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My
own cyber-obsession
This
past week I registered a domain and server with the Internet company
Hispeed.com.
I was then able to begin re-working my personal website.
This project, while fun, consumed a lot of time.
As I continued to work late into the night (well past Late Night
with Conan O’Brian… and that's late!), I realized how difficult it
was for me to simply disconnect and go to bed.
Next morning, I was late for class.
The reason?
I had time to get ready; but I was checking my e-mail!
I went to work after class.
What was I doing?
Surfing the net!
As
an official citizen of Cyber-space, I was obsessed with the Internet and
all it had to offer.
I got excited to learn all the new stuff appearing on the 'net.
My roommate and I would take turns on his computer.
We had the Ethernet LAN hookup.
More speed.
Faster downloads.
This kind of stuff made my day.
After awhile, I began to get worried.
God
placed a call in my life to pastoral ministry several years ago.
Every day since then, He has confirmed this call through the events
of my life and by the affirmation of Christian community.
I have had numerous opportunities to use His gifts given to me.
Some of these opportunities exist on the Internet, such as being a
contributing editor for this magazine Next-Wave.
However, my calling is to people—not the computer.
I have been called to live in community with REAL people and have
REAL conversations.
Does the Internet have REAL people and REAL conversations?
Yes and no.
I believe there comes a point when this global connection becomes
isolated narcissism.
I had turned the exciting life-adventure of service to God into a
desk job staring at a glowing screen.
And I do not believe I am alone.
What
is online addiction?
The
Center for On-line Addiction (http://netaddiction.com)
categorizes online addiction into five categories:
1.
Cyber-sexual
Addiction
(addictions to adult chat rooms or cyberporn).
2.
Cyber-relationship
Addiction
(online friendships made in chat rooms, MUDs, or newsgroups that replace
real-life friends and family, this also includes the issue of
cyber-affairs).
3.
Net
Compulsions
(compulsive online gambling, online auction addiction, and obsessive
online trading).
4.
Information
Overload
(compulsive web surfing or database searches).
5.
Computer
Addiction
(obsessive computer game-playing or to programming aspects of computer
science, mostly a problem among men, children, and teenagers).
Cyber
addiction is an obsessive disorder with the computer and an inability to
get away from it or connect with the world apart from it.
This issue is no small matter.
In the May 10, 1999 issue of TIME magazine, polls indicate,
"In 1998 17 million kids ages 2 to 18 were online.
That number is expected to grow in five years to more than 42
million."
With 42 million kids raised on the Internet, while this phenomenon
promises many good things for the future, the potential for addiction is
far more dangerous than simply being a "couch potato.”
Avoiding excessive TV usage is much easier.
For the most part, the TV will only invade certain areas of your
life. The
TV does not follow you to work.
You cannot be paid to watch TV.
(Of course, maybe someone is?)
The
Internet is a different situation.
It affects not only the entertainment area of our lives.
The Internet promises job opportunities, social life, faith
experiences, entertainment, relationships, games, news, and education on
an interactive level.
I wonder how far can we go?
Is it healthy to form all our personal connections online?
Where is the line?
Is there one?
The
Center for Online Addiction asks these simple questions:
How
can you tell if you are addicted? Here are some typical warning signs:
1.
Do
you feel preoccupied with the Internet (think about previous on-line
activity or anticipate next on-line session)?
2.
Do
you feel the need to use the Internet with increasing amounts of time in
order to achieve satisfaction?
3.
Have
you repeatedly made unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back, or stop
Internet use?
4.
Do
you feel restless, moody, depressed, or irritable when attempting to cut
down or stop Internet use?
5.
Do
you stay on-line longer than originally intended?
6.
Have
you jeopardized or risked the loss of significant relationship, job,
educational or career opportunity because of the Internet?
7.
Have
you lied to family members, therapist, or others to conceal the extent of
involvement with the Internet?
8.
Do
you use the Internet as a way of escaping from problems or of relieving a
dysphoric mood (e.g., feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety,
depression)?
If
you can answer "yes" to five or more of the questions, then you
may suffer from Internet addiction.
Some
Christians have done very well on the Internet, approaching it as a
mission field.
The best example I can think of is Andrew Careaga, the host for E-vangelism.com
(http://e-vangelism.com) and
occasional writer for Next-Wave.
He has felt a call to share the Gospel online and offers support on
how to do this.
However, some Christians have not done well on the Internet.
For them, cyber-space is a place to hide from their family and
friends. Out
of a fear of connection, they flee from the world.
They have forgotten Jesus' prayer to the Father (John 17:15):
"My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you
protect them from the evil one."
The
cyber-trap for ministry
If
you spend more time working on your church's website than actually with
being people, you may have fallen into the trap.
This trap is built on a popular idea in today's church:
"If
we just get a nicer sanctuary…"
"If
we just get a better praise band…"
"If
we just re-name the church…"
"If
I could just give a better sermon…"
"If
we just had a cooler website…"
…then
people would come to the church and lives would be changed.
We fixate of the image and style of our church, but forget what
really changes people's lives: the Gospel.
Maybe
you do need to change some stylistic aspects of your community.
But these things in themselves are not the Gospel.
They were never intended to replace your personal action in sharing
the Gospel with a lost world.
You may have the coolest website; but it will not make a person's
life better in the eternal scheme of things.
