Advancing the Kingdom through Networking (2)

Note: I didn't get a chance to turn the specific posts I cited in part one of this essay into links due to a time crunch. I posted in haste and repented in leisure! I've fixed them now, though, so the formatting is a bit more sightly.

MORE SPECIFICALLY - NETWORKING AND BLOGGING

How do we become better at networking? There are many ways, and God has a unique path for each of us to follow, of course, but I believe that Christians, and especially Christian teenagers, ought to pay special attention to the most powerful networking tool in existence today, the Internet. It was nearly unknown sixteen years ago when I was born, but since the late 1980s, the Internet has come to play a dominant role in our lives. One of the most important functions of the Internet to date is what has been termed ‘the democratization of communication.’ Weblogs (or blogs), online journals that can be used for a plethora of purposes, are a key element of the Internet that have literally revolutionized the way we learn our news.

It used to be that a few major newspapers and TV networks dominated the reporting industry, but with the advent of the Internet, no one has a monopoly on mass communication anymore. Any individual who wants to can start a blog for free and use to communicate with any number of people about any conceivable topic. Blogs have become the cutting edge of reporting because they are extremely flexible and can publicize news far more quickly than the larger, older networks. It was bloggers who publicized the campaign of the Swift Boat Veterans during the 2004 presidential race, and it was bloggers who exposed the Dan Rather/CBS scandal of recent months.

With such a powerful tool available to us, Christian teenagers need to take the initiative and use the ‘blogosphere,’ as it is called, to network and advance the kingdom of God. Of course, the Internet is a dangerous place. It will take the strong character and the love for God that we have developed in our lives to be good stewards of the technology with which God has blessed us. If we capitalize on the individual strength we have developed and use it to communicate with other likeminded Christians through the medium of blogs, then we will multiply our effectiveness in the kingdom of God.

It’s an amazing prospect before us. If we can establish key relational links now, then in ten years, when we have joined the adult world and are more actively involved in the struggle to reform our culture, we will have a vast support system of Christians who have the same values and determination that we possess.

Already, there are quite a few homeschooled Christian teenagers who have blogs. We write about a variety of topics, including current events, theology, philosophy, literature, apologetics, homsechooling issues, religious news, cultural battles, and daily life. The purpose of our blogs is most emphatically not to create an online youth group in which we can waste our time. Instead, blogs allow us to publicly discipline our thoughts and to communicate with one another for the purpose of strengthening others and ourselves. My own blog is called Rhetorical Response, and it is meant to be an analytical exploration of literature and worldview. I have analyzed several literary works since the school year began, as well as posted a few series about philosophy, theology, and worldview. God brought Rhetorical Response into my life so I could grow as an individual and communicate with others who have the same vision as myself. It has been an incredible blessing to me, and I pray that he will continue to guide me as I pursue ever more effective ways of networking to advance the kingdom of God.

A great deal of my excitement about networking has sprung from a quotation I read by a member of the Inklings, a literary club whose members included CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien for many years. The words of another club member, Charles Williams, apply to my life as much as they did to some of the greatest authors of the twentieth century:

‘Much was possible to a man in solitude, but much was possible only to a man in companionship…No mind was so good that it did not need another to counter and equal it, and to save it from conceit and bigotry and folly.’