War Games

Exploration of Christian communities and recolections of my past experience with evangelism has led me to an observation, which in turn has led to an easier and more direct method of observing e-vangelical communities.

My observation is that understanding the nature of evangelism is secondary to the nature of communities. Formation of communities is more important to understanding the nature of the network society, and sheds light onto why e-vangelists opperate in the way that they do.

Eternal Creations, Campus Crusades, youth groups are all communities that use the power of group think that play on our desires to belong. They need not preach, only to provide. The cordinators of such groups are are networkers, builders of networks. Networks give us a place to "be."

These places provide free things, stuff to do, and a happy face. They don't ask anything in return. They aren't judgemental, and often break with skeptical asumptions of what missionaries do. They are, in my experience, outwardly tolerant, and genuinely interested in meeting people from different persectives. That being said, like all groups, they have a mission. A goal, something that unifies them, if they didn't, well, they wouldn't be a group. The mission of a missionary is to spread Christianity.

Communities like these don't ask anymore than belonging, a perfect and most members want nothing more. But what does it mean to belong to a group or a network. What do we sacrifice by belonging? What do those who ask us to belong stand to gain?

Evangelism is defined as a "militant zeal for a cause." Can activities as innocent as dance parties, games, charity work, etc, be considered militant? The question, better posed, is: can dance parties, games and charity work be considered the weapons of war. To me it's obvious. Could there be a better way to enfranchise people than mere unconditional acceptance? I certaintly get a little giddy everytime I find I'm pre-approved for a new credit card.

To ease my work, I will approach my further interviews by digging up clues as to how the activities are used to create a sense of community. The formation of a community is analogous to the formation of an army. If you form a community on behalf of anything, especially something as deeply devisive as religion, you are inherently conquering something, someone's individuality perhaps (If you haven't figured it out yet, I personally eschew affiliations). I am no longer interested in why evangelists use open, non-coersive communities as a tool of recruitment. This appears self-evident. I want to use my observations to gain a better insight into what community means to the creators of evangelical communities.

By understanding the personal value of communities within a network, we better understand the power of the network society. We gain an insight into, for better or worse, what our network society does for community affiliations in general. A better explanation of my research: How/why Christian communities appeal to disaffected web surfers.