His seriousness pushes people into a bizarre mix of sociological theory, nerdom, and missional theology. And it works. It works well.

Others have tried, but the message always came in a divorced medium: the dryness of a how-to book can never capture the creative possibilities of technology. The old and new don’t mix well. Friesen puts his thoughts down in connective ways, with thought provoking quotes starting and ending his thoughts. This layout of the book is purposeful: Friesen is showing the links between his work and others work by ending bookending his ideas with quotes. The humility of the digital metaphor is evident: our communities must become democratic, a holy “endless chain of signifiers,” as Derrida would say.

The value of the author is only as good as the links to it, the connections, the networking. Friesen argues for this in terms of network ecology, a way of caring for networks. This is, in at it’s most simple, a re-imagining of the literal pastor, the shepherd. The job of the pastor is re-imaged as the network ecologist, a person whose job it is to care for the community like a shepherd takes care of the sheep.

Computers and networks scare people. Just mention TCP/IP or DNS servers and many will feel faint. Friesen guides the novice (whether technological, sociological, or theological) and carefully dips his or her head under water so that they can experience the bold vision of a kingdom connected.

To get a sense of where this conversation seems to be going, it might be helpful to know something of the author of Thy Kingdom Connected. Dwight Friesen is a youngish Emergent former pastor teaching practical theology at a rather new and upstart seminary in Seattle (Mars Hill Graduate School). He’s evangelical, but his evangelicalism seems to be open and generous. Oh, and I might add that he’s wearing an ear ring in the back cover picture. The author is technologically savvy, understands the new sciences, and is conversant with the latest trends in society. This background helps illuminate Friesen’s sense of vision. Unlike some of the Emergent and Missional works I’ve read, even though he is critical at points of the way things are going with institutions, he’s not overly anti-institutional. Rather than focus on the problems, he seeks to find clues that would help us move forward — especially forms of social media such as Facebook.

In Friesen’s vision, the Christian faith is akin to a conversation. It is relational, even as the triune God is relational. It is dynamic and creative. While Friesen is critical of religious institutions, he doesn’t seem interested in tilting at windmills or tossing out what exists. Instead he wants to offer a new paradigm, one that isn’t atomistic or static – as he correctly notes, is often true of our institutions. They are stymied by conflicting interests and concerns (consider our governmental systems for a moment).

In the new paradigm, the world is envisioned as an integrated whole. Those involved in leadership in this model are called to facilitate linkages and help create hubs that will connect people together. Again, as models to emulate, he points us to such internet staples as Facebook, Linked-In, and Twitter. Churches are not so much institutions as “Christ Commons” or “Christ-Clusters,” and pastors serve as network ecologists, helping to facilitate linkages to the hubs.

The book is composed of five clusters, which lead from “Seeing Connectively” to “Connective Practices.” He begins by inviting us to look at the world through a set of lenses, moves on to describe the kingdom in networking terms, shares how leadership functions in this new reality, and concludes with two sections, one dealing with the church and the other with missional practices. The goal is to help Christians and churches become connected, understand how they are linked, and understand that the church is called, as the body of Christ, to be part of God’s transformative work. We are, he says to be “And’ers,” linking others to Jesus and to the kingdom. He writes:

Missional linking is marked by a kingdom imagination that, when confronted with “otherness,” is able to see an And’ing in Christ; Jew and Gentile, slave and free, men and women, Republican and Democrat, modern and postmodern, left and right. The way of Christ is to become the And. God’s mission, if you choose to live into it, is to boldly link where no one has linked before; this is the Christ conjunction (p. 135).

Such a view would seem ideologically centrist, or perhaps a sense of pragmatism – trying to bridge the gaps in a very polarized society. But, his sense here is that the goal of the kingdom is reconciliation, “the linking together those who have been separated” (p. 134).

