Showing posts with label on-line. Show all posts
Showing posts with label on-line. Show all posts
Sunday, October 17, 2010
the on-line church: Sword Project
Setting up a Unix (http://www.unix.org/) server can be a pain, but at least you know the server will work properly -- something that I can't say about other operating systems. Said this, I've trying to set up an Apache (http://www.apache.org/) web server running Sword (http://www.crosswire.org/sword/) with at least one Bible module. So far, I haven't had much success. I know I'm making a silly mistake, but I'm not sure where I'm messing up. Anyway I want to achieve this out of curiosity and maybe put it on-line for Bible study.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
the on-line church: #tworship
Last night I found people praising God on Twitter with hash tag #tworship. This was fairly different from other religious experiences. I even asked what #tworship is to make sure that I didn't misunderstand these group of people. These are my question and the response I received.
Some of these people used words like "brother" and "sister" when referring to another. Someone even said that he loved his on-line friends (perhaps real friends, yet doubtful). These words are rather hard for me to digest. I don't call anyone "brother" or "sister" except for my brother, my two sisters, at times my best friend of 25 years and two other good friends of mine (one for 35 and another for 23 years) have called me "brother" at times.
Nonetheless, what makes a church after all? It's supposed to be a building of worship and most importantly a group of people worshiping God. Understanding this concept, could an on-line service used as a forum be a church? Nowadays I guess so (http://project05952381.blogspot.com/2010/08/on-line-church-cyber-christ.html).
Maybe on-line real-time worshiping could be the same as mass on TV was when I was growing up -- although one-directional. It tried to give the church experience on a two-dimensional boring format through a cheap TV broadcast. Of course, this might have been the only way some people could have "attended" church -- especially the sick, the handicapped or simply the home-bound.
In the other hand, watching The 700 Club (http://www.cbn.com/700club/) was a different feeling when I was a kid. It was praising and worshiping while shown facts and stories followed by prayer. This was and still is what I now understand as a ministry.
my question: Can anyone tell me what #tworship is (thanks)?
response: http://mcprodigal.prodigalreturns.com/tworship/ #jesustweeters
Some of these people used words like "brother" and "sister" when referring to another. Someone even said that he loved his on-line friends (perhaps real friends, yet doubtful). These words are rather hard for me to digest. I don't call anyone "brother" or "sister" except for my brother, my two sisters, at times my best friend of 25 years and two other good friends of mine (one for 35 and another for 23 years) have called me "brother" at times.
Nonetheless, what makes a church after all? It's supposed to be a building of worship and most importantly a group of people worshiping God. Understanding this concept, could an on-line service used as a forum be a church? Nowadays I guess so (http://project05952381.blogspot.com/2010/08/on-line-church-cyber-christ.html).
Maybe on-line real-time worshiping could be the same as mass on TV was when I was growing up -- although one-directional. It tried to give the church experience on a two-dimensional boring format through a cheap TV broadcast. Of course, this might have been the only way some people could have "attended" church -- especially the sick, the handicapped or simply the home-bound.
In the other hand, watching The 700 Club (http://www.cbn.com/700club/) was a different feeling when I was a kid. It was praising and worshiping while shown facts and stories followed by prayer. This was and still is what I now understand as a ministry.
Monday, August 30, 2010
the on-line church: the Cyber Christ
Considering that a church is a congregation (a group of believers, commonly referring Christians), a church doesn't need a building or physical location. Understanding the latter, the concept of an "on-line church" may exist. Of course, understanding the idea that this "church" is in cyberspace (internet, in the web, merely housed in a server somewhere) and built with bits and bytes is a difficult concept to accept.
Does this mean that we could pray to God while visiting a web server? Yes, as a matter of fact, we can and should pray anywhere.
Does this mean that we could be part of a congregation? Yes, we don't need to see a person's face to look into his/her soul.
Now does mean that a pastor would deliver a sermon? Yes, of course, we're all ministers of faith. We can deliver a sermon although a "real" pastor would do a much better job.
Could a pastor deliver pastoral care? Yes, the job of a pastor never ends. A good number of pastors nowadays have email accounts and can reach anyone anywhere at any time.
Considering and/or understanding all this, the website of any "real" church is an extension of that church and faith. Anyone can be part of that "real" church going to that church website and listening to recordings of the sermons (something many churches do nowadays).
By taking this same concept backwards, a church website (an on-line) church may exist although it lacks a building where the congregation could meet and pray in person. Look at the list of some on-line churches below.
LifeChurch.tv
http://www.lifechurch.tv/
Church of Fools (Methodist Church)
http://www.churchoffools.com/
Cyber-Church
http://www.cyber-church.com/
Does this mean that we could pray to God while visiting a web server? Yes, as a matter of fact, we can and should pray anywhere.
Does this mean that we could be part of a congregation? Yes, we don't need to see a person's face to look into his/her soul.
Now does mean that a pastor would deliver a sermon? Yes, of course, we're all ministers of faith. We can deliver a sermon although a "real" pastor would do a much better job.
Could a pastor deliver pastoral care? Yes, the job of a pastor never ends. A good number of pastors nowadays have email accounts and can reach anyone anywhere at any time.
Considering and/or understanding all this, the website of any "real" church is an extension of that church and faith. Anyone can be part of that "real" church going to that church website and listening to recordings of the sermons (something many churches do nowadays).
By taking this same concept backwards, a church website (an on-line) church may exist although it lacks a building where the congregation could meet and pray in person. Look at the list of some on-line churches below.
LifeChurch.tv
http://www.lifechurch.tv/
Church of Fools (Methodist Church)
http://www.churchoffools.com/
Cyber-Church
http://www.cyber-church.com/
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