The Digital Pastor Pt. 2
A little while ago, I wrote on the future role of the digital world in the life of a pastor. It got some attention, appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times, and generated even more ideas for me personally.
Since then I’ve done a little more digging, a little more connecting (with very cool people like Rhett Smith, Anne Jackson, and Tony Steward) and realized, as I put it to my senior pastor, “We don’t even know how deep this rabbit hole goes.” With a dozen or so churches with Internet campuses (and many more contemplating the move to the web), the Church is looking at the Internet as a viable option for true Christian community.
The Denver Post wrote a fascinating article on the role of technology in the church. Among the gems in the piece, this one surfaced as particularly poignant:
“Church is not the Internet or a building — it’s people.” If the notion that a virtual community can be as real as a physical one seems crazy, you may be showing your age.
Thanks to online shopping, online dating, online social networking and online darn-near-everything-else, many young Americans don’t distinguish between their friends from school and those from Facebook.
These youngsters just see them all as friends, said David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group, a consulting firm that conducts survey research for churches and other religious groups.
In fact, Kinnaman’s firm predicts that by 2010, 10 percent of Americans will rely exclusively on the Internet for their religious experience.
10 percent. 10 percent! Clearly the Church is facing a change that it must adapt to or face extinction in its current form. American Christians need only look to Europe to see where the U.S. will be in 15-20 years on the coasts; 20-25 years in Middle America. Will the American megachurches of today become the stoic shells of the now abandoned tourist-attraction cathedrals of Europe? They will if the U.S. church does not begin to speak the language of the culture surrounding it. That language, undeniably, becomes more digital by the day.
Rhett Smith points out that the “front door” of churches is no longer a “physical” one:
Do we even realize that the physical building isn’t the front door anymore, but that the online world is the front door? If you don’t have a strong [online] presence, or aren’t telling a good story online, which is the front door–will you be able to bring people from the online world, to the physical front door of the church?
The line between “offline” and “online” is beginning to blur, if not fade altogether. People under 20 don’t view life in “off-” or “online” categories, it simply is “life.” If you (and your church) don’t begin to understand and learn to speak the language of this younger generation, no amount of catch-up and “digital cramming” will help in as little as five years.
Are you seeing these patterns in your church? Do you believe the virtual church can replace the physical church? Or, does technology need to be a means to an end and not the end itself?
I’m attending a free webinar tomorrow where Lifechurch.tv’s Brian Donaldson and Flamingo Road’s Brian Vasil will be taking a closer look at Internet campuses. These are guys who work at churches that are pioneering Christianity’s move to the digital world. It’s a “no-miss” and I’d encourage you, if you have any interest in this at all, to attend as well. Your church will thank you for it (eventually).
Additional Resources:
Rise of the Social Media Pastor on Digital.Leadnet.org
Social Media Pastor Or Pastor with Social Media on Levite Chronicles