In the past, even in the biblical text, the church was envisioned as a lonely light house, shining its light into the darkness. Such an image is less useful today, and thus we might want to turn to the vision of a city, at night, its many lights centered around a hub, being our new image of the church. To get there we must move from a bounded set mentality to centered set one. Borrowing from anthropologist Paul Hiebert, Friesen suggests (rightly in my mind) that focusing on maintaining boundaries will not get us to where we want to be. Instead, we should focus on the center, that which binds us together. Moving toward Christ, we cluster together, and thus are bound together by the Holy Spirit.

The book is interesting and challenging. Those in the younger set will understand the language it is used. Those who are not as adept in social networking, especially clergy and church leaders over fifty might struggle. One thing that’s not dealt with very well in much of the literature (and that includes this book) is what we do with those who are not adept at social networking. How do we keep the older one’s from falling through the cracks? Now, I realize many over-seventy people are very active on the internet, but not to the degree that the younger set is. This is a question, that at least for now needs to be considered. It is one that I as a pastor of a long standing, rather traditional congregation, that desires to be missional, must keep in mind. Still, this is a book worth engaging with all due seriousness. Let us begin the conversation.

To do this, Friesen uses metaphors and illustrations from modern technology and network theory. At times, I found myself getting lost in the metaphors; but by the end of any one chapter, I was able to understand the connections that Friesen is making as he uses them. He does a good job of bringing together the metaphors and his vision of the church in God’s networked kingdom.

Friesen also uses numerous examples to illustrate what he is communicating. They are real-life stories that describe what Friesen means when he uses new terminology such as a “Christ-Commons” or “Christ-Clusters.” I appreciated these illustrations because they enabled me to get a vision of the reimagined church. And I liked the inventive, networked kingdom terminology that Friesen uses to describe the reimagined church.

As a minister in spiritual formation and a spiritual director, I found that Thy Kingdom Connected challenged me to rethink my own ministry and how it fits into the networked kingdom of God. In addition to the questions that Friesen poses at the end of each chapter, there were other questions that I was asking myself.

I began to imagine myself as part of a networked ministry. I wondered who were the “hubs” in my network. I thought about the sharing and receiving of information. I am considering the meaning of being a “missional and’er” and am trying to discern my links.

Although these new questions that arose from my reading challenge me to reimagine my ministry, Thy Kingdom Connected also affirmed for me some of the ideas that have been rolling around in my head for some time.

Thy Kingdom Connected is easy to read. For anyone wanting to be on the edge of missional church, I recommend reading this book.

Beyond the intended structure of this work, covering as it does the Kingdom, Leadership, Church & Spiritual Practice (all from the perspective of how these could be done differently if viewed from a network/connectivity paradigm), having finished reading it I was left with these abiding memories:

1. I found the comparison & study of ‘Christ Commons’ (institutional/formal churches, meetings or church meeting places) and ‘Christ Clusters’ (informal ad-hoc joinings as part of a living faith) a really useful dichotomy. To think of the church thus as having a body & a soul that both need to be preserved & nourished was a useful analogy. It also made sense of the twin desire I feel to both see progress within the local church body I am part of as well valuing the freedom to not have my outworking of my faith limited to one group or tradition. To me this whole section of the book also carefully avoided the excesses I have heard on both emerging & traditional sides of the debate about how we move forward.

2. The potential impact of our meetings with or even just lose connections with others was also very challenging. Using the much quoted analogy of the butterfly effect, it was sobering to think how even those ‘weak links’ I have in my social network (real world as well as online) could be important for what God is working to bring about. Thinking this way, which took a while to get my head around, also helped me reflect on how a number of social care projects that I am involved in (and are precious to me) came about because of these kind of connections. I was in fact reminded of an article I read many many years ago in a publication called Edification; about the potent importance of our meetings & conversations with others.

