I'm glad to hear of someone else who isn't reading to leave Z's land because there are contacts there that aren't anywhere else yet. And even if I collected all of their emails....there wouldn't be the frequent quick back - and forth we have now, because people (at least I) don't use email for that kind of conversation. And there are certain friends using Facebook that I don't see EVER going anywhere else. But I suppose if I can hope for everyone to eventually leave "the bird", I can hope for them to jump over to something else. I am loving Bluesky so far, but that's another thing....even if everyone did leave FB, it wouldn't be everyone going to just one space, much as I have my preferences.
I'm interested in your concluding paragraph. You mentioned building a 3rd place on something like Discord. If you don't "recruit" (probably a better word out there) from facebook and other places, how do you accomplish the Matthew 28 disciplemaking mandate in a 3rd space? Is it in-person recruiting to the 3rd space? or am I missing something?
I think the Internet is a collection of mission fields. When we're called to 'go, therefore,' the assumption is that we go to a physical place, but I think the digital revolution changed that, and now we have digital areas to go to and reach new disciples.
At the digital church I pastor, we once saw Twitch as our mission field and did our evangelistic work there. Now, we see YouTube as being our primary mission field. Discord is less about our evangelistic work and more about providing a third space, like a church building.
Nate, hope you see this - I couldn't find where to message you. Did you see The Remarkable Life of Ibelin is nominated for best documentary Oscar?!! Also thought you might be interested in this review! https://youtu.be/Ute6f7_Ejzc?si=z-7ILMoBRLFDhmDX
Thank you for this!
A big problem is how to leave places like Facebook or Meta more broadly without disrupting healthy relationships you do have on said platforms.
I'm glad to hear of someone else who isn't reading to leave Z's land because there are contacts there that aren't anywhere else yet. And even if I collected all of their emails....there wouldn't be the frequent quick back - and forth we have now, because people (at least I) don't use email for that kind of conversation. And there are certain friends using Facebook that I don't see EVER going anywhere else. But I suppose if I can hope for everyone to eventually leave "the bird", I can hope for them to jump over to something else. I am loving Bluesky so far, but that's another thing....even if everyone did leave FB, it wouldn't be everyone going to just one space, much as I have my preferences.
"ready" to leave ..jeesh. 🥴
I'm interested in your concluding paragraph. You mentioned building a 3rd place on something like Discord. If you don't "recruit" (probably a better word out there) from facebook and other places, how do you accomplish the Matthew 28 disciplemaking mandate in a 3rd space? Is it in-person recruiting to the 3rd space? or am I missing something?
I think the Internet is a collection of mission fields. When we're called to 'go, therefore,' the assumption is that we go to a physical place, but I think the digital revolution changed that, and now we have digital areas to go to and reach new disciples.
At the digital church I pastor, we once saw Twitch as our mission field and did our evangelistic work there. Now, we see YouTube as being our primary mission field. Discord is less about our evangelistic work and more about providing a third space, like a church building.
I see what you mean now. Thanks!
Related to a lot in this one as a frequent megaphone for what VRChat has done for folks (see e.g. the HBO special), thank you for writing!
Nate, hope you see this - I couldn't find where to message you. Did you see The Remarkable Life of Ibelin is nominated for best documentary Oscar?!! Also thought you might be interested in this review! https://youtu.be/Ute6f7_Ejzc?si=z-7ILMoBRLFDhmDX