A Sneak Peek of SimChurch: Being the Church in the Virtual World

Drum roll please…  a blogosphere world first.. …  to get your exclusive sample click here: SimChurch: Being the Church in the Virtual World (661)

And five free Advanced Readers Copies will be awarded to the best 5 comments to the following question:

Is the virtual church a valid form of church?

Please keep your comments brief, feel free to include why you think its valid or otherwise, and yes, feel free to answer in the negative.   Hint… references to SimChurch will earn big points.
To pre-order your copy head over to: Amazon.com.

SimChurch: World Premiere!

Big, big news…  a world first within the blogosphere.. two chapters from the much anticipated book SimChurch: Being the Church in the Virtual World by Douglas Estes will be available for download here on brownblog next Tuesday US time!!  PLUS the publishers, Zondervan have made available 5 free Advanced Readers Copies to readers of brownblog; details of how to get one of these rare copies revealed next tuesday.

Info about SimChurch: Continue reading »

Twitter Fundraising?

An excellent blog post by Leena Rao over at  ChurchCrunch called: Tweetraising: The Potential For Charities On Twitter looking at how charities can make use of Twitter.  They make the point that Twitter won’t, ‘replace conventional ways of fundraising, but it provides a low-cost, yet engaging way to diversify a charity’s fundraising efforts. And in this economy, diversification is too important to ignore.’

I love this notion of ‘diversification’, which speaks of the need to provide multiple channels into the organisation. Without a doubt the traditional approaches, what I call the ‘bread and butter’ of an organisation such as appeals through the post, are here to stay.  But as well as these we need to start to explore new areas such as Twitter, Second Life, and Facebook.  Why?  Well very simply, that is where people are, that is how people are relating, and as well as relating with each other they will start to see it as a natural place to relate to their favorite causes.  So although the returns are minor it is worth getting involved.  But a warning:  It takes way more than getting a Twitter account, it requires creative people to 1) fully understand the technology; 2) grasp completely the charities mission; and 3) find new ways of matching the two together.

Leena Rao states that, ‘most charities are relatively late-adopters to new technologies’ which I completely agree with.  There is plenty of space in the market for new creative fundraising and awareness raising initiatives that make creative use of social media including Twitter and Facebook.. be interesting to see what emerges!

Have you got any creative ideas?  I would love to hear them.

A church in your hand

A stunning bit of news out of Honolulu: a church there, New Hope Christian Fellowship is going to stream their services live to iPhone and iPod touch users starting this weekend.  The release of the new iPhone and the new updated software makes this possible.

The churches Director of  Technology and Innovations,  Michael Sharpe states,

“Typically, churches are years behind other organizations when it comes to technology and innovation. We have tried to reverse that trend and pioneer new ways to spread the Gospel using the most current tools available,”  “We don’t mind the long hours and stress that comes with innovating because we know that if we can come up with something useful, it can be used by other churches around the world.”

Wow.  The capacity to participate in church on your own, wherever you might be.  If this continues to grow in popularity we might see a completly new ecclesiology develop, a new understanding of what it means to be gathered in community.  No longer do we have to be physically present to participate, or do we have to be committed to engage.  We can drop in and out as we please and remain completly anonymous.

I would be interested in your thoughts.

Why I don’t like Twitter But Stay Involved

I am an active Twitter user posting multiple times most days.  I have set up several accounts:  @revmarkbrown (6,109 followers), @Bible4U (6,584 followers), @AnglicanChurch (151 followers) and @Prayer4U (431 followers). But to be honest I really don’t like it.  Why?  I am really not that interested in sharing the minor details of my day..  the ‘had breakfast.. cereal was amazing’ kind of stuff that Twitter usage demands.

But then recently I received the following message from a good friend, Seth:

 For me Twitter has been a revelation as I have gained insights in the day to day thinking of many of my ministry hero’s. The way they talk, think and their basic positivity has rubbed off. I feel closer to them. I follow them as they follow Christ. There are things Mark that you have in you life that I am only aware of, am exposed to because of these cyber tools. Twitter for me is one of the best for finding out what great leaders do in their day. What goes on in their head is better than whats on TV. These are men under great stress yet they have an opportunity to give a faith filled update of their day. As I have emulated their behavior (not necessarily a bad thing) I have gained a tool to connect people to the Vision of my local church and to pass on valuable resources as some of the most resourced men and women in the world pass them on my way (via blogs and twitter). The chatter that is filling my heart and mind is starting to combat that of the media of the day.

And that is why I stay involved.  As much as I dislike Twitter, with its 140 character limitation and oodles of get rich schemes that bombard you, I can see that it is one potentially powerful way of influencing.  So though it isn’t a natural space for me, something I would by choice be involved with, I stay involved as I believe leaders need to expose themselves to new innovations, explore them, and make them work.  It is essential to seek to understand not only this generation, but to grasp where things are heading.

