Anthony Trask » internet

A Different World

Anthony — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:08:09 +0000

So I sat down for breakfast with a friend last week. He had never heard of text messaging. In fact, I’ve come to find out, that this guy doesn’t read the newspaper or magaizines- ever! He doesn’t have a tv nor does he ever watch movies.
I have another friend, he’s a family member actually. He has NO idea how to do ANYTHING on the Internet; not even open a web browser.
When talking to these people, and others with similar situations, they usually say things like,” I don’t have time for that stuff”, or,” I don’t need to know all that’s going on in the world; it’s too negative.”
But in the information and communication age, these individuals have declared themself obsolete. The entire world is communicating and sharing information in completely different ways than them and they’ve chosen self-imposed isolation, yet wonder why they are not connecting with people any longer.
They are starting to wake up and are realizing that they now live in a completely different culture than they did even 10 years ago and everyone around them speaks a different language.
I met a family this past weekend. They were self-professing ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ- and I don’t doubt at all that they were.
The mother and father of this family were, at least in their very late forties. They had 7 kids. The youngest was 18 months and the oldest was “around 30″ (a direct quote from the ‘around 30′ year-old). All of the kids, except the baby, were older teens through late twenties. All of them still lived at home and none of them were married. They actually all travel around with their family in one vehicle doing distribution work.
Don’t get me wrong, these people were VERY nice and appeared to love the Lord with all their hearts, but at some point mom and dad lost complete touch with reality.
The husband refered to the wife when asked a question. The children refused to give their ages and only said,” old enough to know right from wrong”. They only spoke very cryptically- all members of the family giving the same responses for similar types of questions. The children (aka adults) responded to every request with “sir” and “yes-em”. They all stood in a group, even in a row and never ventured far from each other- always standing up straight with hands nicely folded in front of them or behind their backs and with permanent smiles on their faces. It was quite different.
Did I mention that they all wore matching shirts, pants, and boots- all of them?
Once again, my intention is not to tease this family. They in fact helped us tremendously with a ministry project we did yesterday, but they were definitely outsiders in a very modern world.
While the world around them looks and communicates differently, it will have a very hard time interacting with this family so that they (the family) could share the Gospel with them in an effective way.
Even the Christians in our church were very perplexed by them, and the people in our community whom we hosted for a dinner looked upon them suspicously-probably worried that we wanted to make them just like the ‘matching clothes family’.
Jesus was very clear that we are to be in the world and not of it. But so many Christians take part in ‘sectarianism’ and remove themselves from the world completely in order to avoid becoming ‘of it’. Sadly such sheltering and naivety leads to the inabillity to share the Gospel because those who behave in such ways can no longer relate to the world or communicate with it.
So the question is,” How do you keep yourself pure, while allowing yourself to be in the world?” And, “What technology and communication shifts can you ignore, and which ones do you need to be fully abreast of so you don’t become missionally impotent?”

Notes on Leadership Journal, Part 4- Change

Anthony — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 23:41:02 +0000

Let’s be clear on one thing: The message of Jesus NEVER changes. However, the methods in which we reach the lost for Christ must.

Culture always changes. New cultures always emerge. Old ways of doing things always die out.

Christianity has always made attempts to keep their message the same, while changing their methods in order to keep up with culture and to reach it. Sometimes this is done with great success; sometimes it is not.

The early Church was very good at this. The Apostle Paul used philosophies, religion, and art from the cultures he visited in order to win them for Christ and plant new churches within the area. Because of his efforts, we are here today. The early Church adopted the rhythms of pagan holidays and replaced them with new holidays to reflect the core doctrines of the Christian faith, so that people could be reached. And because of pioneers like Martin Luther, the printing press was used to distribute Scripture into the hands of the common person so that the religious establishment could no longer lord it over people.

Today revolutionaries of the faith are utilizing the internet, social networking, secular music, podcasting, mobile phone applications, and controversial culturally relevant preaching to reach the lost in huge ways not seen for generations.

The Apostle Paul proclaimed that ‘he would become all things to all men so that some may be saved.’ We too must adapt this philosophy in order complete the mission that has been assigned to us.

Ok, so I lied….

Anthony — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 06:55:11 +0000

I said I would start blogging everyday, but the internet has been down for a few days. Let’s try this again.

Teenage Observations, Part 2: Work Ethic

Anthony — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 03:26:03 +0000

Teenagers today seem to have NO work ethic.

There is no desire to have a job, to work hard, to earn money, to move out of their parent’s home, to get married, to have children, etc…

The only explanation that I can come up with for this is that they are finding their fulfillment by other means: i.e. video games, the internet (specifically social networking sites that require no real human interaction), reality television, pornography, etc….but ultimately I’m not sure why?

Ever seen one of these?

Anthony — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:05:48 +0000

Ever seen one of these before? I only have a few times. It’s a Ziploc baggie half filled with water hanging from a door jam. I have seen it at a Mexican restaurant in Seattle, a candy store in Lincoln CIty, OR (as seen here), and somewhere else as well. Supposedly it’s supposed to keep bugs out of restaurants who leave their doors open during the summer, but that does not seem logical. I have heard some people say that because insects like flies have hundreds of eyes- that the hanging baggie of water appears to them like a wall of water blocking the entrance, but that is ridiculous. I couldn not find any logical information online. What do you think it’s for. Leave a comment below.