Reaction to this story has been mostly predictable – the pastor is being overly dramatic.  After all, Facebook is just one of many means of communicating with the world.  Should fear of having an affair cause us to give up all other means of communication as well – our phones, our email, even letters?  Why not just go all the way and disconnect ourselves from the outside world completely?  After all, we may have an affair at work, so why take the risk of getting a job?  Plus, Facebook is like most everything else in life – along with the benefits, there are risks.  Should we just stay away from Facebook out of fear of what might happen?

Well, maybe.

First of all, consider how strongly Jesus spoke regarding the intolerance we should have for sin in our lives: “If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell” (Matthew 5:29-30).  Jesus is not being literal here – otherwise the whole church would be blind – but He is using strong language in order to make a point about the wisdom involved in taking drastic measures with those things that lead us into sin, instead of tolerating them as they slowly lead us into destruction.

Secondly, Facebook (and the Internet in general) offers something that many other means of communication do not, something that provides a fertile ground for sin to develop – anonymity.  It is much easier to fall into temptation and end up doing things that you will one day regret if you do things in secret with no one knowing.  Facebook offers people the opportunity to follow the lives of other people, to some extent, to spy on them from afar (“Facestalking”), without the object of your interest or anyone else knowing.

I believe that the solution is not necessarily to delete your Facebook account, if you have one, but rather to live in the light.  Consider Paul’s words in Ephesians 5:11-17:

“Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: ‘Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’ Be very careful, then, how you live– not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.”

Expose the darkness.  Live in the light, resisting the temptation to do things in secret, so that you will not be foolish and unwise, Paul says.  With that in mind, consider taking the following steps:

(1) Accountability – Make sure there is someone – a spouse, a friend, a mentor, a parent – to whom you are accountable about your time spent on the Internet.  Nowadays, with Internet filters, accountability software, and the ability to search someone’s browsing history, it should be easy to set up online accountability – if you are willing to live in the light.  Find someone to whom you can be honest.  If you are married, being transparent with your spouse should be a given, including sharing your password, and if you are hesitant, you are probably hiding something that you need to expose to the light of day.

(2) Confession – Do you find yourself viewing people or things on Facebook, or the Internet, that you know that if your spouse, your parents, your friends, or even Jesus walked into the room, you would change the screen as quickly as possible?  If so, then chances are it’s something you shouldn’t be viewing.  Confess those things to your spouse or to someone you trust, and ask them to hold you accountable.  If you have ex-flames on Facebook, or if there are people to whom you find yourself attracted, confess that to your spouse or to an accountability partner so that you do not nurture that temptation and allow that attraction to grow.  You will be amazed at how the power of temptation can be broken when you bring it into the light.

(3) Fasting - Take regular fasts from Facebook, or from the Internet if you can.  Would you believe that Facebook now has 500 million active users, who collectively spend 700 billion minutes on Facebook every month?  A recent study of media habits found that about 1/3 of women between 18 and 34 check Facebook before they even go to the bathroom in the morning, 21% check it in the middle of the night, and half of them admit that they are addicted to it.  For most of us who use Facebook, the minutes spent online come at the expense of face-to-face relationships.  One of the wisest things you can do is to plan regular times of fasting from Facebook, the Internet, or anything else that you fear may be becoming an addiction for you.

Walk in the light as He is in the light (1 John 1:7), by practicing accountability, confession, and fasting, and you will find that God is able to break the power of temptation in your life, no matter what it may be.  And when He does that, you will find that you can enjoy the benefits of Facebook or other things in your life without living in fear.