And where are we heading with Twitter?  How will it affect communication?

1)  Synchronous communication - sharing events, news as it is happening, real time.

2)  Simplicity and brevity.  I don’t have time, make it quick.

3)  News reporting in the hands of non journalists (huge shift still to fully bite).

4)  Popularity defined, not only by advertising pulling power but the ability to attract followers.

5)  Will add to the emerging reality of online community with virtual connections becoming as significant as face to face.

Global Internet Evangelism

Check out this very cool ministry.. hats off to Campus Crusade.

Source: PRNewswire –

Millions of people around the world are searching for God. In response, Global Media Outreach (GMO), a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ International, is sending faithful churchgoers … to their computers, training them to become online missionaries out of their homes.”People are looking for answers. And, not surprisingly, they are looking for those answers on the Internet,” says Dr. Allan Beeber, director of GMO’s Orlando office.

According to Beeber, about 3 million online searches are made daily that are of a spiritual nature (e.g. “I need God,” “Who is Jesus?”). GMO has created 90 themed Web sites — the modern-day equivalent of Gospel tracts — to correspond with those searches. There are sites in every major language on a wide variety of topics: from TalesofNarnia.com to GodLovesMarines.com to whoisJesus-really.com. The results are astounding. Continue reading »

Twitter Church?

The most recent edition of Time magazine has a piece on Twitter being used in church services.  Throughout the service the congregation is encouraged to twitter about the service, with a large screen in the auditorium streaming the tweets as they occur.

The same piece also spoke about Trinity Wall Street Church who this past Easter twittered the passion play including, ‘via @romanguard1: I’ve got dibs on his robe, but if you guys want to cast lots for the rest of his clothes I’m cool with that.’  And this got me thinking… so much of our engagement as church with technology is attempting to fit the technology into our present model.  But what would church look like if we were prepared to allow technology to guide how we do church?

Jon Hirst spent some time studying some of the most innovative companies in the world with the aim of gleening some gems for the church.  His first point is, ‘The most innovative organizations are, at their highest levels, defined by innovation in technology’.  Hirst goes on to note,

Technology: In the early days missions were extremely technology driven as they used every tool to overcome huge obstacles. But we have given this distinctive up and now most of our core processes/services/products are not driven by innovative technology.

So taking this view of allowing the technology to guide how we do church I have an idea.. Continue reading »

The Great Facebook Experiment: Report

My mate Revd Bosco encouraged me to do some research around how many folks read the Facebook status update.  So over the past couple of days I have been inviting people who read my status update to click on a link to confirm they have read it.  I posted the invitation a number of times.

And thanks to Google Analytic I can report that the percentage of my facebook contacts Continue reading »

The Great Facebook Experiment

About a month ago I was curious as to how many responded to my Twitter post.. now its Facebook’s turn.  How many people read my Facebook status?  So to test this I have posted a message and thanks to the lovely people at Google I will be able to tell who responds.

Report to follow!

…………

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Christianity in the Digital Space

A heads up on a great looking conference being hosted by CODEC (St John’s College, Durham, UK) and the Churches’ Media Council. Sponsored by Bible Society. Called Christianity in the Digital Space it will be from Monday 13th - Wednesday 15th July 2009 @ St John’s College, Durham University, UK.

The official blurb reads,

The Digital Revolution is changing the way we relate, communicate and even think. What are the implications for Christian faith and spirituality? What will the church look like in the digital age? What does it mean to be a disciple in a digital world?

Christianity in the Digital Space will bring together 60 Christians who are working online. We will meet, share experiences and discuss issues, opportunities and challenges that digital technology raises for the Christian faith.

Conversations

At the heart of the conference will be a series of group “conversations” on issues arising for Christians in the digital space. Conversation topics include:

* Is there a distinctive emerging digital spirituality?
* What room for the Bible in the digital environment
* What is the experience of online church and other forms of community?
* What happens to authority in a Wikipedia culture?
* What are the opportunities and risks for Christian mission and evangelism?

…and other topics proposed by the delegates

The ‘Conversation starters‘ are Rt Rev NT Wright (one of the world’s leading theologians, published over 40 books. Bishop of Durham.)

Andrew Graystone (Director of the Churches’ Media Council. Worked for BBC Religion for over a decade, and continues to write and present programmes for BBC Radio 2 and Radio 4.)

And some guy called, Rev Mark Brown.  Yes me.  I will be speaking on, The Bible in the Digital Space and seriously looking forward to it.

So if this takes your fancy, to register head over the the conference website by clicking here.    And let me know you are coming, be great to meet you!