Viral

Sweet, Leonard. Viral. Waterbook Press. Colorado Springs, CO. 2012

In Viral: How Social Networking is Poised to Ignite Revival Leonard Sweet presents and overview of human history (somewhat lacking, in my opinion), while making observations about how the church faces challenges and opportunities (Really?).

Sweet tells the story of the only course taught by Martin Luther King, Jr., and the only eight students that had the privilege of referring to King as their teacher. Interestingly, none of them saved their course syllabus. None of them saved their lecture notes. None of them still have their papers that were evaluated by King. His point? Those eight students stood in the presence of greatness, and yet they missed their moment. This is Sweet primary focus in this book, his fear that we might miss our moment. Unfortunately, he is very unclear about what that moment is.

Sweet spends the bulk of this book, attempting to give us a “roadmap,” stressing that Christ not only stands above culture, but also works through it in order to redeem and transform it. He suggests that we each generally fall into one of two categories, digital natives or digital immigrants. He chooses 1973 (the year that the mobile phone was invented) as his dividing line. Those born before 1973 he refers to as Gutenbergers, and those born after 1973 he refers to as Googlers. Sweet refers to Googler culture as TGIF, because it is built upon the following tools of relationships and life: Twitter, Google, iPhones and Facebook. Then, Sweet spends the core of the book taking us through each of the four tools.

Sweet tells us that Googlers need Gutenbergers, and vice versa. He says “When we separate ourselves from the inherited memories of our ancestors, when the texts and traditions of the past do not join the present, the future is in jeopardy. There is no future without the past.” (Deep, huh?)

Sweet does not provide many answers or solutions. He just states his thoughts on the subject and then spends the last part of the book trying to figure out how to end the book. What does he come up with? Everything we do should point to Jesus. Thanks, but I knew that.

This is a very poor read. I don’t recommend it at all!