Ben Wheatley has written a great post pointing out some of the flaws in my previous post Have Nerds Hijacked the Missional Church?
Ben writes
I am and always have been what others might call a nerd/geek. Unlike most of my nerd brethren however I am what I am going to term a Metanerd – in that I am not just aware of my own nerdishness but actually understand its nature and am able to cognitively apply adapted social skills to appear more “normal” and then be able to apply my nerdishness in ways accessible to others.
Ben Continues
I think Mark gets it wrong here or at least chose the wrong language.
The fact is, speaking as a Nerd, I believe that the one thing Nerds long for most is a sense of belonging and community but it is the one this consistently denied them by the nature of there Nerdishness. In a sense Mark’s post feels like we are being attacked for the one aspect of our brokenness that we have least control over. Let me stress I know that was never Mark’s intention.
Yep that was not my intention. I guess I used the wrong word. Ben continues
Returning to Mark’s post and if I might be a bit nerdy and reference Harry Potter I believe the real targets of marks post should not be Nerds but the All Talk, No Action Gilderoy Lockhart’s of the missional church.
I guess I was more trying to make the point that there are many great voices out there who we need to be listening to, people who maybe due to personality or age or general non- tech proficiency have hugely important things to say. I would hate it if this conversation became purely about those who marketed themselves the best online.
Ben has some really important things to say about fitting into church, and the expereince of being a nerd. Check out his article here and while you are there have a wander around his blog. Also a big nod to Ben for writing to me personally and allowing me to see my flaws of logic with great grace.
Maybe I was having more of a poke at the over abundance of computer love in the missional church. Which is just a really silly sentence to allow me to leave the last word to Zapp and Roger (why did they have to end up shooting each other?). Yes i know its a big stretch but it’s my blog and I can do what the heck I want and besides talk boxes were so cool.
