Review of e-Ministry by Andrew Careaga

I've just finished reading eMinistry by Andrew Careaga and wanted to share an extended review of the book here on my blog.

My initial impression is that the best audience for this book is pastors and other ministry leaders with little knowledge of the internet and online communities.  Andrew spends a good deal of time describing life on the internet and describing the people (mostly young folks) who spend so much of their lives on the internet. 

As such, people who are tech-savvy and deeply immersed in the internet won't find much in the way of new information here, and by the way, that is not a criticism.  It is these people whom Andrew is trying to describe for the benefit of less tech-savvy folks.

In a prior post I mentioned that Andrew had quoted someone who spoke of the "cyber-church" and who described it as a kind of disembodied church. That sent up a red flag and I wrote that prior post, and anther one following it, to contend that the cyber church cannot replace the physical church.  This is a point that Andrew agrees with and I want to re-iterate that this book is not an apologetic for replacing the physical church with some kind of a cyber-church.

What this book is, is a reality check for those who still haven't grasped the significance of the internet for ministry.  It is also a reality check for leaders who want to understand the mindset of what Andrew calls the "N-Generation," the internet generation.

As I read this book, I couldn't help but read it in light of Andrew's essay called "The church-internet (dis)connection." The book was published in 2001 and the essay in 2002 and the essay drives home a point illustrated by the book, but which wasn't made explicit.  The point I found so compelling in the essay is that church leaders really don't understand what is going on in cyberspace.

I have to plead guilty to this charge.  I'm pretty tech-savvy and internet-savvy as far as non-tech savvy preachers go and I didn't even get his point until I read the essay and the book.  My initial negative reaction to the idea of a "disembodied church" was driven by an inner belief that you can't really create authentic community on the net.  I still have theological convictions that convince me that you can't replace the physical church with a cyber-church, but that does not mean you can't create authentic community on the internet.  I may cringe at the idea of "cyber-church," but I am more convinced than ever that there is such a thing as "cyber-community."

Getting back to what was most compelling about the essay, Andrew pointed out that most ministers use the internet for research, whereas most "N-geners" us the internet to build community.  Most of us don't see "cyberspace" as "true-space."  But cyberspace is the space that many are going into to build community.

I have to agree.  I think I have true community with people I have met through blogging.  You can't convince me that Adrian Warnock and I don't share a true friendship because it is based on our blogging.  My point is that I have a genuine affection for these and many other folks and our interaction through the internet has only fostered that sense of community.

So, Andrew looks at the internet, not so much as a tool to be used for outreach and ministry (though it can be used that way) but as "space" into which we can interact in community.

That's the value of the book - it gives you a glimpse into the internet as a community, and not so much as "internet as a tool."  True, I think the internet can be used as a tool for others who only value it as a tool.  That is where most members of our congregations are.  Most members of our congregations use the internet as a tool for communication through e-mail, a tool for paying bills, finding out what is playing at the theatres and reading news.  For people like that, a static church website that gives "brochure type" information about the church is helpful.  For pastors and other leaders who want to extend their teaching ministries, the internet can be a great place to post sermons, papers and articles and things like that.

But there is a whole demographic group that has a very different approach to the internet - to them the internet is a community.  We won't impact them unless we learn to view the internet in the same way they view it.

This is what this book does for us - it gives us a glimpse inside a community, and it will be very helpful to any Christian who wants to understand the community.

Also, technology changes so fast that, though the book was published in 2001, it doesn't discuss some of the latest technologies (like blogging) that are continuing to shape the internet.  So, after you read the book, be sure and keep updated on Andrew's blog.

4-3-05 - this post was edited to remove an offhand comment that was perceived as hostile to a reader (not Andrew).