Blogging Isn’t Christian Community.
While Blogs have good purposes one is not Christian community. Take a look at Ephesians 4:1-16, study 1 Corinthians 12:12-26, meditate on Romans 12:3-13 and consider that the biblical picture of the people of God speaks of personal, regular, familiar and inextricably interrelated gospel-centered fellowship in the context of a local gathering of believers.
We are in danger in our fragmented, broken but techno-saavy culture of seeking technologically empowered alternatives to true community. Since we find it difficult to build regular, personal, informed relationships because of suburban sprawl, 10-hour workdays and just plain ignorance we run to things that seem to supply what is lacking but are missing key elements of true community. So we blog, we chat, we watch reality TV and we temporarily feel connected .... but not really.
Have you ever felt like that? I have and I confess that I have sought the cheap alternative to true biblical relationship through the internet. Nothing replaces the biblical alternative!
May I suggest that if we are doing this we take a break from the blog world and take the time instead to build relationships with other believers in our local church. Call someone up, invite them to coffee, invite them to pray with you, go for a walk together, write a note of encouragement, have them over for dinner, play charades together, study and apply the word together, help someone do home maintenance, babysit for a couple. Join a small group and attend it faithfully, even when it seems inconvenient. True biblical fellowship will often be inconvenient but it is worth it!
If you are not a member of a local church find one that submits to the scriptures and keeps the gospel and all its glorious implications front and center. Change jobs and move to another part of the country if you have to in order to find this but make this a priority.
Let's stop anesthetizing ourselves to our need for true Christian community with virtual community.
May God bless you as you pursue the promise of Hebrews 10:
"And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some [like sometimes in the blog/chat world], but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near."
Hebrews 10:24-25 [ESV]
