But should you build it? That’s another question that I would like to answer with my research. This question is significant, because too often it seems that Christians want to create their own versions of society, a version which is geared only for other Christians and is not appealing to those outside the faith. Two examples of this are GodTube and MyChurch, christianized versions of YouTube and MySpace. Is it wise to develop our own sites when there is nothing to stop us from working within the structure of existing web sites? Wouldn’t it be smarter to go where the lost are, rather than creating our own places and making them come there?
Over at ChurchRelevance.com, Kent Shaffer notes that a recent survey by Youth Trends shows that Facebook is by far and away the most favorite web site of 17-to-25 year olds. He concludes that “Facebook is the place for your church to reach young adults.” Yet, I bet that many churches or youth ministries would conclude that they should develop their own version of Facebook.
So true. I think we could easily miss the opportunity of these internet tools. I personally think the christianzed versions of these social networking sites are missing a huge opportunity.
What if churches used the expertise, the work, the time, and the money they would spend on their own versions to create compelling content and to build effective tools that helped users create, share, and spread that content to these established community sites? That could get exciting…
Point very well taken. It seems that instead of separating himself from the rest of the people Jesus took every opportunity he had to be where regular peiple are. He was even acused of letting himself to be entertained by sinners,