by Jonathan Owens
Originally published on Doxopolis, a culture blog from the staff at The City, a church-focused social network product. You may view an archived copy on Tumblr.
This is not something I would write anymore, but it is preserved here for posterity. This was a long and impactful season of my life.
There were two types of people that Jesus spent his time ministering to: followers and disciples. The followers were just that: people who followed him wherever he went, being taught in parables, healed, and sometimes fed. They would regularly be left behind while Jesus spent time in prayer. The disciples were followers whom Jesus chose to bring with him into those intimate moments of prayer (Luke 9:18-22), who were taught in clear terms (Luke 8:10), and who were trained to become apostles who would be the foundation of His church. He spent years training and teaching these men in the closest and most desperate situations. Jesus initiated with each one in a personal, face-to-face way that collided with their life experience and changed them forever. They did more than hear a parable and respond. They were sought after. (Luke 5:27-28)
The technology available to the church today empowers it to reach more followers than ever before. The tools of broadcast are cheap, accessible, and effective. Streaming video and audio allows a pastor to reach the whole connected world without leaving his sanctuary. And praise God for that! But there is something missing. Where is the tool for disciples? When one of your online followers is called into ministry, how do you connect with them to train them? Once you start training them, do you have an effective tool for helping them grow? The Church is called to disciple others (Matthew 28:19), but much of the technology available today is not serving this need well.
The communication Jesus had with his disciples was frequent, intimate, and intentional. It was frequent in that He was rarely without his inner circle by his side, talking and teaching and going through life with them. It was intimate in the way He knew and taught each one of them personally and from deep knowledge of their heart. It was intentional the way He taught them with authority and pursued their growth into Apostles.
Is your church technology enabling this kind of communication with those closest to you in your church? Email is in many ways the opposite of intimacy, and no matter how often you check Twitter, it will never be as frequent as a conversation with someone right next to you. Broadcast tools fall flat when pursuing this kind of communication. They are occasional, impersonal, and universal. This kind of message does not shape a heart the same way close, side-by-side teaching always will.
Be intentional about closing this gap in your church. Followers may be wonderfully easy to reach with the tools you have, but don’t let your followers capture your heart. Jesus regularly left them behind to serve his disciples. Take time to consider how your technology strategy is serving your disciples well, and empowering your church to follow its Great Commission. If it isn’t, rethink your strategy, and look for those tools designed for building disciples, not just for reaching followers.
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