Online church? Why?

The concept of online church is gathering steam, and people are talking.

Why? Why do we need services online? There are enough brick-and-mortar edifices with empty pews, right? Shouldn't we focus are efforts on the real world?

A more enlightening question is: why not?

I think the reason some find it hard to wrap their minds around the social networking strategies in the church is that we make it an either/or argument by default. We can't use Twitter in the church because it kills real relationships. We should not use FaceBook because it kills face time. Online church is detrimental because it cannot replace "real church."

I think that most fears are based on a precept that is flawed. First, the idea is (or at least, should be) to enhance the physical. The online experience should not be viewed as a lazy generation's excuse to sit at home; it can be looked upon as a non-intrusive way to reach extra people who otherwise would not hear the gospel in the first place.

The argument is clear to me... if the online experience reached just one extra person, isn't it worth it? If a church can provide this extra resource, why wouldn't it, particularly if the demographic it serves uses said medium as a valid form of communication and expression?

I am not gonna sit here and pretend that people should throw away their church clothes and invest in broadband and Twitter clients. I do think that a dose of forward-thinking is sorely needed, and there are a whole lot of leaders who are clearly seeing that. We need to use what we have to do what we need to do. Some places are more ready than others... and that is fine.

The use of mobile technology is a biggie. The one object one is likely to have in common with another person is a cell-phone. Bingo... you see what people at Granger do to leverage this. Relatively cheap, and you meet people on a level they understand. Another wall removed.

At the end of the day, we need to examine why we do what we do. For now, I think expanding to the internet is a useful and necessary transition for the church.