Cyber Christian Church

I'm thinking of investing some decent money to begin a cyber youth church. Who's with me? We can buy a decent video camera to record worship and sermons, open a paypal account for online giving, and spend a relatively small amount of money on a website with the bandwidth capabilities for us to stream video on sundays. I can lead worship, and preach. We can post the lyrics for the planned songs each week on the website, and link to biblegateway so that people can view the bible verses if they dont' have a bible. We can have an "offering" time each week, if peopel want to do their giving so that it's a "proper" offering, and our annoucements would be almost nill! And even if I'm on vacation, I could pre-record everything and set it to play during the normal sunday morning time.

What do you think? We talk about using technology to further the gospel (not as a substitute, but as an aid). Does this make sense to you?

For some reason, I'm guessing anyone reading this might feel a little uncomfortable calling Cyber Christian Fellowship their home church. For one reason or another, most of us would shy away from this idea. Many because it's not traditional, many because it's a foreign idea, and even the most technological of people might have a hard time, although putting a finger on what the problem is might be tough.

Well, I have a problem with it, too. Tradition? Not so much- tradition is not so high that it is above reproach. The history of the Church has been filled with "bucking" tradition- and protestants are a direct result of one such occurence. Foreign idea? Some of the greatest ideas to be thought- some of the most life-changing teachings have been new, novel and majorly different. Love your enemy and Pray for those who persecute you? That's a foreign idea!

And I'm technological- I honestly believe that with a bit of an investment and a little bit of learning on my part, I can pull this off. But the money is not stopping me.

My problem with this idea comes down to this- Community. See, we can do the Christian thing in the privacy of our own home. It's possible to hear sermon's online, it's possible to "tithe" to places you don't attend, it's possible to get the most recent worship CDs. It IS possible to get everything you get at church some other place besides church. Except for one thing. Community.

You see, there are instructions, specific instructions in the Bible such as "Do not neglect meeting together" or "where two or three are gathered, there I am" that tell us that there is something about gathering with other believers. There's something intricately tied with the idea of Christianity, worhsip and our faith that has to do with gathering. It is not simply enough to have a "personal" relationship with Jesus. We must have a community relationship as well. Our individual, "modernistic" society has herarlded compartmentalization of our lives, it has heralded self-reliance and self-dependence.

But these are not the way of the true Gospel. Lots of "modernism" does not jive with Christianity, but we're unable to see it. This idea of community is the same. Christianity was begun in a pre(post)- Christian culture in which not everyone grew up knowing the gospel and being in church. We are quickly becoming the same type of world, and because there are so many who have not heard, who do not know, and who do not reflect those morals, community is so much more important. It is in communities that we find the strength to stand for our convictions. It is in our communities that we are able to explore our beliefs and have a safe-haven to come to conclusions that are faithful to the scriptures and our experience. It is in community that we can find and accept healthy tensions that normally would make us uneasy. And it is in this community that we can accept and love those who do not know Christ.

I was talking with my sister-in-law the other day about this. I was mentioning how Rachel and I are not looking for a church around here to call our home, and thus are not feeling comfortable going to many different churches. We would be looking for the same feeling of family/community we had before, if we were to look for a new church to call home around here. But because we're not looking, we're not experiencing that community. Even when we did go to church, that community eluded us because our expectation is not to be there a month from now, not to call that home, and not to get too connected so as not to have more relationships to say goodbye to.

The community we had before already provided us with enough heartbreak in saying goodbye to relationships. Our teenagers, my worship team, the young adults and the others whom we connected with. You can know if you've really been a part of that if it tears your heart up to say goodbye- especially when that goodbye is not voluntary.

So, in an effort not to have those relationships that hurt to say goodbye to, who's wants to be a "charter" member of my Cyber Christian Church? any hands?