Tag Archives: internet campus

DVR Church (1 of 2)

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My wife, Nicole, and I immensely enjoy our DVR courtesy of our U-verse subscription. Some of my favorite shows are The Daily Show, The Colbert Report and The Office. It is great to be able to watch whenever we want.

Is this the right thing for the church?

At Resurrection we recently began live streaming of two of our worship services at live.cor.org. This is a live stream of the worship experience that is actually happening at our central campus. But what if it was not happening live physically? One approach is to have the worship service being broadcast online taped from a previous service. This lowers a technological barrier and makes worship “live” in that it is being experienced at the same time by people via the internet.

Is this the thing to do?

I keep going back and forth as to whether this actually matters or not.

Click in Remembrance of Me

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Click in Remembrance of Me is the title of an article that was published in Newsweek on November 3. I invite you to check it out as it provides my first exposure to online church or internet campus being addressed by what I would interpret to be a mainstream media outlet.

While having previously found a United Methodist who was willing to baptize via the internet, this was the first reference that I have seen to a United Methodist willing to give communion via the internet. The site which is referenced in the article, holycommunionontheweb.com, appears to have been taken down.

Another perspective to throw in the mix as we continue to think about an internet campus at Resurrection.

Church Internet Campus in the Blogosphere

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There seemed to have been a bubble of posts about internet campus in the blogosphere last week.

You can find a summary post of my thoughts on internet campus here.

I watched the last of the test streams before Resurrection begins live streaming several of the weekend worship services beginning November 2. This is a step toward an active internet campus at Resurrection.

What do you think about all this?

Online Baptism

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While reflecting on the sacraments for an internet campus several weeks ago, I wrote,

“I am not willing to suggest that sacraments could be administered online or remotely in any way.”

I had thought that this would be a common response for leaders in mainline congregations. I was wrong in at least one case. I read of a baptism by a United Methodist Pastor at Can You Baptize Somone Over the Internet? I commend that post to you for additional perspectives in the comments. I still do not think that I am ready to say that I would be okay with this, but I admit that seeing these videos is stretching me.

What do you think?

iCampus Summary Post

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This is a collection of questions and responses to various questions about internet campus. I invite you to read each post and add any comments on that post or by emailing me directly. Thanks!

iCampus – What type of format?

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This is a series of responses to questions about an internet campus from a previous series of posts. Do you have any other questions? Feel free to leave them in the comments and I will try to respond to each one. Thanks!

I received this question from Jim Morrow via Facebook.

What kind of format and approach really excites you? 2nd life? a website w/streaming? something else?

Currently, Clif Guy, is working with developers to prototype an interface for what I think will be a website with streaming. It will likely be similar in experience to one of our physical campuses. We are not currently thinking about utilizing Second Life.

I am most grateful to my mom for suggesting that maybe internet campus worship would feel different than physical campus worship. Until she made that suggestion a couple weeks ago, I had thought primarily of an internet campus experience closely mirroring the experience of a physical campus. It would not have to be and may be more effective in the online community if it did not. Some ideas that I have rolled around in my head since then:

  • A visual prayer time, something like what you get at Wordle.
  • Shorter, more frequent teaching content – no longer than you could upload at YouTube.

Distinguishing the online experience from a physical experience would have pros and cons, but is quite intriguing for me right now

What do you think about my responses? How would you respond to this question?

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iCampus – How could we utilize the connection?

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This is a series of responses to questions about an internet campus from a previous series of posts. Do you have any other questions? Feel free to leave them in the comments and I will try to respond to each one. Thanks!

How could we utilize the connection of The United Methodist Church? I think that there is great potential for an internet campus to be catalytic in renewal of the denomination. Several ways in which an internet campus could leverage the connection?

  • Connect persons to local United Methodist congregations
  • Allow people of local churches that close to continue worshiping together
  • Facilitate small communities of faith lead by a Certified Lay Minister.
  • Form core groups which could be the seed bed for a new church start
  • Provide different channels for styles of worship and teaching / preaching content from different congregations

What do you think about my responses? How would you respond to this question?

iCampus – What about the incarnation?

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This is a series of responses to questions about an internet campus from a previous series of posts. Do you have any other questions? Feel free to leave them in the comments and I will try to respond to each one. Thanks!

Matt Judkins offered this comment at LifeChurch.tv Internet Campus – Not (3 of 8) about a month ago:

Interesting. I think this begs a question about the nature of community within an online/virtual Church campus. We all know that community can form online. The question is this: what kind of community is it? Is it partial community that never materializes? If we follow a God who chose to self-reveal by incarnation, “in the flesh,” what are we to think about a virtual community that never incarnates?

What would be the nature of community for an internet campus? These are great questions and ones that give me the most hesitation when thinking about an internet campus. The best case scenario that I have in response to the first question is that persons would gather with others to worship together as a part of the internet campus. If a group of 6 to 12 or more met regularly with an internet connection and worshiped together there would be a physical community of which they were all a part. This would be preferable to individuals worshiping as a part of the internet campus on their own. However, even individuals in a room with a computer by themselves would be entering into a community of which they would not otherwise be a part. I think that community can exist online and as Clif reminds me – the potential to connect with others in this way has never before been possible in history.

What about the reality of God’s revelation through the incarnation? This question touches on an understanding of God and on an understanding of what it means to be the church. I would not want someone’s experience of church for their entire journey of faith to be as a physically alone individual as a part of an internet campus (see the previous question and also the question from a previous post – What about the sacraments?). I do believe that the people of the church should gather physically, but not necessarily all the time. God came to us physically once in history in the person of Jesus Christ and continues to be with us in the non-physical presence of the Holy Spirit. I believe that the Holy Spirit would be at work connecting those worshiping as a part of an internet campus.

