I have 346 Facebook Friends on my personal FaceBook page. I know for a lot of people reading this, that isn't a lot but for me, it seems like a ton. I never had that many close friends growing up, but those I was closest too, I'm still friends with. So how do I have 346 friends? Well, I'd estimate about half of them are people I knew from working in different churches, whether youth or adults (they're all adults now!) Of those, I've probably seen a handful of them face to face in the last 8 years or so.
Then I have another group of friends. Just over 50 friends that I've never met in real life. That group started pretty small about five years ago, when an online game called "City of Heroes" shut down.
[caption id="attachment_597" align="alignleft" width="258"]
Bubba: Me on City of Heroes[/caption]
I had played the game for a few years and gotten to know several people through the game, but only knew them by their "game names". While we definitely played a lot on the game during that time, there were also nights that two or three of us would just sit around and talk, like a chat room. These guys (and a couple of girls!) became my friends, even though I didn't know them.
Our group had a website and bulletin board and after the game was shut down, through some internet stalking, I was able to connect their email addresses to their Facebook pages and for the first time I was able to "see" them in real life and know their real names. While the game is long gone (but not forgotten!) I'm still friends with several of my City of Heroes companions. I've almost met a couple of them in real life, but both times something came up at the last minute to prevent it, but someday we will get it worked out, I hope.
A couple of years after that, I was introduced to a website called Reddit by a friend. If you don't know what Reddit is, its a website that is divided into thousands of sections, or "subreddits" that cover just about any topic imaginable. I was introduced through the Christianity subreddit and became a semi-regular to the group, but mostly I just read things other people had posted. At some point, some of the more regular posters there started a FaceBook group and once again, people that I had only known online by "code names" were matched up with real names and faces.
About 40 of those 50+ friends I've never met are from that group. Of those 40, there are about 7 or 8 of them that I communicate with on almost a daily level. Sometimes an all-daily level. A few of them, I talk to more often than I do my "real-life" friends. We are a strange mix of people. We range from Bishop to Priests to Pastors and Parishioners to Jews, Atheists and Agnostics.
In that group, we've "been there" as friends married, given and gotten relationship advice, shared the pain of friends going through divorce and even death. We've exchanged gifts and helped out people who needed a hand financially. Some of them have met and know each other in real life, but I've only ever met one who I didn't already know. Yet, I consider them my friends. (Well, most of them)
Then there is another group that I belong to that might be the most unique group. About a year ago, I was invited to a Google Hangout. For those of you unaware, Google Hangouts is an app made by Google for texting and making internet phone calls. Its a lot like FaceBook's messenger app, just tied in to Google. A group of young men invited me and about 20 other people who had "Father" in their Google profiles, looking for a priest. When I joined in the discussion, they started asking some pretty silly questions - mostly about sex and drugs, and you could see the other "Fathers" they asked into the group just bailing out like crazy. But I stayed and answered their goofy questions as well as I could. Sometimes being silly back to them, but mostly serious. After a little bit of that, things started to change and they started asking me more serious questions.
[caption id="attachment_629" align="alignleft" width="316"]
That time I accidentally left the group...[/caption]
In the year or so I've been a part of the chat, we've covered all kinds of topics. Sometimes we still get goofy, like the time someone asked me if Jesus was a "player" because he hung around with prostitutes, but other times we've talked about drug problems, home problems and all kinds of things. I've prayed for them, both publicly on the chat and privately at home. I stayed up late one night when one of them took a bus to Florida and the person who was supposed to pick him up never showed up and he had to walk to where he was going. I talked with him until he got to where he was going just to make sure he was OK.
These guys invited me into their lives and I'm glad they did. I'm honored to be their "Father". Through these guys, I've discovered that "church" (for lack of a better word) can happen anywhere, even online. I've been to online churches before and some are more personal than others, and I don't think I would necessarily want to do a church service online, but I wouldn't rule it out either. One of the things I learned as a youth minister was that being available and listening to people was more than half the job. These days its easier than ever to do that. That is my goal with this blog, my FaceBook page, my Instagram... even texts or Skype or whatever else it takes. To connect with people and hopefully grow my circle of friends. Not so I can have a bigger number, but so we can be there for each other, whether we're "there" or not.
