". . . that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly" (2 Thessalonians 3:1).
"This is Indy, for heaven's sake -- Race!"
The apple didn't fall far from the tree. My son's impatience spoke for both of us as we navigated traffic on I-465, the racetrack circling our new home, Indianapolis, Indiana.
I've really come to love Indy, especially its racing theme. It seems to fit well with the Apostle Paul's coach-like exhortations for all of us. Press on toward the goal. Run the race. Win the prize.
Paul exhorts us with good reason -- we need it. Which of us is content with our own life progress of being conformed to the image of Christ? Are we content with our progress together as the Church of Jesus Christ in any city or community? Do we look like “one body” - like a family, together loving the Lord with our everything? And are we loving our neighbors as ourselves? We need radical change!
The Problem
Largely, we the Church are not yet getting the Great Commission done in our cities. At least that’s the case in American cities. If that truth is not self- evident, I can’t hope to convince readers in this short space.
One Solution We Can Help With
We're uniquely wired, so we find various solutions that we can help with including an important one, technology.
On the one hand, technology is speeding our lives into a Blackberried pace but at the same time technology offers us great opportunity to mend together the collaborative Church -- the net with which to fish our cities. Suddenly, with technology, we have the potential for near-perfect connection and interaction among Christ-followers who ask "WWJD?" in our communities. And then move together to DWJWD.
To that objective some of us in Indy and across the country are racing - at the speed of Light.
Foundational Assumptions
We begin with several foundational assumptions in our ministry together:
- Geographic strategy. In our communities and neighborhoods, we realize that “we” are the only team there is. Our neighbors are impacted by us one way or the other -- positively or negatively. And maybe, just maybe, Jesus really meant “neighbor,” the very people closest at hand and then expanding to model His love to the ends of the earth.
- Connecting. It seems apparent that the devil has had way too much success in playing his scheme of “pride and divide” on us. Our solution must transcend these boundaries within the body of Christ in our communities.
- Communications. No team is successful without coordinated communications.
- Christian City-Website. City-websites help connecting and communicating happen among . . . Bible-believing churches, ministries and individuals . . . geographically . . . and even in neighborhood websites.
- Blogs. Free, easy and capable. Blogs are ready-made for quick deployment as a city or neighborhood website. They can be operated individually, or a select team of people can post at the same site.
IndyChristian.com -- "Connecting Driven Christians in the Racing Capital of the World."
In 1999, I started IndyChristian.com in my spare time with the objective of centrally posting key news and events for Christians and freely linking off to local Bible-believing churches and ministries as they started popping up on the web. This was, and is, a paradigm breaker. Most websites, including church sites, work hard to keep surfers at their own site. I believed we could and should do the opposite, easily adding value for everyone by linking to other sites and drawing the tapestry of Christ-followers as a cyber-model of what we might better become someday on the ground – “the Church at Indianapolis.”
Notwithstanding all the many efforts of faith in the city throughout its history, this new cyber tool helped greatly as some of us started calling a team together in real-time, which we called "Transform Indiana.” TransformIndiana.com involves greater prayer, care and share efforts in the state's capital city and someday throughout the state.
When “blogging” became popular in 2004, with its new capabilities for easily posting news, commentary and announcements daily, it also became apparent that IndyChristian.com could become a TEAM blog site. I offered log-ins to several pastors and other innovative types, who could add content to better coordinate a city-reaching movement here in Indianapolis.
This was the advent of the “city team blog.” We now have over 50 pastors and other innovators capable of posting to the blog at anytime. Stop by IndyChristian.com to catch a glimpse of the collaborative ministry efforts breaking out everywhere.
And it’s my premise that what's good for Greater Indianapolis and Indiana is perhaps also good for other states nationwide.
Blews.Network
Based on that idea, a 50-state Network of Christian City-Sites has been developed. (Blogs+News=Blews) From Blews.Net, we're laying a pervasive set of communications tracks -- a national-to-neighborhood network of interdependent websites -- to accelerate the Great Commission and the loving impact of the Great Commandment.
Co-founded by Joe Walsh (SacramentoOutlook.com) and myself, we've affiliated it with a growing number of collaborative ministries such as the Mission America Coalition, the National Pastors Prayer Network, and the Governors Prayer Team(s).
Our 50 state-sites link to (Christian) city-sites as they arise. And because of their RSS capabilities, our sites are syndicated at ChristianHeadlines.com. If you have the heart and hands to see the city-reaching movement thrive in your state, city or neighborhood get in touch with us at the Blews.Network to see how you can get involved.
CrossroadsConnection.com
This growing concept of building one, centralized, private, social-networking site for all these collaborating Christians has led to the development of CrossroadsConnection.com. Users of the site have called it a “golden rolodex” and a private alternative to MySpace.com. Involvement in CrossroadsConnection.com is by invitation only and offers behind-the-scenes team-building.
Interested? Contact me. I know “a guy who knows a guy.” And that's exactly the point.
