Virtual Church Response
In response to my I-Church post below, Doug sent me the following:
I'm not so sure this is a crazy idea.
I work with professors in teaching their courses online. I'm an instructional designer - my focus is on teaching, not the technical aspects of putting courses on the web. I show professors how to create highly interactive courses.
The Internet has allowed us to redefine community, which until now has been defined by geography. We live in the So and So community. With the Internet, we can define community on the basis of common interest, not locale. In other words, we can express the idea of "my church" as a place where I find commonality with others in my beliefs, rather than "my church" as in a neighborhood or town.
Non-Internet users think the web is a soulless place that robs users of social skills. Jeffrey Cole wrote an interesting article in The Chronicle of Higher Education. As a researcher at UCLA, he found the opposite was true - regular Internet users may actually lead healthier face-to-face social lives than non-users.
At the present time, going to church now involves being at a certain place at a certain time. A virtual church allows worship at anytime and anyplace - a strong consideration when people's jobs may mean they cannot come to worship at 11 AM Sunday morning.
Its about choice. Worshipers may still come to a physical church and yet gain spiritual growth online. Many people do that already through the use of list servs, blogs, discussion boards, and other online platforms.
I recommend "Give Me That Online Religion" by Dr. Brenda Brasher as a good academic book on the topic.
What do you think of what Doug has to say? What are your experiences with "the church" or "church" online? Do you see the internet as a spiritual growth tool?
In response to my I-Church post below, Doug sent me the following:
I'm not so sure this is a crazy idea.
I work with professors in teaching their courses online. I'm an instructional designer - my focus is on teaching, not the technical aspects of putting courses on the web. I show professors how to create highly interactive courses.
The Internet has allowed us to redefine community, which until now has been defined by geography. We live in the So and So community. With the Internet, we can define community on the basis of common interest, not locale. In other words, we can express the idea of "my church" as a place where I find commonality with others in my beliefs, rather than "my church" as in a neighborhood or town.
Non-Internet users think the web is a soulless place that robs users of social skills. Jeffrey Cole wrote an interesting article in The Chronicle of Higher Education. As a researcher at UCLA, he found the opposite was true - regular Internet users may actually lead healthier face-to-face social lives than non-users.
At the present time, going to church now involves being at a certain place at a certain time. A virtual church allows worship at anytime and anyplace - a strong consideration when people's jobs may mean they cannot come to worship at 11 AM Sunday morning.
Its about choice. Worshipers may still come to a physical church and yet gain spiritual growth online. Many people do that already through the use of list servs, blogs, discussion boards, and other online platforms.
I recommend "Give Me That Online Religion" by Dr. Brenda Brasher as a good academic book on the topic.
What do you think of what Doug has to say? What are your experiences with "the church" or "church" online? Do you see the internet as a spiritual growth tool?
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