ICYMI the world fell in upon itself this past Monday when Facebook suddenly crashed around 2:00 PM EST and the servers remained offline for hours on end. Some of us flocked to Twitter to scratch our social media itch to be heard. Others experienced a few hours without that addiction. Still more were lamenting their 'walls' not filling with birthday wishes or Messenger groups feeling abandoned.
We are a connected world and connection is a good thing. It's not always a great thing. But it has incredible potential as a good thing. Among those lamenting the loss of a digital foundation, there were many naysayers who rose to the top of the issue. In different ways, with different words, they all echoed the same sentiment: "What if Facebook just stayed gone - wouldn't that have been great?"
Many of these were tongue-in-cheek or political in nature - I'm no huge fan of Zuck or his tactics either. However, I would encourage those asking that question to consider the opposite occurring. "What if our community center, the YMCA, the coffee shop, the church on the corner just stayed gone - wouldn't that have been great?" No. Of course it wouldn't. It's a heartless thing to say.
The biggest disagreement that folks have with the ministry we are doing at Checkpoint comes out of a fear that we are abandoning the physical church. We never have and we never will. We are an extension. An additional mission field. We value the traditional model of church and the physical act of gathering.
However, what was made abundantly clear on Monday was that the respect is not mutual, even still. It only took 7 hours or so for folks to mock the work being done in digital ministries. It wouldn't surprise me if some even offered this instance up as the perfect example of why this model will never work. With this in mind, I thank you who are reading this for your support - we will press on anyway.