Many are wondering why a bunch of bloggers got together at GodBlogCon over the weekend, and what exactly the purpose was.
I have been asking myself that question as well. And I am beginning ot have insight into why this gathering was so important.
Hebrews 10:25:
Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one anotherâand all the more as you see the Day approaching.
I think that with computers, blogs, websites, etc., it has become very easy for us to substitute meeting together, for communication through technology. When this happens, I believe we begin to lose a core sense of our own humanity. We no longer know what it means to be in relationship with another person. We no longer know what it means to sacrifice, and work together.
If we were to stay behind our computers and blogs all day, week in and week out, I think that would do something devastating to us as a culture and as a community. As the author of Hebrews reminds us, we should not forsake meeting together. The author could hardly had envisioned a day and age when communication would take place across the world via the internet, but the words are now, more true than ever. The apostle Paul himself, though he wrote letters to churches, longed to be with them as well (Philippians).
As I was watching the movie I, Robot the other night, I was struck with how easy it can be to give our work, tasks, and lives, to robots, or to something that is more efficient. And computers and blogs are efficient. I get things done quickly, and I get the message out to a big audience. But in the process I have given up some of the relational aspect that is involved in being with people.
The most fascinating aspect about the conference was meeting people in person whom I had only “known” via their blog site and name. So when they would tell me their name, it was almost as if I had a hard time making that transition.
Naming signifies relationality and humanness, and it is one of the first tasks that God gives to Adam in the Garden (Genesis 2:19). And it is something that cannot be substituted for technology.
So though there are many benefits to computers, blogging and technology, it should never be a permanent substitute for the meeting together, in person, where we know people by their names.
I am looking forward to GodBlogCon II, and other conferences and meetings that come up, where we can get out from behind our computers, and where we can meet face to face.
