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SimChurch: Being the Church in the Virtual World

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When Zondervan sent me a copy of 'SimChurch' by Douglas Estes (no relation) I assumed I was holding a book that encouraged traditional churches to update their decade-old websites and get their weekend services online. Boy was I wrong. Apparently while I wasted time mastering Rock Band in my basement other nerds have been experimenting how to have a virtual expression of the Church.

Viewing church services on the Internet is mostly a passive experience, just like watching an TV evangelist. Virtual churches have made a major leap beyond the one-sided nature of viewing a service. Community happens through the Internet; it just may not be the same definition of community that we grew up with. Each generation learns how it is going to connect with each other and technology is a major factor in that decision. The same can be said for churches. What the printing press, automobiles and air conditioning did to change the way society interacts, and the way churches meet, is happening again with the Internet. Whether or not we like the changes, it is here to stay. If a church wants to stay ahead of the curve, learning how to connect with this generation then they need to get plugged in. If, instead, they jump up and down on their pews, pound their pulpits and tip over the baptismal because they think their way of doing church is `right' they need to remember that most churches through history have had none of the conveniences they just threw their temper tantrum trying to defend.

This book was not written by someone on the inside trying to state a case for their virtual gaming world or new church software. Douglas Estes is the pastor of a real, brick and mortar church in San Jose, California; he has a PhD in Theology and is an Adjunct Professor of the New Testament at Western Seminary. He has put together a very thought provoking study of this new expression and isn't afraid to ask very specific, important questions:
* Is a virtual church a real, authentic, and valid expression of the Church of Jesus Christ?
* Can virtual community really work? How can virtual churches reenergize Christian community?
* Can avatars know God? Can the people of God experience spiritual growth as avatars?
* How will virtual churches change the way we `do' church? Are virtual sacraments and other faith practices possible or valid (or just inevitable)?
* How should virtual churches relate to traditional authority? Can virtual churches harness the power of decentralization without further fractioning Christianity?
* How can virtual churches confront sin and brokenness in the virtual world? What are the ethical issues facing virtual churches?
* What must a church do to turn a jumble of digital content into an Internet campus? What are the ingredients of healthy, virtual-campus life?
* Can a virtual church be a missional church? How will virtual churches engage in various forms of ministry? What types of virtual ministries will arise?
* How will virtual churches build communities? Will they be global or local? What are the dangers associated with churches based on virtual social connectivity?
* Will virtual churches open up the Gospel to all people? What will virtual churches teach us about the nature of being the church?

If you've been already been asking some of these questions then you will love the head start this book will give you towards the discussion. If you haven't been asking these questions, maybe you should be- if not for yourself, for the generation around you.

The truth is some people are more present and participatory in a virtual church setting than many people who passively attended a brick and mortar church. Some people who attend normal churches find more significant relationships online than they do on Sunday mornings. And those who see themselves as missional need to recognize that there is a new world for them evangelize, a whole new continent where many people are living. How will we be the church with them?

Even if you never attend a church service in Second Life, or one of the other virtual platforms, I hope you will consider reading this book to help understand and engage with the world you are living in.

Here is my review of this book, which I originally posted on my blog last fall. You can find this review and reviews of other books related to faith and technology at my blog [...].

For those of you unfamiliar with this new movement, the idea of online church is not just putting a recording of your church service online. Instead, it is actually conducting an entire live church service online, complete with worship, teaching, offering, fellowship, and possibly even communion and baptism. This can include both churches with Internet campuses and those who conduct services in virtual worlds, such as Second Life. The author tackles questions surrounding the validity of online church and asks some tough questions. He ends the book by challenging online churches to break the mold and attempt to do things that no physical-world church can.

If you have read my blog before, you know that I have been a critic of online church. However, as a lover of technology and the Internet, I am always open to thinking in new ways about things and want to see how technology can be used to share the message of Christ. But I am also a realist: I know that just because we can do church online does not mean that we should. So I read this book with an open mind and heart - looking for new ways of thinking about online church.

