As I think about the real world networks around me I note that their biggest failure is rarely in the communication of big news - it's the little nuggets that tend to get missed or forgotten - resulting in missed opportunities and petty rivalry: one church has an issue with discipleship and plans to run a course while another church has a course to offer but no-one turns up; one minister wants to make his church the local centre for healing or youth work - while his neighbour has a similar vision half a mile up the road...I've come to the concussion that clergy need to have Twitter installed in their brains at ordination so that their dreams, plans and visions will be instantaneously shared with their colleagues. This would produce some wonderful synergy as resources were shared, dreams combined and support given.
It's the gossipy, inconsequential nature of Twitter or Facebook which gives them their power. As people share the little things that they happen to be thinking about, or interested in, all kinds of conversations and exchanges begin to take place. We had an away day in the Watling Valley today and I suspect it was the little conversations that will have the deepest consequences - rather than the big decisions - not that there were any. People came together and chatted. The results of this may never be known but they will be real...The network intelligence of the church is not found in her brilliant strategists or brightest thinkers, it is found in her ability to dream as one body.
Those who seek to serve the church need to learn how to strengthen links which they will not control, join conversations in which they will not participate and create space which they will not fill. The devil may often be in the detail, but God is always found when human beings give him room to manoeuvre.
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