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 (660)

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 »

John Calvin, Virtual Church Pioneer

I welcome to brownblog Douglas Estes, author of Sim Church: Being the Church in the Virtual World, (due out October).  Douglas writes about John Calvin who celebrates his 500th birthday, although word is he cannot make the party.  And he comes at Calvin from a very interesting angle!

Douglas writes:

John Calvin was not only one of the church’s greatest trailblazers; he was also one of the virtual church’s leading pioneers. In fact, John Calvin was all about virtual churches. Even though Calvin lived almost a half-millennium before the first virtual church was born, were he alive today he would be a fan-though he also would be unsatisfied with the direction that most virtual churches are taking.

Calvin was a pre-Enlightenment Christian, meaning that he was born before the modern ideal became the mindset in the Western world. As such, he held many non-modern viewpoints about the church. Let’s look at two examples.

We Westerners squabble over aspects of the ‘church’ that would seem less important to pre-moderns like Calvin. While every generation struggles with culturally-based views of the church, the idea that the church is a physical, tangible object seems to be most felt during the modern era. Our language betrays that we think a church is a physical building or a place. But even those who understand that a church is not a building still overplay the physical nature of what a church is. While there are physical aspects to a church (cf. Calvin’s Catechism of the Church of Geneva, where he likens the church to the ‘body’ of believers), a church is, and by nature must be, primarily a spiritual thing. Calvin understood this when he wrote:

“Hence the form of the Church appears and stands forth conspicuous to our view. Wherever we see the word of God sincerely preached and heard, wherever we see the sacraments administered according to the institution of Christ, there we cannot have any doubt that the Church of God has some existence.” (Institutes, trans Beveridge; 4.1.9) Continue reading »

Video Stream Address

The Christianity in the Digital Space Symposium is about to start.. looking forward to it!  I am presenting my paper,’ The Bible in the Digital Space’ at 9am, Tuesday the 14th (UK time).  To watch it live online head to:  http://www.ustream.tv/channel/codec-vidiblog   to find out what time this is where you live click here.

Virtual Sacraments?

One of the key challenges with online worship is how to incorporate the Eucharist.  The Eucharist is a physical experience from witnessing the act to receiving bread and wine.  But it is also a spiritual experience in that the key action is invisible, caused by God who acts within the liturgy.   So would it be possible to have a virtual communion, a virtual sacrament?

The Revd Professor Paul S. Fiddes, who is Professor of Systematic Theology at the University of Oxford and Director of Research, Regent’s Park College, has just written a very interesting short paper called,  Sacraments in a Virtual World?

With his permission I reproduce it here; your thoughts are welcome!

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           Summary: An avatar can receive the bread and wine of the Eucharist within the logic of the virtual world and it will still be a means of grace, since God is present in a virtual world in a way that is suitable for its inhabitants. We may expect that the grace received by the avatar will be shared in some way by the person behind the avatar, because the person in our everyday world has a complex relationship with his or her persona.Argument:

1. The key theological question is whether the triune God is present, and whether Christ is incarnate (in some form, including the church) within the virtual world.[1] If the answer is yes, then one can conceive of the mediation of grace through the materials of that world, i.e. through digital representations.

Grace is, of course, not a substance but the gracious presence of God, coming to transform personality and society. In sacrament, God takes the occasion of bodies in creation to be present in an intense or ‘focused’ way to renew life.

2. One ought not to assume that cyberspace is a disembodied world.  The net is composed of a form of energy, just as is the familiar ‘physical’ world in which we operate everyday. Moreover, the persons behind the avatars are in physical connection with the virtual world - through many of the senses (sight, hearing, touch - i.e. keyboard, mouse). Anyway, mental activity always has a physical base in the brain. Studies have shown that people feel a bodily connection with those with whom they are communicating over the net. Continue reading »

Farewell Anglican Cathedral of Second Life

Back in Feb 07 I came up with the wild idea of planting an Anglican Cathedral in the virtual World of Second Life.  A couple of amazing people caught that vision and in July of 07 the first service was held in the newly built Cathedral.  Over the past two years that wild idea has grown into a real, substantial ministry with there now being offered 7 services a week, a bible study, discussion group and hundreds of encounters, all conducted online.  And the time has come for me to retire from this pioneer ministry.  The hugely competent leadership team will take the ministry forward and I am certain that it will grow and continue to influence how we understand church. This weekend is my final service, my farewell and you are welcome to attend!

The service is Saturday 8pm Los Angeles time. Click here to see what time this is where you are.

Curious what the ministry will do going forward? Check out the blog post on the Anglican Cathedral of Second Life blog by clicking here.

To get to the Cathedral

If you are signed up to Second Life: to get to the Cathedral to attend the service click here.

If you need to sign up to Second Life: check out my blog post by clicking here.

For more background info see: Christian Mission to a Virtual World (1528)

The Future of Virtual Ministry

Today I preached my last message in the Anglican Cathedral of Second Life and chose to focus on the future of Virtual Ministry. I pointed out that research shows a majority of Christians don’t regularly attend church and stated that the usual solution of attempting to make church attractive is only part of the answer. I shared that we as a church need to go where people are, as well as expecting people to come to us.

To listen to the message click on the play button below..

And at the end of the service I was quite moved when those worshiping, spontaneously gathered around me to pray for me.

Check out the images from the service below…

To subscribe to my messages via iTunes click here.

Check out the Photos: Continue reading »

What does the future hold for Virtual Ministry?

This weekend I preach my final message before I formally retire from the Anglican Cathedral of Second Life.  Next weekend is my farewell service.  My final talk is, ‘What does the future hold for Virtual Ministry? ‘  I will offer some possibilities, some ideas as to where virtual ministry might be heading.  I can see two realities converging, which will fuel online worship: 1) A declining number of people calling themselves Christian yet not attending the local church, and 2) the massive growth of the internet.

The service I am speaking at is 8pm Saturday Los Angeles time.  Click here to see what time this is in your part of the world.  You are welcome to come and join us!

To get to the Cathedral to hear me speak:

If you are signed up to Second Life:  to get to the Cathedral to attend the service click here.

If you need to sign up to Second Life: check out my blog post by clicking here.

For more background info see: Christian Mission to a Virtual World (1528)

Praying People

Three weeks back I founded the Twitter account Prayer4U where people can send in prayers which are shared amongst the followers of the account.  It now has 381 followers and 148 prayers have been offered. Huge thanks to Blake Croft who co-ordinates it!

And then I thought, why not offer a similar thing for Facebook? So yesterday I set up the page Praying People where in becoming a ‘fan’ of the page you can then post prayers on the wall for others to pray.  Very simple idea, be great to see tons of prayer happening!

Check it out by clicking here.

You don’t seriously think that online church is real church!?

The question I get the most about the Anglican Cathedral of Second Life is, ‘How can a church online be a real church?’

In this message preached this past weekend in the Anglican Cathedral of Second Life, I answer this question!
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To subscribe to my messages via iTunes click here.