I must be getting old. I read some of the ideas that are being put forth by Christian leaders who are described as being on the cutting edge [whatever that means] and I cringe. I recently read where some are saying that Christians and the local church must reach out and embrace the various forms of technology that has infiltrated society today and see those technologies as venues for what they call Christian community. I think that they use that particular term as a reference to what is most often called fellowship. The thinking is that believers can have wonderful fellowship with one another via technology without ever being in the presence of one another. I tweet you and you tweet me and we have fellowship. You go to someone’s page on Facebook and engage in a wonderful time of fellowship. You read a blog or watch a video on YouTube or a streaming webcast of a church worship service, and you have fellowshiped with other believers. Throw in text messaging, PM’s and I think you get the picture. Now what I do not get is this: how can this be fellowship?

I do not want this post to be a polemic, so I will not mention the post at another blog that provoked me to think about this issue. I simply want to respond to what I perceive to be a great fallacy: we can have fellowship with other believers though various forms of technology while remaining physically isolated.

As I have stated in previous posts, I have nothing against technology. As a matter of fact, I have always been intrigued by technology. My only gripe with technology is that we keep it in its proper place. All of the tools I mentioned above [Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and so forth] are good means of disseminating information. They are good tools for the transmission of information from one person or group to another. However, they are poor tools for building or strengthening fellowship.

Look at what Paul wrote to the Romans. In his letter to them, he told them that he was not content to simply send them a letter, which was certainly cutting-edge technology for that day, but that he longed to visit them and see them face to face [Romans 1.11-15]. He understood that he could convey in person what could never be conveyed by a letter. He understood the need to be with them physically. In our hunger and thirst to be creative and on the cutting edge of all things technological, is this something that we have forgotten?

Imagine what would happen if a married couple tried to relate to one another only by means of the technologies I mentioned above. They tweet back and forth throughout the day; they talk on Facebook; they blog about one another; they send lovely text messages to each other. They do all of those things, but they are never together physically. What sort of marriage would that be? There would be a great deal of isolation, but no intimacy. This, I fear, is also what happens when we substitute physical presence with technological presence. We breed isolation, not intimacy.

The better route is the Biblical route. We need to keep in mind and obey what the writer to the Hebrews put forth in Hebrews 10.24-25:

and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, 25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near.

Fellowship, or community, cannot be built apart from our assembling together. The people of God need to be with the people of God in a physical sense and not just in a technological sense.

So I say, use Twitter and Facebook and blogs and other forms of technology, but do not let them substitute for being with other believers physically. Make sure you are in the Lord’s House with other believers on the Lord’s Day. Spend time in God’s Word with other Christians. Pray together, eat together, minister together, share the Gospel together. Build intimacy, not isolation.