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There was once a time when the Catholic Church had a monopoly on information.  At least religious information.  But thanks to Martin Luther and the printing press that monopoly is long gone.  In that moment an explosion of thought, innovation, and not surprisingly, faith occurred.  For the first time, people were able to have open access to the Bible.

For centuries, though, our thinking was still influenced by the people immediately around us: our teachers, our family, our friends.

But that’s not the case anymore.

Thanks to the internet, people are once again being flooded with a staggering amount of information.  I recently saw a study that said each of consumes, on average, 34 gigabytes of information.  That’s not in a year, or a month, or even in a week.  That’s per day.  That’s 7 DVD’s worth of stuff for those of you scoring at home.

Just by the fact that you are reading this is enough to prove all of that.

Now none of this is new.  The internet has been around for a long time.  At least by technology standards.  The real focus of this post is that despite all of this information most of us don’t take advantage of it.  We are content to learn passively.  And I think that’s a shame.

The three biggest sources of influence on my theological life come from my home church, Greg Boyd, and Erwin McManus.  Without the internet I never would have been exposed to these thoughts, let alone been transformed by them.  But their influence is unmistakable on my writing.  My faith is deeper.  My convictions stronger.  And my passion for God fuller.

Of course with knowledge comes responsibility.  We can’t simply absorb more information and become “smarter” Christians.  We have to do something with our knowledge.  And that means serving.  It means loving our enemies.  And it means being vulnerable.

It also means we can no longer blindly follow faith.  We have to know what we believe and why we believe.  Knowledge is a double edge sword.  Especially on the internet.  A little bit can be harmful.  It can confuse us, misdirect us, and even convince us of things that aren’t true.  (There’s a reason conspiracy theories thrive on the internet!)  The web is filled with people waiting to knock your faith out from under you.  Knowledge is the best way to stand strong.

There was a time we were limited by region, money, and who we knew personally.  But that’s not the case anymore.  The internet really is the great equalizer when it comes to building a deeper relationship with God.  I hope you take advantage of it.