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

by John Mark Reynolds (Author), Roger Overton (Author), Hugh Hewitt (Foreword), Matthew Lee Anderson (Contributor), Joe Carter (Contributor), Terence Armentano (Contributor), Matthew Eppinette (Contributor), David Wayne (Contributor), Todd Bolsinger (Contributor), Mark D. Roberts (Contributor), Rhett Smith (Contributor), Fred Sanders (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 (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #721,611 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.

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

By	dachkl (Pasadena, 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.

4.0 out of 5 stars A Guide To The New Media For The Church, November 2, 2008

By	Shepherd Ahlers (Louisville, KY) - See all my reviews

Is it possible to communicate the fullness of the ever changing, ever expansive category of "New Media", using a book? That is just what John Mark Reynalds & Roger Overton attempt to do, as they bring together some of the best voices from the Christian movement in New Media. The results are a fascinating and informative book, that for now is a complete and relevant guide to the things Christian media creators should know and should care about.

The book is written by a team of well-researched writers, who speak from experience. It begins especially well, and explains the history and the relevancy of the New Media from a Judeo-Christian worldview. From there it continues to build the case for Christians to learn to use the new forums of communication now open to us.

The points it raises are fascinating, and to the point. Each question is handled well, and nothing is simply dismissed or glossed over.
It explains why Christians should err on the side of liberty when it comes to the new media, and at the same time explores the pitfalls and weaknesses in the New Media movement.
The communication style of each writer is easy to read, but very well researched and full of information. I found myself highlighting and marking sections of the book to come back to. There possibly couldn't be a better resource available for the Christian interested and/or involved in producing for a new generation highly attuned to the ever changing world of media. The author brings out this quote that; "as long as Liberty prevails, a chance for more entrepreneurial activity in information distribution will exist."
The incredible tools that the New Media bring to the table will need to be defended, for freedoms sake. True Christianity has and will do well under the microscope of free information access.

If you are new to the realm of online media and blogging, this is a great start, but without mentioning up and coming and widely popular twitter and spending so much time on the awful Youtube, rather than the more relevant and high quality sites for video available [...]I wonder how long this book will last before needing to be republished?
Of course that is the point... Technology changes, and the old media can only take the church so far before we are irrelevant.

I work in producing media that falls into both the old media and new media categories, and I found this book to be extremely relevant to the questions I had in trying to navigate the expansive waters of the internet revolutions aftermath. Great discussions will come from reading this book, and I imagine most of them will be communicated, like this review, via the New Media.

Shepherd Ahlers
Intern, City on a Hill Productions