EPIC Faith

In “The Gospel According to Starbucks” by Leonard Sweet the often lyrical Sweet suggests a vibrant Christian life is EPIC.

Experiental, Participartory, Image-rich and Connective

I can’t really think of four terms that better describe the current scene in social networking and how new technology can lift the church. Take Spring Hill for example:

• The web, the use of video sermons and the many different multi-site settings all set an experience for those in worship and fellowship.

• Missions and community events build participation (not to mention the many weekly service opportunities).

• The logo of family embraced by a heart (at least that is what I see) builds an image that is lasting in conveying the heart of Spring Hill and Christ.

• And finally the very real connections with faith and each other built through all of the above.

But how can technology take it even further? Well, look at any popular community site from YouTube to MySpace. Say what you want, they define an experience. With community content they are clearly participatory.  And check that friend list — connections are made every day across the technical frontier.  And how do images make it onto MySpace?  Often in the form of a PhotoBucket widget.  Yes, see Photobucket — a site dedicated to images (literally).

Not convinced how this can all be used in the pursuit of EPIC faith…see GodSpace for hands-on Christian social-networking.  (Simply check the YouTube video — user contributed no doubt — full of images and smack on the front page of a site dedicated to participation and connection in the faith space).

A couple of flat screens can project the images of Christian hope, simple lighting control can shape a mood in worship and here in this very blog you can add your comments and participate in the conversation of how today’s church reaches the Netster generation and beyond.  Connecting your thoughts in comment through the blogoshpere and into ministry action.

Think about it…the youth in your congregation don’t pass notes anymore — texting is faster!  They don’t read the web, they create it in community and images (24×7 tapestries of art, music, video — all on the nearest cell phone).  Will Spring Hill go EPIC with the effective and powerful use of media and technology as it proclaims the Truth (capital T) of Christ?  The church clearly has nothing to fear and everything to gain by extending community through “the network” that surrounds us.  As the printing press made the Bible available to virtually all — today’s connected communities accelerate the church’s ability to communicate the message of Christ (or the message against the truth).

What are your ideas for engaging in an EPIC faith?

The Metaverse?

Before we get to more practical intersections of ministry and technology consider this quote from a recent article on C|net News.

“The Internet in 2016 will be an all-encompassing digital playground where people will be immersed in an always-on flood of digital information, whether wandering through physical spaces or diving into virtual worlds.”

That’s less then a decade. And what happens in the metaverse? Well the distinction between physical and virtual worlds blends. Communities like Second Life mentioned before in this blog represent a slice of this metaverse.  We move from blogging to lifelogging where much of what is seen, said and heard is recorded and immediately available for review and reflection.

I noticed the other day that a recent sermon by pastor Dan included the call of a rams horn played as a video segment within the sermon.  While not quite the metaverse the use of the video call and Dan as “virtual pastor” creates a world where the virtual and physical mix to create an active worship experience.  In the metaverse, this is taken to the next level!

Here is a recent sample from this growing universe.  A company call Electric Sheep Company (link not provided due to some content accessible through the site) specializes in designing 3D world experiences accomplished the following. “In Fall 2006, ESC worked with MLB.com to test a live baseball game within Second Life. We had the two essential elements: live video and the social interaction of fans in the virtual stadium, but we wanted to take it one step further. We built bobbleheads of the baseball players and programmed a set of web and SL applications that took a live XML statistics feed from MLB.com and automatically drove all the action on the field.”

In a religious context this could be very interesting. Instead of current video shots of the Holy Land a congregation could visit a historically accurate virtual recreation of the city of Jerusalem at Passover. I don’t know if I want to attend the actual last supper or a rendering of it but it is clear that these technologies will power the gospel message forward if the church embraces the opportunity to use them to share the truth of Christ.

Other more interesting variations may be the introduction of RSS (relatively simple syndication) feeds of supplemental information related to Bible study materials provided to small groups as they discuss the reality of scripture in every day life. Again, in the sermon mentioned before, the importance of the calendar in everyday life was mentioned.  A real-time feed of important calendar celebrations could provide additional context for worshipers and enhance the understanding of the material.

In a Bible study series this could include additional translations of the passage being examined and if the passage included a discussion of a given area, such as the sea of Galilee, technologies such as Google Earth could provide 3D views of the area today and in historical context.

