How well do your church members know each other? How much do people really share and care about one another's lives? Does anything in their daily existence allow for anything other than superficial relationships? And do the demands of today's "social media" and digital connectedness, which require so much individual attention to maintain, ultimately just intrude on what little sense of community (and real sociability) may actually exist in your local church body?

Consider this wonderful piece that appeared earlier this year in The New York Times: "New York, Unplugged and on Foot"

In the article, journalist Anand Giridharadas tells of moving with his wife Priya Parker to New York City, committed to an idea born during their honeymoon in Sri Lanka: as newcomers to the city, they will commit 12 straight hours, about once per month, to exploring some neighborhood of the city, sans any digital devices. Friends got wind of the idea, asked to join, and were readily admitted into the "anti-modern ...