If you are familiar at all with computer programming, then you may have recognized the philosophy or principle of “Open Source” behind the above question.  I am not an expert on open source or any other computer programming, but my understanding is that open source computer software allows for anyone to contribute to the content of that software with the goal that such a collaborative effort would create the best possible software.  For example, Wikipedia is a free on-line encyclopedia, whose design allows for anyone in the world to contribute to the definition of a word or term and to link to websites which help explain that term.  As of today, there have been over 2 million Wikipedia articles in English written by over 75,000 contributors, and over 9 million articles in over 250 languages worldwide.  Of course, there are checks and balances in place, so that if I decided to edit the article on “God” by writing “God is a thirty-one year-old man living in Connecticut named Eric Stillman,” it would be rejected because such an assertion is not verifiable by any other reliable sources, nor is it a neutral point of view.  But the beauty of open source is that worldwide collaboration can give you a huge amount of (usually) reliable information at your fingertips at an inexpensive cost.

A second example of open source, from the world of cell phones, is Google’s new Android cell phone platform.  Whereas most cell phones come to you as a finished product with limited capabilities, the Android platform is open source, allowing for creative computer programming types to develop applications that will eventually allow for your cell phone to drive your car and do your job for you (okay, maybe not that advanced, but you get the point).  And, since Google plans to distribute $10 million to developers who come up with the best applications, chances are this open source experiment will succeed.

Open source principles are now being applied by people over the last few years to fields other than computer programming.  On Wikipedia, government, politics, ethics, journalism, education, and even fitness are all mentioned as avenues where the principles of open collaboration are being explored. 

Which brings us back to our initial question – If everyone were to put their heads together and contribute their ideas, perceptions, and experiences, could humankind come up with a vision of reality and answers to the big questions that are better than any of the existing religions?  There are groups of people who are trying to answer this question, exploring the possibility of open source religion.  They are attempting to use a process of dialogue and refinement in hopes of creating an evolving system of beliefs and practices that they hope will ultimately lead to a better world.   One example of such an open source “religion” is Yoism.  As the Yoism website puts it,

It has been one year since we began the NewLife blog, which means that it’s a great time for reflection on how God has used the blog as well as an evaluation of the benefits of blogging for a church. 

When I began as the full-time pastor last October, I decided to send out a weekly e-newsletter that would include my thoughts on a particular issue, details on upcoming events in the church, and prayer needs.  A few weeks into sending out The Pulse of NewLife, my good friend Ben Dubow, who is the pastor of St. Paul’s Collegiate Church in Storrs, CT (if you aren’t keeping up with what God is doing through this church, you need to visit www.stpaulswired.org), encouraged me to change from a newsletter format to a blog in order to give an opportunity for feedback and discussion on what I was writing, as well as to open our church up to a wider audience via the Internet. 

For the first six months, there were few comments (thank you to “a seeker” for being the first regular commentor) or readers from outside our church.  Then, on April 10th, I wrote an essay on LifeChurch.tv’s church plant in Second Life, a virtual world where people can interact through avatars (an online persona they have created).  For those of us still getting used to projecting songs by Power Point instead of using songbooks, this sort of experimental, forward-thinking evangelistic outreach was pretty mind-blowing.  That blog post was linked to by two people whom I had never met – the first was Zack Exley, a Washington D.C. based Christian who had worked with politicians like John Kerry and Howard Dean as well as progressive organizations on their online campaigns.  Zack and his wife Elizabeth had been considering moving to Glastonbury, and he had begun listening to our sermons and reading our blog as a result.  Zack and Elizabeth recently left D.C. to embark on what should be an amazing tour of America in order to report on leaders of all kinds who are making a difference in their community (www.heartlandinnovators.org) and to educate their many secular friends on the progressive evangelical Christian movement (www.revolutioninjesusland.com).  And hopefully some day they will make it up to Glastonbury.

The second person to link to the “Second Life” post was Terry Storch, Digerati Pastor for LifeChurch.tv and co-author of The Blogging Church, who is responsible for helping the Oklahoma-based multi-site church extend its reach using technology and the Internet.  As one of the main people responsible for the Second Life church plant, it was great to have him comment on the blog and offer more of an explanation for why they chose to plant a church in a virtual world.  Terry’s most recent online experiment is www.youversion.com, an online Bible that will allow anyone to offer comments and insights or links pertaining to verses of Scripture, enabling a fascinating level of community and collaboration in Bible study. 