Some highlights of SimChurch for me included:

- a definition of virtual church as "a virtually localized assembly of the people of God dwelling in meaningful community with the task of building the kingdom."
- the author taking on those who would use the church as described in Acts 2 as a way to discredit the virtual church. The early church existed at a special time in history and we will never fully be able to recapture it. Churches today cannot expect to do everything that the Acts 2 church did.
- the discussion of how our Western worldview clouds our understanding of "presence". Defining presence as the location of our bodies is not a God-given or Biblical idea.
- a challenge to Christians to be ever vigilant on how we conduct ourselves. Since everything we do virtually is recorded in some way, we should be completely transparent about our online lives. Identity and authenticity will be key issues in the virtual church.
- to be seen as real churches, virtual churches must begin to offer communion. The exact methods as to how to do it must be worked out by each individual church within their traditions and understanding. Baptisms should also be offered.
- The online church will need to leverage their strengths to do things that physical-world church cannot do (or at least cannot do well).
- Douglas Estes is a supporter of online church and in this book he makes a very good case that it is important that these churches continue to move forward and meet the challenges they will face head on. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and was encouraged to think deeper about online church.

Unfortunately, I am still not convinced that the participation in a church service accessed over the Internet and mediated via a computer is the same as actually attending a church physically. In my experience, the types of worship, fellowship, and community experienced online is anemic compared to what one can get by fully participating in a physical-world church (not to mention the issues with communion and baptism). Now this would not be a big issue to me if it were not for the fact that these online churches never encourage those participating online to find to a physical-world church. I was hoping that SimChurch would address this question, but it did not.

Now let me reiterate, I believe it is imperative that Christians take to the Internet as a mission field and learn to understand it well. I wouldn't spend so much of time helping churches do this if I did not feel it was important. Using the Internet should be an integral part of a church's ministry. And being there to meet with and minister to those in the virtual world should be part of what they do. And yes, even providing the ability for someone to experience a church service online can be part of the ministry - but it should be made clear that every believer needs to find a physical community to be a part of as well.

Overall I think that SimChurch does a great job of exploring online church and its implications. If you are looking for a deeper understanding of this phenomenon, then I recommend this book. And if you never have participated in an online church service, I encourage you to do so at the now over forty different Internet campuses available. Just remember to also attend church in "real life" as well.

As an internet campus pastor with almost a year under my belt doing church online, I approached the book with a little bit of skepticism, but my skepticism was completely unjustified. I finished the book last night, and I wish I had read this book sooner! The author's research into the biblical text, church history, and current online practices was exceptional.

I'm now reconsidering many things that I had taken for granted regarding ministry online. Honestly, the book left me more excited than ever about the importance of this kind of ministry.

Even if you're not currently engaged in much online ministry, this book is certainly worth your while.

Virtual Church is something I was not aware of until recently, but which got me thinking a lot as to the relevance of such a thing. I have found there are a lot of strong opinions on the matter, many against.

However, none of the reasoning seems as well thought out and researched as does, Sim Church. Mr. Estes has gone to painstaking detail in explaining just what virtual church is (and is not).

He also uses examples of how this is not the first time Christians have been wary of something new. (Chapter mentioning John Wesley and the Methodists for example)

And it might be yet another time those concerns are unfounded. For the real purpose of online church is to reach out to people, to witness, and to spread the word of God to a section of people (which is significant and growing) who might not otherwise hear it. The argument should not be "well these people are wrong, because they need to get to a "real" church. That is not witnessing that will convince anyone. This is another mission field. One that will spread the word of God to even more corners of the world.

Mr. Estes has written a book that is thought provoking and backs up his thoughts with research and scripture. It should be required reading for the subject.

This was a great introduction to the virtual church. Before reading the book, I didn't even know that virtual churches existed. Douglas Estes describes the virtual church, and then differentiates it from traditional churches that maintain an Internet presence, focusing on the problems and opportunities available for the virtual church. Many of the problems facing the virtual church, he points out, are the same problems facing any church. Looking at these problems from a virtual viewpoint might cast a new light on how we should be handling these problems in our own churches.

