Polychromatic digital discipleship

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Decentralized impact

This morning I have been ‘tuning into’ a conversation about digital discipleship. There is a feeling from some that many individual Christians are ‘plugging away’ at this in the background whilst it is the bigger outfits which receive the limelight. Whilst this may indeed be true, I am left wondering how much it matters. Two illustrations of this come to mind.

Millions of internet users today will plug into the services of the mighty Google. Few will think what is going on ‘under the bonnet’ as they perform their searches. And yet, the truth is that Google is not powered by some vast supercomputer the size of  a small city, but by upwards of one million individual servers no bigger than the one you may be using just now. The genius lies not in the size of the computers, but the way they link together.

Regular readers of this blog will know my fascination with Michel Chevreul and his insights on the combination of pure colours to make an intense polychromatic whole. Bravia’s stunning paint advert has featured on here before for that very reason. Below is a lesser known Bravia commercial, where the Great Pyramid at Giza is seen covered by ordinary, tiny reels of cotton – to dramatic effect.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyGq4keRlrA&w=560&h=349]

Today I pay tribute to the thousands of Christian bloggers and tweeters out there who are contributing to the polychromatic presence of Christ online. I draw your attention to Peter’s description of our duty to “faithfully minister the Grace of God in its various forms” (1 Peter 4 v.10) the words in italics are just one word in the Greek, meaning “rainbow coloured”.

Time to get painting…

5 thoughts on “Polychromatic digital discipleship”

  2. Thanks Richard, how encouraging!

    I went to an event last September – free! – at the Royal Society about web science where 8 speakers from a variety of backgrounds gave informative and somewhat mind blowing presentations about particular applications of the world wide web.

    The talks I found most encouraging were a couple about the nature of networking. These convinced me that participating is important even if you can’t see the impact – it’s the network of relationships that is important, and this becomes more resilient and easier to plug into the more people who are involved.

    This was a great model for most of us because it reframes our online endeavours from being in competition with each other to being a collaborative creative enterprise.

    Jonny Baker has written a reworking of 1 Corinthians 12:12-end as ‘the Network of Christ’ which is an excellent expression of how being online works as discipleship and mission:

    “Just as a network, though one, has many small worlds, but all its parts interconnect, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptised by one Spirit and given a portal into the wider network of Christ – whether Orthodox, Emerging, Missional, New Monastic, Catholic, Anglican, Post-denomnational, Pentecostal, Baptist, Ana-baptist etc or any blend of the above the Spirit flows through our networks. So the network of Christ is not made up of one small world but of many interconnected small worlds and hubs.

    If the Australian missional communities should say ‘because I am not focused on worship I don’t connect into the wider network’ it would not cease to be part of the global network of Christ. And if the French Catholic church should say ‘because I can’t feasibly imagine homogeneous missional church planting I don’t belong to the wider network it wouldn’t cease to be part of the global network of Christ either. If the whole network lived in the small world of Alternative Worship where would the growth of African churches be? If the whole network lived in the Anglican small world where would the prophetic passion for justice of the anabaptists be? But in fact in the network of Christ God has catalysed and flows in lots of small worlds just as God wills. And the network is such that the Spirit creates an environment where She flows and small worlds emerge as the Spirit beckons the network into the future.

    If there were just one small world with no external connectors where would the network be? The redemptive gifts that the Spirit has distributed throughout the wider network of Christ would not flow. They would remain static. So don’t let the small world of which you are a part ever say ‘I don’t need you’ to another small world and don’t despise the gift of external connection. To be in Christ is to connect to Christ and to participate in the Network of Christ where the Spirit flows. And be careful that you don’t just notice the hubs that seem important or powerful or branded and neglect the weaker or less connected small worlds. God flows in these parts, distributes gifts there and has a special love for them. And the small world in which you mostly participate is most likely to be energisd by connection to other small worlds which are the most different to you so don’t be tempted to just connect to others who seem like you.

    You are the network of Christ and each one of you is connected and participates. And the Spirit flows in and through you and has distributed different kinds of gifts and roles – pioneers, catalysts, networkers, artists, mission leaders, loyal radicals, local practitioners, environmentalists, guardians of flow. Are all external connectors? Are all local practitioners? But eagerly desire the greater gifts to flow throughout the network of Christ.”

    This is part of a series of blogs he did around Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody – both Jonny’s blogs on this and the book itself are well worth a read!

    http://jonnybaker.blogs.com/jonnybaker/2008/10/the-network-of.html

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  4. I started a website, Lay Anglicana, last November and have been blogging and tweeting, LinkedInning and facebooking in the last couple of months, chiefly with fellow Anglicans.
    I live in the depths of rural England. I go to an IRL church where I am, but the church of cyberspace, and the Anglican Communion of the ether incorporate me in the ‘civilisation’ that is part of living in a city.
    They are every bit as real to me, and probably provide more food for thought than my actual worship. Both are necessary to me, but the feeling of being part of a larger whole which our intercessionary prayer encourages us in is made real through the internet.
    ‘The ankle bone’s connected to the knee bone, the knee bone’s connected to the thigh bone, now praise the word of the Lord!’

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