They once believed, “The future of the church is online.” In March, NewSpring Church, led by Pastor Perry Noble, made the decision to end their online church.
For the greater church online community, this step back could turn out to be a catalyst for progress.
Web Pastor Nick Charalambous penned a series of reflections in response to the church’s decision.
A journalist and storyteller, Nick has written a total of seven articles chronicling NewSpring’s journey into online missions and church planting.
Anyone involved or interested in leveraging technology for the gospel should check out Nick’s blog.
It’s being left up as a permanent archive.
Web Church Challenges, parts 1, 2, and 3
Web Church Reflections, Parts 1, 2 and 3 and 4
My impressions
On a personal level, I admire Nick.
Having followed the NewSpring story for the past year, I’ve observed Nick’s commitment to helping others discover true joy in Christ.
It took courage to become NewSpring’s first (and now only) Web Pastor, a pioneering role that had no clear job definition. Nick openly discussed (to the end) what was working in online ministry and what wasn’t. His comments on others blogs always included an encouraging word.
Why did NewSpring close the doors to its online church?
Online Church for NewSpring was an experiment to essentially answer the question Douglas Estes asked in his book SimChurch. “Is a virtual church a real, authentic, and valid expression of the church of Jesus Christ?”
The hypothesis
Charalambous recorded his initial hypothesis in a guest post written April 29, 2009 for LifeChurch.tv’s Church Online blog.
“I think the future of the whole church is online.
I think our current hangup over whether you can have true community without physical presence is a colossal distraction from the reasons why.
We’ve got to be where everyone is, use the communication tools everyone else uses, and share what Jesus has to offer wherever people expect to find ‘knowledge for life.’ And in our foreseeable future that will be defined by the web.” (Charalambous)
The conclusion
Nick’s posts lay out the thinking behind the church’s rationale to pull out. He discusses their online ministry processes and what they learned. He identifies some traps and disturbing trends. He even points out what he calls “dangers” with the online church.
Charalambous concludes…
“The web church doesn’t solve any problems that Jesus hasn’t prepared and equipped the church to handle in the past, the present, or the future by physical means. In fact, the Web church may, in time, cause problems for the larger church that are harder to fix than the original problem of the declining evangelistic power of our physical church communities.” (Charalambous)
With his typical graciousness, Nick honored “the many serious and astute pastors and church leaders dedicated to the cause of Christ who are seeking to pioneer the new mission field of the Internet.”
Going forward
It is not my purpose to revisit the online church debate. I looked briefly at some of the theological and ecclesiological issues in an earlier post. Over at OurChurch.com Paul Steinbrueck discussed the online church issues in detail in an excellent nine part series.
I wanted to know if the closing of NewSpring’s online church might also be a call for a larger retreat from using technology for outreach.
Thankfully, it was not.
Early in his reflections, Nick listed three ways the church could effectively use the Web and not be in conflict with theological tradition.
Using technology and media to “proclaim the gospel” was mentioned first. That is an outreach strategy I wholeheartedly endorse. This blog is devoted to it.
God has given the church tools – print, radio, television, Internet – to reach the world with the gospel. The church has a responsibility to use them as the Holy Spirit directs.
NewSpringLive, is going forward with technology. They’ve launched a live streaming webcast of four Sunday services from their Anderson campus.
I believe proclaiming the gospel online could end up being a core New Media strategy a majority of churches and ministries rally around.
I plan to explore the subject in more detail this month on my blog and in a guest post for the Christian Web Trends series 20 Ways to Share Your Faith Online. Conversations about sharing the gospel online leading up to Internet Evangelism Day on April 25.
Two other Web Church strategies Charalambous mentioned were “enhanced pastoral care” and “empowering personal ministry.”
Charalambous says, “close-to-real-time pastoral care” is now feasible with instant messaging, live chat support, email and other fast-response communication tools. He also suggested that social media should be readily embraced since it has become such a viable way to connect with people in their everyday lives.
An idea whose time may have come
Charalambous had one reflection that captured my imagination.
Perhaps the Internet is a gift to the church from God to be used in physical church planting.
The idea being for a church to use the web to connect a scattered group of Christians in a specific location. Then, working with other partner ministries, the group would be organized into a fully functioning local body of believers.
I’m aware of a few churches doing this now. Nick’s framing of the idea as being a possible gift from God will hopefully inspire further consideration and collaboration.
An evangelism, missions and church planting strategy that integrates online and physical components could be an effective solution to tensions surrounding online only approaches.
Final thoughts
The church is learning from online church experiments like the one conducted by NewSpring. Every experiment produces unique and helpful insights. Processes are improved. More innovation occurs. The church builds.
It is still early in the digital revolution. More experiments are needed so the most informed decisions can be made about using technology to fulfill the Great Commission.
Even though NewSpring decided online church was not a best fit with their vision, someday the church at large will look back and recognize the contribution of these early pioneers.
They will be remembered as being the catalyst for progress in the church’s understanding of how to be the body of Christ online.
Question: What one thing stands out that your church is doing “to be the church online?”