Chapter Titles & Abstracts

Abstracts and Bio information are included here…if you want yours added, be my guest or just e-mail your information to Peggy.

Updated: 11/14/07 as 11:35 am (Pacific Standard Time)


Prologue Reflections on Digital Glass: Cover Art Synopsis
By Cynthia La Grou

Abstract: The avalanche of fluid, media rich digital information leaves us searching for meaning and orientation. We must not only identify changing, emerging themes and patterns but harness technological tools to collectively create transcendent, viral messages that illuminate virtual corridors and transform culture in creative and meaningful ways.

“Reflections on Digital Glass” is a metaphor in motion. The language and imagery of metaphor offers meaning on multiple levels. Seemingly viral in structure the metaphor is in constant motion. (Cynthia contributed design and layout for the book cover)

Bio: Linked In, Blog


Foreword Surfing the Liminal Domains
By John La Grou

Abstract: Global Christianity is experiencing a profound structural shift born of Internet convergence – a shrinking of diverse, worldwide ecclesial (faith) communities into a participatory “global town square” - a new global voice in which ideas and imagination, not structural or positional power, moderate religious dialogue.

The virtual book you hold in your virtual hands, Volume One of the Wikiklesia Project, mirrors this epochal transformation from passive religious consumers to engaged co-creators. The dawning of global connectivity is driving us out of the institutionally dominated world of analog church into the instantaneous, ubiquitous world of microclesia – the digitally connected ecclesia.

Bio: Linkedin


A Networked E(-)cclesia: Cultivating community in an age of convergence
By C. Scott Andreas

Abstract

Passing between pews, pubs, coffee shops, and blogs, many of us find ourselves partaking in "church" in spaces we never would have imagined. Though this may seem like second-nature, the deconstruction of this boundary remains a source of anxiety for many in the church today. It questions the very foundation of what can be called "church" in an increasingly-mediated world.

Looking through the lens of network theory, I suggest that we would do well to embrace a mode of ecclesiology that is media-agnostic: one that celebrates and affirms local expressions of church as well as her virtual presence – and everything in between. Even so, we must also recognize and adapt to the caveats of certain ecclesial spaces. One thing is certain: there's no going back.

Bio

Scott is the founder of Phoreo.com, an aspiring missional web design + development company. As a web developer, much of his work focuses upon helping churches engage their local communities through dynamic web sites and an open-source community development web application called "Sunago."

With a background in religious studies and communications (Indiana University), his research interests include analyzing narrative archetypes in Christian discourse, forms of religious practice which are at their core "oppositional movements," and tracing the theological underpinnings of (post)modern consumerism.

Scott's blogs can be found at Conversatio.net and Paradoxica.net.


The Technology of Congregational Conversation
By Ed Brenegar

Abstract

The most human thing we do is talk with one another. When we share our ideas; we listen; we respond; we engage in conversation. Too often in the church the kinds of conversations that we are used to having in our lives don’t take place until after church in the parking lot. It is time to bring the parking lot conversation into the church.

The Technology of Congregational Conversation is about how churches can incorporate informal conversation as a purposeful part of their life as a congregation. This is how the leadership of the church listens and responds to its membership. It is how people find a place to participate and contribute in ways not available before. Organized congregational conversation elevates the pattern of communication that takes place in the church. It enhances the ability of the church to respond to the opportunities that God presents.

The Technology of Congregation Conversation is an idea whose time has come. It is a methodology for enhancing a church’s life as a community. It’s time to bring the parking lot conversation into church, and here’s how you can do it.

Bio
Ed Brenegar works with leaders, boards and executive teams from churches and businesses who are in transition. He engages in facilitated conversations that achieves clarity of perspective, builds the unity and commitment, and provides a path to greater impact. Ed , a Presbyterian Church (USA) minister, lives in the mountains of Western North Carolina and writes two blogs on leadership. One for leaders at Leading Questions. And one for church leaders at The Presbyterian Polis.


Text/Audio/Video: Probing the Dark Glass
By Kester Brewin

Abstract

Our journey from birth to adulthood takes us from video (we see first) to audio (we learn to speak) through to text (we learn to read). Paradoxically, our technological path has started with text (printing) moved on to audio (sound recording / pod-casting) and finally on to video (video calls, HD video streaming).

Text/Audio/Video explores how these different vectors impact on our faith trajectories. For many pioneers in the Emerging Church, their journeys began in the Evangelical (text) tradition, and they have gone on to explore new directions in worship, encompassing audio and video. Yet for many coming into the church directly into the Emerging situation, their journey may well start with video. Do we need to teach these people to listen and read too?

