Randy Frazee - The Connecting Church 2.0: Beyond Small Groups to Authentic Community

It has been ten years since the first edition of The Connecting Church was released. Wow! A whole decade. When I turned ten, it had taken an entire lifetime to get there. Now I feel a little like Rip Van Winklelike I took a nap and woke up to find a decade gone. And the speed of change has been even faster than the ticking of a clock. Without question, someone forgot to put a governor on change; it no longer adheres to the speed limit we thought we had.

Think of the changing rate of technological advances. The first computer came out in 1939. It was the size of a typical dining room the whole room! It took thirty-five more years for the first personal computer to come out. It fit on a desktop. The first notebook computer came out ten years later. It fit in a briefcase. Four years after that, all the programs and data that once fit into my notebook computer are in my smartphone, and I can retrieve them faster than ever. The phone fits into my pocket. As amazing as this is, I am confident that just in the time it takes these words to make it to the shelf of a bookstore (assuming printed books are still around a year from now), some better, smarter, and faster device will be available.

While technology has created all kinds of new revenue streams and new opportunities to stay connected to people around the world, its change rate has also accelerated our loneliness. More and more folks, young and old, rely almost exclusively on the technology of e-mail, texting, Twitter, and Facebook for their relationships and they will also rely on the new things invented tomorrow. In addition, many people create an online avatar that is utterly different from the person they really are.

You dont have to take a class in sociology to know this wont cut it. You dont have to go to seminary to know this is no substitute for the way God designed for us to live. We were wired to require eye-to-eye contact. We were created for real hugs. While technology can be a good supplement and time-saver, it is not a replacement for a good ole-fashioned dinner with your family or holding the hand of a friend in trouble. Nothing can replace hanging out in the same room where someone involuntarily breaks out in an all-out belly laugh. Virtual condolences will never match the power of simply being there when a friend is bruised in a relationship or broken by an unexpected announcement.

Think of the cultural and economic changes in the United States since the new millennium began. The year 2001, when the first edition of The Connecting Church was published, introduced a permanent shift in this country. The attacks on September 11 changed the way we understood ourselves as a nation, perhaps forever. Since then weve been at war and experienced a crash in our housing market. While there is still an unbelievable sense of opportunity and optimism among many Americans, there is also a growing notion that maybe we are at an irreversible tipping point. Some even fear we may be entering a permanent downward economic spiral. Our sixteen trillion dollar debt and an out-of-control rise in government spending can make the economy seem like a proverbial house of cards.

In one sense, I hope things get better. And yet in another sense, maybe it is a good thing we are where we are. When I did my initial research in the late 1990s, social scientists were suggesting that the only possible situation that might disrupt the negative cycle of individualism, isolation, consumerism in America was an economic collapse. As long as Americans have so much discretionary money, they will continue to purchase products and engage in activities that will further fragment their lives and keep them from looking for real, God-ordained solutions that bring genuine happiness. In recent years, however, rising fuel prices have caused folks to think twice about getting on a plane or taking a road trip for a vacation, opting to stay home instead. Now many of us have a fresh opportunity to dig some deeper roots in our community and engage with our neighbors. While we may lose our financial strength and curb our mobility, we also may gain something that will genuinely increase our joy and longevity connected relationships, community. Maybe this is an acceptable swap.