3. Some of the material on the ‘centred paradigm’ vs the ‘bounded paradigm’ reminded me of how much I agreed with this view when I read it in Brian McLaren’s “More Ready Than You Realize”. So, it was even more interesting to see the implications for my view of evangelism & fellowship of moving beyond both of them into a ‘networked paradigm’. The principle here reminded me of the point that Miroslav Volf is making in the academic but brilliant ‘Exclusion & Embrace’. But even though I have sited other authors I am not suggesting any plagarism; the points made here fitted absolutely in this context, they just resonated even more.

4. “Mission as And’ing” was a potent chapter. Covering the analogy of sneezing to move onto an almost viral marketing view of sharing the good news could have seemed like the next step of the church growth movement & too manipulative. Except it is presented as something to just let happen naturally and cooperate with the opportunities Holy Spirit gives you through your network. That was liberating and an encouraging way to see being sociable and friendly as building the kingdom as well as good works or giving testimony.

5. Being a somewhat ‘driver’ character type, I guess I would have preferred a more directive ending in the chapters on what such a connected reality means to how we could ‘do’ spiritual development or our personal spiritual life – but it was in keeping with the rest of this work to rather sow some seeds to leave you thinking and challenged to put your imagination in gear.

So, I would recommend this work. It covers material that will be useful to leaders, followers & those who are uncomfortable with either label. The section on connective leaders is very freeing for anyone struggling with formal leadership hierarchies and gives you a whole new vista on who the real ‘leaders’ in your community might be.

The main thing I would want to pass on is that this is not a shallow work. I was a little concerned by the subtitle: “What the church can learn from Facebook, the Internet and other Networks”. I dreaded that this might be some dreadfully trendy (i.e. dated once in print) or nerdy work that was overly fixated with the current technological vogue. But it really is not. You get to learn some interesting findings from networked theory and there is enough scripture and Christian wisdom within the work for you to realise that this really is a useful worldview to help bring alive a number of Jesus’ teaching & biblical injunctions that can sound strange to our individualistic modern ears.
Enjoy this book & don’t forget to gossip about it to your network. You might even share it!

Loffers

Thy Kingdom Connected looks at the role social networks play within the life of the church. Rather than looking at the specifics of networking tools like Facebook and Twitter, Friesen, insightfully examines the “big picture” of Scale Free Networks and how they are applicable to the life of the church. Drawing upon theology, biology, and sociology, Friesen makes the case that we need to rethink our conception of the congregation and the missional implications that ensue from understanding our fundamental interconnectedness.

Theologically, Friesen asserts, the Christian conception of God is inherently relational. He writes, “…only Christianity has a vision of God who exists in relationship before time – a God whose ‘being,’ as Orthodox theologian John Zizioulas says, is ‘in communion’; a God who moves relationally toward creation, now away from it; a God who is personally and actively involved in human affairs, not just setting things in motion. And we don’t just stop there; we believe that God created all that is out of love and for relationship, and we understand the very mission of God, as seen through the capacious narrative of revealed Scripture, to be the reconciliation of all things relationally unto God” (pg. 56).

And when we begin to consider that we each have importance and a place in this relational/networked kingdom that God has created, the missional implications become apparent, as Friesen notes, “As we begin to understand our interconnectedness, we begin to take on a shared mission: the mission of kingdom connectors is to actively participate in the ending of suffering of all kinds. Kingdom connecters know that when one person suffers, we all suffer, and that to bless one has untold ripple effects” (pg. 70).

Using this idea of a networked kingdom, the local church becomes a resource center with the goal of developing relationships. Friesen notes that each church should maintain its unique identity (traditional, contemporary, house, small group etc.), but the larger goal should be about connecting people with God and with each other, so that the people might be equipped to serve Christ in the world. As he says, “The church exists in relationship, by relationship, and for relationship. We exist to connect people with God, one another, and with creation in continuity with the capacious narrative of Scripture. Sometimes this means connecting people with a narrative so big and so beautiful that their lives find new meaning, redemption and hope. Sometimes it might mean connecting with others whom you personally wouldn’t choose to connect with. Sometimes this may even mean helping people who are a vital part of your church connect to a different faith community or ministry even at great cost to your own ministry. And we can do this because every local Christ-Commons understands it is dynamically linked together in God’s connective kingdom. The church doesn’t exist simply to propagate the church, rather the local church exists as a local expression of the reality of God’s networked kingdom” (pg. 109).