Pastors
need to get away from the desk and back away from the computer.
The irony is that the Internet's ability to save time appeals to
us; yet simultaneously, the Internet is the source of much wasted time.
If you are reading this article, I assume you are connected to the
Internet on a semi-regular basis.
(Of course, the TRUE Internet addict does not read anything
anymore… we just skim!)
Ask yourself, how connected am I to my community, my family, my
friends? At
what point, does the Internet become a hindrance and no longer the amazing
tool for the future we hoped it would become?
The value of people to
people contact
After reading Leonard Sweet's SoulTsunami (http://soultsunami.com)
I came away with one central thought: people before program.
The future does not belong to the Internet.
It belongs to God.
God does not love the Internet.
He loves His people.
The Internet is great for many things, but people must come first.
The God’s glory is our focus.
In this frantic-paced world, spending time with people can be
viewed as inefficient and a waste of time.
This thought could not be further from the truth.
But imagine what is possible in an hour’s time:
In one hour, I could order books from Amazon.com; I could email
about a hundred people; I could update my website and visit other sites to
sign their guest book.
And all the while, listening to Real Audio 3WK.
Is this an efficient use of time?
Sure. But
in an hour, I could go to the nursing home and listen to a man share his
memories of World War II.
Ministry is not about how much we do.
Ministry is about how much we love.
Are we really seduced into thinking a day at the office can
accomplish more for God’s Kingdom than spending time with loved ones?
Jesus taught the value of time spent with people again and again.
For three years, He committed Himself to twelve disciples in
sending them out.
Many of His followers left (John 6:66).
But the Twelve were committed to Him.
(“Lord, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life.” John 6:68) Jesus listened to
them. Talked
with them. Jesus
shared daily life with them.
Jesus took the time to do the things that seemed of secondary
importance to everyone else.
He stopped to recognize Zacchaeus in the tree and have dinner with
Him (Luke 19:1-10).
He stopped to acknowledge the women healed of bleeding on his way
to raise Jairus' daughter from the dead (Matthew 9:18-26).
While a few of His healings did not require Him to be in locale for
it to occur (such as with the centurion's servant, Luke 7:1-10), most of
His healings involved touch.
He touched the hurting people.
Maybe our problem is that we are not "touchy" enough?
We call people on the phone to wish them well.
We send them a card.
We send them e-mail.
But how often to we go to see people for the sole purpose of
touching them?
I was in Wilmore, Kentucky at the Ichthus
Music Festival, when I heard a girl Christy share her testimony.
Christy was present at the prayer circle in West Paducah on
December 1, 1997 when 14-year-old Michael Carneal opened gunfire on the
group. Christy's story of
God's goodness in times of tragedy deeply affected me.
Odd as it may sound, I felt a spiritual need to take the hand of
someone who had experienced what she experienced.
Christy walked off the stage and (as if she already knew) reached
her hand to me. I took it.
Christy squeezed my hand. I
felt a powerful rush overflow me. I
couldn't help it, I cried.
These person- to-person experiences cannot be simulated or
re-created on the Internet or with a QuickTime video link.
Life needs to be lived and the computer cannot replace this
contact. We
cannot experience these things from behind a desk.
Paul's
lesson
Paul is probably our first virtual missionary.
While e-pistles many not sound like a virtual experience, his
letters to the early church were a means for him to connect with the
community without being present.
However, this mode of connection was not sufficient in itself.
The letters were not enough.
In Romans, Paul writes of how he longs to meet with them.
Romans 1:11, "I long to see you so that I may impart to you
some spiritual gift to make you strong-- that is, that you and I may be
mutually encouraged by each other's faith.
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I planned many
times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in
order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the
other Gentiles."
We
observe from Paul's comments the e-pistle was not sufficient for what he
wanted to happen in Rome.
Paul wanted to meet them. The
last chapter of Romans further reveals this desire.
Seventeen times Paul refers to someone he wants the Christians of
Rome to "greet."
In several other e-pistles, if Paul himself did not say he was
coming to visit, he typically sent someone else to visit them.
These words should remind us: e-mails and websites do not make a
church, only God working through His people.
My
redemption from cyber-obsession
After spending hours every week on the Internet, it has produced in
me a hunger for something more substantial.
Every Sunday evening, I drive an hour to aXXess for worship.
During that time of worship, I connect not only with God, but also
with God's people.
After the service ends, we hang out for at least an hour
afterwards. Often,
we will go to dinner with people from aXXess directly following the
service. This
contact refreshes me in a way few things do.
I need this contact.
How
unfortunate I have limited this contact to once a week!
How unfortunate for you, if "church" is only something
that happens once a week!
The Church does not exist in a building.
The great ecclesiological error of my childhood was in Sunday
School when I would put my fists together, fingers interlocked, and
recited: "Here is the Church..."
That is not the Church! The
Church is not the building; only when I opened up "and here are all the
people" did the Church exist.
Sure, I still e-mail my friends and surf the web.
But these activities cannot reproduce the joy of having coffee with
my friend Peyton or Scott, to listen to them share their hopes and dreams
for the Church.
I must reserve this joy for REAL people with REAL conversations.
As Christians, life needs to be lived in the world.
Now
if you don't mind, I am finished.
I will now save this file to my disk.
Then, I will step away from the computer and go outside for a walk.
Today, I would encourage you to do likewise.
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