Estes, Douglas. SimChurch: Being the Church in the Virtual World. Zondervan, 2009. ISBN: 978031028741
Meet the Author
Douglas Estes is the lead pastor of Berryessa Valley Church, adjunct professor of New Testament at Western Seminary, and is actively engaged in both discussion about and experience of the church in the virtual world. He received his PhD in Theology from the University of Nottingham, UK. He is the author of The Temporal Mechanics of the Fourth Gospel: A Theory of Hermeneutical Relativity in the Gospel of John (Brill, 2008) and SimChurch: Being the Church in the Virtual World (Zondervan, 2009). To learn more, visit Estes’ website.
Book Basics
SimChurch is not another book explaining how to use the internet to better market your church or ministry.
SimChurch is a call to reconsider what it means to be church in light of the emerging virtual world. Estes does not believe the so-called real church will disappear in the future, but does believe it will no longer be the only option. “In the next few decades, the virtual world will equal or surpass the real world in its reach into and positioning in many aspects of our lives. For many people the virtual world will be the world where they carry on more interactions and conduct more transactions than in the real world. It will be the place where they find love, soothe their feelings, make deals and worship” (p.20).
Estes speaks of this new way of being church as the third wave. The first wave is churches using the virtual world as a marketing billboard, primarily via a website with little or no interaction. The second wave offers a little more interaction through podcasts, blogs and downloadable resources. The third wave includes churches creating internet campuses and new church plants that exist only in the virtual world (i.e. no real world edifice). SimChurch focuses on the third wave by exploring what is happening right now in the virtual world. Estes provides a theological argument for the validity of the virtual church as church, explores the necessity of such bodies of believers to practice the ordinances or celebrate the sacraments, and offers numerous examples of virtual churches and virtual church experiences.
So What?
The virtual church has arrived. As technology continues to advance, the virtual church will continue to develop and offer new ways for parishioners to do and be the church. Consider some of the many questions Estes asks:
- Is a virtual church a real, authentic and valid expression of the church of Jesus Christ? (p.32)
- How will virtual churches change the way we do church? Are virtual sacraments and other faith practices possible or valid (or just inevitable)? (p.106)
- How should virtual churches relate to traditional authority? Can virtual churches harness the power of decentralization without further fracturing Christianity? (p.137)
- How will virtual churches build communities? Will they be global or local? What are the dangers associated with churches based on virtual social connectivity? (p.207)
- Will virtual churches open up the gospel to all people? What will virtual churches teach us about the nature of being the church? (p.221)