As stated in the book, "The Christian church is engaging far less than 1 percent of the seventy million people who are active in the virtual world." This is a huge opportunity. Any church can now conceivably reach millions of people who would likely never even consider entering their building for a Sunday service. As also pointed out in the book, the virtual church also provides an opportunity for those who cannot, or just find it difficult to attend a regular church service.

Our young adults today have maintained virtual social networking for years already, so what I didn't even know existed - the virtual church - may be exactly how they will best relate to the church, at least initially. While not every church should "build" a virtual church, many churches should at least consider the opportunity. Another important question - should those of us who attend church regularly consider also attending a virtual church, not necessarily for our own church experience, but so we can be rubbing virtual elbows with seekers who might benefit from our virtual presence.

A must read for anyone considering a virtual presence on the Internet, and a very worthwhile read for those who are just curious.

Estes, Douglas. SimChurch: Being the Church in theVirtual World. Zondervan, 2009, 256 pages.

Of all the books I have read in preparation for a class next month on Church in the Age of Facebook, this is the one I was most pre-disposed to disagree with and perhaps even dislike. Although I am a strong proponent of the use of new media for communication, I have generally had a bias against the idea that online communities could authentically host "church." I think my doubts about "SimChurch" are probably especially related to the high view of the sacraments I hold as a Lutheran Christian, but I also think I simply don't understand--and have not participated in--simulated worlds enough to have a warm or favorable sense of them.

I find myself surprised, and in awe, because not only has Douglas Estes won me over, at least to the point of recognizing that the church needs to offer some kind of virtual church in the present era, but he has actually won me over so completely that I am already trying to envision how our church might better do mission starts in the virtual world, and how my denomination, the ELCA, can direct mission developer energy in that direction. In the same way that J.W.C. Dietrichson followed the Norwegian settlers to the new world in order to organize them into churches, it is incumbent upon us as Lutherans to figure out how to be with people on this new, growing frontier.

Which is not to say that I agree with Estes on all points. I still think offering the sacraments in a virtual context, no matter how you slice it, is questionable. But it is part of the strength of Estes's book that instead of investing too much time into the "whether" of the sacraments online, Estes devotes attention to best practices given that churches online will need to do something. His outline of four different ways to do communion (Symbolic virtual communion, avatar-mediated virtual communion, extensional virtual communion, or outsourced virtual communion) offers an analysis of the range of options. Furthermore, his sense that "virtual sacraments [may] reinvigorate the use of sacraments in real world churches" is undoubtedly correct, because everything about the virtual world and the avatar experience can, experienced properly, reinvigorate real world practice.

I think I also have been won over by Estes because he has done his homework, and actually is able to engage both biblical theology and ecclesiology in order to make his argument. Often, in order to discuss, for example, what church actually is, he takes us back to the letters of Paul, in order to get clear on what Paul actually meant by ecclesia. "It is fair to say that Paul believes himself to be part of these local churches, even though he may not be geographically close... Paul does not appear to view geography or space as a factor that can limit his participation in the church."[1] Similarly, he is conversant with some of the classic literature in ecclesiology, and points out that "'our concept of the Church is basically influenced by the form of the Church at any given time.' It will be tempting for many moderns (and those foreign to the culture of the virtual world) to reject the authenticity of virtual churches simply because they are not forms of church that they are accustomed to."[2]

Furthermore, it is the overall awareness raising he accomplishes in the book that blows me away. "The Christian church is engaging far less than 1 percent of the seventy million people who are active in the virtual world. This means the virtual world is by far the largest unreached people group on planet Earth. Simon Jenkins, one of the founders of Church of Fools, remarks that `it's like someone has created a new town and no one has thought to build a church there. It's almost scandalous."[3] "One thing virtual churches could use is good, healthy, constructive dialog with real-world churches--and not being looked down upon the way just about every new group of churches has been looked down upon throughout church history by more traditional forms of church."[4]
Estes has also done his homework experientially. He's been to the churches in the virtual world and attended their worship and participated in community. Some of the ones I found most intriguing I provide links for here:

[...] This is the virtual world he refers to most often, and on Second Life, he is especially favorable towards the model of church on offer by the Anglican Cathedral on Second Life, which has a blog: [...]

