Flat world.

I don’t have online access to the Oxford English Dictionary anymore so I can’t look up when the term first came into use, but NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman has certainly made it popular. Flat world.

The basic idea: recent changes in our economic structure, many brought on by technology, have made the world playing field flat. Friedman uses the term in economics, primarily, but it has come to describe how technology makes us all feel closer and affect each other more easily and clearly.

Here are three blog-related stories about my experience of the world’s flatness.

First, a post that’s received my second highest traffic, Coping with the (Clergy) Collar was found by the person whose letter I quoted in the post.

A few weeks after I quoted the Scottish minister, Michael S. Goss, I received an email from Rev. Goss himself. He had found himself through a search engine and was complimentary of my approach, but it was a little strange “speaking” personally to someone who before was only a name in a magazine. It served as a good reminder that everything we post online can be read by anyone, even and especially those about whom we write.

Second, a few months ago I was lazily reading through a random blog I’d found of a Presbyterian pastor from ____ . The post included criticism of what the pastor perceived to be lacking standards of PC(USA) (yes, I read those blogs too). Specifically, the pastor opined at the faith statements of candidates seeking ordination in her Presbytery, calling them not sufficiently orthodox, and going so far so to name what specific questions this pastor planned to ask the candidates at the Presbytery meeting.

A fan of the flat world, it took me a minute to find the Presbytery docket online and read the faith statements. It turned out that I had the contact info for one of the candidates who I promptly alerted as to the pastor’s planned antagonistic questions. Suffice it to say: the heads-up was greatly appreciated.

Third, I’ve happened upon several blogs of other American assistant ministers in Scotland, or other newish Scottish pastors.

• A Postcard from Troon Old, by a Princeton Seminary Assistant in Troon (20 mins away).
• Radical Seminarian, by another PTS Assistant in Cumnock (45 mins away).
• Rumors of Angels, by a Church of Scotland student in a similar situation nearby.

In the big picture of flat world experiences these are probably not particularly significant. After blogging for three months, however, I do see them as noteworthy; good reminders of the power for ministry that the web can provide. Flat world, indeed.