Microsoft’s famous slogan is well suited to the World Wide Web. A few clicks can take you pretty well anywhere. Our world is a lot smaller than it was just a decade ago.
The Internet consists not of one great net but of many small, interconnected nets. Together, they form the World Wide Web-the www you see on the Internet (e.g. www.MoretonBay.com).
Think of your family as a small net, formed by family ties and held together by lasting relationships-especially helpful in tough times. When tempers fray, we work at mending our relationships. They are important to us, and stronger than the forces that strain them. Sometimes we choose not to enlarge our nets, because of the stress any extension might have on existing relationships. On special occasions, when relatives join together, the net becomes much larger.
A local church is very similar. The “Jones” family net and the “Smith” family net may connect in the car park, and then be joined by the “Evans” family net at the church door. Inside, other connections take place. Pretty soon, the families-which include singles-form the larger, relational net that we know as the local church. When someone who “belongs” is missing, the relational net is incomplete.
That’s how we see it. The view from Heaven is, as you’d expect, a far clearer one-a panorama. As small family nets join to become a larger, church net, nearby nets – other churches – are doing the same. In fact, a huge net soon appears, almost covering the community. But between the nets, gaps remain-revealing a lack of relationships between some churches. In other places, the net appears to have been torn-relationships between those churches need to be mended.
The wonder of the World Wide Web is that innumerable small nets interconnect to form the Internet-globally, the World Wide Web. When one link in the Net is broken, messages are quickly re-routed to their destinations. What makes the Internet so amazing is that anyone can go anywhere-and all kinds of information can be accessed and downloaded-with just a few clicks!
Just as families form relationships with other families, churches link up with other churches. As they do, the Word of the Lord extends to encompass the world-crossing national and cultural boundaries! Just think: www may one day stand for World Wide Witness. Wow, wouldn’t that be wonderful!