1. Accept the Virtual World's significance (MySpace is the most visited site on the Internet)
2. View online expressions of Christianity as valuable extensions of real world faith
3. Embrace the opportunity for Church without borders (time, geography, etc.)
4. Welcome the presentation of God's Word in the vernacular of current culture
5. Respond to the globalization of the planet with hope not cynicism
6. Develop and maintain an online presence purposefully populating cyberspace
7. Establish virtual outposts for evangelizing, preaching, equipping & training
8. Create interactive portals for experiencing Church (streaming media)
9. Practice spiritual disciplines in the global online conversation
10. Encourage strategic investment in the iGeneration
Why? Because there are "multitudes in the valley of decision" online.
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Good stuff! Thank you for NOT having the first letters of the Top 10 spell something quaint
. . . AVEWRDECPE
AVEWRDECPE is a very carefully constructed acrostic however unfortunately, it’s meaning is known to me only!
11. Explore personal guidelines for integrity, accountability, and identity. (See: “Integrity on the Internet,” available here.)
:: grin ::
Rich “Always ready to pimp his site” Tatum
BlogRodent
Run with God, thanks for creating dialog……Online campuses do lack a whole spectrum of characteristics and dimensions that real world churches offer. Can you or others list some of them?
This may be due to the infancy (and limitations) of the virtual world. Many of us currently find our virtual presence only a tiny percentage of our “actual” being. This may change dramatically over the next decades. In fact, I think it will. Our virtual selves may occupy a significant portion of our lives. The iGeneration may accept virtual presence in a way that those of us born before 2000 don’t. Can we think through pros of virtual campuses and list them also?
And beyond that is our faith missional and motivated to go out of the virtual church building rather than “get people in”? Is our faith spilling out into the Internet or just re-compartmentalizing it like in the real world? More dialog….
LifeChurch.tv has both an internet and Second Life campus complete with online LifeGroups and mission opportunities.
Yes, I’ve covered the LifeChurch.tv campuses before. See LifeChurch.tv here for example.
Ironically, it’s a LifeChurch guy that got me to this blog. Thanks.
I get irritated when people won’t recognize, criticize advancements within the online community, and the inability to have a spiritual life through technology.
I disagree that it lacks anything that a spiritual campus would. If anything, an online campus could create more.
*an online campus doesn’t come across intimidating - you are not lost in the crowd
*an online campus doesn’t close the doors Mon-Fri.
*an online campus allows for immediate growth. When’s the last time right after the sermon you got together with 20 other people and discussed in detail the message? You can with an online.
*Online allows for a shield from the outside world. Your “iGeneration” is much more comfortable having real world conversations with people through text/IM than they are face to face.That computer monitor literally becomes a portal to get to who they are… not who they pretend to be (please reference MySpace as another example of how the iGeneration is more “natural” in real live vs. how they “pretend” to be in a church setting.
The missional mindset is crucial, you are right. Maybe that’s why there aren’t many out there. Maybe that’s why other campuses aren’t doing it… they’re not quite in the “missional” mindset yet?
I know of LifeChurch.tv, Seacoast, Flamingo Road (Miami). Anybody else out there?
and by “spiritual campus” I meant “physical campus” - bottom of second paragraph.
An online church campus could be a great outreach tool to reach people who aren’t ready to walk thru the doors of a church, people more comfortable online, but I think they need to be geared toward bringing people to a physical church community enentually.
I think there are benefits in a physical church community that can’t be integrated into an online setting.
For instance, children’s ministry. I believe the at our church children reap great benefit from our childrens’ ministry, benefits they couldn’t get if their parents were only involved in an online church.
I recognize the “for instance”, but it could be argued that many of the people excited about an online campus (teens, twenty-somethings) may not have kids. Thoughts?
>> I know of LifeChurch.tv, Seacoast, Flamingo Road (Miami). Anybody else out there? >>
Though it’s not nearly as cool as the second life campus, http://www.infinitechurch.com is another.
Chris “also ready to pimp his site” Dillingham
I’m not so sure about point 10, I like the suggested number 11. The thing is iGeneration is important to reach but there hardly is ever any focus on the older generations that equally use the web. the local church should be encompassing after all and the message the Church preaches is relevant to everyone. But I do agree there is a difference in the way different generation use the web.
So these are the challenges, how do we as those who are in the know enable local churches to get a better position? Great post thanks!
Dan - good point & good balance.
what’s interesting there, though, is the return on the work worth the investment. I think the older generation, to quote Len Sweet, is “alien” to this thinking. They may survive at it, but as a general rule they will stick out like sore thumbs. Where the emerging/postmodern… it’s native. I just bought an iPhone. Handed it to a 15 year old. He had the entire thing figured out in 2 minutes (no exaggeration). The point is, there are people who learn how to be tech. Then there are people who are wired tech.
I led an online Bible Study years ago through eBeliever.com (my company back in the day) where we did Bible Studies through Discussion Boards, etc… Had over 100 people from across the country. They were mostly wired generation. It was largely successful.
Recently our church tried a small group based on the same technology, and it was not as successful. Instead of the target being the “emerging” generation, they targeted older generation that was too busy to commit to a small group.
Although they “understood” the technology, they were not able to see technology as a “Community”. And therein lies the problem. 20somethings go to eHarmony, iDate, whatever to find their soulmate. Talking through a blog/im/tech is just as personal as face to face, maybe moreso… I think there we can reach the older generation through it, but what happens when they hold us back?