Web 2.0

Lynette Hawkins explained the difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 for some of us yesterday in a seminar. Web 1.0 is the one-way communication on the internet represented typically by websites and informational pages. It's not particularly interactive. But Web 2.0 allows for two-way communication and is the stuff of social media networking via the internet: facebook, myspace, twitter and so on. Here there's the opportunity to enter into a real-time conversation with others on your computer or hand-held device. This is obvious to most who may read this, of course, but I bring it up because it reminds me of what Christian evangelism is about.

It's a conversation, a dialog, not a monolog. It's at least two-way communication. Actually, it's communication at many levels: verbal, non-verbal, emotional, spiritual. But it's give and take, reflection and response. It's a relationship. Evangelism is not hit-and-run communication, like a highway billboard ro bumper sticker It is the experience of sharing life, indeed, sharing the life-giving Spirit of Christ.