Then I have another group of friends. Just over 50 friends that I've never met in real life. That group started pretty small about five years ago, when an online game called "City of Heroes" shut down.
[caption id="attachment_597" align="alignleft" width="258"]
Bubba: Me on City of Heroes[/caption]I had played the game for a few years and gotten to know several people through the game, but only knew them by their "game names". While we definitely played a lot on the game during that time, there were also nights that two or three of us would just sit around and talk, like a chat room. These guys (and a couple of girls!) became my friends, even though I didn't know them.
Our group had a website and bulletin board and after the game was shut down, through some internet stalking, I was able to connect their email addresses to their Facebook pages and for the first time I was able to "see" them in real life and know their real names. While the game is long gone (but not forgotten!) I'm still friends with several of my City of Heroes companions. I've almost met a couple of them in real life, but both times something came up at the last minute to prevent it, but someday we will get it worked out, I hope.
A couple of years after that, I was introduced to a website called Reddit by a friend. If you don't know what Reddit is, its a website that is divided into thousands of sections, or "subreddits" that cover just about any topic imaginable. I was introduced through the Christianity subreddit and became a semi-regular to the group, but mostly I just read things other people had posted. At some point, some of the more regular posters there started a FaceBook group and once again, people that I had only known online by "code names" were matched up with real names and faces.
About 40 of those 50+ friends I've never met are from that group. Of those 40, there are about 7 or 8 of them that I communicate with on almost a daily level. Sometimes an all-daily level. A few of them, I talk to more often than I do my "real-life" friends. We are a strange mix of people. We range from Bishop to Priests to Pastors and Parishioners to Jews, Atheists and Agnostics.In that group, we've "been there" as friends married, given and gotten relationship advice, shared the pain of friends going through divorce and even death. We've exchanged gifts and helped out people who needed a hand financially. Some of them have met and know each other in real life, but I've only ever met one who I didn't already know. Yet, I consider them my friends. (Well, most of them)
Then there is another group that I belong to that might be the most unique group. About a year ago, I was invited to a Google Hangout. For those of you unaware, Google Hangouts is an app made by Google for texting and making internet phone calls. Its a lot like FaceBook's messenger app, just tied in to Google. A group of young men invited me and about 20 other people who had "Father" in their Google profiles, looking for a priest. When I joined in the discussion, they started asking some pretty silly questions - mostly about sex and drugs, and you could see the other "Fathers" they asked into the group just bailing out like crazy. But I stayed and answered their goofy questions as well as I could. Sometimes being silly back to them, but mostly serious. After a little bit of that, things started to change and they started asking me more serious questions.
[caption id="attachment_629" align="alignleft" width="316"]
That time I accidentally left the group...[/caption]In the year or so I've been a part of the chat, we've covered all kinds of topics. Sometimes we still get goofy, like the time someone asked me if Jesus was a "player" because he hung around with prostitutes, but other times we've talked about drug problems, home problems and all kinds of things. I've prayed for them, both publicly on the chat and privately at home. I stayed up late one night when one of them took a bus to Florida and the person who was supposed to pick him up never showed up and he had to walk to where he was going. I talked with him until he got to where he was going just to make sure he was OK.
These guys invited me into their lives and I'm glad they did. I'm honored to be their "Father". Through these guys, I've discovered that "church" (for lack of a better word) can happen anywhere, even online. I've been to online churches before and some are more personal than others, and I don't think I would necessarily want to do a church service online, but I wouldn't rule it out either. One of the things I learned as a youth minister was that being available and listening to people was more than half the job. These days its easier than ever to do that. That is my goal with this blog, my FaceBook page, my Instagram... even texts or Skype or whatever else it takes. To connect with people and hopefully grow my circle of friends. Not so I can have a bigger number, but so we can be there for each other, whether we're "there" or not.
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