It wasn’t that long ago I can remember my excitement over Myspace. Though it was short-lived, I remember loving the ability to connect and keep up with friends beyond email or any other type of correspondence. By updating my page, I could inform many of my friends at the same time what was going on in my life too. Social networking had been around, but it was typically at a price and had many parameters that narrowed it’s ability to connect. Myspace was free and untamed.
Not long after that day someone turned me on to facebook. Almost immediately I stopped using my myspace (after finding many of those same friends over on facebook) except for people who weren’t in college (at the time facebook was for people with college emails only). With myspace, you have the ability to over-customize your experience. Every Myspace page looked different as people added their own designs. The problem with such personalization is there seemed to be no uniformity in the mission and goal of myspace. Almost as if myspace was simply a template in which you could create your own neck of the woods.
Facebook, on the other hand, is not as easily customizable. There is one color scheme and basic layout. You can change the info and data, but not the overall experience. Even the ads seem to be more well placed, that you simply don’t mind them. There are many reasons facebook has grown to be much larger than myspace, but I believe it’s clear uniformity in goals and purpose are a major part.
There are a lot of ministries that take both approaches, but in my opinion the ones that take the more ‘facebook’ approach tend to win out. Simply handing out jobs is not delegation. Trying to appease each individual person creates a spiritual mess and you don’t know what to expect from person to person. In being effective in reaching others, we need to create a defined system or way of acting and reacting in our ministry. In other words, the overall purpose and objectives are displayed in the very structure itself. Sure each person is different, their likes and dislikes – but people will jump on board when they know what you’re about.
Handing pieces to different people not on board with the vision can ruin what you hope to accomplish. Instead, delegate and distribute responsibility based upon an agreed upon set of values and goals — you’ll be better in the end for it. After all, not many people miss myspace.
josh martin
May 28th, 2009
hey brother. nice insight on the sensitivity stuff being contextual. i totally agree and think that location and reality and expression are different everywhere. i guess i just have issues with how hard we try to be something that deep in our bones we are not. at least that is how it feels to me. being mindful just feels better then being sensitive. you put it well.