The
Future of the Church Online
by Justin Long
from the "Monday Morning Reality
Check"
Monday, September 11, 2000
It's difficult yet so important to address what
"community" really is. It's an important part of the century that is
coming up and there are many people who are asking the questions, "How do
we build community? What makes a community run better? What attracts people to a
community?"
One of the ways to address this is by stripping away all
of the nonessential elements of community. For example, the buildings where
communities meet, or the entertainment that draws them. If you strip it right
down to the very basics of a group of people interacting, you get to the core of
what community is.
I am working not only with the Reality Check and www.strategicnetwork.org,
but as part of the Network for Strategic Missions I'm also now one of the
moderators for LivetheCall.com.
Some of you have may have heard of this web site, which is a follow-up to a
massive youth event called TheCallDC in Washington DC on Labor Day. Over 350,000
parents and youth attended. Livethecall.com
has received more than 125,000 page views since the call, and has over 2,200
registered members.
So what we have here is a burgeoning community. There are
several community-based elements on the site: an area where people can pray for
each other, and area where people can post what they are called to do, an area
where they can post testimonies, an area where they can chat with each other, as
well as the standard resources and directory links.
What I have found most interesting though is the chat
room. Every day from about 2 p.m. EST to about 6 p.m. EST I visit with kids and
adults in the chat room, talking about everything from our likes for Chinese
food to the awesome things God is doing in our lives and calling us to do. These
are kids that are called to missions, to evangelism, to pray for their schools,
to be prophets and leaders and teachers and youth workers.
It seemed only natural eventually to have all of us meet
together to pray. But how were we to do that? In the chat rooms are people from
California, Texas, Arizona, Virginia, the United Kingdom and Australia. We met
at TheCallDC but you can't have one of those events every week! The obvious
answer was to meet in the chat room.
Last Wednesday, and last Saturday, we met together, led by
a worship leader, and held some of our first virtual worship services. I don't
know if this has been done anywhere else, but the results here were amazing. The
first night we prayed together online for about 40 minutes and the transcript
runs to 53 pages – people confessing the awesomeness of God, people confessing
the things in their life they needed freedom from, people praying for each
other.
Is this real community? I think it's the beginnings of
one, and I think this is a trend that will affect the church significantly in
the days, weeks, months and years to come. We cannot have communion together
online – that was real wisdom on Jesus' part, or this generation might have
degenerated into a bunch of people sitting in front of computers with no direct
personal interaction. But we CAN have "community" online I think . . .
and I look forward to the day when someone from Nigeria, someone from England,
someone from China and someone from America can pray together.
It's not impossible. We've already had Americans, English
and Aussies praying together. It's just a matter of time.
_________________
Justin Long writes a weekly e-mail letter call
"The Monday Morning Reality Check, from which this article is reproduced by
permission. You may contact Justin by e-mail at justinlong@strategicnetwork.org.
You may also wish to visit the Network for Strategic Missions (with which Justin
works) at http://www.strategicnetwork.org.
To subscribe to the "Monday Morning Reality
Check," send an email to: reality-check-subscribe@egroups.com.
Permission is granted to reproduce for local
church use as long as this copyright notice is included. Provided by New Life
Ministries, 6404 S Calhoun St, Fort Wayne, IN 46807,
through its web site at http://www.NewLifeMinistries-NLM.org
