Step

OK, watch this.

Pretty good, huh?

Now, if you’ve got another minute and a half to kill, watch this, too.

Those clips sold for $1.65 billion yesterday. No joke.

Well, those…and all the other user-created clips that are downloaded about 100 million (also no joke) times a day at youtube.com.

The folks from your friendly neighborhood search engine, Google, acquired Youtube and plan to add google-style advertising and merge their highly successful business model with this emerging broadband video phenomenon.

$1.65 billion, and Google obviously believes it will make money in the long run. After all, that is their point, but I do give them props for their “do no evil” way of going about it. One minor editorial soapbox – Christian churches could learn a lot from Google’s way of doing business.

But here’s the thing: $1.65 billion was just paid for a business that defies the accepted laws of classical economics.

So much for accepted laws. The theory says that “labor” will only “produce” if there is direct economic motivation for its work. In short, people will only work if they get paid.

Neither t-shirt guy nor sock guy in the clips above will see one red cent of the $1.65 billion in question.

So, why would they do it? Why would all those you-tubers out there produce their own videos, at their own expense (which, admittedly isn’t much – but still), and post them on someone else’s website? Why do birds sing? Why do bloggers blog?

After all, the very site you’re reading from right now, blogger.com, makes its living from “user-created” content, from folks like yours truly.

What makes us do it?

I believe that on some level, maybe all human beings long for significance, and perhaps they long for that significance above all else.

People want to believe that they matter. That someone knows they’re here. That someone cares about what they think, do, and become.

Given the right vehicle, millions of people will flail their arms, jump up and down…wear hundreds of t-shirts, and scream out, “HEY EVERYBODY, WATCH THIS!!!”

Otherwise, a leather-bound journal in a desk drawer would do just fine, wouldn’t it?

In a sense, the economic theory isn’t wrong. “Labor” produces in this new techno-world because there is a payoff in return. Significance, or the draw of possible significance, can move people --- to act --- to do something.

John Ortberg has said in If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat, that knowing and following Jesus starts with a single step.

The draw of significance was more than Jesus' disciple Peter could resist (Matthew 14). “Lord, if it is you, call me to come to you upon the waves.”

He did. And Peter placed his foot upon the water.

I remember the first edition of the SOTHBLOG that I ever posted, some 15 months ago. I’d never attached my name to anything on the internet, and the proposition of doing so was a little alarming.

But the possibility of communicating with my congregation every week, and with friends and family, and just maybe with little slices of the whole, wide, world was more than I could resist. The idea was exciting, and it still is.

That little step was a small act of faith, and though it was exciting, it was also uncomfortable.

Folks, that’s how following Jesus feels sometimes. Exciting…and uncomfortable.

Jesus always seeks to draw us deeper. Deeper into relationship with him that changes our hearts and our ways of seeing and interacting with the world. Deeper into complexity and possibility.

As Ortberg says, there is always a call --- and always fear --- and on the other side of faithful, tiny steps, there is always significance. Someone knows you’re here…and that someone cares supremely.

So…a proposition.

What if SOTH, and all the other gatherings of Christians throughout the world, could find the powerful simplicity and irresistible draw that the two guys who thought up youtube produced?

What if we create a space – a community – not in screens and electrons, but in real flesh and blood -- where people can’t help meeting the possibility of real significance?

Could the draw of really knowing God move an almost-believer to take a first small step outside her comfort zone?

Yes indeed.

And there can be a second step…and a third…and a fourth…eventually, the old way can pass away…into a new life in Christ.

Now that’s significant.

I’ve really come to believe that the creation of those kinds of experiences is the real reason we’re here and the entirety of God’s need for his church in the world.

Know what? Maybe take a second and upload a prayer to the Big Programmer in the Sky…you don’t even have to sign up for the free account. He already knows your name, and you don’t need a password.

Sure, it’s a risk, it’s a little uncomfortable at first, and neither you nor I are going to earn one red cent from the experience.

…But it just might be the first step on the path to real significance.

Go get your feet wet --- it’s worth it.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

LIFE AT SOTH:

CHARGE CONFERENCE – Don’t forget that we’ll celebrate our last 12 months of ministry and look forward to the year ahead when our Rome-Carrollton District Superintendent, Jacqui Rose-Tucker is present with us at 3:00 this Sunday, October 15th in our worship space for our annual Charge Conference. Officers and ministry teams for the coming year will be put into place, and we’ll adopt the budget and consider other important matters for 2007.

OUT OF THE BOAT WORSHIP SERIES: Our small groups continue to study John Ortberg’s book, and this Sunday will mark our third installment of a six-week look at deepening faith and following Jesus. We’ve talked about fear, gifts and this Sunday we’ll focus on moving beyond our own places of comfort and into places of new growth.

PUMPKIN TIME AT SOTH!!! It’s time for the Youth pumpkin patch again! We need all available volunteers to come unload the truck and help set up the patch this Friday at 4:30. Thanks in advance to all of you who come out for this time of hard work and lots of fun.