The Church of Facebook: How the Wireless Generation is Redefining Community by Jesse Rice (writer, musician and worship arts director) starts from the idea that there is a basic human need to "connect."
Delving deep into the issue of how social networking reflects this need is the focus of this book. The writing is informative, educational, and often inspiring and humorous; a great formula for discussing any issue or idea.
Rice's illustrations match well to the area of connectivity he discusses in each of the six chapters, almost provoking one to research the illustrations themselves.
What is spontaneous order? How did Facebook become the phenomena of social networking? Is there really power in your online profile?
Many other questions are tackled. How does social networking consume us almost unintentionally? What is the nature of a relationship; must it be geographically bound? In this new social networking world, what are some prudent limitations? What does this mean for the church?
Rice engages the reader not only to consider the dynamic of the Facebook and social networking in general but the underlying human need it addresses, offering not only wise options to manage your online presence but opportunities to reach vast numbers of people. This is central focus of the book.
Facebook is a tool and an opportunity to reconnect lost relationships and share our lives with others we may never physically meet.
In the final chapter of the book, several good tools are mentioned and some great strategies are given such as practicing intentional, mindful, and authentic interaction.
In preparing this review, I visited the author's website and found some very funny material. I would urge you also to visit. My favorite portion was on the author's FAQ page. You will find some very interesting comments here. It is a must-read for humor value alone. For instance, his response to the question ”Who is Jesse Rice?" The answer given:
"Jesse Rice (who is not a recognized cult leader, at least not of any
cults particularly large or bovine in nature) is the author of this blog
and the entertaining and informative book, The Church of Facebook."
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