I know that I need to keep thinking about these questions and I have The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture: How Media Shapes Faith, the Gospel and Church waiting for me at The Well Bookstore when I get back to church tomorrow. I also have on my list to read Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. Do you have any other resources – online, books or otherwise – that might be helpful in considering these questions?

What do you think about my responses? How would you respond to this question?

iCampus – What about the Book of Discipline?

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This is a series of responses to questions about an internet campus from a previous series of posts. Do you have any other questions? Feel free to leave them in the comments and I will try to respond to each one. Thanks!

What about the Book of Discipline? Thanks to Mark Burleson for adding his clarification question on a previous post – Will this affect the UMC conditions on staying within your region?

Why does the Book of Discipline matter in the first place? The Book of Discipline is the governing document for all congregations and clergy of The United Methodist Church, which includes The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection. Part of our understood limitations as a congregation is that Resurrection shall not “do anything in opposition to the spirit and intent of the United Methodist Book of Discipline.”

Some particular paragraphs from the 2004 Book of Discipline that may be relevant to an internet campus

¶ 120 The Mission – “The mission of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ. Local churches provide the most significant arena through which disciple-making occurs.”

I believe that the mission of the church could be fulfilled through an online campus, including the addition from the 2008 general conference – “The mission of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”

¶ 122 The Process for Carrying Out Our Mission – We make disciples as we:

  • proclaim the gospel, seek, welcome and gather persons into the body of Christ
  • lead persons to commit their lives to God through baptism by water and the spirit and profession of faith in Jesus Christ;
  • nurture persons in Christian living through worship, the sacraments, spiritual disciplines, and other means of grace, such as Wesley’s Christian conferencing;
  • send persons into the world to live lovingly and justly as servants of Christ by healing the sick, feeding the hungry, caring for the stranger, freeing the oppressed, being and becoming a compassionate, caring presence, and working to develop social structures that are consistent with the gospel; and
  • continue the mission of seeking, welcoming and gathering persons into the community of the body of Christ.

The only portion of this paragraph which could not be directly carried out by an internet campus would be receiving the sacaraments, an issue which I have previously noted.

¶ 202 The Function of the Local Church – The church of Jesus Christ exists in and for the world. It is primarily at the level of the local church that the church encounters the world. The local church is a strategic base from which Christians move out to the structures of society. The function of the local church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, is to help people to accept and confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and to live their daily lives in light of their relationship with God. Therefore, the local church is to minister to persons in the community where the church is located, to provide appropriate training and nurture to all, to cooperate in ministry with other local churches, to defend God’s creation and live as an ecologically responsible community, and to participate in the worldwide mission of the church, as minimal expectations of an authentic church.

I see two items of note in this paragraph in relation to an internet campus. First, the church “is to minister to persons in the community where the church is located.” I believe that a church with an internet campus could be understood to exist in the online community and be in ministry to people of that community. Second, cooperation with other local churches would necessarily be a part of an internet campus for a United Methodist congregation. Internet campus attenders would not be discouraged from seeking out a local faith community where they are physically located.

¶ 341 Unauthorized Conduct

3. No pastor shall arbitrarily organize a pastoral charge (See ¶ 260 for the method of organizing a local church.)

4. No pastor shall hold a religious service within the bounds of a pastoral charge other than the one to which appointed without the consent of the pastor in charge, or the district superintendent. No pastor shall hold a religious service within the bounds of a pastoral charge or establish a ministry to a college or university campus served by The United Methodist Church without the consent of the pastor or campus minister in charge or the district superintendent. If that pastor does not refrain from such conduct, he or she shall then be liable to the provisions of ¶ 362.1 and ¶ 2702.

In regard to point 3, an internet campus would not be a pastoral charge, it would be a part of the ministry of an existing local church. In regard to point 4, the Book of Discipline does not anticipate an internet campus and I believe that an internet campus experience would not violate this prohibition. There are likely many ways to think about it but here are a few – there is a physical service that is taking place in an existing local congregation and the service is being “held” on the internet not in a physical location. I am sure there are other interpretations here…

What do you think about my responses? How would you answer this question?

iCampus – What about the sacraments?

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This is a series of responses to questions about an internet campus from a previous series of posts. Do you have any other questions? Feel free to leave them in the comments and I will try to respond to each one. Thanks!

What about the sacraments?

This is a serious question and one of the more significant challenges for an internet campus of a United Methodist congregation. Holy Communion is understood to be a means of grace for United Methodists and should not be ignored. John Wesley, founder of Methodism, encouraged the taking of communion at any opportunity available.

I am not willing to suggest that sacraments could be administered online or remotely in any way. I recognize that others with different understandings of polity and theology will come to different conclusions here, but this is where I am today as a United Methodist. For baptism, I see three possibilities:

  • Internet congregant would travel to a physical campus to be baptized
  • Internet campus pastor would travel to baptize the internet congregant
  • Internet congregant would be baptized at local congregation that was somehow connected to the internet campus (same denomination, pre-arranged plan, etc.)

For holy communion, I would suggest that the internet congregant receive this sacrament in another community of faith close to where she or he is living. Again, some sort of connection to the internet campus would be most desirable.

I recognize that none of these solutions are optimum. However, I do not think that the downsides here would be enough to prevent the possibility to build a Christian community where non-religious and nominally religious people are becoming deeply committed Christians.

Without the opportunity to have the “sacraments duly administered” it would not be possible to be defined as a local United Methodist church (2004 Book of Discipline, ¶201). Thus, an internet campus would necessarily be linked with an existing local church.

What do you think about my responses? How would you answer this question?