The Common Cup

Viral by Leonard Sweet - A Book Review

Viral is the newest offering from author and thinker, Leonard Sweet. I have enjoyed and been challenged by much of Leonard’s work. He constantly causes me to rethink how I’m currently follow Jesus and challenges me to new depths of my spiritual journey.

Sweet has been a great follower of social trends and has a great eye for how to utilize cultural tools in order to present the gospel of Jesus to as many as possible. Viral examines social media and social networking under this lens. It looks at two cultures: Gutenbergers and Googlers and the comparisons and contrasts between the two and how they relate to the Church, Christianity, religion, Jesus, culture and life.

Sweet postulates that because of the constant connectedness and simplicity of the Googler generations along with their desire for relationships and community that they may be the most suited of any generations ever to spread the love and truth of Jesus to the world. Googlers have redefined how relationships work in the realm of social media. Knowledge is instant connection across the globe is attainable in mouse clicks.

Googlers are the most connected generation. Googlers are a worldwide generational category, culture, and context.

Viral is a challenging book. Even as a part of the Googlers, I found myself feeling a bit uneasy with some of Sweet’s challenges. Viral helped me to realize that I am not leveraging my potential to lift up Jesus as much as I can in the social media spectrum.

A friend of mine recently joked and said that I was “omnipresent in the social media world”. With one click I can send a photo, audio track, thought, location, etc to Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Path, and Foursquare. I am constantly connected but struggling to be present in an intentional way. I certainly have some things to think through.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from this book:

The Christian life in neither Christian nor any kind of life unless we are living out our faith. And faith is not static or regimented. It is viral, and as dynamic an organic as life itself.
It is not wrong for monotheists to hold words in high regard, and especially the words of God. I will never argue against the power of words. I am, after all, a writer, speaker, and educator. But something - or should I say, Someone - can get lost amid a multitude of words. God’s most perfect, most glorious, most human, and yet, most divine communication to us is Jesus, the Word made flesh. It is possible for the Word to be obscured by words. Emmanuel, God in human flesh, God with us! How can sheets of paper covered with type do justice to God’s Son, the God-Human, Lord of the universe, and the living Expression of the Three-in-One?
I was looking for Jesus but got mugged by one of his followers.
Jesus did not come to earth so that later generations of his followers could prove a point. He is the Point. He is time spent together, not a list of seven rules for success. He is intimacy, not statistical analysis. He brings unimaginable riches and spiritual wealth but never adds up on a balance sheet. Follow him is messy yet holy.
In my lifetime I will need to learn six or more different preaching styles to keep the bread of life hot from the oven.
Too many Christians haven’t had a passion great enough to dislocate their coffee lid, let alone a shoulder.
Every person you meet is a living book, but a book that needs to be opened.
If you want to change the world don’t bring in politicians who make the laws, bring in poets who tell the stories.