Thy Kingdom Connected: What the Church can Learn from Facebook, the Internet, and Other Networks
I think that the subtitle for this book does a great disservice to the content of the book itself. I received Thy Kingdom Connected and honestly thought, great, here's another one of those 'how to' type books for church leaders where the author simply walks people through what facebook is, how the internet works, how a church can set up a facebook fan page, etc.
I was so blessed to find that it was nothing like that at all. While I did not count as I read, I cannot think of more than about 10 times in the entire book that the word Facebook was even mentioned. I have read enough of those "how to" books that the subtitle for this book truly made me a bit wary before reading it. However, I am very thankful that I did. Friesen's work is outstanding in painting a picture of the connections that are present in the world and how the church not only can work with them, but also how the church is already a part of them.
Truly the key words for me in the book were - connected, networked, and well...and. He paints a beautiful picture of the connected world that we live in today and the effects that it has on the ways that we are already interacting with one another. His five "clusters" (also known as sections) are:
Seeing Connectively
God's Networked Kingdom
Leading that Connects
Networked Church
Connective Practices
These various sections each help weave together the larger picture of a God who has always sought to work in a connective way with God's people. The book is not about how to use facebook or the internet to be a part of this connective reality as a church, but instead to focus on how we are connective in our respective ministries. He very much paints a picture of how the church (both emerging and long-standing) can be connective in their practices, relationships, leadership, and worship.
A word of warning...It is not an "easy" read. I found myself having to often re-read sections to "keep up" with what he was sharing. This is by no means a criticism, but instead a compliement about the quality of the content that Friesen was able to put together.