplicity in its motives for relationship building online, be assured that just one motive moved God to connect to you in genuine relationship. That motive was love. Love compelled God to send His only Son—the Holy One—to establish relationship with us, the unholy. That same determined love allowed Jesus to suffer on the cross in your place.
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