Christian Web Trends Blog

In Church of Facebook: How the Hyperconnected Are Redefining Community, Jesse Rice writes about the need for community, which is deeply engrained in all of us. He explains how Facebook has exploded in popularity by tapping into our desires for connectedness and a place to call home. And he takes a look at some of the ways social networking is impacting individuals and communities.

Here are some of the nuggets of wisdom contained in the book.

If you’re serious about your website, now is a great time to take a look at what’s happened with your website over the last year. It can give you perspective on how much (or little) you’ve accomplished, how much (or little) things went according to plan, and much more. That perspective is invaluable for setting goals for next year.

We’ve spent the last month engaged in an in-depth conversation about online churches. Here are 10 things I’ve learned about online church from this blog series.

In order to be effective at all, online discipleship requires some of the same things that offline does. Accountability and relationships were modeled by the first disciples in fairly small groups. Can a large online church audience effectively be discipled?

In last week’s poll we asked people:

What is the biggest hurdle facing online churches today?

The results were a little surprising to me:

The opportunity to reach people that offline churches currently aren’t reaching with the gospel is probably the most compelling and oft cited support for online churches. Do you see evangelism as one of the greatest opportunities for online churches? Are there any hurdles or difficulties with evangelism? Have you got any stories to share of people who came to Christ through an online church?

One of the less glamorous jobs God has given the church is to stand up for truth and integrity. Some say accountability in the online world is difficult, and if an online church leader confronts a person about false doctrine or sinful behavior they will just run off to another online church that won’t confront them. Is this true?

Community is a critically important part of any church. At my offline church we define community as a place where you can know and be known, love and be loved, serve and be served, celebrate and be celebrated.

Is that possible in an online church?

One of the biggest obstacles online churches face is figuring out how participants can serve one another. Is physically serving one another essential to being a “real church?” Can online churches do these things? If so, how?

The folks at LifeChurch.tv posted a hilarious video today depicting what online church might look like “in person.” Check it out!