"MySpace is Evil"

(article copied from our church forum here)
If you opened this article, because the title solicited an "amen," you will soon be tempted to stone me.

But hold your horses..or rocks...and hear me out.

If the title elicited the same response that I gave it when I first heard it ("B.S.!"), it will be easier for you to stay with me for the full answer.

MySpace is only evil if God is evil.

Yet the exact words of my title return more than 11,ooo returns on a Google Search. Wow, People believe lies, and the church buys heresy.

Brace youself.

Here we go.

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I mentioned something about MySpace to a youth pastor.

"My Space is evil!"

That’s what he said, flat out.

I understand his concern: stalkers, teens wasting time, half-naked ladies wanting to be your "friend."

But MySpace cannot be evil.

If it is, the biblical God is not God.

Or we are gnostics.

Both are evil options.

Sure, if MySpace visited, it must be used prayerfully/carefully.

Like everything else we touch.

But as cheesy as it sounds, and as surprised as you may be to hear someone so fearful of cheap commercialism and cheesy evangelism say:

I think if Jesus were still here on earth as a human, he would not only "visit" MySpace, but (I can't believe I am saying this, but here goes) have a MySpace account.

!

In fact I think Jesus is on MySpace everyday.

And of course, he would spend most of his time in the "real" world where he could literally interact and touch people.

But as a prophetic person recently said (I'll unpack the quote later): "the physical world has merged with the online world." So we cannot completely say the "online" world-space is not part and parcel the "real" world.

Is telephoning someone "real"? Have you ever prayed with someone over the phone; was it “real” prayer? Wouldn't Jesus ever use the phone if he lived as a human in your town today?

Of course he would.

And he would be "IM " and text message and send MySpace messages to people.

He's more postmodern than you are.

He would probably have to borrow someone’s computer, though, but that’s another story (or is it?)

Again, all of Jesus’s "online" interaction would likely be pre-evanglism and setting up appointments and encounters in the "real" world (Likely in some other "evil" place...like a marketplace or a bar or a public "Samaritan well"...where people "are.")

But I dare to believe MySpace is one of the many and main "places" he would hang out today..

Like the other "evil" places they killed him for hanging out at: places where prostitutes gathered, even homes of "sinners"

And besides, is any "place" inherently evil?..Even porno theatres or satanic church buildings? (And if a place is "evil," wouldnt the "visiting" presence of Jesus un-evil and en-lighten the locale a bit?.
Light only shines in the darkness, a good Book said. The Christmas hymn doesn’t offer “Joy to the CHURCH”.

Isn't God's omniscience...being everywhere at once...preclude any "place" ("real" or online) from being completely intrinsically "evil." No matter what evil or satanic acts take place in that place?

We are not gnostic.

Therefore all places…and spaces are sacred.

Even the most unlikely places.

“If I make my bed in hell, You are there,” in the Psalmist of #139 was convinced

Even hell.

Even the most unlikely of places:

"Church buildings are sacred" Mark Driscoll says, continuing with a wink, "...like everything else in God's creation".



All that to say, I (gasp, a pastor) have a MySpace account. (www.myspace.com/chiefdreamer).

I have connected ‘there” with pastors, church members...and most importantly with those who wouldn't yet darken the door of a sacred church building.

And all youth pastors know the evil potential of youths hanging out too much or too loosely in Myspace. And yes, we need to encourage some kids to be on it less.

But most youth pastors need to be on it more!

If they are not regularly checking their youth MySpace profiles, they are missing out on perhaps the most open window into their kids lives, their public “private” journal; their confessions……and don’t you want to know who their “friends” are?

Get on it today.
,
Yes you;ll be shocked.

You’ll also be solicited; so be prayed up.

Yes, you will be rocked.

But you will pray in a new way.

And be where Jesus cannot not be.

The quote I alluded to earlier:


Quote:
"Police departments realize it's important to have a presence where people live.” The physical world has merged with the online world, he says.



This killer quote from a news article
about police departments with MySpace accounts (Partly to be “friends” with kids and protect them from online evildoers) is a wake-up call to the church. Could it be that there are more police departments with Myspace accounts than churches with MySpace accounts? That would be a shame.

That could be a sin.

I am thrilled the police are now “there” in droves. They, by calling, cannot fear entering “evil” places.

Neither can we.

Their vocation is to protect and bless those officially in their care and jurisdiction., even in risky places.

How much more is ours.

So I am heartened that the police departments are entering MySpace in droves; yet I am heartbroken that chuches are not there yet..even in dribbles.

Yes our church has one: www.myspace.com/thirdday fresno…

But check a few other churches that are very there:



http://www.myspace.com/lifebridge
http://www.myspace.com/elevationchurch
http://www.myspace.com/churchfortherestofus
http://www.myspace.com/elevationchurchcharlotte


Not to mention XXX Church:
http://www.myspace.com/xxxchurch

Don't click that one, you'll be offended.

As you should be. It is one of the most offensive ..in a holy way...church websites out there.

That’s another story (or is it?)


Anyway, two brilliant insights from the police officer:

1)It’s “important to have a
presence where people live.”
2) The online world and physical world have merged.

One would think most churches would at least agree..in principle and on paper.. with #1, It’s simply being incarnational. It’s only basic Christianity (“I do not pray that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one,” Jesus himself prayed and prophesied over us two thousaad years ago. That prayer is only beginning to be answered.) Thank God that Jesus "moved into the neighborhood “(John 1 TMB), and didn’t shun our “hood,” or bypass our “space,” because it was “evil”.

Jesus is not gnostic. If we are in His image, we cannot be.

But regarding the “merger” of #2: Like it or not, the merger has happened. There is no turning back the clock (even your computer’s clock) to a pre-computer age. The merger is done. That is one reason there is now an “emerging church.” So basic and big for the church’s mission is this “secular” (not!) merger , that pastors and youth pastors to be "in the world" (but not “of it”).as Christ commanded, almost inevitably must be in their sheep’s face and space....

We are in the world.

Not of it.

But not out of it yet either.

Which is why we are to be, in Jesus’s terms “sneaky as snakes and docile as doves” (Matt 10:16) as we visit and evangelize all place, spaces and cyberspaces.

Please..as Reggie NcNeal has taught me to say often: "Don't hear what I'm not saying": This is not a plea for more cheesy church websites; Jesus Junk for sale online, and heavy-handed evangelism. Those tactics are far closer to evil than all MySpace profiles combined.

In other words, if all the Christian websites and Christian gadgets from Christian stores were laid end-to-end, you might find more stuff repugnant to Jesus than if all the MySpace profiles ever created were lined up end-to-end...even doubled do the reach the dark side of the moon and back.

There is no dark side of the moon, really...But that's another story...or is it?
(See this and this..even if you didn't get the Pink Floyd reference)


Do hear what I am saying:

The same two things the police officer is saying.


It' s a nobrainer.

Which I sometime fear is precisely the size and shape of brain we lobotomized saints in the church often have.

Thank God then for the police department’s shrewd brains; we can learn from them (a whole nother article on : “What the Church Can Learn From the Police” ismore worldly, church.

Don’t be conformed to the world we are inevitably in.

Are we?

Am I?

Shudder.

And excuse me. I am on my way to Starbucks to meet someone I hang out with on MySpace.

Yes, theoretically he could be a stalker.

But I doubt it, he's an anointed guitar player at our church.

Which means I have actually met him in the real world, as well as on MySpace.

Or could I almost phrase it the other way around?

(:




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Congrats!You read this far, so I pray you are mature enough to hande these photos. I had to post them here, so I could host them on my blogger account, and not My MySpace account...click here to see why(: