In my last post regarding online community I brought up some questions that I will try to answer here:

Can we live in caring relationships?

I think the answer is yes. Of course we can care for each other through online community. In fact I can know things about people I would otherwise not know at all and can pray for them and do other things to help them in specific situations. Without online community I may not even be aware of their needs. There is one specific situation I can think of where my wife read one of her facebook friends status and realized this was a need to be addressed. Without having her as a friend on facebook I am not sure she would have been aware of the issue. She then rallied the troops and our church stepped up and demonstrated the love of Christ to her friend.

Can those relationships be guided by biblical truth?

I think so for sure.

Can those relationships be rooted in spiritual accountability?

This is certainly possible, but I think more difficult online. Here is where I think seeing someones facial expressions, hearing their tone, and observing there body language is missed. Again it comes down to authenticity, but I think something is lost in online communication.

Is life change occurring in the unity and diversity of authentic relationships?

Online community certainly allows for great diversity in relationships. I can connect with friends that are all over the world because of online tools.

While I think all of these things are possible I do think there are certain relational elements that are not possible online. Certainly online community allows me to connect with more people, people I would probably not otherwise connect with, but is there genuine community with people I do not already have a face to face connection with? Online tools can certainly assist in relationships, but can they or should they replace them?

In my last post I asked whether you can really have community online. I think it is crucial to define what is meant by community. At Southbridge we define community (which is one of our core values) as:

Genuine biblical community means living in caring relationships that are guided by biblical truth and grounded in spiritual accountability. We know that real and lasting life changes — spiritual transformation — occur in the unity and diversity of authentic relationships.

If we break this definition down aren’t all of these things possible and happening online?

Can we live in caring relationships?

Can those relationships be guided by biblical truth?

Can those relationships be rooted in spiritual accountability?

Is life change occurring in the unity and diversity of authentic relationships?

I will attempt to answer these questions in my next post. What do you think?

I am pondering the idea of online community. Can you really have community online? There are ways to connect with way more people than their used to be through all of the social networks, but are these real relationships? The argument I hear against these is that people are hiding behind a computer screen and can be whoever they want to be. That is true, but people can pretend to be someone they are not in other settings too.

I think the issue really is an issue of authenticity. How real and how raw does someone want to be? It is easy to post a mood on facebook (I have only done it once, but it seems easy). It is hard to pour out your heart. I have never been a writer, but it seems to be a way to communicate what is going on in my life, in my mind, and in my heart. If others want to read that and then interact over those circumstances, thoughts, and emotions that is great. Does that mean we have community?