In a networked system traditional hierarchies no longer work, authority isn’t derived through position or power but in the ability to connect. Using Google as an example, Frissen argues that the role of connective leadership is to help people connect and build meaningful relationships, building bridges and revealing God’s reconciling work. Leaders in the church are “network ecologists” who help foster the life of the community.

Overall, Frisesen’s book is a great read. It’s deep – I found myself wanting to put it down after reading through each two or three chapters just to process everything he presents, and at the end of each chapter he presents some great questions for reflection and discussion, but it never felt overwhelming. The one (minor) difficulty I had was that it felt, at times, a little too “theoretical” to me, there were points where I wished he would have pointed to examples or provided a specific picture of what his vision of what church or pastoral leadership looks like in the networked kingdom. But it is largely written in such a way (especially with the questions) that the reader can fill in those gaps on their own.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of Thy Kingdom Connected to review through Ooze Viral Bloggers.

Let me get right to the point: I like this book. Friesen writes well; by this I mean the thought progression is easy to follow and I did not get bogged down in sentence structure.

I also enjoyed this book for the same reason that I have enjoyed many of the better books I’ve read. It is truly a gift, I believe, for an author to be able to connect points the reader is likely already aware of in new and interesting ways.

For instance, Friesen devotes several pages to Martin Buber’s work I and Thou. Anyone with a liberal arts education in the past 80 years, I assume, will be at least rudimentarily familiar with Buber. In fact, from my early undergraduate days, “I and Thou” is what comes to mind when I hear of Buber.

Thinking of the Trinity in terms of relationship is nothing new; looking at relationships through Buber’s lens is old hat as well. Bringing these two together in the context of the social networking phenomenon is eye opening. Friesen opens eyes.

Friesen makes connections – which is really what this book is about. Most of the books he cites (that I haven’t already read), I have added to my listed. The author’s understanding of the power of connections, which he brings out clearly in the context of his passion for ministry, drew me forward through Thy Kingdom Connected.

If there is one phrase in the book that has grasped me more than any other, it is where, on page 135 he quotes David Weinberger: “Conversations subvert hierarchy.” (from Weinberger’s Cluetrain Manifesto)

Conversations subvert hierarchy. Let that sink in.

Jesus eschewed hierarchy; his Church may well be headed (should be headed) back in that direction after centuries of structure, hierarchy, and bureaucracy. Conversations are such a simple tool, yet stand as the most powerful tool any of us might have to be a part of reclaiming the Kingdom vision within and around the life of the church.

Thy Kingdom Connected is a worthy read for anyone interested in being part of what the church is going to look like 10 years from now.

I too was apprehensive on the value of the content when I read the words “Facebook”, “Internet” and “Networks” in the subtitle. However, I also understand that the inclusion of these buzzwords may spur some to give the text a chance. After reading, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the content was not a direct critique/defense of social networking nor a handbook for pastors on navigating social networking media to share Christ. What Friesen offers is a thought-provoking spark to how church leaders and members can work together to actualize a networked kingdom of God.

Unlike some of the reviews, I appreciated Friesen’s willingness to admit that this text was neither a comprehensive nor complete treatment of the subject and enjoyed exploring the links and suggested readings at the end of each chapter. It was like a treasure hunt, each turn leading one deeper into the individual points Friesen himself explored to make up the whole of the idea of the networked kingdom and connective leadership. I believe this lends credence to Friesen as a networker in that this is what great networkers do: point those who engage them to dig deeper and share the works of others to continue and deepen dialogue.

