Читать книгу @stickyJesus - Toni Birdsong - Страница 13

What does this new mission field look like, and who dwells there? It's unique, a place where increasingly "connected" people can easily become more spiritually disconnected. Amid the urban sprawl of technology, they congregate, shop, work, share, play, and live online. It's a shiny terrain, indeed.

In The World Is Flat, author Thomas L. Friedman asserts that there's no turning back from this "mobile me" era; that the cheap availability of software and broadband Internet has leveled the global landscape, rendering the world more "flat" than round. Connectivity and collaboration have opened the global political, economic, and cultural playing field to everyone previously excluded from circles of wealth and power. The future will not resemble the past; to succeed from this point forward, individuals and companies must develop strategies that fit the global realities.⁶

So how do you influence this 24/7 streaming global conversation? By doing what you do best—and what human beings have been doing since God established the twelve tribes of Israel—you reconnect to and mobilize the tribe.

In his groundbreaking book Tribes, Seth Godin reconnects us to our human tendency to create tribes. A tribe, says Godin, is a "group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. For millions of years, human beings have been part of one tribe or another. A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate."⁷ The Internet provides the communication channel for the world. Jesus provides the channel and the leadership to you, the Christ follower. Can you hear your Tribal Leader over the noise?

let's go there...

It's midday in Galilee. The sun is hot; a blanket of dust covers the weary traveler who comes into town by way of Judea. The townspeople have heard of Him and knew He was coming. Word traveled quickly of miracles, prophecies, and outlandish claims made by this very peculiar, humble carpenter from Nazareth.

"His name is Jesus. Says He's the Messiah," they whisper as He passes. "Son of God He claims...but we all know nothing good comes out of Nazareth." He meets their critical eyes with an expression that lacks both worry and offense. They whisper, unaware that He can hear their hearts. While they are entangled in their quiet chatter, this Tribal Leader hears only their overwhelming need.

The Scripture provides the first lesson in social networking and the importance of community. It points to Jesus as one of history's first influ-encers to say, "Follow me."

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"As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake,for they were fishermen. 'Come,follow me,'jesus said, 'and I will make you fishers of men.' At once they left their nets and followed him." ........................... Mark 1:16-18, NIV ........................