Some Deeper Thoughts on COF and Jay Voorhees

Thus far, what strikes me most from what Jay has said is the notion of pastors being "environmental engineers, creating spaces by which Christian community and the experience of God can flourish." I, like Jay, found my seminary experience to be formative rather than indoctrinating, and thus a valuable part of my preparation for ministry. Coupled with the belief we share that the UMC's theological heritage may suit us to minister to postmodern/emerging people, as we live in the belief that we are on a journey of dicovering and growing in relationship with God and one another. Our Wesleyan roots give us the freedom to accept that there is tremendous mystery in our relationships with God and God's desire for us, yet we can also have assurance that God's love and presence are real, even as we work out what that means to us on an individual and corporate level. Jay also brings out the very real issue of how we can be present to postmodern/emerging people, as a way to make the prelimiary contacts that lead to relationships. I think the Internet is one valid and potentially effective way to establish a presence, whether is be through splashy websites, blogging, or local contacts through a social networking site like Facebook. I continue to be concerned that we have a way to have good and healthy relationships online, and also to have some means for these relationships to become incarnate (pardon the pun): to take on some flesh-and-blood or brick and mortar context. Jesus taught the value of affirming one another face to face, of healing touch and the ministry of being truly, physically present to one another; I don't think we can be truly successful in ministry if we do not do this, although I am also convinced that online relationships can have real value in helping people grow closer to God and one another. It's a bit of a paradox to hold both ideas in tension, but this is the place I find myself. There is an old illustration that wanders around in email from time to time about a little girl who was afraid to be alone in the dark at night. Her mother and father shone the flashlight under the bed and made sure the closet door was securely closed; they made sure no tree branches would brush up against the house and make scary noices. Finally, they told her that she would not be alone in the dark; Jesus would always be with her. "That's fine," she said, "but won't you stay with me? I like my Jesus with skin on." That's how I think most of us like our Jesus: with skin on, incarnated in the community of believers. That's why I think that virtual relationships are fine, to a point, but should lead to incarnate relationships, where we can meet our Jesus together with his skin-on body. Geez, that sounds vaguely nasty, but you know what I mean. I like my Jesus with skin on.

Infinite Church Online: is it going anywhere?

InfiniteChurch.com believes it's got the online church model figured out. It sets itself up as not just a web page, but a friend, with a fully interactive worship environment, and an emphasis on discipleship, missions, and relationship building. It's leadership, according to the "Catch the Vision" movie, is lay driven and promises more than just a website or a chat room. The motto is "making real connections in a virtual world." What it really is is a variation on Church of Fools or St. Pixels: a fairly clunky graphical interface in which one can move an avatar around and chat with people. Two immediate downsides, as far as I'm concerned: 1: You have to download and install their 26 MB graphical environment, which is no where near as smooth or as easy to navigate as Second Life. And the name? New Christian Chat. (not a chat room, huh?) 2: The guest avatar is a smiley face. Come on, how cheesy can you get? The website itself has a sort of cursory interface. I think the movie is the best part of the whole thing, and certainly worth a look, as it upholds the ideals of online church connections. The site proper is just a couple of pages, with basic information designed to get you to download their proprietary chat software. While they do have a "real time" worship service once a week, there are no archived services readily available for download. One wonders, too, how they handle the "troll" issue that was a problem for COF. It's really too much work to interact or participate with, and there's nothing in the "public spaces" to tell you how they mean to be missional, relational, or incarnational, although these values are expressed in the vision movie. They do, however, offer online baptism, if you can navigate and relate to it well enough to want to take that step; they acknowledge that having done so online, you may also wish to do so in real time. The New Christian Chat graphical environment is pixielated and small (a small window in the center of my screen). The movement controls are not intuitive, and there's no real instruction given (unless you stumble upon it) as to how to navigate the church environment. Apart from a voice that says, "welcome, new guest" there was no overt "help" or reaching out; I was on my own from there and quickly lost patience. Besides, who wants to download such a big file while they're in a coffee shop? What if they are using a public computer, such as one in a library? All in all, infinitechurch.com just doesn't life up to its own press. Shame, really. I'd like to see someone make a go of it.

