Fiona Veitch Smith

When Jesus walked the earth he didn’t hire a hall, put out some posters and hope the people would come to him. No, he put on his shoes and took to the road, meeting people as they worked, lived and played. Now and then he would drop into a synagogue, a place of gathering for learned discussion; then finish off his day having a drink with some friends at a local. Jesus went to where the people were.

Increasingly, in this ‘Internet age’, the people are found online. A recent survey suggests that your average Briton spends at least six hours online a week 1 – that’s far more than they spend in a church building. In response to this, a number of church and ‘para-church’ groups are providing – online meeting places – for Christians and those exploring their faith to gather.

Welcome to St Pixels

At St Pixels, an online community supported by the Methodist church, visitors are welcomed on the homepage with: ‘Imagine church with no cobwebs, wooden pews, hymn books, overhead projector, leaking roof, organ fund . or even a church building .’

This suggests that the target audience are people who are uncomfortable or disillusioned with formal church structures. Or perhaps they are simply people looking for a church that reflects who they perceive themselves to be: Christians connected by relationships which are not limited to a geographical space, bound together by the Holy Spirit. And isn’t that what the Church with a Capital ‘C’ is supposed to be?

People from all over the world log onto St Pixels – and they’re not all Methodists. Mark Howe, one of St Pixels’ founders said: ‘People join for a variety of reasons. We are accessible for those who cannot leave home due to infirmity or young children. It’s also convenient for people whose working life does not fit with local church services – or who live far from a physical church. Members take part in discussions, pray for each other and play games – as well as worshipping together.’

This ‘worship’ takes the form of set ‘real time’ services with Bible readings, corporate prayers, a sermon and even, at times, some singing – a gift to the tone deaf! But for the rest of the time St Pixels is just a place where people can drop in and find fellowship.

In a survey conducted in 2007, the organisers of St Pixels discovered that of the then 2,000 members3 a third of them had no connection with a conventional church. For some of them it’s a safe way to sit on the back pew, as it were, and check it out. They only participate to the degree that they feel comfortable and are able to slip in and out at will.

Mark Howe comments: ‘I think the ability to control the level of sharing is important to those who are hesitant about their faith or who have had bruising previous experiences with the church. We have several members for whom St Pixels has been a way to ease themselves back into physical church.’

Encouraging isolation?

But isn’t there a danger of people living their faith lives online and not getting involved in a hands-on real time Christianity? Not necessarily. ‘Many of our members do both, and, in any case, faith is something personal. It’s neither on our server nor in some gothic building. Sociological studies show that those who participate in online communities often have more physical friendships and are more politically active. And often those who meet online express a desire to meet physically too,’ says Mark.

Reverend Pam Smith, the priest in charge and web pastor of i-Church (an extension of the Anglican Diocese of Oxford)4 believes that rather than being isolationist, people who join online communities are marked by their desire to ‘reach out’. ‘Almost every Christian I know who participates in an online church is keen to reach out to non-Christians. It can be used as a point of contact with people who find it easier to log onto a site than go into a church building. It also makes it easier for Christians to invite their friends and not have to live near them.’

But it’s not just ‘disillusioned’ or ‘tentative’ Christians who meet online. I for one am an active and happy member of a local church community. I’m not a member of St Pixels or i-Church, but I do frequent a number of Christian chat rooms and groups for Christian writers. And I’m not alone. ‘If you are a Christian and you’re online you’re “living your faith online” because you can’t turn it off,’ says Pam. ‘People can get most things online now so naturally they look for church as well – Christians and non-Christians – it seems important to me that they should be able to find it.’

<TwoSeven> a member of St Pixels, considers the Internet an addition rather than a substitute for his ‘normal’ church life. ‘I spend a lot of time online for my business. St P will not replace RL church but is an excellent way to do / revitalise the traditional QT with God. I also believe God reads the prayer thread!’

For others, like <Elora>, a mother of a special needs child, she finds that being able to attend church at odd hours is a real boon. ‘I come here early in my day and last thing at night. That’s how important a part of my world this place is. I come here to laugh when I’ve had a difficult day. I can listen and enjoy someone else’s happiness or share their pain . St Pixels is absolutely an authentic community. You can’t hug a friend or deliver food / flowers to a grieving member, but this is family for real!’

False identities

It’s the issue of authenticity that draws the most criticism to the cyber church community. How ‘real’ are Christians being when web culture encourages them to take on ‘avatars’ (cartoon representations) and assume ‘false’ names and identities?

‘I don’t think you can cover up your real personality for long,’ says Pam Smith. ‘It takes an enormous amount of effort to create a false persona. You can use a different name and say you are the opposite sex or a different age, but the interesting thing is that on the Internet, these things are relatively unimportant anyway. You don’t get judged on your appearance or your accent, whereas you might do in real life. So to that extent you could argue that relationships online can be more real.’

Steve Goddard agrees. He’s one of the founding members of Ship of Fools (out of which St Pixels developed): ‘There are obvious dangers that some people might “live a lie”, but ironically, many people feel it is easier to be more honest online than in a physical church environment.’ And Mark Howe has noticed that people even seem to choose avatars that look like themselves!

My experience of ‘doing church’ online – if church is defined as a gathering of believers to support one another, worship God and tell other people about his love – is that it has broken down walls of denomination, gender, culture, class and nationhood. In the online communities I belong to, we work hard at finding what we have in common, rather than what divides. I have met members of the Body of Christ who I would never meet in my ‘ordinary’ Baptist church in the North East of England. I’ve prayed with and spoken to Greek Orthodox believers, Messianic Jews, Catholics, Anglicans and American ‘fundamentalists’. I’ve rubbed virtual shoulders with Christians from all five continents. I’ve debated with atheists, conversed with agnostics and Muslims and ‘reached out’ in compassion to people who have no label for their faith at all.

Living my faith ‘online’ has enhanced my walk with God. If you don’t believe me, try it yourself, you might be surprised.

1. www.theregister.co.uk
2. www.stpixels.com
3. This is now up to 2,500
4. www.i-church.org
5. www.ship-of-fools.com

This article first appeared in Plain Truth magazine in December 2008.

Mark Howe’s book Online Church? First Steps Towards Virtual Incarnation is available from Grove Books