![]() "Isn't church supposed to be about people in communion with God rather than the building?. Virtual churches, critics say, also don't have real community.Įstes, however, pushed back by pointing out that church isn't about where it meets. But that same argument could be made against megachurches and any other church, for that matter, where people never really touch or come to know each other, he argued. The growth of virtual worshipping communities, however, has sparked debates on whether such churches are effective and biblical.Ī major argument against internet churches is that they lack physical contact, Estes pointed out. In recent years, Christians have begun to take on the internet by building church communities in virtual worlds like Second Life and The Sims and launching internet campuses where anyone from around the world can join weekend worship services live on the Web. "The real truth is that every virtual church I've ever attended has flesh-and-blood people in virtual (real!) community with other flesh-and-blood people whose primary meeting place is in synthetic space." Supposedly these virtual (fake) Christians never really know each other, it's all a facade, and that this is the sum and total of a virtual church. He summed up his argument in a recent post on Christianity Today's Out of Ur blog: "People are led to believe that members of online churches all connect to their video-game church as anonymous zombies in a Tron-like world. This means the virtual world is by far the largest unreached people group on planet Earth, says one pastor.ĭouglas Estes, a pastor from San Jose, Calif., has no vested interest in virtual or internet churches – a relatively new phenomenon – but given the large "unreached" population on the internet, he says he has a desire to see healthy churches proliferate "regardless of context."Īlthough he leads a brick and mortar church (Berryessa Valley Church), Estes defends virtual churches against critics in his newly released book, SimChurch: Being the Church in the Virtual World, maintaining that they are real churches with real people. ![]() Support Presbyterian Today’s publishing ministry.The Christian church is engaging far less than 1 percent of the 70 million people who are active in the virtual world. “It’s the opinion of my session that the responsibilities of membership can be carried out from afar and virtually.”ĭonna Frischknecht Jackson is editor of Presbyterians Today. “The Book of Order is pretty clear that the only reason you can deny membership is lack of faith in Jesus (G-1.0302),” said Thompson Smith. Among the ideas, Thompson Smith says, is giving an out-of-state member the ministry of sending out birthday cards. We’ve prayed for him so often,’ well, that warms a pastor’s heart,” said Thompson Smith.įirst Presbyterian of Luling’s session is now working on ways to incorporate the virtual members into the life of the church. “When a new virtual member says of a funeral of someone they have never met in person, ‘I wouldn’t have missed it. “They met with the session by Zoom, the session examined them and voted to accept each by reaffirmation of faith.”Įven as the church has moved to hybrid worship, the virtual members have continued to be faithful in their Zoom participation. As far as process, she says, it wasn’t that different from any other new member. The other is out of state,” said Thompson Smith. “One is local, but health concerns mean they can’t get out much. Monica Thompson Smith, stated supply pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Luling, Texas, a small church whose dwindling numbers have slowly been reversing thanks to Zoom worship, the answer is easy: Welcome virtual members the same as you would any other member.įirst Presbyterian of Luling recently welcomed two new members - both of whom the pastor and elders had not met in person. Since the advent of virtual worship, the question on the minds of session members across the country is how to welcome online viewers as full-fledged members.
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