Having two people with a wider audience link from their sites to our blog opened it up to a whole new readership and many more commentors.  In June, a post on the liberal/conservative divide in Christianity was picked up by Susan Campbell, religion columnist for The Hartford Courant, who wrote a column on what I had written, giving more exposure to our church to Connecticut readers.  Then, at the end of June, I wrote my thoughts on homosexuality and the church, which predictably drew all sorts of commentors and links from many different angles.   

The blog experiment has definitely been a good move (thanks, Ben!) and has really set our church apart from many others in offering such an online forum to discuss theological and cultural ideas.  For those who are still wondering what the benefits of a church having a blog are or aren’t convinced that it is worth it, let me share three motivations that I see behind a church blog:

1) Discipleship and conversation – In many ways, blogging is online discipleship.  I have always used the blog as a forum in which to theologically reflect on something in culture, from the format of the evening news to the motivation behind the millions of people on MySpace.  Hopefully, my reflections are encouraging readers to think and act more like Jesus.  In the same way, I am able to read the blogs of many pastors, professors, and theologians who are way more skilled at their job or knowledgeable about the Bible then I am and gain lots of wisdom without ever leaving my chair.  At the same time, because there is an opportunity for readers to comment, it opens up an opportunity for dialogue, questioning, and, occasionally, correction.  Check out the “Homosexuality and the Church” post for the best example of the sort of online dialogue that is possible.

2) Hospitality – Most of us can agree that visiting a new church is not always an easy thing for people, especially checking out a church the doesn’t meet in a traditional church building called “NewLife Christian Fellowship” in a town where the typical church name is “St. Peter’s” or “First Congregational.”  A church website allows an inquirer to learn what a church is like and what they value before they even step in the door.  The blog is one of the best ways to offer hospitality to a seeker, because it offers a window into the sort of things a church talks about as well as how they discuss those things.  For example, one can get a sense of whether the church encourages dialogue and the expression of different opinions or whether they say things with a “and that’s the way it is, period” attitude.  At its best a blog, as well as the rest of a church website, allows a visitor to walk around the church in anonymity, checking it out without fear of feeling like he or she doesn’t belong.

3) Marketing and Outreach – Let’s be honest – more people are looking for a church on the Internet than in the Yellow Pages these days.  In fact, just about every new visitor to our church in the past six months found us on the Internet.  With millions of sites on the web, and many churches bigger, older, and more prominent than ours, how is it that people find our church?  The answer is largely due to the blog.  There is a whole secret science to which churches appear first on Google when you type in, for example, “church in Hartford county,” but two of the most important factors are how often your website is updated and how many other websites have a link to your site.  Having a blog means that our site is updated often with new material, and every time another blogger links to something I’ve written, it helps the popularity of our website.  For example, if you google “Evangelical church CT,” NewLife is the third church on the list, behind a church in Monroe and one in Wilton.  So, in the end, for hundreds of dollars less than advertising in the Yellow Pages, we are able to reach more people with more information about our church and what we believe.        

So, as we enter Year Two of The NewLife blog, where do we go from here?  One hope of mine is to include more voices on the blog than just my own.  If we truly want to be hospitable and offer a window into our church, the best thing we could do is to offer more perspectives – like having someone share about their experience in a home fellowship, or what it’s like serving with Isaiah 58.  We could have a recent attendee sharing what it’s been like to find NewLife, or an elder sharing his view of how things are going at the church.  We could include pictures from recent events or a preview of an upcoming opportunity.  Can you see how this would help give an accurate picture of our church for someone before they even step foot in the door?
  
