My thoughts on the Christianity in the Digital Space Symposium
My first words to the Christianity in the Digital Space Symposium last week at St John’s, Durham were, ‘The world is dramatically changing.’ So yes I walked right past the usual fluffy intros and took a seat at the serious table. So what was I referring to?
Right now the internet is driving a seismic shift in how we relate, how we understand ourselves and the world around us. I made the point that it is absolutely essential we in the church begin to think strategically around how best to respond to this digital revolution. Which is why the Symposium, hosted by CODEC, was so important.
So new is the churches interaction with this digital revolution that much of our time was spent attempting to define the questions. At the end I believe we had some direction defined, and what is now needed is for someone like CODEC (waving to Pete Phillips) to now start to shape a strategy of how best to move forward. This may include a follow up consultation with church/agency leaders; funding research specific to the area of church engagement with the digital revolution; writing a book or three addressing the challenges and possible ways forward; and perhaps starting an org. committed to resourcing the church in its engagement with the revolution.
One interesting meta-theme emerged worth mentioning : a continuum between those who saw online ministry as only effective if it resulted in an offline, ‘normal’ experience of church, and those who considered an experience of ministry online in and of itself 
sufficient. An example of this is the discussion around identity: how are we represented online? Can a dragon lead a church service? Or do we need to transparently represent ourselves online as we are offline?
My view is somewhere in the middle (well I am Anglican), but I can see that the momentum is moving more towards the recognition of the virtual space being in and of itself sufficient an experience.
Here are my highlights:
- Amazing to meet so many capable and committed Christians involved in online work
- Deeply impressed with St John’s and CODEC (great work Rev Dr Dr Wilkinson)
- Absolutely loved the interaction through Twitter with #digisymp being registered as one of the hottest hash tags a couple of times through the symposium!
- Great to have involvement from people ‘outside the room’ through Twitter and video streaming
- Some excellent discussion.. for detail check out the Symposium blog.
- Had a ton of seriously good conversations and plan to remain in touch with a heap of wonderful contacts
And my concerns:
- There should have been more CEO’s in the room. The massive growth of the internet is a strategic challenge not just a technical one; it requires the considered attention of church and church agency leaders
- It bothered me that Bishop Wright parachuted in, wrote his speech while a couple of people shared their reflections on the the conference thus far, then presented, answered some questions and promptly left. But.. all the same he had some good things to say.. and some things that perhaps needed a bit more thought
- I would have liked a time of questions from those participating after my presentation: The Bible in the Digital Space (1119) …(click on the title for a copy) It felt a little like I put it out there with very little reaction. So… if you have questions concerns, whatever, please post them in the comments section below!
And the key challenges moving forward as I see it:
- Convincing church leaders that responding to the digital revolution is much more than simply setting up a website or a facebook page, but thinking through how it will affect the very practice of the church or agency
- There is a need for more academic writing/thinking around virtual ministry.. in particular solid theological thinking in relation to such topics as sacraments within the virtual setting, the non-physical nature of online identity, the nature of online community, and jurisdiction (to name a few)
I look forward to the continued conversation moving forward!
Post script: huge thanks to Andrew Graystone, Pete Phillips, Mark and Rich.. quality work.
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9 Responses to “My thoughts on the Christianity in the Digital Space Symposium”
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I share your frustration at the lack of leadership from the church especially in web2.0
I am seen as ‘playing’, but as somebody who has no church regular attendance record, due to delivering babies, I have come to rely on the net for supplementing fellowship and worship.
There has been a pouring out of the Holy Spirit in the internet, but alas ego and technology have manifested, and I am sorry geeks are not best known for their interpersonal skills (bless them).
As a follower of Christ I wonder if we should say to the church as an institution.. what have you to offer? As Christ challenged the the ‘religious authorities’ 2,000 years ago?
I heard a lot of protesting about authority and authenticity, but not much about how best to prosletyze to the gaming generation, or the digital natives, I became an immigrant to internet technology in the late 1980’s, qbout the time I started dechurching from the institution.
Much goes on under the surface. I was accused of being an online church person.. but I have found manifested many institutionalised ideologies of ‘authority’. Rigidity, bullying,ecclesiastical law, liturgy, holy huddles, and voice suppression.
I just make objects, place scriptures in them, and use my preaching gift. Although I invited local church support and even applied for fresh expressions registration with no avail. I have now changed the hurt to being grateful I work under the ‘church’s’ radar, well that was until #digisymp.
As for more CEO’s…… the net belongs to all, the institutions are loosing authority. Kids understand that. As a middle aged Mum (Ok possibly not the norm) God, the online teaching packages, some clever connections such as ‘Poly’ Micheal (manna from heaven) , and my kids teach me the skills I have needed to use the net.
Perhaps I should ask CODEC what I can do for them?
Lorraine
(Your blog seems to have eaten my reply so I’m posting again - apologies if the other one shows up!)
It was great to be there, even if just for one day stolen from my holiday - and (maybe ironically) it showed up that
you can’t beat good old face to face interaction!
I do have a few questions though.