Rev. Jacqui King and Nu Faith Community

Rev. Jacqui King is the Church Planter for Nu Faith Community UMC in northwest Houston, Texas, a new church launch that is starting with a web presence in advance on it's on-the-ground launch in April 2008. Anne: How do you describe Nu Faith to people you meet? Jacqui: I share with people that Nu Faith is a unique faith experience where they can meet God in an on-line environment. I usually ask them about what they search for on-line. This leads to a conversation about what to expect on-line such as Reflections, Study @ and Meet Us @ options. Anne: How are you working to make face-to-face contact with people in advance of the launch? Jacqui: Meet Us @ and Study @ are the two primary face-to-face contacts where fellowship through service, prayer, worship and study occur. Also, launch team meetings, retreats, and Serve @ add extra connection for persons who feel called to build a new community. Other events that will occur prior to Launch Sunday will be preview services and outreach community projects involving Plummer Middle School. Anne: Please tell me a little about the web ministry: what areas do you feel are most effective? What’s your favorite part of the website/interactive web ministry? What do you like the least? Jacqui: The web ministry was launched as virtual church. I enjoy sharing the good news of Jesus Christ in a technological forum where people from all over the world or around the corner can encounter God @ Anytime. My favorite part of the web is the Study @ options because my husband and I have connected our families from various cities together to study God’s word together. I enjoy the broad flexibility that the reflections and study offers persons working non-traditional hours. They can experience worship, study, and prayer like never before. Right now I do not have a thing that I rank least favorite. The virtual church is part of our DNA that will continue to grow beyond Launch Sunday on April 6, 2008. Anne: We’ve been reading Joe Myers’ The Search to Belong and Organic Community. In them, he talks about 4 kinds of relationship space we can occupy: public, social, personal, and intimate. If you are familiar with his terminology, can you tell me a bit about how NuFaith.org is helping people find their way into the spaces? If not, can you tell me about how people are entering into relationships with God and one another as the Nu Faith community comes together? Jacqui: I have read just a few chapters of the book and I believe that Nu Faith offers public space through the study options of Study@ The Line and Study @ Anytime. This is a space where people can connect loosely without a great deal of self-disclosure. For instance, a person can text me on-line a question and I will share it with the group without disclosing their name. Also, the site can be accessed without registering email or password. Worship gathering would constitute public space. The social relationships evolve in the launch team meetings, service projects and Meet Us @. These spaces include relational building moments coupled with fun. Personal and intimate include sessions with family, prayer and retreats. I believe the community is growing and formulating. The Study @ The House is a small group that is both personal and intimate space. Eventually, small groups and service teams will represent social, personal and intimate space for a faith community which operates in both virtual and brick / mortar spaces. Anne: How do you tie together online church experience with “real world” connections where people can be in some kind of physical contact? Jacqui: Study @ The House and Meet Us @ serve as connecting spaces for “real world” fellowship. In situations where people live in other cities beyond Houston, I will respond to those requests via internet by encouraging positive hand-off to churches in their areas. Anne: What do you feel are the keys to success for Nu Faith’s success as a web ministry, followed by a new church launch? Jacqui: I can look at web stats and gauge some success. The reach data coupled with on-line giving is an indicator of connection. I am praying about what success means. However, success is defined the virtual church allows people to meet God in a new way in the places where they live on a daily basis. Accessibility is important; relevancy is crucial; being real is real important; being responsive is important. The success is making disciples for Jesus Christ. Right now people who drive trucks, work late hours, have crazy commute times and small children have a new way to grow spiritually because Nu Faith is alive. God’s grace is sufficient and can meet us right where we are…searching, seeking and wanting answers. When the church launches, the virtual church will grow to reach more; teens will help develop myspace and facebook pages; college students will expand their social networks; families will connect with forums and prayer groups for specific needs. Success is the love of Jesus Christ being shared all around the world over and over so that all will be saved! Virtual Church wants to be a part of the Great Commission in a new way! Anne: Can you briefly describe the model for planting/growing Nu Faith? What will the role of the website be after the April launch? Jacqui: Nu Faith is a parachute drop. I am using a hybrid model that I will share in the writings at Drew in Fall 2008. The website will be integral in the church following Launch Sunday. Anne: How do you see incarnational ministry happening online? Jacqui: I have not explored this ministry area at this time. Anne: How do missions work during this phase of Nu Faith’s development? How will the website be used after the physical launch of Nu Faith Community? Jacqui: Missions primarily are part of community outreach and managed through Serve @ projects. We are a faith partner to Plummer Middle School, where we have various projects for December ’07. Mission trips will be arranged through partnerships with area churches. The website will continue to grow. Anne: Are there other church websites or online ministries that inspired NuFaith.org? Can you suggest any others that you think are particularly good (or not)? Jacqui: http://www.techforall.org/history.html http://www.umtv.org/archives/computer_recycling.htm

