You are looking at an image of the logo on the first edition of Inspiren; a monthly newsletter designed by the originators of the Christian Web Conference (formerly GodblogCon).

As the web becomes a bigger part of our lives each day, faith leaders are challenged to engage people where they live.  For example, only a few years ago, the notion of belonging to an online church was unheard of.  Today, it’s often a central topic of discussion & debate.

Now with individuals spending greater amounts of time online each day and frequent personal interactions often taking place via online communication, some propose online church as the next logical step to effective gospel proclamation.

Inspiren exists to thoughtfully engage this and other topics that deal with the relationship of New Media and the Christian faith.

Each monthly installment will take the main purpose of the Christian Web Conference; idea collaboration with the intent of advancing New Media and its users for the Kingdom of God; and extend it formally beyond the weekend of September 11-12.

This first edition includes the article “Some Rough Notes on Technology, Exclusivity, and Online Church” by Matthew L. Anderson.  And the photo image above should link to my dear friend, Rhett Smith, and his article in the second installment “Christian Web Conference“.

There are growing numbers of people taking a scholarly approach to studying ministry & technology.  I have a larger and larger list of scholars appearing on my reader these days.

So I’ve decided that over the next few weeks, you’re gonna meet some of my brainest friends and check out what they’re studying, evaluating, testing, hypothesizing, and just, well, all that kind of stuff.

Kicking off this “blog of the weekend” series, let me introduce you to Dr. Dave, as he’s called around here, aka Dr. David Bourgeois, a prof. at Biola University who blogs at Lessons from Babel.  I’ve observed Dave’s work for a long time, had the privilege of hearing him speak and even shared a meal with him.  He is an absolute pioneer when it comes to studying online ministry data.

His newest course involving Internet ministry launches next semester and in preparation, Dave recently contacted me asking if I had access to any online ministries who are pioneering corporate prayer on the internet.  Specifically, he’s looking for people praying together online, via text or voice.  In exchange for the info, the good Dr. is allowing me to audit (I mean crash) his course, so I responded.

Do I?   How about this example from the LifeShare online challenge hosted by LifeChurch.tv where I got to pray with people from all over the world.  Unfortunately, although you can get the live mogulus stream you won’t get to see the saved chat with visitors from across the globe.

You’ll be hearing more about Dr. Dave’s upcoming class here soon.  In the meantime, he’s also asking for other examples so if you’ve got links, post ‘em here.  He’s looking for options where there are interactive prayers going on (i.e. not like great services like Kindle where you can post a prayer.)

Who do you know who’s pioneering the work of online interactive prayer?    And while you’re thinking, add a feed from Lessons from Babel.