Since February 4, 2004, the number of Facebook users has risen from zero to about 800,000,000, or 11% of the world’s population. That’s a lot of Farmville. As most of us in the U.S., particularly on campus, are on Facebook, I’ve been thinking about how I should use it.

What comes to mind when you hear missions or missionary? Does it conjure up images of rural living in straw huts in underdeveloped Africa? Is it a life devoid of all knowledge of American pop culture, technology, and internet? I’m a missionary, and I live in Madison, WI.

Recently I’ve talked with a number of peers who (like myself) have one or more parents who are not Christians or who are nominal Christians, showing little desire to read Scripture, pray, pursue community, or discuss anything spiritual. We've expressed to one another doubts that we, as "just their children," have the ability to affect change.

Because it’s the human thing to do. That is, it’s the image-of-God thing to do. When we walk into the studio or theater and start talking with artists, we enter a world of creativity that represents the other half of God’s design for our lives.