Rummaging around PBS’ Religion & Ethics Newsweekly this morning I fell into this report from this past November exploring religion on-line that I had not previously seen. The report is interesting because it looks at a number of real-time examples of how more than 1 in 4 adults are now using the internet solely or in part for their spiritual needs.

A group in one congregation lived according to the rules of Leviticus for a month, and journaled their experiences on Facebook. A group of friends – through the process of mourning for one of their number – slowly came to appreciate the spirituality, and exploration of theology – in a a safe environment provided by their conversations online (I think they too were using Facebook).

I’ve been banging on now for over two years about how new tech, like the internet, can be a powerful tool for OC/IC communities, writers, and explorers. This well done report might inspire, it may even lead you to ask more questions about the how to, and the affects it might have on existing projects in your community.

Folks over at Church Marketing Sucks have produced a must read series of short articles on “community“. The third installment tackles ministry on the internet; here, the author Brad Abare recounts a comment by a conference participant who noted that the distinction between “online” and “offline” interaction is no longer relevant – that they are one and the same. Last year, I posted on a similar point (here, and played with it again here) – noting that we see this happening in the way that we no longer talk about the phone, the car, and more radically the printed word, in terms that highlighted their technological novelty – we talk to someone (the fact that we talked to them on the other side of the planet using the phone or SKYPE is no longer exciting or relevant). Likewise people familiar with Facebook and its “friend lists” will also be familiar with people talking about “friends” with whom they have no other link than that they are on one another’s lists, and therefore have a constant stream of updates about what one another is doing. How is this community? Likewise how can we talk about community in relation to, for example the number of visitors and readers of our blogs and web sites? This blog, for example, has a relatively healthy readership stat – but is that community? Abare makes a really powerful point when at the end of this installment he writes: “It’s tempting for me to think that because I have an “online presence” I am connected. The reality is that if I shut off my Internet connection, I’d have a more accurate reflection of my isolation and/or true connectedness.” What do you think?

I think that this series is timely for our OC/IC context in part because a well known – and sometimes well deserved – criticism of the wider movement today is that we are nothing but a web page, that there is no real ministry going on behind the web page, and thus, no substance to the OC/IC community. I know this is not entirely true, and you know that this is not entirely true, but the kernal of truth (ok ok the bushel of kernals of truth) in it, sticks and we need to face up to this – as we are all painted with the same brush.

What is more, our communities revel in being innovative and willing to try new things – so why not share our individual experiences of what worked, what works, what did not, and what an active net presence/ministry brought to the life of our communities.