Digital nation: One of my favourite authors, Douglas Rushkoff, engages some of the really big names in Internet research (danah boyd, Sherry Turkle. etc) in a roundtable discussion on what it means to be online. Issues include parenting, participating in the economy, you know, all things Internet and social and moral panicky-like. It’s part of PBS’s Digital Nation series and website. Lots of videos to watch.

The new landscape of the religion blogosphere: The Immanent Frame presents a new report on blogging about religion, considering its place within the larger blogosphere and what religious bloggers think about blogging. Another post in the blog introduces some contributors and readers.

Bloggers reveal their interest in private devotional and meditational practices, including contemplative prayer and lectio divina. Some bloggers talk of their desire to inject into their daily lives a sense of the monastic, to engage in practices that bring the sacred into ordinary living. Some bloggers speak favourably of rituals borrowed from other faiths and new religious movements.

In conversations about corporate worship, bloggers show they do not enjoy the light and sound shows of many contemporary Sunday services. They tend to resist the directive styles of music lyrics and liturgies that either conform to strict theological principles or are filled with redundant words (especially “I just really want to…” type prayers). They enjoy the use of art and popular music to create audio-visual environments that gently guide people through an experience of the sacred. The poems, prayers and liturgies offered use themes and motifs borrowed from urban living to connect love, pain, joy and loss with God’s story of hope and renewal.

In the conversations about the purpose and nature of Christian worship, these emerging church bloggers want to dissolve the distinctions made between religious and secular text, and sacred and profane spaces. They do this by suggesting the use of popular images, music and other texts in otherwise traditional services, and through the use of art installations, promote the creation and mediation of experiences of the sacred in other public spaces. In their personal lives, they show a desire to break away from the “Sunday Christian” lifestyle by bringing the religious into everyday living.

In some cases, blogging itself is considered part of this spiritual regimen. Bloggers present posts for the sole purpose for encouraging others to contemplate and share stories, or to meditate on the words or pictures on screen and tell of their experience of doing so. Others treat the blogosphere as a confessional space, telling stories of their daily rights and wrongs and requesting absolution and support from their readers. Others ask readers to pray with them on private or public issues, and offer a prayer to be read by their audience, or a picture to meditate on.

Such issues as abortion and homosexuality barely receive a mention, and even then, outright opposition is questioned. Bloggers appear to reject or ignore the moral campaigns of the so-called religious right, to contend that global issues of justice, peace and care for the environment are greater and more urgent. For this reason emerging church bloggers may be labelled “Christian left” or “liberal”. While they may align the “family values” mentality of the government of the time (when the coalition of the Liberal and National Parties held power) to the term “religious right”, they are slow to accept the terms “left”or “liberal”.

Yet they see their churches “stuck in Christendom”. They claim the divisions that the institutional church creates between ordained and lay, and sacred and secular culture, are viewed as false by the world outside the church. The face of the church has been taken over by the “religious right”, whose fascination with “family values” not only serves to exclude many from participation, but denies God’s true call for the church.

As people with leadership roles in their local context, many have much to say about the nature of leadership within the church. They regret that clergy often are called to represent the entire ministry of their congregations, and as such have to live up to difficult expectations. They are suspicious of the books and conferences that are advertised in clergy circles, promoting answers to “successful” ministry. They refuse the notion that one’s ministry strategy will work for every pastor, and they are critical of the criteria on which such success is measured.

Most evident in posts and conversations in the study is a critique of the so-called mega-church model of Christian community. While bloggers take Evangelical theology with a grain of salt, they see the mega-church model of ministry as contrary to the Gospel. Under particular attack fall Hillsong in Sydney and Riverview Church in Perth (though a couple of bloggers defend some of Hillsong’s projects). These are not churches. They are businesses who promote spiritual goods and services for money, and treat their congregants as consumers rather than participants.

Bloggers consider the emerging church conversation a search for a “third option”, where traditional churches and mega-churches fail to connect Gospel with community and culture. In doing so, bloggers open their space as a refuge from these places, encouraging readers to share their stories of exclusion and promoting conversations of possible alternatives. From these conversations emerges a picture of the “ideal” organisation of Christians, where all members are active in decision-making and action in mission, according to their abilities, and where leaders are called to be “on the margins” of the community: equipping lay members in their own work, and exploring opportunities for new ministry projects and practices.

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Blogs are a vehicle for participants in the sample to reflect on the practices of Christians in relation to those outside the church. It is also a place to retell personal experiences of meeting others in ministry, ask questions and share knowledge.

Generally these bloggers are suspicious of programs and activities that attempt to convert people to Christianity, or attract them to come to church. For a start, having everyone come to church will not necessarily make the world a better place. Also, the motives by which the programs are implemented are under scrutiny. Bloggers question the packaging of spiritual goods for consumption and edification (and profit) of the supplier. The “God-shaped hole” rationale, which treats everybody as “needing the Gospel”, is viewed by bloggers as arrogant and judgmental. Bloggers believe there is not much good in going to church that people haven’t found in other faith practices and religious sources. The converse is also true; history shows that church-goers have much to be held accountable for.

This is why a small number of bloggers have played with term “apologetics”. Bloggers accept that their faith is on trial by wider society, they seek to learn from others how to right previous wrongs, search for common objectives, and strive for reconciliation. In a few posts some bloggers have retold the experience of the Desert Fathers, recalling a historical period when, like this one, Christianity needed a defence. For these emerging church bloggers, the culture wars between Christendom and secularisation is over, and Christendom lost. Yet there is a beauty in the story of Christ and followers that deserves declaration, both within their experience and into their imaginings. The story offers a prophetic voice that bloggers receive in order to responsibly speak to their readers on their cultural experience.

