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The Body Builder
by Captain Terry Camsey –
Have you seen the advertisement on television where a boy and girl arrive at the girl’s home after a date? They say goodbye, the girl goes up to her room and the boy goes home. Each then logs on to the Internet and they continue the date in cyberspace using the social skill (cybergraces) of netiquette.
In fact, I believe that many young people (and older ones, too) may never leave home, yet go “out” every night on a date that lasts into the wee hours of the morning.
Nancy was telling me the other day that, at her corps, they are having difficulty getting young people to come to corps programs since they spend so much of their discretionary time in an alternative community on the Internet. Furthermore, she tells me that the young people are now teaching their grandmothers how to go out into cyberspace and they are choosing to do that rather than come to Home League!
The tendency, I read, is for cybergeeks to perceive citizenship in an entirely different light to that of we non-geeks! Since they can interact with people from all over the world without ever having to leave home, they can spend more time “away” from home than at it, even although physically they seem to be there! In terms of “real time” spent, one could well consider himself more Australian then American, even though born here. Or Swedish or Dutch, for that matter. The notion of a global village is not strange to such Internet world-travelers. International borders do not separate them.
It is no wonder that many define community on the basis of common interests rather than a place of birth. The effect, for example, of MTV is astounding when one realizes that through such media youngsters from all over the world are bound together by shared values and tastes that overshadow such things as national origin, language or culture.
It’s fascinating in light of the fact that the notion of America being a “melting pot” (where people from around the world merge into one culture) has by-and-large been abandoned, since people tend to want to preserve their own national identity. A “stewpot” is probably the better metaphor where individual “ingredients” retain their distinctives while at the same time being immersed in a common “liquid” that joins them together to create a “soup” of infinite taste, color and texture. A truly gourmet product!
So we have a situation where people are–locallymost easily reached for God within their own culture, while from an international perspective, they–quite naturally–are willing to become citizens of the international “global village.”
One wonders whether, in such circumstances, an international Christian movement might not come into its own, especially since its membership already sees each other as part of the same family. A microcosm, as it were, of the Kingdom of God here on earth with all nations, tribes, peoples, languages worshiping before the throne together.
When one sees how Spirit-inspired worship choruses are spontaneously sweeping around the world, being sung among all nations, tribes, peoples… one has to wonder whether the “revolution” has already begun.
Maybe instead of asking God to bless what we are doing, we need to open our eyes and ask for strength and courage to do what he is blessing… regardless of personal biases.
The world for God? It’s possible, isn’t it?
Booth certainly thought so.