Book Notes: Viral by Leonard Sweet

I will say right up front, if you are in ministry, you should read this book and process it. You may disagree with it, you may get angry that the world is changing and has changed rapidly. But one thing you can’t argue with, if we refuse to change with the times in how we present the the changeless message of the gospel, then the world will pay us no mind.

In the book Sweet assumes that everyone in the world today is either a Gutenberger (born before 1975 or a Googler (born after 1975). There are of course people like myself who were born into the Gutenberger era and has chosen to become a Googler. I will be the first to admit that I was reluctant at first (10 years ago) to become a Googler. Matter of fact, Google wasn’t the most popular thing of that time, it was probably Yahoo.

I was dared into the social media world by those whom I work in ministry with. I did it as an experiment to see how it worked and to see if it was effective and I found it to be VERY EFFECTIVE.

This is a book for the church world to read but it is also a book that every person should read. The world today, which operates in the social media world, virtual, online, will simply leave behind those who ignore it.

5 out of 5 stars.

“Our well-being depends on our ability to connect with other humans.” Leonard Sweet

(Social Media is about connecting)

“We know time is constant, but in recent years it seems time started moving much more quickly.” Leonard Sweet (Social Media is the reason)

“The tribe that feels most at home in the twenty-first-century Digital Age is what we will call the Googlers—the digitized, globalized group that spends much of its life getting to know one another in a virtual world.” Leonard Sweet (In Viral)

“As I look at the waning of Gutenberg Culture and the arrival of Google Culture, I have to wonder if Jesus wouldn’t be more at home with the Googlers. In fact, as the Western church built by Gutenbergers continues to lose ground in a world of Googlers, I am convinced that Christians need to start taking cues from the Googlers.” Leonard Sweet (In Viral)