1) I was privileged to be one of four people who were given 10 minutes each to speak about my project. But I know there were many others with valuable experience who did not get that chance. There was little time in the conference programme for listening to the body of experience that was represented. Yet this, and not academic theory, is what the work is based on. It’s by listening to each other that we may start to get an idea of what God is doing or wanting to do - surely the only viable basis for moving on?
2) Gender imbalance - many women are involved in online ministry - but somehow, once it becomes ’serious’ - ie a high profile conference with a Bishop speaking - the men come to the fore. This has happened in other conferences I’ve been to about new developments where a decidedly ‘old’ gender profile - men talk and women do - might be inferred!
3) Leading on from point 2) , I’m conscious of who wasn’t there as well as who was. It’s great to have outcomes but I’d like to keep the dialogue open and flexible. I don’t need yet another hierarchy to relate to!
4) Theology - yes, we need it. And some are doing it. But let’s base it on what people in the field know - which means listening becomes even more important.
Praxis and theology have an interesting relationship. Perhaps more clearly demonstrated here, in this new world of relationships it is the bed of experience through praxis that gives rise to the need for theology. The result of theology that does not come out of this experience is that it is clearly less aware of the quality and nature of the relationships involved.
What bothers me the most about this whole deal of “fresh thinking” about Christian ministry is that a lot of it is not ‘fresh thinking’ at all. It appears to me to be a rehash of the old thinking trying to squeeze its way into the new medium of communication.
New wine needs new wineskins fellow travelers!
I wonder if there is another question to answer in all this. Should Christians do what everyone else is doing or should we do things differently? How much do we conform to be part of the movement?
I’m excited by the Internet and only a fool would claim that change is not happening.
One of my concerns though is that I think the church should be driving the change and not stumbling to catch up. We can’t assume that everything about church as we’ve been living it up to now is going to simply squeeze into the web (does anyone know where you can buy a digitized cassock?) instead we need to be thinking outside the box. Facebook should have been a Christian driven app. What can we offer that will take the Internet by storm?
I do know where you can buy a digitised cassock actually -in Second Life
- but I do agree that we need to think hard about what we’re doing rather than get caught up in the latest enthusiasm - which won’t be the latest enthusiasm once it’s reached the mainstream of the church.
In a way though, online church IS taking the Internet by storm - there’s loads of it and you can set it up in any medium. I agree with LouiB, though, that we need to be really careful about those who don’t participate getting involved in structuring it. There are so many precedents showing how badly the institutional church gets it wrong when working in unfamiliar mission contexts - largely by imposing familiar structures.
I find this idea more than a little depressing. We don’t need theoreticians, we need practitioners to form support networks and to journey together. By establishing levels of perceived authority we would run a very great risk of losing almost all that is different about the internet, the very things that make it accessible and attractive to people who are turned off by the established church. Add in hierarchies and we might as well copy what we already have offline, and treat the internet as just another diocese (or region, or area or precinct).
I, too, find the gender imbalance incredibly frustrating. I have fairly wide experience in online Christian communities and, setting aside purely technical contributions, my experience shows vastly more women working at establishing, developing and caring for those communities. Yet the conferences (symposia, if I must) are dominated by men. This imbalance suggests a logical outcome of men as the ‘experts’, doing the talking and theorising, and women doing the work. Ho hum.
loozeta - as a middle aged mother you are probably far more typical of internet church users than you realise! Figures I have seen (not my own) suggest that the modal group of users consists of women in their forties.
My experience of these sorts of gatherings is that the people who run online communities get told that they are doing it all wrong by those who are impressed with the idea of an online church/community but have never spent an afternoon taking pornography off a site or dealing with spammers or the manipulative personalities who are attracted to small online communities. A conference of practioners would be really interesting as the online world has its own challenges, not least those of authority and the legal issues.
Followed the link to your paper. Loved and hated the idea of the semantic Bible, especially the paragraph below. Bad thing about current web–you have to sort through things that don’t suit you. Good thing about current web–you have to sort through things you don’t think will suit you. I would hate for it to get so customized that I only see the things I think I will like.
So in coming to John 1:1 lets say your profile is that you are a Charismatic Emergent with Pre-Vatican two Catholic leanings who enjoys technical exegesis drawn from noted authors or peer reviewed publications and loves long walks along the beach. Well the only information presented to you would fit those descriptors.
“So in coming to John 1:1 lets say your profile is that you are a Charismatic Emergent with Pre-Vatican two Catholic leanings who enjoys technical exegesis drawn from noted authors or peer reviewed publications and loves long walks along the beach. Well the only information presented to you would fit those descriptors.”
Have to agree with you Mike - I think we should be encouraging people to think outside the box not helping them to stay more comfortably within it!
One of the most enlightening experiences of my Christian life was studying Black and Asian theology and looking at how differently the Bible looks, say, to oppressed people, and also how the Bible has been used to affirm some thing like apartheid which don’t sit very easily with my own interpretation of the Gospel.
For instance - I was shocked to notice how I automatically identified with Sarah in the story of Hagar, since she was the more powerful woman.
That wasn’t a comfortable experience, but in the end I think it gave me a much better insight into how I read the Bible and what the limitations of my own viewpoint are.