to be of the internet or in the internet

i cannot remember if i have talked about mychurch.org or other separate "clone" sites that try and give a "church friendly" replication of what is popular in culture. my personal perspective is to say, those are well and good, but, Christ didn't do all his preaching/teaching/discipling within the confines of the walls of the temple. God in the old testament wasn't exactly pleased when people made the temple his "home." they moved outside to where the people were. so i'm somewhat discouraged again to see the incarnation of another clone. "God Tube"

yes, we now have a "you tube" for Christians. i looked at the site, it is pretty basic and seems to have a decent amount of videos (many seem to be bono related). i couldn't find what sets this apart from you tube (except obvious advertisements). i can only imagine that there is some censorship beneath the site that says stuff has to be promoting of the Christian God. if there isn't, then any atheist/agnostic/hindu/muslim/jewish/satanist or otherwise pissed off person at the Christian faith can put stuff up just like on you tube. to me, that seems counter to a gospel message that i know of where we accept into our fold gentiles samaritans and others that are generally pushed to the outside because of descriptors.

jonathon in our workshops we have done with youth & adults, have brought to light things like the "blasphemy challenge" and other videos and blogs that do not promote the Kingdom of God. we've challenged those folks to treat their time on the internet as part of their spiritual practices and create content that offers alternatives of love and grace where the people are watching and listening. these separate sites, they provide alternatives, but in the world we live in, it is only doing the harm of separating people. if i remember correctly, we harvest the wheat with the weeds, or we loose the wheat...

check it out for yourself and let me know what you think. are we called to be "of the internet" or "in the internet?"

ps: i think this could be some of that "snack sized" gospel...