Coffee, Community and Facebook

Yesterday, I stopped at my local North Shore coffee shop, a non-descript but hospitable escape called Hoi Polloi, on North Ave. at Galveston. Inside was the usual Saturday morning gathering of my neighbors. They are more than neighbors, however. These good folks are becoming my friends.

I sat down with couples, singles, and kids coloring and playing with a "Mr. Potato Head". I watched four year old Annie become entranced by Tony's expertise as he morphed Mr. Potato Head into a variety of spud faces. Software engineers, journalists, physicians, arts educator and two unemployed professionals "between gigs"as one called himself (and me). (including me as of last week).

I easily engaged in the topic of the morning - "social networking". Facebook seemed to be the rage, though Twitter (which I simply don't get - yet) had some following. I quickly became Facebook "friends" with Tony and Sue. Tony asked me if I ever thought about starting a "cyber church" - a cyber network of those who would probably never enter a church door. This caught my ear. And my imagination. When was the last time you saw a church door that was open? Or, for that matter, one that wasn't a solid wooden barrier blocking the "narrow way" to God?

Our little group exhibited no apparent barriers - our diversity and commonality manifested human "community" because we share a commitment to life on the Northside/Northshore of Pittsburgh. We live in the old, restored homes of the neighborhood and create gatherings to enjoy our holidays and events. The sense of "community" exists because of an active social network that arose from common passions and vision for an urban neighborhood.

Hoi Polloi's door may be a non-descript "plain Jane" brown. But it does sport a small window that opens to a world of caring friendships for a disparate collection of neighbors. Different careers, straight, gay, white, African American, jobbed and jobless, we sat around our table telling our stories and laughing our way into the weekend.

I began to feel like I "belonged." I became more whole and complete as this social network wove their lives into mine and mine into theirs. My 35 years of church ministry is only slightly spotted with this experience of acceptance and "belonging." The closed church door is my metaphor for the way we become closed to most of Jesus call to go out to the entire world as Christ's abassadors who lead to open doors of love. Rather than risk exhibiting God's dream for all humanity, we send a message that "church" is about "church", not people.

I wonder if Tony could help me recreate a congregation as creatively as he morphs Mr. Potato Head?

I thank God for Facebook. And my neighbors.

Bob Anderson

Presbyterian Transitional Ministry Leader

Looking for a Job

Testosterone Church

Is Manliness Next to Godliness?


A recent study by the Pew Foundation surveyed how many men attend church as compared to women. The historic stream of churches (mainline) didn't do too badly. Males comprise 46% of our membership and 31% of them claim to attend church weekly. In the mainline churches 37% of women say they attend church at least once a week.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-07-23-males-church_N.htm

Those numbers seem to jive with my observations over time. But some churches are asking, "where are all the men?" Apparently there is a movement to make churches more masculine in order to attract men to worship. I've been out of touch, I guess. I even had to go to the dictionary to learn how to spell testosterone. In fact, Sandy's kids told her not to marry me because they questioned my sexual orientation. According to them, I cleaned my nails, touched my hair with my hands to put it back "in place" and did not practice audible flattulence.

Go figure.

The USA Today reported that . . . many pastors say they need to power up on reaching men if the next generation of believers, the children, will find the way to faith. So hundreds of churches are going for a "guy church" vibe, programming for a stereotypical man's man. "I hear about it everywhere I go," says Brandon O'Brien, who detailed the evolution of the chest-thumping evangelism trend this spring in Christianity Today." Listen to an audio interview with the author at http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/ .

According to the USA Today report, one church in Texas (of course) was designed "designed with dudes in mind, from the worship center's stone floor, hunter-green and amber decor and rustic-beam ceilings to woodsy scenes on the church website."

Now that I think about this, some church buildings are large enough to have a high ropes course climbing walls and maybe even skeet shooting. Or maybe just the Wii version. Bally's and Bible?

I jest. Sort of. Ingniting passion for God in all people is critically important. But it is so easy to lose our focus. Presbyterians believe that God is already actively at work in calling people to salvation. I don't think the Spirit has a gender quota but what I do know is that is that when we are passionate about God's mission in the world, God's people flouish - men and women.

When I was brash young adult, I was a Boston radio air personality. Don't get excited. We barely showed up on the ratings chart. I gained three Nielson points in one day because I asked my in-laws to listen during sweeps week :) Actually, what happened was that the station General Manager came in during my air shift with a sheaf of print outs. He said, "this is really strange and I wanted to tell you." My first thought was that no one listened to my ramblings and I was gonna be outa there. Not. The GM said, "during you show we increased the number of male listeners. I've seen the female listeners increase often, but never the men." Then he sent me out to sell ads for golf clubs and advertising spots during the Notre Dame football game (remember, this was Irish Catholic Boston).

I've tried to figure out if I did anything particular that connected with men. All I could come up with was authenticity.

Go figure.