New Direction for this Blog

I began this blog as a way to share the changes that have been happening in my life and to share my general thoughts/experiences of the church and faith.  While I will continue to make this a large part of what this blog is used for, it is now serving a dual purpose.  Namely, I've been required by a class to keep--at minimum--a weekly blog that discusses topics that are relevant to the church and the use of multimedia and/or social networking.  The thought behind this project is that the internet allows Christians--particularly those working in the church--to be in conversation with people who the would not necessarily encounter in their everyday lives.  That being the idea behind this whole thing, I've decided to include some statistics about what has happened with my own blog since my first post.

As of today--20 days after my first post--my blog has been visited 234 times.  People have been directed here by facebook, linkedin, yahoo, blogspot, and other websites.  Of those 234 times, my page has been viewed by people in the U.S., Russia, the U.K., Norway, the Ukraine, and Germany.

Given that I am not aware of any friends I have who are living in four of those six countries, I agree with my professor's premise that the internet gives us the opportunity to impact an entirely new audience who we wouldn't come into contact with in our daily lives.  Since a large percentage of the today's church (congregations and individuals) is not present on the internet, where do we expect to enter into conversation with those who are not in pews on Sunday mornings?  As our world becomes more dependent on the internet, what will be the impact on the church and how can we use the internet in new ways as a tool for evangelism?  It's time we challenge ourselves to meet people where they are--whether that's in their neighborhoods, at their jobs, on the internet, etc.--instead of hoping that others will come to our churches to learn about our experiences of God.


"Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.'”
-Matthew 28:16-20