Though it has been available to the general public for just three years, the social-networking web site Facebook has 250 million users worldwide. That includes hundreds of Reformed Presbyterians. Two RPCNA groups on Facebook have about 700 members each.

I admire the way that Reformed/Presbyterian types view innovation and technology. They seem quick to recognize that innovation does not mean apocalyse. They tend to see that many new media and machines present mere opportunity; that the problems and promise of those things lie chiefly in the people connected with them.

The horrors of the internet are well known. Yet our godly fathers and mothers in the faith at the Reformed Presbyterian Home were quick to see the ways a godly person could bless others and be blessed through the internet—receiving prayer requests and news from around the world, following news of missionaries and writing to encourage them, keeping up on the news of the Synod or of the congregations of their youth.

A recent, and refreshing, example of the merging of old and new ways of doing things through technology redemption is Ken Mueller. A graduate of Geneva College, Ken is a 21st Century man—technologically savvy, connected to thousands of people each day through the internet, doing most of his daily work on the computer. Yet he does all this from the comfort of his home—or, rather, his porch. He has conscientiously made the front porch of his rowhouse in Lancaster, Pa., his 21st Century office. From there he diligently does his work, but from there he also can take time to have a conversation with a neighbor, drink iced tea with a business associate, or spend time with his family.

Once a suburbanite whose contact with his neighbors was primarily, in his words, watching each other’s garage doors close, Ken has consciously set up his life to practice the old-fashioned values of front-porch neighborliness. Ironically, though, it is his use of the latest technologies for networking with people around the world that has allowed him to network more in his own neighborhood. Ken is a good example of what I’ve seen in many Reformed/Presbyterian people—a willingness to utilize innovation for Christ’s kingdom, and the creativity to come up with uses that blend the blessings of old and new.

In that regard, it gives great satisfaction to see the youth in the RPCNA coming up with new ways to witness to the lost and to disciple younger believers, ways that, once again, blend the eye-popping impressiveness of technology with the time-tested, face-to-face sharing of Christ to those who need to see Him reflected in another’s life.

—Drew Gordon