Tuesday, 03 November 2009
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The New Church: Online Community and Worship
Online churches are nothing new, but interactive online churches...now that's something!
The World Wide Web has become the hottest place to build a church. A growing number of congregations are creating Internet offshoots that go far beyond streaming weekly services.
These sites are fully interactive with:- A dedicated internet Pastor
- Online internet chat lobby
- One on one Bible study using IM
- One on one prayer using IM
- Communion (Using own bread and water or wine from home.)
There are even special things included in some online services:
- viewers can click on a tab during worship to accept Christ as their Savior.
- viewers can repent by posting a private record of their sins on a cross.
- visitors will be able to choose "seats" in an auditorium, then click on surrounding seats to exchange Facebook and Twitter addresses.
The sites share the same basic approach: rock-style worship music and a sermon recorded at the in-person weekend service that is quickly mixed with live or recorded greetings expressly for online viewers. Live chat volunteers emphasize that day's Bible teaching and block inappropriate posts.
Brian Vasil, Flamingo Road's Internet Pastor. says "The goal is to not let people at home feel like they're watching what's happening, but they're part of it. They're participating,"
But advocates consider the Internet just another neighborhood where real relationships can be built. Rob Wegner, a pastor at Granger Community Church of Indiana, which will soon launch its internet campus, calls the web the church's "front porch." Pastors who back the sites say they feel a religious duty to harness this new way for reaching the spiritually lost.
"We live in a day and age and a culture where people go to school online, bank online, date online and do other things online," said Kurt Ervin, who oversees the Internet campus for Central Christian Church, based in Henderson, Nev. "Why not create a platform for them to go to church online?" Central Christian started a new church service this fall on Facebook.
Critics say that true Christian community ultimately requires in-person interaction. They refer to the sites as religious fast food or Christianity lite.
Church Links
Flamingo Road Church http://www.frclive.tv/
Granger Community Church http://gccwired.com/
Central Christian Church http://centralchristian.com/home.asp
Seacoast Church http://www.seacoast.org/
LIFECHURCH.TV http://www.lifechurch.tv/
What do you think of internet churches? Awesome innovation or Christianity lite?
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- From: BarryDadof3@xanga
- Name: Barry
- About Me: Hey There, I am a father of 3 children and husband to my wife (Kristenmom0f3). I am a Christian who enjoys sharing Adonai's word with others. I made this blog to become an outlet for my thoughts and feelings on being a father in this world in which we live May Elohim Bless You All Shalom BarryDadof3
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Comments (13)
I think both of your pros and cons are spot on. I attend one of the churches you listed in person and I sometimes visit the Online Church if I am sick or something. The communities are certainly valid where the same people attend consistently as they would to a church in person. The people that volunteer at the churches are consistent and so then, relationships (mentoring, friendship, etc.) can develop. Personally, I still enjoy meeting with other believers physically, but if the Online Church is reaching a community that the physical church doesn't, then more power to them!
I think this is great! It could be good for people who have issues (ex. social phobias, physical problems, weather, etc) that could prevent them from attending a normal service. Christianity lite? What about those various Sunday morning sermon shows? There isn't even an element of human interaction in those.
I don't care how far technology has advanced, there is no need to replace personal interaction with interactive sites. I could see how such sites could be good as an extra supplement, an outreach tool, or used to temporary fill in when times absolutely don't allow for personal contact, but as far as a Church community goes I think it is absolutely unnecessary and destroys true fellowship. The modern trend of avoiding human contact is not a trend that Christians ought to cater to or encourage, it is something we ought to help people overcome.
If I can't get to my regular church for some reason, I might check one of these out one day. But to actually regularly "attend" an online church sounds a little weird to me.
I think it's a good thing. There may actually be greater interaction in the virtual pews (e.g., sermon discussion).
I'm undecided about the Lord's Supper. I think it would require careful thought to avoid further development of the notion that the observance is a strictly personal event (i.e., "just me and Jesus").
The internet has a place within the Christian community; it needs to be utilized as effectively as possible. In fact, the internet can be a place to help get Christians involved in all sorts of activities and it definitely is one of the most effective way of reaching into the community.
To replace live Church, however, is so deadly. How can you lay hands on one another and pray over each other? You can't hug someone in tears over the loss of their mother or loved one. It's impossible to really get to know one another when you're separated by light-years of cyber-space. EVEN Live Churches often do a very poor job of this, but accountability doesn't work very well when you are never in a persons home, when you're never around them in person, or ever see their face.
Today I just spent 6 hours in a persons home talking about how their own family has completely cut her off from her own grandchildren. Tears, prayers, seeing the emotion, her seeing the sincere compassion in me, these are all essentials that you don't get from a Online church.
In my opinion, it's a bad idea to remove oneself to (perhaps) the safer or easier environment of online Churching.
Let's not forget St. Pixel's or the Church of Fools.
The primary difference being that the merrily irreverent folks from Ship of Fools seem to recognize the inherent goofiness of the concept.
I was in an online church community that was run on a 2D type platform hosted by Palace. You picked a character, dressed it (like in a online game) and moved it around in rooms that were pictures of real church rooms. There was a room log and dialog bubbles to allow conversations and they posted links to YouTube for worship music. Even though the preaching was a bit "over kill" on a regular bases, it had every thing you could want in an online church.
It went pretty good except for the few times the porn nuts came in and tried to virtually rape the members during services and the witches that tried to take over the services a few times...no joke! did that make life interesting! ....after a few bans, it calmed down and it lasted 3yrs... until the pastor got a "real church" and left with no one to take over. After a few ugly nights with just the members to beat each other up over really stupid stuff - the flock scattered and the place folded. Praise the Lord that was over with!
Hope you all have better blessings then this place!
On-line Churches will always lack at least one thing -- they are unable to appeal to all of a persons senses, so there is no wholeness to the experience.
Due to my work schedule, I often miss my regular church service. I've been feeling pretty empty without the ability to get there, but this post gave me some great ideas for alternatives! I still hope to be able to get to church at least a couple times a month, but if I can't, I know I at least have somewhere to turn to. Great post!
online churches also communicate through words written on a web page like this I guess??
There's a lot that can remain hidden. I write you when I want, I write in the tone I want (happy or sad), and put on a mask I want to have on!
You don't know if I just woke at 12PM, or am up from 6 in the morning!
So it's much harder to know how I'm doing unless if I tell you.
Sometimes you never even see the face of the other person!
Bible says: "Do not forsake the 'Gatherings' of the saints", in other words, it does matter when all will seek God together, to be a part of it!
But like always people can survive by themselves, if they want to.
It's been done before,, Yet you don't know what you're missing, the blessings of a fellow brother in Christ seeking the Lord with you!
I never heard of an Internet church.
This is interesting. But, really, is it that far removed from the nearly 80 years that The Lutheran Hour has been on that formerly new-fangled thing called r-a-d-i-o? Some people could not make it to their place of worship and had to use the radio messages for their church service. Taped messages or services then occurred (reel to reel up to the cassette). Then that nefarious TV thing came on board and the visual came with the audio. With the Internet, there is interaction, something neither radio nor TV could accomplish. And the hologram concept is likely next.
While human contact is important (sometimes you can see someone needing help without ever hearing a word), there is a segment of society ------ or even of the world peoples ------ where this provides the best alternative due to their views of technology, their location or their situation. If the teaching is proper, and it does open up to everyone seeing/hearing the best teachers, then there is an advantage. One caution, a 'pastor' is not just a teacher or preacher or worship leader ----- there is the shepherding relationship which needs to take place and which would need to be modified to connect with these virtual participants.
Wow!