From Nintendo to cable channels to zapper-controlled TVs and computers, the young are accustomed to varying degrees of choice in all their media. Whether young or old, online congregants won t stand for the type of passivity that is so prevalent in the institutional church. Bible discussions are much more interactive and engaging than the typical church Bible study. You cannot be as transparent as you ought to be. But online, because it s anonymous, women feel free to open and say what they need to say.
People are honest, and there s confession.
Networked, not hierarchical. The Net is the most anti-hierarchical communications medium ever devised. It facilitates the free flow of information, often to the detriment of institutions more interested in stifling that flow than in facilitating it. Institutions that try to control the flow of information on the Net through traditional organizational structures will be seen as ineffective, and won t succeed in cyberspace. The Worldwide Church of God learned this hard lesson in 1995.