Bio
Kester lives in London and teaches Math part time in a High School. He also writes, and is the author of 'Signs of Emergence', which has been kindly described by many as "one of the best books yet written on the emerging church."

A founder member of Vaux, a community of artists and city-lovers exploring the architecture of worship, Kester is also a father of two and used to have time.


Virtual Mentoring at The Abbey
By M. A. Brown

Abstract

This chapter is for those who are serious about being disciples and making disciples in Christ’s Kingdom, but have somehow missed the opportunity to experience dynamic, life-changing positive mentoring.

It is especially for all those alums of the School of Hard Knocks, who took too many courses in Reverse-Mentoring (RM). You may not be familiar with the name, but you’ve certainly taken a course or two….

In RM, students basically learn what to do by not doing what was done to them, coupled with figuring out how they should have been treated. It is time-consuming and painful—sometimes tragically producing ministry-hindering scars and consequences.

But it also produces some great stories. Let this voice of the virtual world share an opportunity to redeem those RM courses—in your life and in the lives of others.

Bio
M. A. Brown, who lives in Vancouver (not B.C.), Washington (not D.C.), is a woman of many names, faces, voices, hats and pies (as in "she has her fingers in lots of pies").

At The Abbey she is the triadial Abbess known as AbiSomeone. Among those who read her writings she is known as "Ma" Brown. At church she is known as Sister Brown or Pastor Peggy or just plain Peggy. To her three sons and accident-prone friends, she is known as Dr. Mom. To her precious husband, Robert, she is…well… ;) To her father, she is Margaret Ann—even though she is never "in trouble" any more. To her siblings she is Peggy, Margo, Gretta, Rita and all other derivatives of the name Margaret. To those she has worked with in various offices, she is known as Office MacGyver. At her oldest son's middle school PTSA, she is known as the President. She is content to know that she is a sister in Christ and beloved daughter to our Father and willing to do anything the Holy Spirit asks…although she has been learning to say "no" to others….

At CovenantClusters, her in-process vision for an incarnational-missional, neo-monastic, counter-cultural, disciple-making, meta-church cluster planting movement, she hopes to make Jesus real to her neighbors and doesn't care what they call her—as long as they call her in time to eat and sing and pray and learn and play and laugh…you get the idea.

At her new blog, The Virtual Abbess, AbiSomeone invites you to join her as she processes The Purple Martyrdom …and other purple things…like glasses.


Living as the Networked People of God
By Heidi Campbell

Abstract

While many critics of doing church and religion online have been highly suspect of the disembodied nature of online communication and community this article will argue that online religious networks often offer a more realistic picture of how people actually live and therefore conceive of community in contemporary western society. Drawing from ten years of research on how online Christian communities live out their religious lives online we are able to see how people define what it means to be a Christian community both on and offline. Through highlighting 6 general traits of online Christian community we are able to consider implications and possibilities of this emerging definition of networked community for discussions of Church and religion in a information based culture.

Bio
Heidi is Assistant Professor of Communication at Texas A&M University where she teaches in Media studies and does research in religion and new media. When she is not investigating how digital and mobile technologies are being adapted for religious purposes and the implications of this for faith communities, she can be found traveling around the world looking for the best views from park benches, new expressions of church or searching out the perfect cup of tea and/or coffee.


Theology as Art
By Derek Flood

Abstract
Often we first really get theology when we encounter it in the drama of a story, or sing it at the top of your lungs in a song or hymn. Art is by nature made for communicating meaning, for speaking to the depths of a person's soul. Because of this the dialogue between art and theology is a vital one. Art moves the soul, it helps us understand who we are in the world, it makes you dance. That is what good theology should do, too.

Award winning independent animator and artist-gone-theologian Derek Flood offers some insider reflections on the life of an independent artist and Christian in a wired world. Derek begins by discussing what art is and what it means to have an artist's soul, sharing some personal biography of his own journey. The chapter ends with some thoughts on art and theology's need for one another.

Bio
For over a decade Derek has been working as an animation director and lead animator for both high-end commercials as well as for feature films such as Roman Polanski's Oscar winning The Pianist as well PDI/Dreamworks box office smash Shrek2. Additionally, Derek's independent shorts films have won a host of awards and been chosen for the official selections at the most prominent animation festivals worldwide. His most recent short “Emelia the Five Year Old Goth Girl”, a quirky retelling of the story of redemption, was the #1 short film on iTunes for several weeks, and remains one of its most popular films.

Emelia Film: sharktacos.com/Emelia
God blog: sharktacos.com/God


Voices from the Technological Borderlands
By Stephen Garner

Abstract
Discussions about the impact of new digital technologies upon the church and Christian faith are often dominated by the voices of those who are, or have become, technologically literate. Missing from these conversations are those who are not digital 'natives' or 'immigrants', but rather digital 'refugees' and 'aliens'. These silent virtual voices also need to be heard if Christian engagement with these new technologies is to be creative, compassionate, and just before God.