For many, Christian witness is most authentically expressed in service. This may involve offering resources to communities in need, caring for individuals who are marginalised in these communities. They wish to see themselves not as missionaries to the lost, but fellow travellers, who carry the same questions, and are willing to find answers in others. Christian mission is as much a quest for self-transformation, and renewal of the present-day church, than it is a call to reform larger society.

These voices, then, do not use blogging to rally the troops, or convert people to their way of thinking, but as a confession that their experience of Christianity is not all they have wanted it to be, and that the world they know is not the same world their churches think it is. They call out for alternative methods of thinking and doing mission, and seek to engage non-Christians in the discussion. Perhaps there is another paradox to be noted, that in the use of new technologies these bloggers seek a return to older, even ancient, conversations.

Generally these bloggers are suspicious of programs and activities that attempt to convert people to Christianity, or attract them to come to church. For a start, having everyone come to church will not necessarily make the world a better place. Also, the motives by which the programs are implemented are under scrutiny. Bloggers question the packaging of spiritual goods for consumption and edification (and profit) of the supplier. The “God-shaped hole” rationale, which treats everybody as “needing the Gospel”, is viewed by bloggers as arrogant and judgmental. Bloggers believe there is not much good in Christianity that people haven’t found in other religions and spiritual practices. The converse is also true; history shows that Christianity has much to be held accountable for.

This is why a small number of bloggers have played with term “apologetics”. Bloggers accept that their faith is on trial by wider society, they seek to learn from others how to right previous wrongs, search for common objectives, and strive for reconciliation. In a few posts some bloggers have retold the experience of the Desert Fathers, recalling a historical period when, like this one, Christianity needed a defence. For these emerging church bloggers, the culture wars between Christendom and secularisation is over, and Christendom lost.

The primary task of Christian mission is service. This may involve offering resources to communities in need, caring for individuals who are marginalised in these communities. They wish to see themselves not as missionaries to the lost, but fellow travellers, who carry the same questions, and are willing to find answers in others. Christian mission is as much a quest for self-transformation, and renewal of the church, than it is a call to reform larger society.

These voices, then, do not use blogging to rally the troops, or convert people to their way of thinking, but as a confession that their experience of Christianity is not all they have wanted it to be, and that the world they know is not the same world their churches think it is. They call out for alternative methods of thinking and doing mission, and seek to engage non-Christians in the discussion. Perhaps there is another paradox to be noted, that in the use of new technologies these bloggers seek a return to older, even ancient, conversations.

Bloggers in the sample seek a reconstruction of Christian theology, and this quest is ideologically driven. In considering theology, some call it “emerging”, “missional” or “postmodern”, but most refer simply to their personal beliefs, attitudes and questions. By-and-large, bloggers believe in the triune God composed of creator of the universe (though they are far from creationist), redeemer of humanity, and the Spirit who moves among us. They tend to shy away from the gender-specific terms of Father and Son, preferring simply God and Jesus or Christ. Central to their theology are the death and resurrection of Jesus, who is God incarnate.

Other doctrines are up for discussion. An all-loving God is seen as a more important concept than an all-powerful one. For this reason atonement theology is problematic; they question why God would require sacrifice. The cross makes more sense as an indication of the extreme love of God, to endure the worst of human experience, even if that takes the form of abandonment from God. Prosperity theology makes even less sense to them, and is highlighted in many posts and discussions, as it not only lacks sufficient biblical evidence, but appears in its application to serve the higher classes more than the poor. And they believe God has a preferential option for the poor.

Indeed, God has a politic. Doctrines of heaven and hell are at best unhelpful, at worst systems of control and oppression. The Kingdom is an earthly realm, breaking into this world. Jesus came not to make Christians, but to bring liberation and justice. The resurrection is symbolic testimony to the fact that God’s message is not welcome by the powerful, but will not be silenced.

While Christ is the head of the Kingdom, both here now and to come, this Kingdom is not the Christian church. The church is tasked with bringing the Gospel to the world, and ushering in the new realm, but being close to God, participating in the Kingdom, is not conditional on belonging to a church, or even being Christian. Emerging/missional theology accepts that much of God’s word and work can be found in secular culture, and some bloggers find that church culture is failing to speak the Gospel, and go so far to say it is an institution that needs to be overthrown for the Gospel’s sake. Even contemporary methods of academic theology are criticised as serving to alienate people rather than empower people to talk of God.

Bloggers do not claim that this theology is new. They draw on sources such as the Jesus movement, the works of GK Chesterton, NT Wright, CS Lewis. Their claim to being “postmodern” lies in their language of “doubt”. For postmodern theology, doubt is an essential component to faith. Blindly holding on to little truths, such as unhelpful doctrines, leads to a resistance to change and growth, and ultimately collapse. Realising that our worldviews will always and repeatedly be challenged and broken is the path of the spiritual traveller, who affirms that Jesus has been there before, and God is there now. When modern Christians appear like Roman soldiers casting dice at the crucifixion, postmodern Christians want to be like the disciples who run away, only to return to the resurrected Christ with both shame and delight.

God is a rebel. Jesus is a revolutionary. Revelation is rupture. Heaven and hell are not outside this world, but on this planet at this time. In bloggers’ theologies, dualisms are replaced with metaphors. It seems a paradox that the ethereal realm of cyberspace becomes the place to openly affirm this.