Church on the Net

Church on the Net's "signature" graphic is a little unusual. From the website:

Why the apple core? Adam and Eve ate the fruit of knowledge, thinking it would tell them everything they wanted to know and make their life complete. In fact, it broke their reliance on God. So, now that we've enjoyed the apple, why are we still looking for answers? What will fill that hole inside us?

Church of the Net, a ministry of Holy Trinity Ripon, which is parish of the Church of England, is an online community aimed at helping those with no church background find clarity about God and the church. Among it's useful features are very spare webdesign without a lot of graphics, so that it loads very quickly. There is also a glossary in the left column to explain a variety of terms from God, Jesus and Holy Spirit to Christian Ethics, Angels, The Bible, and Sexuality. The language is very plain and uncomplicated, all the better to help those who haven't grown up in the church, and don't come "pre-loaded" with the vocabulary. What it is not is a worshiping body: there is a weekly article posted, but not an online service. Church on the Net doesn't mean to be the only church connection for people; instead their goal is to help people become better informed and more comfortable with joining a worshiping body elsewhere. There are three blogs, one on faith and current events, one offering "a wry look at some of the weirder things Christians get up to", and a third on science and faith. There are also forums for discussion on the weekly articles, other articles on the site, and other site feedback. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a lot happening on the site; both blog and forum posts are weeks or months old. The articles, however, are up to date and include a "Go Deeper" section which offers suggestions for prayer and reflection, as well as links to video clips and suggested reading (conveniently available from Amazon). I like this one a great deal. While it provides a very comfortable public space, there are options to move into social space, and potentially personal space as traffic increases on the blogs and forums. However, Church on the Net has no intention of replacing brick and mortar church; while they are intentional about building an online community, they focus on low-demand, easy to accept relational language and efforts, trusting that as they are able to "interpret" the church to their visitors, they will connect with a brick and mortar church for relationship. The site is an expression of the incarnational and missional focus of the church, and so there is no real emphasis on reaching out to others; the visitor is the other here. This is a model I'd like to see succeed, and think parts of it could be duplicated well.