thrive community

Unless you’ve been sleeping under a rock for the last few decades, you’ve noticed that communication has drastically changed. We are living in the most connected generation in history with access to more people and information than ever before. It’s a global community that everyone wants to be a part of.

From the telegraph, to the telephone, the television, the Apple 1, the cell phone, the fax machine, the ARPA-net, the world-wide-web, the PDA and the iPhone, technological developments have expanded our community from “down the road” to “around the world.” (A special “thank you” to Steve Jobs for the iPhone by the way!) People are offered the opportunity to connect with practically anyone, anywhere, anytime. From grandparents to grade-schoolers, everybody can be “in touch” on any number of levels.

Advancements in technology have not only transformed communication, they have transformed the culture of community. Look at the rise of social networks like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Loopt and the estimated 175,000 blogs created every day (1). People have access to each other twenty-four hours a day by computer, cell phone, Blackberry or iPhone, constantly communicating anything and everything with their “virtual friends” all around the world.  Kip, from Napoleon Dynamite sang it right. We DO love technology.

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The Bible has been the most influential and controversial piece of literature in human history. It’s still the best-selling book in the world even though Rick Warren is quickly closing the gap with his book, “The Purpose Driven Life”, the second best-selling book! (I’m only kidding. I don’t think it’s quite that close!)

I believe the reason why “The Purpose Driven Life” has been so successful is because it, too, like the Bible, has presented people with a context for faith in God so that it can be personally understood, personally embraced and personally expressed to the world in which we live. But, unlike The Purpose Driven Life, the Bible is unique in its authority, inspiration and writings. (Sorry Rick!)

The Bible is the story of God interacting and moving among broken humanity, giving mercy, offering forgiveness and delivering justice with a heart to redeem and transform every living soul. Many of those who believed in Him felt the urge of God to write down what He put in their hearts. He gave the privilege of speaking for Him, in spite of their flaws and brokenness. There’s no doubt that they were inspired by Him to tell His story. These inspired stories have been written down so that we who followed could hear their story and the story of God.

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