In many important ways a well-managed congregational web site will gently integrate congregational communication into the everyday lives of members.

This article (from where the above quote comes) from Fuller Seminary and Thomas Walker has the kind of flavor with which I can resonate.  It emphasizes the importance of a Church’s Website as a way of “telling a story” and seeking to find ways to “integrate the life of the user with the life of the Church;  or for those to whom this has already happened (and hopefully there is a few of those),  to help them extend their connections with others,  their “schedule” and their connection to News in the world which is of concern to them in their daily living out of their faith (which hopefully will cover a lot of the news in the world today — ie the consideration and deliberations toward war,   and other concerns like those I have with the many areas of potential harm that can be inflicted by the Bush administration across the board: environment, economy, social justice,  and on and on and on.  There are people in the Churches that I have been involved with in these past 6 years who need something like these kinds of Church Webs to “keep their spirtual juices” going even when they are not “gathered together”.  I feel so “drawn” to the communty of faith at moments when I long to be “present in the flesh”,  and so online discussions,  email,  Web site news, Weblogs of others and writing my own,  searching for OTHERS who are writing about similar thngs and similar concerns. 

People of theological communities;  people of the Church,  sit up and take notice.  “Get a Clue”.  Tell our story,  and start by telling yours,  and encourage others to do the same.  We can do this.  Many people have.  Let’s put some investment into increasing the value of the network by bringing our faith to bear on it.  Lets “be present”.  That takes more than putting our bulletins and calendars and directions to the Church,  and even our sermons on a web page. We nedd pictures, people,  their stories, and the chronicles of our journey with a God who calls us to penetrate at all levels of society.  Lets not be “strangers” in the culture that is cyberspace.