There’s already a great conversation already swirling around on Nick’s blog about Customization and Web Church and how “success” might be measured in one’s ability to “customize the experience.”
A few comments pointing to “spiritual authority” and issues of “consumerism” point out the obvious holes in the argument, but I think I understand the essence of what Nick is saying.
There will always be a fine line of keeping the authority of scripture fast as well as providing “relevancy” and “culture contextualization” into the mix. It’s a tension that we must live with and one that we’ll be grappling with for a while, especially since Web Campuses and Online Experiences are still very young and new.
And culturally, we in an economy of choice online, where we desire the ability to “customize” our experiences. What do we do with that?
I’d like to think that we’d strive to be creators of experience, in the boundaries and guidelines of Scripture, in a way that is both in line with the context in which we serve and being cognizant of the culture in which we find ourselves in. The problem, of course, is that what I just wrote is laden with issue and interpretation.
One of our goals, then, should be to provide avenues of discussion so not as to dogmatically proclaim one particular practice and methodology as right but rather be open to humble dialogue.
But back to the question: “Is customization a sign (or differentiating factor) for the web campus experience?” Or perhaps, if you dare, what does “success” really mean for the online?
// Disclaimers: 1) I love megachurches, Really. 2) This is the longest comment I have ever posted, Sorry.
I was reading the discussion over @Ipiphanist and J. Blankenship had a really insightful comment: http://bit.ly/JhrOL (straight to the comment).
I am afraid, nervous really that "designing my Spiritual Experience" will become an excuse. An excuse for sin, laziness. America is obsessed with self (surely you've heard that sermon), should the church encourage more of it? Of course I hate Cookie-Cutter-Christianity as much as you. Maybe a story will help:
Our church, Midtown, only has church at night. Early on, we were dubbed "my night church" by a lot of attendees. They simply were plugging in at two churches, probably for the extra communion wine haha. As a result, tons of people showed up, but few of them actually pursued community, or God. Leadership had to encourage the double-uppers to pick one! They weren't interested in being the church, they were just going.
Bottom line: if I float in and out of experiences in the name of customization, the second the heat turns on, I'm out.
Finally: Web Church success is this: Christ glorified.
dude. word up on the christ glorified.
"if I float in and out of experiences in the name of customization, the second the heat turns on, I'm out."
Truth. I've seen it happen and I've come close to doing it simply because I thought that the church should be doing something relatively trivial a different way.
I understand your concern regarding customization becoming an excuse to sin and not grow. However, your story points out that people have the opportunity to customize their spiritual experience (to an extent) by floating from church to church. You know, a little liturgy at the Catholic spot, next some "conversation" at the emergent church in the strip mall, then on to the post-modern church just to see which Affliction shirt the pastor is wearing. Finally, to the Orthodox church for the food.
Adam_S in a comment below sums it up well by putting a focus on individual responsibility. That might be the biggest issue the American Church faces. If we're all just a bunch of consumerist Christians with gavage tubes pumping whatever makes us feel good down our throats, are we ready for the type of responsibility that a customized online experience will require for continuing growth?
I still don't understand how the customization is really all that different from real life church. People have the choice to do what they want in real life church, there isn't anything that makes sure they follow directions or do proper growth.
I guess I don't think we should be holding online church experience to a higher standard than what is already going on in regular real life church. We may want perfection, but it isn't going to happen because we are real people and perfection doesn't happen anywhere.
That's the point I was trying to make. Ultimately an individual will make the decision to grow or remain stagnate. They can make that decision online or in a building.
I think in terms of technology, customized “appearance” and functionality. for example, we could let the person “choose” to have widgets, or chat, or whatever…
I'm good with that, John. I might not be understanding what level of customization we're talking here. Optional chat? *Definitely* good. Instant play list so you can skip the sermon, worship, etc? Probably not so much.
word.
I have definitely had enough contact with web campus attenders to wholeheartedly agree that there's a huge danger in people using customization as a way to avoid "being the church." Or seeing church as something different than a body of believers' working for each other's good for the advancement of the kingdom. My whole ecclesiology/theology puts a lot of weight in the importance of creating one "body of believers," but i'm not sure that denying the reality of the "economy of choice" (great phrase, John) will mean that people will buy into the "one body" concept. I think it's about casting vision, and giving people multiple avenues to integration.
The "multiple avenues to integration" is a great phrase. As long as integration is the destination, it is not very important how they got there yes?
@Adam_S and @Eric_Grenata, thanks for jumping in, I really like the point about personal responsibility. This conversation has been very helpful for me.
I think many people are mis-reading Willow Creek's "Reveal" study. That study said that traditional church attendance and participation in standard church programs did not lead to spiritual growth. That was not an indicment against mega-churches because the study has been replicated by lots of different churches of different sizes. Basically the results said that unless people can be taught to feed themselves and be responsible for their own spiritual growth, at least in part through serving others, people will not grow beyond a certain point spiritually. That is a large part of where church frustration comes in. Churches tell people you will grow if you just do what we tell you to. The reality is that people grow when they learn to direct their own spiritual growth (in community) with a strong emphasis on service.
So I am not sure how online church will work without there being some type of customizability. My read, is that the two sides of this arguement are talking past one another.
Totally! I think we are talking past each other … intrinsic motivation is what leads to growth, and sometimes, you have to put in place the right environment for that to flourish.
Thousands of people attend megachurches because "[they] can craft unique, customized spiritual experiences through the multitude of ministry choices and diverse avenuges for involvement." This is one of the prominent findings from the National Survey of Megachurch Attenders, "Not who you think they are: The real story of people who attend America's megachurches" recently released by Leadership Network. Get the report as a free download from http://leadnet.org/megachurch
If a customized spiritual experience is already there in the offline world, seems the same can be done in the online world. There's your green light, human3rror!
[disclosure: I work with Leadership Network]
word up!