[...] This is the continuing iteration of what started as the Church of Fools, a mission experiment by the Methodist Church.

[...] An Internet based church with real world and virtual world manifestations

Estes considers each of these, in some form or another, to be a real, and surprisingly a "local" church, inasmuch as local is defined not by geography, but by the fact that they are a group belong together and presided over by Christ.

Midway through the book, Estes admits, "If we want to reach people in the virtual world, we have to reach avatars, even though the whole avatar thing gives a lot of church people the willies."[5] That is very true, and even understated. I think a main reason why my own denomination has virtually no virtual presence is that either we just don't get it, we don't think it matters, or we have some kind of cultural aversion to it. Maybe tons of Lutherans are on Second Life and they just aren't talking about it, but it seems to me it is simply a cultural context distant from most of our leaders, and possibly members. So being present there is truly a mission issue for us of major proportions. It means crossing a cultural frontier, learning a new language, in fact learning a new way of being and being present--as an avatar. And as Estes explains in an excursus on pages 94-95 of the book, we cannot go there in order to just invite online avatars to attend our real churches. We need to be church there, for them, where they are.

Hear this call to action: "The church is poised to fail big-time--to drop a ball of monumental proportions. Here's how it will play out. As tens of millions of people flock to virtual worlds, traditional Christians who fear change in the church at large will see alarmist headlines about the virtual world and will dismiss the virtual world as one big sinful fantasy, as being not real. They will turn the virtual world over to its own devices, and tens of millions of people--with no true ethical compass--will embrace greater free agency and then write their own rules on what is right and wrong... the solution that many church leaders may propose is either to warn their followers away from the virtual world or to speak ex cathedra from their real-world churches. As history demonstrates, neither of these will work. The solution is quite simple. If we want to reach a world for Christ, to turn it away from sin and selfishness back to real freedom and true peace found only in God, we'll make it happen only by planting churches in that world, to reach and sanctify its people (1 Peter 2:9)."[6]

Estes offers a comparable challenge for leaders of virtual churches. "How will they do ministries that appear to be impossible (or at a sever disadvantage) in the virtual world--ministries such as social, helps, or mission ministries?"[7] Estes hints that these churches may already be accomplish some of these ministries simply by being virtual churches. Many virtual churches are attended by marginalized groups--people with phobias, autism, Tourets, or other special needs that makes it difficult for them to attend real world church. However, since virtual church is a gated community at least in the sense that only those with the technology and know-how to set up an avatar and be there can attend, virtual churches will have to give more than average kinds of energy to trying to be the hands and feet of Christ not just online but in the real world.

I hope this gives readers a sense of why this book is so important, so powerful, and so timely. It's definitely the most transformative book I've read in the past few years, and I am incredibly surprised to admit that.

[1] 46.
[2] 35, quoting Han Küng's The Church.
[3] 29.
[4] 40.
[5] 79.
[6] 164.
[7] 202.

For many ministry leaders, the subject of virtual reality evangelism is about as relevant as polyester suits and mile-wide ties. Few if any have enough time to spend time checking emails or on Facebook, much less on virtual reality networks such as Second Life. Its just not a realm of which they ever enter or are even aware. In SimChurch, Doug Estes, takes up the daunting task of engaging the virtual world with the gospel and why it should matter to you.

A good portion of SimChurch is dedicated to explaining exactly what is the virtual world. Estes unpacks the verbiage associated with virtual environments. This is both helpful and necessary to building his comparison of the church in the "real world" and the church in the virtual world. What many ministry leaders will appreciate is how Estes demonstrates fidelity to sound ecclesiology while discussing its implications to ministry in the virtual world. Commenting on those who would eschew the validity of virtual world ministry Estes writes,

"...it is easy to point to examples of all the unorthodox behavior that goes on in virtual churches - avatars in lingerie, questionable prophets with Christian conspiracy theories, and marauding trolls. Come to think of it, it's easy to do the same with real-world churches too. Church in the virtual world sounds just like church in the real world - lots of confused and broken people who "share" their confusion and brokenness with others."

