Meetings in RealSpace are of necessity highly structured, and there are rules about who can speak at any given time. You can't have everybody talking at once otherwise you have an uncontrollable hubbub. Somebody has to be in control, and it's usually a figurehead such as a minister who addresses the whole congregation on a regular basis. Then you might have house meetings where the lower ranks have more opportunity to talk to each other.
Sometimes, the limitations of RealSpace produce inequalities, for example the minister might be obliged to do his half-hour stint every Sunday morning, even though he might have nothing to say and he is more like a clown who smiles when his heart is breaking. At the same time someone else with a great deal to say might be left sitting in a pew waiting for the starting pistol that is never fired.
Such inequalities are difficult to perpetuate on the Internet (although there are some who try it). We all have the same opportunity to set up Web pages, build up mailing lists, and spam out our sermons to anyone who we think might be interested. One of the disadvantages is that we talk to each other globally at great distances and rarely have a chance to meet in RealSpace. Sometimes we exchange messages with people, and unless we take the trouble to ask, we don't know whether they are young or old, near or far, or even which country they are in.
The idea of a Local CyberChurch brings people together in both CyberSpace and RealSpace as follows:
The people who are likely to benefit most from a CyberChurch are those who have, for one reason or another, dropped out of conventional churches. If someone is going regularly to church on Sunday, and going to the mid-week Bible study, prayer meeting, youth meeting, committee meeting, choir practice and band practice, it's unlikely that they will have time for CyberChurch. But there are many who have dropped out of church for all sorts of reasons such as lack of teaching, lack of opportunity, domineering leadership, hyper-charismatic freak-outs and all the rest of it. Many of these would benefit from a CyberChurch.
Small house fellowships will also benefit because the CyberChurch will bring them together.
Not to any greater extent than the church has already been abused. In fact it is less subject to abuse because the freedom of CyberSpace offers the following solutions:
The only problem I have encountered on the Internet are people who are argumentative, determined to prove they are right, and don't know when to wind up a discussion. However, unless you are argumentative yourself, you can close them off just by not replying.
Now here is a real opportunity to practice New Testament Christianity. In the days of the Early Church they shared their possessions.
And all that believed were together, and had all things common; (Acts 2:44).
When you meet in your house groups, why not meet in a house where there is a computer? Just leave the mail program running and let people type in their messages and queue them up. Then when they have finished, log in and send them all.
Do you have a computer in your church, and is it linked to the Internet? I remember one time I was at a Pathfinder youth meeting and the leader asked for ideas about what we could do in the church, expecting to get suggestions of the next Pathfinder service on a Sunday morning. One young boy who didn't know much about church said "Install lots of computers" and everybody laughed because they thought it was funny. Little did they realise...
Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise. (Matt 21:16, quoting Psalm 8:2).
Just mail your friends with the idea and reference this page.
I would like to start a CyberChurch in the Reading or Guildford areas, as I live about half way between these two major towns. Anyone interested please send me a message.
Mike Gascoigne
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