The whole world is watching - September 18th, 2008

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote, “When everyone has a blog, a MySpace page or Facebook entry, everyone is a publisher. When everyone has a cell phone with a camera in it, everyone is a paparazzo. When everyone can upload video on YouTube, everyone is a filmmaker. When everyone is a publisher, paparazzo or filmmaker, everyone else is a public figure. We’re all public figures now” (”The whole world is watching”, The Virginia-Pilot, July 1, 2007, p.9).

This concept is the foundation for a new book titled, How by Dov Seidman that purports the simple thesis that in this transparent world “how” you live your life and “how” you conduct your (church) matters more than ever, because so many people can now see into what you do and tell so many other people about it on their own without any editor. Seidman writes, “We do not live in glass houses (houses have walls; we live on glass microscope slides . . . visible and exposed to all.” So we need to get our “how’s right–how you build trust, how you lead and how you say you’re sorry” because more people than ever will know about it when you do or don’t.

Jesus also understood the importance of “how”. Jesus said, “. . . let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:13-16 NIV). How are you living? How are you leading? Now more than ever your actions are being watched, recorded and shared by others, so “be very careful, then, how you live–not as unwise but as wise, make the most of every opportunity” (Ephesians 5:15-16).