Blogrolling Backlash

My post the other day called Calling all PCA Bloggers - Denominational Blogrolls and Aggregators has generated a fair amount of negative feedback, so I thought I would respond and clarify some things.

The first negative feedback that I was aware of came from Mike Russell at Eternal Perspectives in a post titled Rebuilding the Dividing Wall, to which I responded here.  If you read my exchange with Mike you will notice that we both have a great appreciation for the points the other raised.

Now, Bene-Diction and Messy Christian have entered the fray (I know of these two because they were kind enough to trackback to me), and I am not sure who else is talking about this issue.

The comments I am hearing all very gracious, they are mostly variations of "Jolly seems like a pretty ok guy but his idea really sucks."  And the main point seems to be that ideas like denominational blogrolls and things like that are causing, or may soon cause, division in the Christian blog movement.

These criticisms come from people I respect and these are criticisms that I take to heart, because I certainly didn't intend to cause division in the blogosphere (isn't that what we always say when we are criticized - "poor me, I'm so misunderstood").  But having said that, I want to take another shot at splainifying myself.  I'll say some things I have already said, but this time I'll illustrate it with some stories and pictures.         

What I am hearing from the critics (and by the way, I emphasize that this is what I'm hearing - it may not be what they are saying because I may not be hearing them correctly because these things are going through my own filters and presuppositions) goes something like this:

The blogosphere started out as a place where Christians of all different stripes (denominational, theological and cultural stripes) could come together and put away their differences and interact with a wider community.  Advocating denominational and other special interest blogrolls and aggregators militates against this.  The blogosphere is becoming an arena where we can transcend some of the divisions that exist in the traditional church.  Starting denominational blogrolls and aggregators brings some of the worst aspects of traditional church life into the very arena that was enabling us to transcend those things.

I'm not trying to put words in Mike's, Bene's or Messy's mouths - in fact this is my own summary of the potential dangers of these things after taking all of their posts into consideration.  I hope they will comment on this and the rest of my post.

We in the blogosphere live in two worlds - cyberspace and local space.   Christians are building communities in two worlds - cyberspace and the church.  Although there is an ever increasing movement away from the traditional church, the traditional church is still what most folks think of when they think of "church" and Christians are most often associated with the traditional church.  To those of us in the blogosphere the traditional church looks something like this:

 While the blogosphere looks something like this

By the way, yes I know what you are thinking - if my ideas for denominational blogrolls sucks, my abilities as a graphic designer are worse.

Or, the traditional church looks something like this:

While the blogosphere is beginning to look more like the Waltons:

And, because I just can't leave well enough alone and have to overdo everything - the traditional church is like the Conflicted Conners:

While the blogosphere is more like the Happy Huxtables:

I realize I am overdoing it and am purposely trying to bring a bit of levity to the discussion, but this is a long winded and bad graphiced way of acknowleding that some may be thinking "we've got a good thing going in the blogosphere here, don't screw it up Jolly."

I will do my best to not screw things up, but I want to go back to the two communities that bloggers live in - the internet community and the local community.  In local communities most people attend local churches that are affiliated with denominations.  Most of the people in these churches and denominations don't have a clue what a blog is.  Here are a few of my own stories.

I was sitting at a meeting with some fellow PCA pastors a few months ago and the subject of the internet came up and I said "you guys need to start blogs, I've got one and it's great, it will increase your ability to communicate with your people, etc. etc."  You know the standard stuff we say about blogs.  They all said "what's a blog?"  When I tried to explain it, they just looked at me funny and said they weren't interested, didn't have the time, etc..  And then they changed the subject.

In my own church there are three of us that are into blogging, myself and one of our elders and his wife.  Up until this latest round of blog news with the World Magazine article and Hugh's book no one knew what a blog was.  We would talk about our blogs and people would look at us funny.  On more than one occasion people said that it sounds like we've got too much time on our hands.  One of the people who said that is our resident outdoorsman, so one of our bloggers said to him "yeah, I used to think that about people who hunt and fish all the time."  We all laughed.

Even the webmaster of my own church, who works for Verizon and is in the deep muddy of computer stuff for them hasn't known what a blog is until recently.  I floated my idea of doing a blog based church website to him several months ago and he just didn't get it, and this is a guy who knows computers and the internet.  He heard Hugh on the radio a few weeks ago and now he is starting to get it and is 100% behind a blog driven webpage for the church.

There is a guy in our church who is some kind of computer tech guy for his company who didn't know what a blog was until I told him and even then didn't get it.  He went to some of his folks at work and they didn't know what a blog was.

My point in all of this is that the division between the two communities is very real - people in our local communities don't get what is happening in the internet/blogging community.

Yet I happen to think that Hugh and others are on the right track when they say that blogs are reshaping the way we give and receive information in our culture and that this will impact the church.  So, I have a desire to link the internet/blogging community and my local community.

How can this be done?  For one thing, it is just a fact of life that people will listen to those they know and trust before they listen to someone they don't know.  So, if I want to acquaint my denominational leaders with the blogging community, it isn't going to fly if I tell them about Brian McLaren's blog, most of them are suspicious of him already.  Nor will it fly if I tell them that "everyone's doing it!"  But if I as a PCA guy can point to a bunch of PCA guys who blog, including people like George Grant or Marvin Olasky at the WorldMagblog, then the folks in my denomination will begin to sit up and take notice.  Similarly, if a Southern Baptist can point out that Al Mohler is making good use of his blog then the Southern Baptists will sit up and take notice.

I see denominational blogs as one bridge between the traditional church and the emerging internet/blogging community.  It's not the only bridge, but it is a bridge.  If a fellow PCA'er crosses the bridge via a blogroll and gets to my blog he's going to see that there is a whole lot of blogging going on, outside the PCA.  Granted, others may play their cards close to the vest and not venture out of their comfort zones, but that's ok.

One of my concerns in all of this is that, for some, the blogging community is becoming an alternative community to their local church community.  A significant number of folks who blog have been burned by the traditional church and are looking for something from blogs that is better than what they got at their local churches.  I understand and appreciate this. 

But, for me at least, the blogging community can never replace the local community.  It has to be a complimentary community, not an alternative community.  Local communities are driven by local concerns, yet they also have histories, traditions and things like that which must be respected. And yes, the local community with all of its history and tradition still takes priority over the blogging community.  The blogging community is a tremendous blessing to me and I would like to share this blessing with the people in my local, face to face, community.  Denominational aggregators and blogrolls were one idea on how to do this - I'm open to other ideas and criticisms.

I think some of the criticisms that have come presuppose that the blogging community is an entity unto itself, the peace and purity of which must be protected.  I respect that and will do all I can to maintain peace in this community.  But my basic presupposition is that the blogging community is not an entity unto itself - rather it should be seen as a community that is complimentary to our local communities. 

In that respect, blogging in and of itself can be a means of division in the church, regardless of divsions within the blogosphere.  There is a division between the technological haves and the have-nots with bloggers being in the vanguard of the haves.  My desire is to see a rebulding of the dividing wall between these two groups, and it is something I recommend to my fellow bloggers.  I'll be glad to join anyone and listen to any criticism dealing with divisions in the blogosphere, but I think a more important matter is at hand than bridging chasms within the blogosphere - it is the task of bridging the chasm between the technological haves and have-nots.