I was just reading a synopsis of a book on the effect of technology on faith. For example:
Reading and writing are individual activities. The technology of writing favors individualism over community, leading us to spiritual disciplines of “quiet time” and “journaling” and a gospel that is primarily oriented to the individual. Printing erodes the communal nature of faith. (p56-7 – Flickering Pixels by Shane Hipps)
That’s an interesting observation. I think many of us tend to promote an individual spirituality – quiet times, reading, journaling, private prayer, etc. When we do mention corporate applications they are often either related to witnessing or church/ministry involvement. Both of these corporate or interpersonal activities are typically felt in terms of duty rather than delight (the same could be said of the private disciplines – it all depends on how we perceive and present them).
When we think of the applications of our preaching, the contemporary relevance of the Word of God, do we think through all that it might mean to us by way of invitation as well as burden, in terms of the heart, the head and the hands, as well as corporately and not just individually? The Bible speaks to us all in far more intricate and engaging ways than many of our sermons do.
Worth pondering, at least for me . . .
I think he brings up a good point. I’ve tried to combat this by forming the sermon through conversation with the community. The beauty is, technology can aid this! I will post questions from the text to my facebook page as I’m studying. The responses help me to direct my study and hone my examples to reflect the needs of the community.