Sorry the posts have been a little scattered of late. I just finished a year-long process of editing Scripture-only curricula designed to train church planters and leaders involved in Gospel Movements around the world. Last week I was in San Jose to turn in my work and give a report on the things I’m doing to reach the Online Generation. Tomorrow, I travel to Europe to attend a conference about using the internet to disciple people in closed countries.
I see this blog as a kind of open accountability. I want to to know what I’m doing. I decided to include a copy of my report below for you to take a look and ask questions.
Two Month Progress Report – Reaching the Online Generation
2008 September 19, 2008
Activities:
Concluded Curricula Development project.
Reaching the Online Generation Blog
- Published over 55 posts on http://www.reachingtheonlinegeneration.com
- Followed up with people who made comments on http://www.reachingtheonlinegeneration.com with an invitation to an ooVoo conversation.
Personal Blog
- Re-designed my personal blog to be a platform to engage the Online Generation
- Published over 35 posts on my personal blog.
Social Media Services
- Identified 54 social media services
- Created categories for popular social media services.
- Used Twitter, Plurk, Facebook, Bebo, Pownce, and Rejaw to communicate with members of the Online Generation.
- Learned how to use Ping.fm to communicate across multiple social media services.
Second Life
- Learned Second Life – http://www.secondlife.com
- Attended a Second Life church service - ALM Church
Online Communities
- Developed a rubric for identifying indicators of online communities
- Invited by an online community to participate in their weekly online chats.
- Researched how communities use social media services to interact and develop communities.
- Identified four distinct Online Communities
Meetings
- Participated in ooVoo conferences, phone calls and face-to-face meetings with business and church leaders about the Online Generation – 13 altogether.
GodRev/Looking for God
- Followed up with 264 contacts from the Looking For God USA website.
- Extended invitations to join GodRev.
- Set up a Discovering God group, no members yet.
Access Ministries
- Identified a possible use of Squidoo Lenses, http://www.squidoo.com, for access ministries for the Online Generation.
- Identified access ministries for Second Life church planters – tour guides and clothing designers.
Prayer
- Developed a prayer calendar of people to pray for in order to encourage prayer for the Online Generation.
- Talked with a local church planting director about mobilizing their prayer team to pray for the Online Generation.
Challenges
- Raising prayer support has been more challenging than I anticipated.
- Getting past Gate-keepers to talk with Christians of the Online Generation has been more difficult than I anticipated.
Thoughts/Observations
Online church planting is not measured by the number of people listening to you, but the number of people you can get talking with each other about Spiritual things and, ultimately, God’s Word.
Church planters must contribute to online communities. Communities regard non-contributors with suspicion, especially if the non-contributor expects a platform for their topic of choice.
Categories of Social Media Services
- Social Voting – like Digg
- Social Bookmarking – like Google Notebook
- Social Conversation – like Twitter and Plurk
- Social Networking – like Facebook, MySpace, and LinkdIn
- Social Aggregator – like FriendFeed
- Social Tools – Flickr, Ping.fm,
Because environments like Second Life have limited First Life consequences, people have room to live out what is in their heart – good or bad.
Common objections/concerns raised by others about reaching the Online Generation:
- People can be fake online. There is no real accountability.
- You have to meet face-to-face to have real community. You have to be able to touch to live in community.
- What about Lord’s Supper, Marriage, and Baptism?
- Can you really build relationships online?
- What will happen to brick and mortar churches?
- What about tithing?
Jesus said that He had seen no greater faith in Israel than that demonstrated by the Roman Centurion who understood that Jesus didn’t have to be physically present to heal his servant.
About the ‘where two or more are gathered together’ passage: Did you have a quiet time? If two or more have to gather to experience Jesus’ presence, why did you bother? Additionally, do you physically lay hands on everyone you pray for about healing? If you have to be there physically, why did you bother?
The Online Generation will give generously to humanitarian causes. Tithing for the Online Generation will be for social services and projects, not to a religious group occupying a building.
The more a community in Second Life mirrors the offline world, the easier it will be to engage them with the Gospel. The more removed a community in Second Life is from reality, the more difficult it will be for them to engage the Gospel in a way that results in offline obedience.
Indicators of Online Community
- Multiple points of contact throughout the day.
- Give and take – Are members contributing as much as benefiting from the group?
- Encouragement and Support – they have a form of prayer for members in need
- Dismay over the prolonged absence of community members
- Communication across multiple platforms
- Talking about their work and family
- Sharing photos and videos
- Raise or provide services to help people in need.
- Offline meetups
Each element gets a point if there is evidence within the community if the element exists. The higher point total points of all the elements, the greater the likelyhood that community exists. Lower points don’t indicate a lack of community, they may indicate a new/younger community.
Many communities begin around Social Objects like the iPhone, wine, computer games, knitting, etc. They use Social Markers like the kinds of books people in their niche read, people they’ve met, what games they’ve played, where they’ve been, and the blogs they read to identify ‘insiders.’ Hugh Macleod articulates these principles in his blog. The more mature a community, the less they need social objects to hold them together. Social markers, however, still help the community identify outsiders and filter new members.
Future Activities:
Continue activities to raise prayer support, team members, and financing for the Reaching the Online Generation initiative.
Continue looking for people who are reaching the Online Generation and learn from their efforts.
Continue my personal attempts to reach the Online Generation using various social media services.
Create an online community for people who are reaching the Online Generation.
Create a free ebook about reaching the Online Generation.
–END–
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Great post for all in Ministry to read and follow. You must be relevant especially to and for the next generations. I am doing my best to educate the Urban faith Community about utilizing all of the tools that the web has to offer. I am about to launch a resource blog that will crossover relevant and urban faith communities.I would love to get connected to your network.
Peace,
Governor Cedric