Being Presbyterian

Any guesses who the first blogger of the Reformation might have been? I’ll admit that it’s a bit of a trick question, since there were no bloggers in the 16th century. Not literally, anyway.

I’ve always maintained that social media in general, and blogging in particular, are nothing new. The ‘conversational web’ is merely the continuing evolution of how we communicate with each other. I’ve used a phrase from time to time that goes like this:

Social media is merely the latest cave wall.
All that’s changed is everything.

From cave walls to quills to printing presses to telephones to the web, the tools of communication have evolved steadily, sometimes slowly but often quite rapidly. You could add a church door to that list of communication media through which blogging can trace its ancestry. (your first clue to the question posed earlier.)

The PCC national office conducts a worship service each Wednesday morning just before lunch. It’s an opportunity to enrich our work by worshipping God with our co-workers. This morning we were blessed to be led in worship by Rev. Gordon Timbers from Unionville Presbyterian Church. During the service Rev. Timbers talked about how small and seemingly insignificant actions can lead to great and unexpected results. A simple smile at a stranger, for example, can have a cascading effect that might dramatically change the life of another.

One of Rev. Timbers’ examples, given that this Sunday is Reformation Sunday, was the relatively small act of Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the church door. The unexpected result, of course was the reformation movement that continues to this day in the form of the Presbyterian Church in Canada and the other Reformed churches worldwide.

I argue, therefore, that this Being Presbyterian blog traces its ancestry directly back to those 95 theses posted on the church door by the first blogger of the Reformation, Martin Luther. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

[photo courtesy of unionvillepresbyterianchurch.ca]