What Streams May Come: The Missional Church in an Internet Age

BlogWorldExpo starts this Friday in Las Vegas and it should be an absolute HOOT. 200 speakers and I am one of them. My session is Saturday 11:00am to 12:00pm at S210, Room 231. Look for me as part of the GodBlogCon stream.

Darren Rowse, my Aussie mate who started ProBlogger.net, is speaking at the same time on “How To Find Readers for Your Blog” at Room 229. I wont mind if you go and hear him speak. There will be a podcast of what i say if you miss me. It would be a shame to miss Darren.

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In my talk, I will be referring to the shifts in the Christian church today and new media that accompanies it. We will look at the role of the printing press in the Great Reformation and the role of the blogosphere and web for the new reformation. Hugh Hewitt has also spoken on this in his book called Blog: Understanding the Reformation thats Changing Your World.

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Al Mohler gave a fantastic talk at GodblogCon last year on old media vs new media. Its called Pioneering the New Media for Christ and you can listen here as a primer for what I am going to say. Or pick up some books by Lev Manovich. You can also hear my interview with GodblogCon here in which I discuss a few of these issues.

I added more to the title of my talk. Its now called “What streams may come: The Missional Church in an Internet Age”. Streams is a reference to a story from the Bible about a woman at a well and her encounter with Jesus. Its a story of a well and a spring. I will be talking about how blogs can move from wells to springs, life-streaming as a spiritual discipline, and the kinds of online spiritual communities that we need to give ourselves to. I believe the church has always been virtual rather than physical and called to aggregate itself in contextually appropriate ways – and on the web, that often means going native in using existing platforms. As part of a mystical temple, a spiritual body, a new kind of mountain, it is when we “publish glad tidings” that we make the invisible visible. I will also take a look at the past ten years of blogging history, celebrate some milestones, and point to future trends. And of course there might be time for a few rounds of “You might be a faith-blogger if . . .”.

See you in Vegas!

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Andrew

Andrew Jones launched his first internet space in 1997 and has been teaching on related issues for the past 20 years. He travels all the time but lives between Wellington, San Francisco and a hobbit home in Prague.

4 Comments

  • John says:

    Great stuff! Can’t make it but I’ll be hooking up on the podcast.

  • Rhett Smith says:

    my only goal in Vegas is to grab a pint with TSK. that’s not too much to ask for is it 🙂

  • andrew jones says:

    are you offering to pay? in that case the answer is yes.

  • Very pervasive thoughts….A missional story unfolds of “A woman, and her encounter with Jesus at the well….a Life of the Living Water that would never go dry….no more searching for the stagnet offerings of insignificant words; but, rather a life of living Water that Jesus promised would be His…The woman, going down through history…a representation for His yearnings—with richness involved. Thank goodness for “The Women at the Well” in helps for people to have a better understanding of what truthfully “The Living Water of Jesus” was all about. The woman at the Well…a prominent woman to God she was! 🙂

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