Buddy Christ & Weak Links

One of the surprising discoveries of complexity theory came from Mark Granovetter of John Hopkins University. He proved that a strong network is made up of many weak links. In fact, a network comprised of many weak links is stronger and more enduring than a network made up of fewer but stronger links

                                                                 - Dwight Friesen, Thy Kingdom Connected (138)

I know very few people in my church. I know the middle schoolers; the middle-school youth group catechists/volunteers and the religious education leadership. But when I go to church on Sunday I have no idea who I am sitting next to. If I stopped going to church or if the church was sucked into a black hole I would never see these people again and I wouldn’t think twice about it. I am connected to them only because we all chose to go to the 9:30am service that particularly Sunday.

When I was in college I remember bumping into someone who told me she was culturally Catholic. This is a concept I hadn’t considered prior to that moment. Catholic jokes, movies about or that feature Catholicism, memories or opinions on Catholic school, feelings/opinions on the Pope, etc. When I tried to bring up Catholic jokes/humor as a thing that unites Catholics together I felt the other volunteers go quiet, go cold. I’m sure some of you reading this have had this experience where you think you have a great idea but you are regarded with suspicion. And it got me thinking; I can’t be the only one in my whole congregation who has a Buddy Christ sitting next to my icons. So how do I meet these like-minded people? Because, I’ll be honest, these are the people I would love to meet and the people I would still want to hang out with if the church building disappeared.

So how do I make these weak links? Whose responsibility it is to make these relationships? Who says I can’t get to know people in my church on an intimate friend basis through watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer as opposed to through a weekly Bible study? But the church doesn't offer a weekly B-Horror movie night. I think that it should. I would love to see this in my church bulletin “Holy Family will be offering a night of laughter – sharing Catholic jokes over dinner” or “Who wants to go get coffee after the 11am service? I’ll be waiting by the holy water font” or “Holy Family will be offering a screening of Dogma/Homicidal” or “Who wants to go watch the Hurt Locker? Here’s my phone number/email.”

Individual and church offerings that are not directly related to religion would be great. If you’re both going to church and reading the bulletin you’re probably going to get on the subject of your faith organically – it doesn’t necessarily have to be a starting point. And if it is, it can have a sense of humor. People's identity is built on their beliefs but not only on those beliefs. Building weak links through social contact is a multi-pronged process that involves partnership between the individual and the church. Furthermore, those weak links should be BOLD. 

So let’s get on it.