The Digital Pastor Pt. 2
A little while ago, I wrote on the future role of the digital world in the life of a pastor. It got some attention, appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times, and generated even more ideas for me personally.
Since then I’ve done a little more digging, a little more connecting (with very cool people like Rhett Smith, Anne Jackson, and Tony Steward) and realized, as I put it to my senior pastor, “We don’t even know how deep this rabbit hole goes.” With a dozen or so churches with Internet campuses (and many more contemplating the move to the web), the Church is looking at the Internet as a viable option for true Christian community.
The Denver Post wrote a fascinating article on the role of technology in the church. Among the gems in the piece, this one surfaced as particularly poignant:
“Church is not the Internet or a building  it’s people.” If the notion that a virtual community can be as real as a physical one seems crazy, you may be showing your age.
Thanks to online shopping, online dating, online social networking and online darn-near-everything-else, many young Americans don’t distinguish between their friends from school and those from Facebook.
These youngsters just see them all as friends, said David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group, a consulting firm that conducts survey research for churches and other religious groups.
In fact, Kinnaman’s firm predicts that by 2010, 10 percent of Americans will rely exclusively on the Internet for their religious experience.
10 percent. 10 percent! Clearly the Church is facing a change that it must adapt to or face extinction in its current form. American Christians need only look to Europe to see where the U.S. will be in 15-20 years on the coasts; 20-25 years in Middle America. Will the American megachurches of today become the stoic shells of the now abandoned tourist-attraction cathedrals of Europe? They will if the U.S. church does not begin to speak the language of the culture surrounding it. That language, undeniably, becomes more digital by the day.
Rhett Smith points out that the “front door” of churches is no longer a “physical” one:
Do we even realize that the physical building isn’t the front door anymore, but that the online world is the front door? If you don’t have a strong [online] presence, or aren’t telling a good story online, which is the front door–will you be able to bring people from the online world, to the physical front door of the church?
The line between “offline” and “online” is beginning to blur, if not fade altogether. People under 20 don’t view life in “off-” or “online” categories, it simply is “life.” If you (and your church) don’t begin to understand and learn to speak the language of this younger generation, no amount of catch-up and “digital cramming” will help in as little as five years.
Are you seeing these patterns in your church? Do you believe the virtual church can replace the physical church? Or, does technology need to be a means to an end and not the end itself?
I’m attending a free webinar tomorrow where Lifechurch.tv’s Brian Donaldson and Flamingo Road‘s Brian Vasil will be taking a closer look at Internet campuses. These are guys who work at churches that are pioneering Christianity’s move to the digital world. It’s a “no-miss” and I’d encourage you, if you have any interest in this at all, to attend as well. Your church will thank you for it (eventually).
Additional Resources:
Rise of the Social Media Pastor on Digital.Leadnet.org
Social Media Pastor Or Pastor with Social Media on Levite Chronicles
Justin, I hate that we don’t know each other that well and I am always commenting on your blog now. I am a poser of the worst degree.
I think it is interesting (and I mean that in the Iowa way, as in wrong) that you use the phrase “true Christian community” along with quotes from Kinnaman quotes regarding internet “religious experiences”. Are you suggesting that Christian community equals religious experiences? I think that these are separate issues. Is it possible to have a TEMPLE experience online? Or Acts 2 experiences?
I liken this thinking to something Bradshaw said on the WOW radio program, when he mentioned that he didn’t want to get to heaven because he believed it would be much more dull than the rock-n-roll lifestyle that can be had here on earth. The problem with that line of thought is that people are living a life of sin looking for the feeling of connection, love, and acceptance that only comes from God. This applies to the internet church in that all the online communities that are taking place online are in replacement to personal Christian communities. People using the internet as the Christian community are doing so at the cost of a real-life, real-time relationship with others.
Take for instance you and I. I follow you on Twitter, comment on your blog (referring to you by your first name as if I KNOW you), and say hi to you when we see each other in public. This a pseudo connection, since it is predicated on a desire to promote our own agendas. We want lots of people to follow us on Twitter, comment on our blogs, and buy us coffee. If, indeed the internet is the place for Christian community, and I am not saying it isn’t, I think it needs to get smaller, not larger. I have tons more to say, but I will wait to chance upon you at a coffee shop.
Justin,
Great post. I don’t think we know how deep this rabbit hole goes as you put it.
I think if we say true community can’t exist online, then we are being a bit naive, as I’m sure you would agree with. It’s not just that community can exist online, but I think the greatest asset of online communities is that they are a catalyst for actual in person community. It is a catalyst that gathers people…that is part of it’s true power I think.
rhett
Love this post!
@ToneLoc: Thank you, dear brother. I consider you to be the Ultimate Digital Pastor of Disaster. Post on, my brother.
@ToneLoc: Thank you, dear brother. I consider you to be the Ultimate Digital Pastor of Disaster. Post on, my brother.
@ToneLoc: Thank you, dear brother. I consider you to be the Ultimate Digital Pastor of Disaster. Post on, my brother.