Think about it, when Martin Luther first nailed his proclaimation on the church door, it was in effect the first “church blog”. In response to an interview question about the power of blogging, Dr. Bill Curtis, Chairman of the Board of the North American Mission Board (which I believe is associated with the Southern Baptist Convention), answered as follows:
Well, I like to say that Luther nailed the first blog onto the church door at Wittenburg; it wasn’t popular then … and it’s not too popular now! For Luther, it was a means of calling for reformation in a system that was resistant to change, and in a context where he wasn’t able to gain much of a hearing. Frankly, this kind of dialogue has been happening for centuries. With the internet, however, it has greatly expanded the opportunity for people to voice their opinions and to dialog about issues that are significant. It has given a new voice for everyone to participate in the conversation. Blogging in our convention represents a call for accountability, a call for change in some situations, and a call for relevance.
It makes total sense. Blogging is simply a modern tool that allows even the “common man” to express his/her thoughts about Christian life and the church. The power of the Reformation is still at work in today’s culture and I believe we have only just started to see the power of this technology take hold. The barriers to being able to have your voice heard publically are dropping rapidly as the internet becomes the modern day “printing press”.
We no longer have to rely on appointed church leaders to be our mouth piece in the public forum. We do not have to rely on authors of books and periodicals to be our source of “written” opinion on significant issues. In fact, with the changes to dramatically simplify tools that are the modern printing press (blogs, podcasts, rss feeds, etc) and the ever increasing availablity of the internet, it could be argued that Christians not only have the right to dialog and discuss matters openly, they also have a responsibility to due so.
This is something fresh that God has just laid on my heart that I wanted to share. I am looking forward to how the Spirit may lead me around this idea and what to do with it. I encourage you to think about this concept with me and to discuss what you think it means to us as Christians and the church in general. How would Luther use communication tools and technology if he were alive today?
Thanks to Micah Fries for highlighting this interview and response from Dr. Bill Curtis.