What is church?

So now it's time to offer a summation of sorts; I've certainly made my opinions known throughout. But here are some personal reflections on what I think about church in general, and online church expressions in particular: As I've worked through this project, I have come to one conclusion: church is more than worship on a screen, or Bible study at any level of participation, or shared prayer concerns. It's more than a place to give charitably or meet people with similar interests, or join a mission team to some faraway clime. Church to me is the incarnated Body of Christ, and I simply can't separate that image from the need for live and in person community, people participating together in worship, in mission, in study, in life together and out in the world...people you can reach out and touch, if you need to. In my second post on the Church of Faith and the Jay Voorhees interviews, i referred to a story about Jesus with skin on. That's what I need for church to be truly church: Jesus with skin on, in the person of people who I live in community with, in the neighborhood, in the same city, going to the same grocery store, with kids in the same schools, and worship, study, play, and work with in mission to one another and the world. I have seen online churches with a missional emphasis. Church on the Net does an excellent job at interpreting Christian concepts and church language for those who do not have a church background, or seek a way to interact with church in a way that places minimal demand on the individual, but invited interested persons into deeper relationship with the church and Christians. Their mission is to be reach out to such people. Other online churches have mission emphases and high missional sensibilities toward others, but most of them seem to be "other" directed. It's hard to be relational online; there is a distance inherent in packaging one's church interface for a mass audience on the scale of the internet. It's easy to say you are open and welcoming to everyone, but much harder to actually pull it off. Liquid Church stands out to me as demonstrating their high value on relationships in the ease with which their website (actually a blog on typepad) is navigated. I was also particularly impressed with their presence in the community. The account of the church's generosity and accepting spirit at the gay pride event demonstrates the relational character of this church, and it comes off in their websites. As I said above, some kind of physical presence is inherent in the notion of incarnational ministry to me. The best of the websites I've reviewed have sought to draw people into relationship with a brick and mortar church, with real people, live and in person. This is the ideal for me. I am not satisfied with the level of interaction with the virtual environments of St. Pixels and Infinite Church. I've described it as clunky, and it is: cartoonish avatars, text-driven interface (sound takes too much bandwidth to really work), slow movement in a poorly animated environment. I was not able to feel connected in any meaningful way. Also, these are primarily worship environments; it's hard to image what kind of real, personal, relational missional relationships can develop in that kind of space. Some of the elements I miss: the very sensory engagement of the sacraments of baptism and communion, and the sacramental moment that is the greeting time. I miss in person prayer; it's powerful actually hearing someone's prayer for you. I'd miss joint participation in the music; live worship music brings something special for me. And in any online church setting, I would miss the "editability" over a cup of coffee that I share now. Digital coffee just doesn't cut it. Nope, guess I just like my church like I like Jesus: with skin on. At the heart of things, I need people. As Len Sweet pointed out in an online discussion several weeks ago, online relationships increase peoples' desire for in person relationships. I hope that's true.