If you will hang with me for one last example.  Several years ago I was able to walk the main street in Ephesus while in Turkey.  As I stood and looked at the surroundings I imagined Paul in that same place taking a new truth to the people who walked amongst the statutes of Roman gods on a daily basis.  In the coming metaverse we may not only be able to discuss Paul’s journey but transport ourselves into those very moments!  It is important to understand the power and peril of just such virtual world experiences.  Who will define these places and assure the integrity of information streaming in real-time to Christians and non-Christians alike?

In many ways the sites of Springhill are familiar with the power and promise of technology and the advancement of the Gospel.  So when you view that next sermon on-line or on-screen, read a blog (like this one) or search scripture on-line while flipping through Wikipedia to gain historical context realize that the moment is now for the church to take advantage of the digital age to reach people for Christ.

In fact, taking advantage of technology should be nothing new — just think about the printing press and the Bible!  So, in a world where 5+ million people will gladly gather in a virtual setting (and perhaps prefer it to getting in the car on Sunday morning and driving to a local church) what will we do to respond in love and take Christ’s message to “the ends of the metaverse”.

Second Church?

Much has been written recently about Second Life and the power of social networks. I suppose a lot can be said regarding the power of the web to connect and build communities that cross time and space effortlessly. The question I will pose here is how will the church respond?

Many of the technologies (and I am a technologist at heart) that power these growing collaborative communities are often placed under the umbrella term Web 2.0. So, will we have Church 2.0 (web powered collaborative communities of faith)? In fact, a Google search of the very term “Church 2.0″ reveals the conversation has already begun!

But I wonder? One of the basic components of much of this social sharing is the concept of an avatar (a virtual persona). Especially in a community like Second Life where you pick your name and build your own person (and personality). Imagine 12 disciples running around and never truly facing each other or interacting directly with Christ face-to-face.

Faith is intensely personal, yet fully realized in vibrant community while technology is often intensely non-personal. As for shared communities like Kaneva , MySpace, Facebook, Bebo and Xanga (among others) the members often portray themselves as well — not necessarily who they really are. So what does this say about church 2.0 and new entries like GodSpace (a Christian social network). Will avatars mask reality? Can you walk into Second Life and really start a church without physical community and transparency?

It is clear that technology can empower communities of faith (more to come on the many options in future posts) but will the distance created between two individuals behind keyboards and internet connections allow for the work of transforming lives through faith in Jesus Christ to take place? Or will the church retreat (as it often has into physical buildings) into Christian on-line communities. Clearly the conversation is just beginning!

You never know, the person surfing through a virtual life may in fact be more transparent then the one sitting next to you on Sunday morning. The Great Commission still calls us to not only seek out the ends of the earth but the ends of the virtual earth as well. So who is up for Second Church?

Customer Service vs Community Tranformation

How do you evaluate the work of a local church? For a long time the sole criterion for that evaluation has been the satisfaction of the members of the church. Did they find fulfillment in their ministry? Were they happy with the music/preaching/children’s ministry, etc? When there is dissatisfaction then the natural response is to survey the members and find out what would make them satisfied again. While there is some validity to evaluating the work of a church in this way, should this be the only criterion?

Spring Hill currently has three locations. Two of those locations (Frays Mill and Seminole) are inAlbemarle County. One location is in Greene County (Spotswood). To be clear the Frays Mill location is ½ mile from the Greene County line so it has a footprint in both counties. Recent research from the Virginia Baptist Mission Board reveals that Greene County has the second highest percentage of non-churched population in the state (77.9%) and Albemarle County is 13^th on that list (64.4%). This means that Spring Hill’s location put it in counties where 3/4 and 2/3 of the population has no affiliation with any church.

Should those staggering numbers be used to evaluate the work of Spring Hill? If so, how do we use those statistics to evaluate our work? One of the things we must do as a church is to change our mindset of effectiveness from “customer service” to “community transformation.” Customer service asks the question, “are WE happy and satisfied?” Community transformation asks the question “how is the community different because the church is present?” Those two questions are not exclusive of each other. While it is true that there are many people in churches that simply want to be satisfied there are plenty of people in the church who will only be satisfied if they are doing things that make a difference in the community.  So, are YOU satisfied with the effectiveness of Spring Hill? How satisfied is your non-churched friend, neighbor, co-worker? Are we about customer service or community transformation?

A new day

Church is fluid. Truth is not. Here you will find thoughts that we hope will drive the baptist community forward as Christ works in our lives, our community and our world.