The New Media Frontier: Blogging, Vlogging, and Podcasting for Christ (Paperback)

~ (Author), (Author), Hugh Hewitt (Foreword), Matthew Lee Anderson (Contributor), Joe Carter (Contributor), Terence Armentano (Contributor), Matthew Eppinette (Contributor), Fred Sanders (Contributor), David Wayne (Contributor), Mark D. Roberts (Contributor), Todd Bolsinger (Contributor), Rhett Smith (Contributor), Jason D. Baker (Contributor), Scott Ott (Contributor), Stephen Shields (Contributor)
Key Phrases: new media revolution, preserved discourse, preserved performance, The Dream Center, Beginner's Toolbox, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Experts survey the new media landscape and explore specific ways in which Christians can expand their ministry effectiveness and advance their worldview with discernment and grace.

A recent Pew Study reports that only 2% of America's twelve million bloggers claim "religion, spirituality or faith" as their main topic. This leaves a great mission field in cyberspace, say contributors to The New Media Frontier, because the latest forms of communication present so many opportunities to promote the cause of Christ in other topics and fields. Before blindly jumping in, however, Christians need to weigh the possibilities against the consequences, and then proceed with the practical discernment and grace this book provides.

With a foreword by national radio host Hugh Hewitt-who has been at the forefront of the new media movement among Christians-editors Roger Overton and John Mark Reynolds (along with an impressive list of other new media experts) survey the current landscape and explore specific areas in which God's people can creatively expand their reach to a lost world. By stressing the urgency for Christian involvement, unearthing the dangers, and advising readers on how to use this media with different audiences, this book equips believers to advance, demonstrate, and utilize the Christian worldview in this exciting realm.

About the Author

JOHN MARK REYNOLDS is the founder and director of the Torrey Honors Institute and associate professor of philosophy at Biola University. He has written two books and numerous journal articles. He is also a regular guest on radio talk shows such as the Hugh Hewitt Show and actively blogs on cultural issues at www.johnmarkreynolds.com.

ROGER OVERTON (BA, California State University Long Beach) has taught apologetics classes and workshops at numerous churches, schools, and youth camps in Southern California. He is currently working toward his Master's degree. He blogs at www.ATeamBlog.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Crossway Books (September 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1433502119
• ISBN-13: 978-1433502118
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #659,431 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great new media primer, October 28, 2008

By	J. Brian Kiley "livegenerously.wordpress.com" (Oceanside, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I just finished reading The New Media Frontier: Blogging, Vlogging, and Podcasting for Christ yesterday, and I think this book is a terrific primer for Christians hoping to better understand new media. The breadth of topics covered in the book virtually ensures that just about anyone who reads it will find something relevant to their lives and ministries, while few will find that every chapter is relevant to them. As somewhat of a new media newbie, I found the book to be very helpful. Also, as a pastor, the book helped me understand various ways to integrate new media into my work in ministry.

The book is broken into two sections, and from there into a total of 15 chapters written by several different authors. The first section is called The Landscape of the New Media. It outlines the current state of new media, forecasts about its future, warns of the potential dangers of embracing it uncritically, and then offers some beginners some tips on entering the world(s) of blogging and podcasting.

I began reading this book expecting it to be one big commercial for new media, but was pleasantly surprised by how balanced it was. Several chapters emphasized the importance of embracing the new media world discerningly (particularly Matthew Lee Anderson's chapter on the dangers of uncritically embracing new media), and the overall message of the book seemed to be that Christians must engage the new media world, but that they must do so with caution.

Chapters 4 and 5 of the book basically provide everything that a new media greenhorn needs to gain a basic understanding of blogging and podcasting. Despite the massive popularity of both blogs and podcasts, they remain a mystery to many (especially many in the church world). These chapters did an excellent job of showing how to get started blogging and podcasting. In addition to showing how to set up blogs and podcasts, the chapters also provided some tips on producing high quality content. The authors of these chapters also effectively made the point that Christians should be engaged in blogging and podcasting.