I also plan on including more links on the blog to other blogs and websites (like the ones mentioned in this post) that I think are worth checking out.  After all, I am only one voice in the conversation, and I’ve been influenced in many ways  by the other voices out there.  And of course, I will continue to post a new reflection every week on something that I think is worth your attention. 

I praise God for giving me something fresh to write about every week, and I genuinely thank you for reading and offering your comments and feedback.  May we continue to use every available means to bring the transformative love of Jesus to our world.   

Now, I know many preachers and teachers who have used the line “What if your life was being displayed on a big TV for everyone to see?  How would that change the way you lived?” in their messages on integrity and holy living.  But this is the first time I’ve ever seen anyone take that question seriously and sign up for the opportunity (let alone bring their wife and three kids along for the ride)!

I see Pastor Gramling’s experiment in authentic living as a creative harnessing of the interest generated by two recent phenomena.  One is the heightened awareness of fallen clergy.  While I am sure there were always pastors and clergy falling into immorality and out of their jobs, with the rise of the Internet it can sometimes seem like there is a new one every week.  On a national level, think of Ted Haggard, Colorado megachurch pastor and crusader against same-sex marriage, having a secret affair with a male prostitute.  And on a local level, think of Modesto Reyes, the 52 year-old pastor of Iglesia De Dios “Cristo te Llama” Church in Hartford, who recently was arrested for sexually assaulting an eleven year-old girl whom he impregnated.  Clergy scandals can’t help but contribute to a growing suspicion that any preacher who seems to have it all together must have a lot of dark secrets hiding in his closet. 

The second phenomenon is the increasing opportunity for and interest in voyeurism.  Popular television has exploded in the last decade with reality show after reality show, giving us the opportunity to watch complete strangers interact in all manner of living situations and competitions (think Big Brother or Survivor).  And anyone who owns a webcam can broadcast their lives for all to watch anonymously on the Internet.  And believe it or not, more and more people are watching.

Enter the Naked Pastor.

So what is to be gained from this experiment, besides increased publicity for Flamingo Road Church?  For one thing, Pastor Gramling will be preaching a five-week series on Sundays based on his personal struggles during the experiment, with titles like “I Fight,” “I Get Angry,” “I Get Tired,” “I Get Insecure,” and “I Get Tempted.”  His hope is to share about his struggle to live with integrity, while at the same time living it out for all to see.  On the one hand, this five-week experiment will reveal that although he is a pastor, he is human and imperfect just like everyone else, that he also loses his temper with his kids, fights with his wife, and gets tempted in various ways.  And by doing that, his experiment will hopefully bring more glory to the God who does not dismiss imperfect people but uses them to do His good work.  On the other hand, it will also hopefully combat the cynical belief of many outside the church that pastors are simply charlatans preaching one thing but living the opposite.  With the cameras rolling, Gramling will have five weeks to show the world that he is not perfect, but that he is also not a fraud.

So what is your reaction to this experiment?

I have a few thoughts.  The first is that I could NEVER see myself doing this at this time in my life.  My second thought is, why not???  I know that I would be beyond embarrassed to have my private moments out there for all to see at this stage of my life.  In many ways, I feel like I struggle too much with trying to live up to some sort of standard that I’ve set for myself – a man of God who always puts God first and never gives in to sin; a husband who knows how to lead his family and communicate well with his wife; a father who doesn’t lose his temper with his children.  Maybe I could pull it together for one day, but no doubt five weeks of constant scrutiny would reveal me as the selfish, lazy, un-Christlike man that I so often am.  I’m afraid that if the webcams were on 24/7, people would be calling for my resignation by the end of Week 1!

