Today I want you to use both sides of your brain

So, I wanted to lift up a book to you this week called Flickering Pixels, by Shane Hipps. Two words: Awesome book.

Ok ok, two more words: thought-provoking...(would that make it one word?...nevermind)

I wanted to lift up some questions pertaining to the direction of Spirituality, Christianity, and Technology that have come up from reading this book. I would love to hear your response in the comments section or just link to your post. If you don't have the book, you can use one of the resources below:

• A group of bloggers from churchcrunch.com posted reviews of the book by chapter. Here's the first link to navigate your way around...fair warning, the chapters are not in any particular order...like numerical...yeah :)
• Jennifer Kay Smith posted some insightful blog posts a year ago, which are connected to the questions I'm about to ask. I suggest you read her posts on the brain, the telegraph, the changing of us through technology, and the transformation of community to individualism.
• Guy Williams added to the convo, adding some more interesting links you may like.
• Shane Hipps has his own blog, and his website. Take a look and if you would like, subscribe to his podcast.

So, here are my questions:

• Going forth into a new technological-christian frontier, we need to keep both eyes open to the past culture and the media shift of web 2.0 (here's a link to what i'm talking about, I realize I'm saying this a lot...), as there may be an erosion of memory, but an expansion of consciousness and overall good (20). What would be some benefits or concerns you would see as a pastor or church goer who would want to stay as a physical church body? What about a "virtual" church body? In what ways could we balance this?
• Video killed the radio star. The same could be said about moral relativism and traditional ways of evangelism due to the personalization and privatization of faith/christianity (on p.64-65, but in other words, there is no absolute Truth, but individualized non-congruent truths). What is Evangelism 2.0? --> How would you talk about your faith to another person about Christianity? Would the overarching goal be to convert the other person? Do you believe that the world is not trying to find an absolute and unifying Truth and if so, what are people trying to find?
• I feel that Hipps is making a concern on the pages leading up to p.71 about Christianity: Christianity with Web 2.0 can put out the information about the religion faster, but that does not mean they will understand it better. "Christians 2.0" may get a bombardment of religious information they will ever need, but have no understanding nor the wisdom to do something with it, calling it a perpetual puberty of Christianity (72). How do we train/create leaders to bring understanding to the faith in social networks, blogs, etc.? How do we help Christians sift through this knowledge to get the linkage between a virtual faith and a physical praxis (acting AND reflecting on their faith)? How do we help as religious leaders the wisdom of living their life according to their faith?
• Left Brain, Right Brain. The left side controls the deep understanding of the Bible while the right side controls the deep reflection of the Bible. With the dawn Web 2.0 and the mass usage of images and light-reading, the right brain is more emphasized and the left brain is more downplayed (143-147). Hipps thinks this is an issue. Should this be a concern? How can we change it?

I would love to hear from any of you. But most importantly, I would love to hear if I'm asking the wrong questions. What questions should I be asking when it comes to Christianity and Technology?

Jon