The second section of the book is called Engaging New Media and deals with several different potential implications and applications of new media. The chapter of theological blogging shows how the existence of blogs has provided a new forum for discussing and debating theology. This can have both positive and negative implications for theological discourse, and thus must be used with care. Tod Bolsinger's chapter Blogging as Microwave Community discusses the various ways that blogging can aid Christian community. Bolsinger does a good job of showing how blogs can facilitate Christian community without being a replacement for it.

The two most helpful chapters for pastors were Mark D. Roberts' chapter Pastors and the New Media, and Rhett Smith's chapter Navigating the Evolving World of Youth Ministry in the Facebook-MySpace Generation. Both Roberts and Smith write from their experience with new media and do a good job of showing the pastoral usefulness. Roberts writes from a senior pastor's perspective while Smith writes from a stutdent ministry perspective. If you're a pastor or ministry leader and you've only got time to read a few chapters out of this book, make sure you read these ones. The reality is that as new media becomes more and more mainstream people will be spending more and more of their lives online, thus it will be increasingly important for churches to have a sophisticated online presence that they can utilize to effectively communicate online.

The rest of the book discusses the effect that new media will have on everything from apologetics to politics to bioethics to social justice to academia. Several of these fields are substantially different now than they were five years ago thanks to new media, and the transformation is far from over. New media has and will continue to effect the way we get our news, the way we get our education, and even the way we advocate for causes we believe in. It is fascinating to consider the access to power that exists for ordinary individuals thanks to new media. While big media stalwarts still wield significant influence, ordinary people are more free to express their opinions, question authority, and otherwise assert themselves online than ever before.

As I said, The New Media Frontier is a great primer on new media. While I found some chapters to be more practically helpful than others, I believe this entire book is worth reading because new media is not going away any time soon. The better the church understands new media the better it can use the tools of new mediia for effective proclamation of the gospel. Whether you are a church pastor looking to utilize new media in your ministry or a lay person who is simply interesting on better understanding the state of online communication, I highly recommend giving this book a read.

5.0 out of 5 stars Five stars for what it is, but only two for what I expected it to be, August 1, 2009

By	A Reader - See all my reviews

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This is a very BASIC book. If you have experience at all with teh interwebz, you will not learn much new. Nonetheless, there are some insights, both good and poor, that are springboards for discussion. I will be using this book as part of a presentation on Christians and Social Networking and will will those insights of both categories as talking points. What I disliked was the constant assumption that "in person" is inherently better than the electronic medium. Have we ever met the Apostle Paul? Perhaps it is my sensitivity to the self-righteous attitude of some Christians to internet fellowship as second-class, but that tone left a bad taste in my mouth. Maybe I am just used to be being on the bleeding edge, but I find it somewhat hard to believe that the Christian community is so Luddite that such a basic book is necessary. And the Amish don't care about new media.

4.0 out of 5 stars The New Media Frontier - a good primer, November 14, 2008

By	dachkl (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

The New media Frontier serves both as a primer on the use of internet technology for churches and ministry, but also as a collection of thoughts looking to the present and future to discuss ways in which churches, ministries, and missions have been and will be shaped by the use of technology.

The first section of the book focuses on the `primer' element. The contributors offer overview and reflections on `new media' and the church, as well as beginner's guides to using blogs and other web technologies (video, podcasts, etc.) in a ministry setting. Much of this basic information was presented with few assumptions, and for those who aren't tech-savvy it could be a great resource to understand the "hows and whys" of new technology and media.

The discussions in the second half move beyond the basics into discussions of how new media has, can, and will affect churches, pastors, and ministries in the coming years. These chapters range from discussions of `cyber communities' centered around blogs, using new media in teaching situations, seeing Facebook as a tool for pastoral counseling, and how new media will shape the church's forays into issues like bioethics and social justice.

I appreciated the discussion that is represented in The New Media Frontier. It felt odd to read these thoughts on pages, because so many of them seemed like conversations that would be at home on blogs and websites - and many of them probably started out that way. In this sense, the book represents a particular moment in time - a moment when many churches have begun to consider how technology affects their ministry but have not yet fully embrace the opportunities provided by new media. This book can be a great resource for those who have yet to commit to the possibilities presented by new technologies and a launching point for conversations about how they will allow the new media frontier to shape the future of their ministries.