Glen Burnie Evangelical Presbyterian Church

JollyBlogger, a personal blog written by David Wayne, the pastor of Glen Burnie Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Glen Burnie, Maryland, has recently written about a new beta website for his church (for those who don’t know, “beta” simply means they are in a testing phase).

The new website uses TypePad, a popular blogging service, and it definitely has a blog-feel to it - complete with a three-column look, lists of recent posts and comments, a photo album, categories, etc.

What is most exciting to me, however, is that the church has decided to take a big leap and leave the commenting system open so that anyone can add a comment (or a trackback) to entries on the front page of the site.

For too long, it seems to me, the church (at least in America) has seemed like a closed institution - only members can really contribute. That flies in the face of the practice of the early church, whose meetings were literally open to the public. The meetings of the first century church took place in the public areas of houses, areas which were largely open so that anyone walking down the street could hear what was happening, and it was perfectly acceptable in the culture of the day for a passerby to walk into the meeting to find out what was going on.

As an aside, doesn’t that put a new light on 1 Corinthians 14:23-25:

Therefore if the whole church assembles together and all speak in tongues, and ungifted men or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are mad? But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all; the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you.

One of the reasons I am so excited about the decision of Glen Burnie Evangelical Presbyterian Church to allow anyone to comment is that it allows seekers to interact with believers who are part of the church and enter into conversations with them.

Since I firmly believe (as I have said before) that authentic Christian community is the foundation of all effective outreach (John 17:21-23), I see this as a very important step. Not only can unbelievers now observe community, but now they can enter into and experience that community (albeit only in a digital sense until they are intrigued enough to desire face-to-face relationships with believers and also only to the extent that an unbeliever can experience true Christian community).

Kudos to David Wayne and the folks at GBEPC for such a forward-looking outlook!

Posted by on 02/01/05 at 03:23 PM

The Collective Voice!

continues the discussion:

Gee...where have I seen that before?

Glad to see other churches moving in this direction. I hope that the pastor is able to write blog entries that manage to move past the “things are happening at our church, and you really should come to a service” type posts.

IMHO - the degree to which the comments and trackbacks prove to be valuable to the big “C” church is going to be determined by the degree of honesty and vulnerability the post authors show.

contributed on 02/01 at 04:22 PM

David Wayne continues the discussion:

Thanks for the mention Frank - I really appreciate it. We’ll see how the commenting goes. We realize we are opening ourselves up to spam and things like that, but we want to be able to interact with our congregation and the community.

contributed on 02/01 at 05:12 PM

Neil Cox, IndyChristian.com continues the discussion:

Excellent insights.

And here’s a phrase we’re starting to use here in Indy…

“It’s not about a web-SITE, it’s about a web-STRATEGY.”

...meaning, just as the ‘church’ isn’t the building—it’s the people. So also the church web strategy should be to build-out the local Christian tapestry of websites/blogs in their community (hopefully not just their own blogging members, but that’s a start), all the way down to neighborhood level.

And if so, then suddenly, it’s the Great Commission in motion, headed toward pervasive impact throughout the entire community in a well-connected, well-communicating way.

Eg… http://TransformIndiana.com drilling down to http://IndyChristian.com drilling down to http://ClayTerrace.org .

It’s a start. PTL for this new, easy, did-I-mention FREE, push-button publishing capability.

YBIC,
Neil Cox
Greater Indianapolis

contributed on 02/02 at 09:20 AM

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You may be interested in reading these articles which enumerate core principles of the strategy we advocate:

Effective Church Websites For Emerging Generations
Investigating the various ways in which a church's website can be targeted toward unbelievers in a church's local community.

A Strategy For Local Internet Outreach
How can the internet be used for evangelism and outreach while maintaining an environment of authentic Christian community?

Flawed Follow Up Or A Flawed Philosophy of Evangelism?
The ease with which we can “share the gospel” online can actually short-circuit the God-ordained process by which unbelievers are brought to faith.

Should We Include A Gospel Presentation On Our Websites?
Should conversion be our immediate goal in our internet evangelism efforts?

A Strategic Opportunity For The Church
A proposed strategy in which a church would use short video profiles of members of their congregation to entice unbelievers in their local area to consider the value of a local congregation’s ministry in their own lives.

2 John 12
Is there something incomplete about digital communication?

Wed, December 03, 2008 at 07:19 am
Frank thoroughly impressed with the professionalism of the WebTrends Ad Director team http://ping.fm/EuHLl

Sun, November 30, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Frank interested in finding good resources (blogs, books, etc.) on cause marketing.

Fri, November 28, 2008 at 11:57 am
Frank contemplating a line from "O Holy Night" - in His name ALL oppression shall cease

Tue, November 25, 2008 at 08:31 am
Frank exhausted but gratified after today's Scene7 imaging launch on telescope.com!

Mon, November 24, 2008 at 08:05 pm
Frank @benwiles although you made me think about OneNote again. I think it might have feature to allow you to forward a website to OneNote

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Assemblies of God
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These are projects which we have initiated (either individually or as members of a team) in our efforts to use digital means to spread the gospel:

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Prodigal God
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Christian Screen Savers
ChristianScreenSavers.com offers a selection of high-quality, inexpensive Christian screen savers which reflect biblical themes. Proceeds from the sale of these screen savers are used to support the work of Strategic Digital Outreach.

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