Christianity Today

Kevin Goodrich: (e-mail): While we should use these means of communication to advance the gospel, there's a value in being unplugged. Many of the seeker churches are polished to high performance. Here in North Dakota, we get close to nature and say that it's okay to dial out of technology and be the organic beings that God created us to be.

Page Blair: (phone): Scholarship in late 1990s went into how the Gospel of Mark was written as if it were an ancient Greek novel. It was done this way because the evangelist wanted to be sure people read it. So they used a medium that was acceptable to the people they were trying to reach. Archbishop Thomas Cramner believed it was really important that people be able to worship in the vernacular, hence the Book of Common Prayer in English. So, podcasts, PowerPoint presentations, U2charists and so on are all part of an ancient tradition of sharing the Good News in a way that the people who need to hear the story will hear the story.
We're going to see more and more churches with wireless Internet access. Churches that can't afford full-time clergy and don't feel connected to the diocese could download a podcast of the bishop's service every week. So, churches could be connected in a way they haven't been connected before. But the one thing that the sermon at home can't offer is contact with other human beings through which we can experience God's love.

From Rising from the Ashes: Rethinking Church by Becky Garrison, copyright © 2007. Used by permission of Church Publishing Incorporated.

Copyright © 2008 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere:

Rising from the Ashes: Rethinking Church is available from Amazon.com and other retailers.

A review of the book is also on our site today.

Scot McKnight profiled the "5 Streams of the Emerging Church."

More articles on the emergent church are available on our website.

Becky Garrison is senior contributing editor for The Wittenburg Door. She also regularly contributes to the God's Politics blog.