That being said, I can see why some would read Thy Kingdom Connected and claim that Friesen fails to offer a complete, comprehensive work . I believe that it must be read in the context of community to be truly appreciated. I found myself continually reading, digging deeper into the suggested readings, and bouncing the ideas and questions off of colleagues and close connections. Therefore it would be a text I would recommend as a small group study or discussion piece for a cohort or house church group rather than to a colleague for individual, personal reading. It is a text that begs connection and in that way, I believe Friesen accomplishes something that others who have written about the benefits/dangers of connective nature of social media networking technology fail to accomplish. Friesen gets us to actually connect.

Of course, we know the answer is supposed to be [B]. [A] has often defined our functional reality. Dwight Friesen has written a book designed to expand our imaginations about the kingdom-shaped web of connections into which God is weaving His children.

In the hands of a less-insightful analyst, Thy Kingdom Connected: What the Church Can Learn from Facebook, the Internet, and Other Networks could have been a corny and derivative exercise. Friesen, an associate professor at Seattle’s Mars Hill Graduate School and pastor of an organic fellowship, instead gives us a thought-provoking exploration of how the body of Christ is wired. The “is” in the previous sentence is an important distinction of this book. Friesen is not spinning out ivory-tower theory though his writing reflects his academic bent. He’s not given to think-tank theorizing about the way he wishes the church would behave or could be structured if only they’d buy into his program.

He is determined to help us see the interrelationships that exist in our lives as the sinew and marrow of the kingdom. Here, discussing church leadership, Friesen disarms the oh-so-modern notion of “Big Dawg” management:

“If we are obsessed with control, we will never discover the wonder of participating in God’s connected kingdom. Leading connectively dethrones the tool of hierarchy and busts the control myth. Connective leaders serve as hubs, linking people to the very best of their resources and relationships unto God’s dream of fullness of life.”

Friesen clusters his chapters around the themes of seeing connectively, God’s networked kingdom, leading that connects, networked church and connective practices. Each cluster contains two or three chapters. Each chapter’s content includes a listing of additional resources as well as a few thoughtful discussion questions. Though Friesen uses computer-based networks as an organizing metaphor for the book, his purpose in writing is to help us see the web of relationships and connections our Papa-King has given to each one of us.

I do have one language quibble. Friesen avoids using the male pronoun for God, and ends up with a few tortured sentences like this: “This means that God does not just reveal Godself through a narrative but presents Godself to us in a person to be encountered.” Suffice it to say that every time I ran across one of these pronouns, my reading ground to a screeching halt. Mercifully, they’re few and far between.

Thy Kingdom Connected is a valuable read for anyone who cares about encouraging the Bride to be who she’s called to be. Recommended.

That about sums up this book.

In Thy Kingdom Connected, Dwight Friesen explores the wide variety of ways that human beings are connected with each other, with our planet and with God; and why that matters to people trying to live in concert with what God is doing in the world.

Friesen begins and ends the book reminding the reader that ‘whatever is you, you will share it.’ It echoes Shane Hipps’ idea that the medium is the message. Consciously or not, we are constantly sharing who we are and what matters to us with the world around us. A weighty thought for those of us concerned with joining Jesus in his mission of reconciliation.

Reconciliation – ‘missional and’ing’ – is, according to Friesen the focus of God’s people. It is the good news. God is working to reconcile all creation w/ Godself and invites us to join in the process.

If we would join in that process, Friesen says, we must be aware that all individual decisions, believes and actions have bearing on others and our world.

This is a timely book, I think. In an exciting era of church history, in which we are able to participate in the wonderful and ever changing conversation about who God is, what God is doing and how we fit into what God is doing, it’s easy sometimes to give more energy, time and attention to what’s wrong with the ‘other’ side(s) of the conversation. How we relate to one another has never mattered more for the health of the church and the world we interact with. How can we hope to join in reconciling the world with God, when we are not reconciled to one another?

