Jeffrey C. Long

Daren asked in a previous comment: “Did you really mean “seek to find creative alternatives to living in the 21st century”? What does that mean?”

It means a couple things.

First, I believe that Jesus was God in the flesh, and that His life not only taught us what to believe, but how to live. His life was a living owner’s manual for what genuine human existence can look like. I think that this is more true based on His favorite nickname for himself: The Son of Man. He was identifying himself with humanity in a manner that cannot be underestimated and in so doing showing that his life was an example for how we are to live.

Thus, the ethics of Jesus found in His life, and in teachings such as the sermon on the mount regarding values, money and relationships I believe should be crafted into a lifestyle that is ultimately counter-cultural.

Second, some of these ethics of Jesus have to do with ownership and shared useage of things.

Some who try and take the sermon on the mount seriously are labeled socialist because Jesus didn’t seem to put a lot of value on ownership and selfishness. He believed that life is better when resources are shared especially when the poor are taken care of. The difference between Jesus’ teaching and that of socialism, is that Jesus commends individuals and the church to take up this ethic of sharing, but does not establish a government to mandate this type of sharing, as socialism does.

Now, one of the dynamics that technology and especially the internet has created is a sharing culture very akin to values of Jesus. Entire operating systems (Linux, Unix, the underpinnings of the Macintosh operating system) have been built by people who have decided to share their code, rather then horde it to themselves. Books whose copyright have expired are now available for free download at Project Gutenberg for secular works, and The Christian Classics Ethereal Library for Christian works. Many musicians have encouraged their fans to record their concerts and allowed them to freely give them away at Etree. While the context is in regards to administering spiritual miracles, I believe that Matthew 10:8 is applicable to this force. “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.” Freely you have received, freely give. I believe we each need to imitate a culture that is free with its resources. The internet has provided both the venue and the example for this type of culture. A great Christian example of this is the Jesus Film Project where you can watch the film “Jesus” in many different languages at your home computer. I believe there should be more of this. More churches making their sermons freely available online. More Christian musicians encouraging their fans to record their concerts and being included at etree.org.

Finally, I believe there are opportunities for projects that improve the quality of life in all areas through the creative collaboration that is fostered by non-heierarchical communications through the internet. What a mouthful. But reread it and let my explanation soak in. One of the reasons the Linux operating system succeeded through online collaboration was because the walls of heierarchy were broken down to allow a whole lot of trial and error to proceed towards the creation of something remarkable. In traditional organizations there is not a lot of permission given for trying new things because the organization doesn’t want to expend money or time on making mistakes. But great things come from free collaboration between people exchanging ideas without an authority trying to keep everything pure. I think that Christianity can be greatly benefited when we learn how to harness the collaborative potential of online communities and transfer that into tangible projects that change the world. When people can freely collaborate without needing to go through the church heierarchy, the Spirit will be free to work through projects that will be amazing. Now, don’t get me wrong. I am strongly in favor of eldership as a corrective and progressive leadership in the church and in communities. But elders should find themselves inside of these collaborative groups providing input and correcting unspiritual relationships so that these projects can move forward, rather then be sitting in safe committee meetings granting or rejecting proposals before they even get off the ground.

In conclusion, we live in a strangely symbiotic time in which the dynamics of collaboration and sharing that the internet foster coincide with the values and ethics that Jesus lived and taught. One of my purposes with this website is to promote this type of collaboration and sharing by providing examples of how it is being done in the internet community and also in the Church where examples can be found.

Hope this helps to explain.