At the same time, this is what I’ve learned about failure and the struggle to live up to the standard we’ve set for ourselves – 95% of you can relate, and the other 5% probably don’t have any standards for yourself.  I have always found it refreshing and hope-inspiring to hear someone talk about their failures.  If you are walking closely with Jesus or successfully leading some church or ministry, I praise God for that.  But I also know that deep down, I need to know that there were times that you struggled and failed in your efforts to follow Jesus or lead that church or ministry.  I need to know that your life hasn’t always been lived at some spiritual level ten stories above my head, because that gives me hope that despite my failures and struggles, God might bring me to that place someday as well.  And when I get there, I hope that I don’t get amnesia about all that He had to bring me through to get there, so that I might give that same hope to those looking up to me.

So I say give a round of applause to Pastor Troy Gramling for his experiment.  In many ways, I feel like this man has thrown down the gauntlet:  Don’t talk about being real unless you’re not afraid to have people see you at your best and at  your worst.  Don’t preach about being a church that loves people as they are unless you’ve actually seen people as they really are.  And don’t talk about authenticity unless you’re willing to put a webcam on your life 24/7. 

What do you think of the experiment?  Would you be brave enough to do the same in your life?

You might want to sit down for this one…

Perhaps you’ve heard of the Internet-based virtual world known as “Second Life”.   It’s a pretty recent phenomenon, developed by Linden Lab, that basically allows you to create an online persona known as an “avatar” that can live and socialize in a virtual world.  These avatars can communicate through local chat and instant messaging, and can travel by walking, vehicle, flying, or teleporting (yes, teleporting).  By purchasing “Linden Dollars” with your own American money, you can even buy things from real life companies who have bought real estate in this virtual world. 

(Side note – if you’re the kind of person who still hasn’t figured out how to get your remote control to work, you may want to read that last paragraph again.  Slowly.)

An example of a Second Life avatar:
a male human appearance
customized with black wings.

All of which begs the question:  when God sent His only Son into the world, that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life, did that include avatars?

And will the day come someday when our church will begin supporting a missionary avatar who will go and live among these avatars?  Remember that God Himself took on flesh to come and dwell among us; is it too much to ask for someone to put on some virtual skin and make their home in Second Life?

As I said in the introduction, there are some churches out there that are probably still using electric typewriters and mimeographs and consider themselves high tech.  And then there are churches like the multi-site LifeChurch.tv, who this past Easter Sunday launched their newest campus in the virtual world of Second Life.  Yes, they actually purchased a virtual island (a Second Life island costs anywhere from US$5-$295/month) and constructed their own church campus there to minister to those who are more likely to visit a virtual church then actually come to a real-world church.

It’s moments like these that make most of us want to say “Slow down, world, you’re moving too fast!” 

Ladies and Gentleman, virtual church!

 
Pastor Craig Groeschel preaching to fake people

If you’re intrigued about this, you can read about their Easter service at www.terrystorch.com.  Apparently it was attended by all sorts of Satan worshipers, Jesus fans, and Second Life celebrities (whatever that means).  

Worshipers at the LifeChurch.tv Second Life Easter service

Is anyone else’s mind blown yet?  I’m curious to hear what you think of this whole thing.  LifeChurch.tv is obviously on the extreme cutting edge of church, attempting to reach out to those who are more likely to check out a virtual church than a real one.  But it certainly seems almost comical, doesn’t it?  After all, they’re ministering to fake people!!!  If an avatar responds to an altar call and gives her life to Jesus, what does that mean???  I’m pretty sure I can’t remember anything in my theology books that prepared me for that, and I’m having trouble locating “avatar” in my concordance.  But LifeChurch.tv knows that behind these fake people are real people who may never be reached any other way, and as I shake my head in wonder I have to give them credit for boldly going where no church has ever gone before.

The answer is as old as time, but nowadays with a seemingly easier route than ever before:  the desire to be significant.  The proliferation of half-naked women, stupid human tricks, and ranting bloggers comes from the desire to be famous and the need to know that you matter, that people like you and think you’re important, cool, funny, beautiful, or whatever it is you want to be known as.  In today’s culture, the age old need to know that you are more than just an insignificant speck in the universe has found its greatest shortcut to super-stardom – the Internet.