The reason I found this book annoying is that Friesen consistently used highly technical terms from network theory, chaos theory, and other sciences and applied them to theology. This, in itself, isn’t really problematic but the way Friesen does this reminded me of the way some people have taken Einstein’s theory of general relativity and tried to somehow link it to epistemological relativism. Another example would be how some people have tried to take quantum theory and apply it to New Age theories (it is not surprising, I guess, that Friesen quotes Fritjof Capra a number of times).

For example, on page 98 Friesen – while talking about chaos theory – talks about “human beings, our interpersonal relations, and creation” as a dynamical system. As he correctly points out in an end note (his endnote on the definition of “dynamic systems” appears to be a direct quote of Wikipedia without reference, by the way), a dynamic system is a mathematical formalization. But, unless you are a reductionist of the greatest sort, human beings (let alone our relationship with other human beings or the entire creation) aren’t dynamic systems. Dynamic systems are models. They are deterministic models. That’s why they are useful to scientists and engineers. But even as a Calvinist, I don’t believe humans or creation are deterministic in the way that dynamic systems are. And I doubt Friesen does either. Which means he either doesn’t truly understand what the term means or he is not using it in the way that people who study chaos theory use it. And this is why I found the book annoying – he draws on certain terms from various subjects (chaos theory, network theory, etc.) and then uses those terms in a way that is quite different than how they are used in those subjects. And that makes me wonder “Why?”

I should end by saying there was a lot in the book that I agreed with (e.g., his discussion of the “other”). I just really didn’t like the way the manner in which he arrived there.

Because I have struggled with my place, and trying to figure out if I am to become an expert in a single area, or if I ought to should become a Jack of all trades and master of none. I have felt lots of pressure to be the latter, and while this can be daunting, Friesen shows that it is far better to be an expert at connecting people and resources than to have basic skills in all areas.

Connections/Networks have always been important throughout human history, but in today’s world of social networks, connecting can happen much faster, and sometimes on a much more shallow level. To be successful in promoting the Good News of Jesus, we must seek to make deep connections, like Christ did.

While there are some people saying the Emergent movement is dead or dying, This book shows that the church is being refocused. In an ever changing world, Christians need to focus less on building buildings and more on being in places where we can strengthen as disciples as well as minister to others, for wherever we do that, our connections will grow deeper.

The book gives vision and clarity to a radical shift away from the individualistic nature of western culture. Each man’s choices have a far-reaching impact to bless or to curse and to build-up or tear down. Because we are so inter-connected, our choices matter. In light of the systemic nature of things and relational focus of the Bible, it is a worthwhile pursuit to learn how to best channel and utilize the power of networks for good.

Positives: I particularly enjoyed the discussion on relating to others with a goal of giving of oneself rather than only to use and take. I also enjoyed the focus on spreading rather than hoarding power and the “parable of Google” regarding the example of how Google links us to what we seek rather than being an end in itself. The chapters on leadership were compelling and there is a solid stress on looking at the big picture and cooperating with “competing” ministries. Finally, the networking theory as it relates to form and function and chaos and order was very intriguing.

Negatives: Apart from being thrown off by the subtitle, this book is not the most aesthetically pleasing. The cover is ugly, the line spacing is tight and the illustrations are busy and not always clear. Also, I feel like this book could have been better organized and set out a clearer road map as to where it would go and what it would aim to accomplish.

Summary: The author has clearly done his homework. This book is jam-packed with information, theory, guidance and challenging insights regarding connection and community.

I loved the section of “I & You” vs. “I & It” relationships. Very applicable. Easy to understand and apply to real world situations that everybody goes through. Speaks about the danger of labeling and categorizing people and instead calls us as kingdom people to engage in real world relationships. Great message and presentation of the material.

I would recommend this to anybody who is willing to take the time to dive deeper into this.