The Concreteness of Community

If you are reading this post then, like me, you probably have at least a moderate interest in the blogosphere.

I think blogging, and social networking, and twittering, and e-mail, all have their virtues. For starters, it has put a lot of us in touch with one another in ways that never could have been possible a few years ago. And for those of us in the church, it has given us avenues to pursue our personal discipleship as well as church renewal through media that weren't available to any previous generation.

But there are downsides. I wrote not long ago about what I believe is the digital age's negative influence on the loss of interpersonal etiquette - the most basic expression of hospitality. And in conversations I had with Shane Raynor in preparation for a column on his reappearance in the blogosphere through the Wesley Report, Shane was careful to point out that these spaces we inhabit in cyberspace should be used "to supplement real community, not replace it."

The limits of online community were shown to me in spades late last year when John the (formerly) Methodist (once of Locusts & Honey and now of the Zeray Gazette) announced to the world that he was renouncing his Christian faith. This came on the heels of a terribly negative experience with the ordination process in his annual conference, so bad in fact that he described his exit from the UMC as an "escape" from a "cult."

I read with regret as John related his disgust with the church and those in it in post after post over the following weeks.

And suddenly I realized how seductive cyberspace could be.

I mean, here was a guy whose blog had been one of my favorites for years. He was funny, he (like me) loved Star Trek, he did this "Art Blogging" thing that I thought was one of the most creative uses of a blog I had ever seen, and he seemed utterly unafraid to raise controversial issues and then invite open discussion of them. Heck, he even featured me on one of his Methodist Blogger Profiles.

But I didn't really know John. And by that I mean that I didn't know him at all. My "relationship" with him was like my relationship with most of you who are reading this post: it existed in the ether, where the Internet fairies carry all of our messages and posts and tweets to one another and we conjure up the fantasy that we are actually a part of each other's lives.

So how do you love your neighbor when you've never met him?

The experiences John went through are deeply personal ones, of course, but he also made them public by sharing them in a blogging medium that is viewable by the whole world. But the ironic thing to me about the blogosphere is simply this: the whole world can have a conversation together here, but not a single one of us can offer the bread of Eucharist to another.

I'm in a mood to write about this because of a post I read by John Meunier last night called, "Methoblogging for good and ill." It is a remarkable piece of writing, and I encourage you to read it. John reminds us that Christian community must always, finally, be concrete.

This thing we do in cyberspace has opened new avenues for connection with one another, but we can't let it delude us into thinking we've got something more than we do.

Some blogging changes

A few changes to the Methodist blogging world...

Shane Raynor, who once wrote the highly popular Wesley Blog, has announced that he will be back in September with a new blog called the Wesley Report. Shane's blog did probably more than anything to bring the Methoblogosphere into existence. It's good to see that he'll be back and blogging again.

My friend David Hollis is interested in Christian stewardship as it relates to our use of the environment. In addition to his regular blog, David has started a blog called Going Green for God, where he looks at issues related to consumption, recycling, and the American lifestyle.

Duke divinity folks Tom Arthur, Craig Uffman, and Kevin Poorman have recently started a blog called Worship Review, where he reviews hymns and praise songs for their theological content. I think this blog has a lot of creative potential in an area that is underrepresented in the Methoblogosphere. Check it out.

Also, this isn't exactly brand new, but it's worth a mention. A group of young adult clergy in the North Alabama Conference have started Young Clergy Blog, which discusses issues of ministry as they relate to young clergy. It would be good for them to post a bit more frequently, but if they start doing that this blog has a lot of potential to be a place for needed debate and discussion.

Any other new blog ventures out there? Let me know. I'd like to highlight them for others to know.

When is a blog dead?

When I first started reading blogs a lot a few years ago, one of the blogs I visited most regularly was Generous Orthodoxy Think Tank. I appreciated its mission of trying to transcend the typical liberal/conservative divide in the church, and doing so within a broadly orthodox framework. But the Think Tank has been sputtering for a long time now. There have only been 7 posts since the beginning of the year, and the last one was on March 12th.

That leads me to a question: When is a blog dead?

With the Think Tank in particular, the question for me is when to remove it from the "I like these blogs" category on my right hand sidebar. I will read dozens of blogs over the course of a month, but I put those few ones there in my sidebar to say to readers, "Hey, these are some good blogs you should check out." Some of them are written by friends, while others are Methobloggers who tend to have exceptionally good content. And some, like the Christianity Today and Christian Century blogs, connect what we do with the broader Christian conversation. The Think Tank was in this latter category, which makes its demise all the more disappointing.

Sometimes the death of a blog is announced, as it was in the case of Shane Raynor's Wesley Blog. With the Think Tank, it seems to have died slowly from lack of time or interest on the part of the contributors. Regardless, I'll be taking it off my list of favorites. Can't recommend a blog that isn't really functional.

On a positive note, I've added some other blogs that I have found particularly interesting or useful:

-- Young Clergy Blog - the relatively new blog that is run by young clergy in the North Alabama Conference and addresses issues particularly relevant to young UM clergy.

-- John Meunier - a UM pastor in Indiana who posts on an interesting and diverse range of church-related topics.

-- Andy Rowell - a fellow Th.D colleague of mine here at Duke. Andy comes from an evangelical background and has served both as a pastor and a professor. His blog, Church Leadership Conversations, includes thoughts, reflections, and advice for church leaders or church leaders-in-training.

Where is blogging headed?

Christianity Today has an article out right now on the "death of blogs."

It's a bit of an overstatement. As CT itself admits, there are still 3 million new blogs started every month. But the real issue is the number of blogs active now versus what there have been in the past. According to CT, 200 million blogs fomerly active have now been abandoned - more than twice as many as are now in existence.

The question CT takes up is the role of blogs in the larger Christian conversation. Is the blogosphere an effective (and enduring) place to engage in questions of Christian faith and practice?

I think that it is. A couple of quotes in the CT article by bloggers indicate that bloggers feel the need to post daily - or even several times per day. I personally think that pace is unrealistic. The number of people who can write effective daily posts is low. And if you are not making your living by blogging (and who does that??), then the incentive to keep up a regularly active blog can suffer under the pressure to keep current.

When I started Gen X Rising, my goal was to post twice weekly. That's a pace that I have been able to maintain. (It is also a pace that matches the most active newspaper columnists.) Posting at that pace may cause a blogger's readership to grow more slowly, but it is also a pace that allows for a blogger to use a blog as a way to explore relevant issues in a way that corresponds with a normal life in school, the workplace, or the church. Establishing a semi-regular routine also encourages readers to check back in on a pretty consistent basis.

Thematically-related blogs also tend to attract a fairly consistent readership, even if less frequent posting may have something of a limiting effect on attracting lots of new readers. Think about many of the regular bloggers and readers in the Methoblogosphere. We may not always post (or read) daily, but we always know where to go to check in on "the conversation." It also has the distinct advantage of connecting many of us who would not know of one another's existence otherwise. And that's important - since we are all brothers and sisters in the same body of Christ!

I am always looking for ways to increase readership, as we all are. But for our generation, I also think blogging has become (and will remain) an important media outlet for sharing views and engaging in conversation - regardless of whether we are hyperbloggers, weekly bloggers, or occasional bloggers.

As always, I appreciate any comments you might have on the pros and cons of this (still) relatively new form of communication of which we find ourselves a part.