FBC Facebook vs. FBC Google wave

Comparing church models and operations to businesses and platforms appears to be in vogue these days.  I have been no exception; I have talked about the implications of Starbucks, Twitter, and Facebook.  If you are not interested in such comparisons, you should probably stop here.

The following comparison might not be worth making as Google wave is relatively new.  I go through phases of purging people on Facebook.  To be honest, many people are stalkers of Facebook.  Ok, so I went to camp with you once ten years ago.  But we didn't talk then, and we don't talk now.  You friended me on Facebook and I added you cause I am a chump.  We still don't talk on Facebook, so why are we Facebook friends?  This is kind of like a mega church where I see a lot of people with whom I have some kind of loose connect but don't really know more than a dozen or so beyond a superficial level.  So basically, on Facebook, people have e-shrines unto themselves, which their friends could check if they actually cared.  Oh, and there are all those meaningless causes we can sign up for which make us look like we actually know and care about the world but won't get our hands too dirty.  The problem with Facebook, as it relates to church, is that it is simply a big gathering of friends but lacks any direction and mobility in the real world.  Sounds like many churches I know.

Google wave, on the other hand, is a whole different animal.  Organic, collaborative, and participative are three words I would use to describe it.  If you don't have anything to do in the real world, wave is boring.  Try the mega church of FBC Facebook if you just want to lurk.  However, if you have friends, with whom you actually have real connections and need a place to plan and collaborate about how to operate in the real world, then FBC Google wave might be what you are looking for.  You can add people to conversations and edit, text, message, chat, etc in real time!  It is completely free flowing.  There is no one there to control {dominate} the flow of information and communication.  It is open source so that people may freely modify interaction.  It is as if Facebook is suffering from the curse of the sound system.

The main difference between Facebook and Google Wave have to with mission.  One is simply a happy fellowship.  The other only works if it is used by people who are going somewhere.  I tend to get bored fast at the "country club" churches.  There is nothing to do.  If I simply needed something to fill my time every week, I could find a more entertaining group with whom to associate.  I am interested in churches and groups who are "on the go" because we share something in common: the body of Christ is bigger than the individual.

heard on twitter

I think this is from Grady Bauer

Drink wine and you will sleep well
Sleep and you will not sin
Avoid sin and you will be saved
Ergo, drink wine and be saved

like sheep to the slaughter

I tend to be ahead of the curve when it comes to technology. Well, as ahead of the curve as my budget will allow... When it comes to free technology, I like to be on the front end. I started with xanga and blogger early on. With facebook, I joined the first year it started. The year when you would hear "What's facebook?" and were required to have a college email address. I don't know how old twitter is, but I resisted this one a little longer. I just joined, and am not all that impressed. It seems like it is the status function of facebook. Cool if you are a high school girl with a network of bored cell phone clad friends--lame for the rest of us. I will stay with it for a little while just to check it out. {my tweet?, twit?, whatever...}


All of that aside, there is a very interesting article over at TechCrunch. Here is the skinny. Most people are sheep-true in real life as well. 80% of twitter accounts have fewer than 10 followers and 30% have none whatsoever! Only 20% off all accounts have breached the 10 followers "ceiling", if we can call it that. Concerning the dissemination of information, 81% of all accounts have fewer that 10 tweets {for those who are nontwits: status updates}. A Harvard Business School study suggests that the top 10% of twits produce more than 90% of all tweets.

The TechCrunch article tells us what we already know. People are basically followers. My Father tried to instill in us at an early that we should be leaders and not followers. Set the path; don't follow the masses. Since rule of following is true for the masses, it is also true for the church. Think about these two truths. First, things don't change internally with the church because we are all followers {theologically a good thing; methodologically and transformissionally a death knell}. We as individuals are followers, and we as corporate bodies are followers. Where is the individual and corporate ingenuity and creativity. Why is it after 300 years of church in this country we are still worshiping in buildings, following an order of service, and addressing the culture the same way we always have? Has it just been such a winner of a plan thus far? Second, things don't change externally in the culture as a result of the church because we are only followers. When things go crazy in the world-and there is lots of crazy in the world-people should be able to look to us for guidance. We should be leading those around us through life. By this, I do not mean that we should create an outside community wherein they can leave the real world and take place in our trendy knockoff Christian culture. We need to be involved in the real world looking to the future rather than retreating and bemoaning "the way things used to be." Better to hold the keys to the doors of tomorrow than the pictures from the past.

When we think about these stats from twitter, it is important to see just how few lead so many. It doesn't take a million people to lead a movement. Often, it only takes a handful of key persons of influence.

How do we put ourselves in the top 10%? How do we shape the future of our city? How do we position ourselves far enough down the road so that the culture will be coming through the path we have blazed?