It is excerpts like these that draw attention to the fact that "real world" pastors and churches overlook the parallels to their virtual world counterparts at their own peril.

SimChurch is not all about explanation and awareness. Estes also spends time casting a vision for how churches and families that are removed from the virtual world can engage it with the gospel. He also describes the possibilities for leveraging the virtual world to engage and equip people who might not otherwise darken the doors of a brick and mortar sanctuary. Estes writes,

"What if in the future, virtual-world-based small groups were more powerful than today's small groups because they are full-on worship experiences? What if we invite our friends over to our house not just for nachos and chili-cheese fries and some discussion but to participate in a virtual-church worship service - especially one that is able to harness the power of the virtual world to allow for attendee participation? What if a virtual-church pastor spoke to hundreds of these "worship parties" around the real world?"

That is the extent of the positive message that Estes conveys. It is a challenge to redeem the virtual world and claim it for the gospel.

I found this book to be extremely practical and thought provoking. I had my assumptions about the virtual world challenged just as I had my understanding of ecclesiology sharpened. SimChurch is as much for those who regularly engage in technology as for those who dont. In either case, it will cause you to think about opportunities exist for taking the gospel to a largely overlooked amalgam of people groups worldwide.

When I received a copy of this book from a friend of mine, I was not sure what to expect. I've never really spent much time considering what it means to be a church, or how the growing scope of technology might affect it. I'm not even the most religious person. I have beliefs, but I don't currently belong to a church and struggle with many aspects of organized religion.

That being said, I found this book tremendously interesting. Other church members and pastors have already spoken up about Estes' work and how it can help as a guide in successful ministry over the internet. For me, as a lay person, the fascination with this book was in taking an example "What does the bible require for legitimacy in a church" and translating the concept into a virtual world. I believe Estes' work has implications beyond the church, although make no mistake, that is definitely his main focus in the book.

One of the chapters that really made me think was called, "The Incarnational Avatar". In this chapter, Estes speaks about avatars (representations of self in a virtual world), and whether people can experience spiritual growth through them. He talks about how people can experience real world changes because of what their avatars experience, and how their "real-life" affects what they choose to do with their avatar. For me, an avatar was always something outside of myself - but Estes makes excellent arguments that even something such as an email address is an avatar, and that it is a deeply personal thing for individuals.

I learned a lot in this book. I learned more about how early churches were organized; I learned about the biblical beliefs that affect the legitimacy of churches; I learned about virtual worlds and experiences in which I have never participated (e.g. Second Life); and I considered how virtual environments will, more and more, become extensions of the real world. Estes makes excellent arguments that you cannot always consider the "real world" to be different than the "virtual world", and his arguments have merit in many different areas.

I just finished reading SimChurch by Douglas Estes this morning. I am thrilled to say both what it did and didn't do. What the book did was to provoke me, a real world pastor of a small church in Western Pennsylvania, to think seriously about what it means to be the church. By moving from our "real" physical world to the uncharted areas of the virtual world, Estes provides a format to examine what a church ought to be, whether "physical world" or "virtual" without the baggage of considering "the way we've always done it." The book offers important practical considerations for those who would consider doing virtual ministry to be sure, but for me a latecomer to digital ministry and a pastor unlikely to even visit the worlds Estes explores, It was a refreshing way to begin thinking again about what we do in our church and what things are church and what things are just "churchy" activities.
What the book isn't, that I also enjoyed, is that it is NOT an attempt to convince me to opt into a new program or hard sell my church on what it "must do now" if it is to be faithful to Jesus Christ. Estes pastoral approach guides those who would attempt virtual ministry to consider what it will take to be a "real" church in the virtual world. He also challenges the rest of us to consider the importance of virtual worlds, "telepresent" people, and technological connectedness that are a part of the world in which we now live.
I recommend this book to any who would want to clarify their own thoughts on what it means to be the church in any world, physical or virtual, and whether agreeing or disagreeing with Estes conclusions, begin to see how we might be called to do whatever we do better and more faithfully.
SimChurch: Being the Church in the Virtual World