Bio
New Zealander Stephen Garner recently completed a PhD in Theology at the University of Auckland focusing on emerging digital technologies and the ideology of transhumanism. He also holds a MSc in Computer Science, has lectured theology and biblical studies, and has worked in IT research and development. He has a lifelong interest in the intersection of everyday faith and spirituality with technology and popular culture. He and his wife live in West Auckland, New Zealand with their four children.


The Perfect Mix?: The Missio Dei in a Free Market Economy
By Greg Glatz

Bio
Greg Glatz is the Lead Pastor at Central Baptist Church (Winnipeg) and the lead guitar player for RUB. Greg is also the Dean of Mag Mell Abbey, under construction in Second Life, and The Rock 'n' Roll Preacher on CJOB's GodTalk.


Will the Internet create a new Reformation?
By Drew Goodmanson

Bio
Drew Goodmanson co-founded Kaleo Church in San Diego, a church planting movement that has planted both multi-site and daughter churches. Drew frequently speaks at conferences on issues of church and technology. His writings have been published on Allelon, Next Wave, the Ooze and others. He wrote Sheep & Goats, a weekly column in 2005 & 2006 on churches, religions and spirituality for the San Diego Reader. Drew serves on the Board of Advisors for the Center for Church Communication (CFCC) the parent company of Church Marketing Sucks. Drew is President of Monk Development, an internet development company that serves hundreds of churches and ministries worldwide and creators of Ekklesia 360. He also founded Evangel Marketing Group, a new media marketing company for Christian publishers and the Tentmakers Group, a group to help pastors transition into the ministry. Drew lives in San Diego, CA with his wife, Heather and two sons, Gideon & Roman.

Drew's blog can be found at Goodmanson.com.


WORDS
By Geoff Bullock & Janine Max
(aka “billy” & “gracie” from the Wild Grace poetry blog)


A Map of the Virtual Territory: Individual, church, and society in the 21st century
By Jo Guldi


Virtuality and the Practice of Authenticity
By David Hayward


Text, Sacrament, Leadership and Conversation: Blogging and Communal Formation
By Leonard Hjalmarson

Abstract

Until recently we knelt at the altar of the professional leader. But blogging, wide participation and content creation subverts traditional views of authority. When discovery is a shared process, “authority” has shifted to an interpretive community , and likewise leadership may be viewed as a communal process.


The Geeks of the Gospel: Sorcerer’s Apprentices or Empowered Prophets?
By Thomas Hohstadt

Abstract

Today's digital "deity" reaches the lost and the unlost faster and farther than ever before. It's a "global human brain" that creates endless connections. Yet, our virtual reality is not as virtuous as we think, for behind the illusions of the radically new we find the same fool's paradise we've suffered before. And this misleading make-believe is proving incompatible with the awesome opportunities of a truly virtuous Virtual Reality.

How do we enter the inspired realm of VR-the transcendent message that supersedes its medium-the autonomous force that makes the familiar world strange and a strange world familiar-the transparent vision that sees beyond both subjectivity and objectivity? We enter by learning to "sing the Lord's song in a strange land"-by learning to speak a God-shaped "syntax"-and by (re)discovering virtual reality at the supernatural level.

Bio
A symphony conducting career has profoundly informed my vision of the church and the virtual world in which it will succeed. But it wasn’t always that way. Blessed with the finest training in Europe and the United States, never did my mentors mention what music means. The resulting emptiness compelled, therefore, a lifelong search for the underlying language of music and, of necessity, all the arts.

Each of my concerts became laboratory experiments. And finally, after many years and many eventual breakthroughs, I discovered that this language—at the spiritual level—was exactly the language of the Church—minus the religious detritus of the stored-up centuries. Privately, I also pursued the best disciplines of our seminaries, yet I still see today’s move of God from an entirely different perspective. This is the gift I offer to Voices of the Virtual World.


Technology and the Gospel
By Bob Hyatt

Bio
Bob Hyatt is the husband of Amy, and the father of Jack and Jane. He pastors The Evergreen Community in Portland, OR and blogs here.

Despite what he’s written in his chapter, he really wants an iPhone….


The Ugly Blogger
By Andrew Jones


The Generous Web
By Bill Kinnon


Missions Transformed: Engaging God’s Mission in a 24/7 Broadband Globalized World
By Steve Knight

Abstract
The landscape of global missions has changed. Globalization and new media technology have made the world flat, creating exciting new opportunities as well as perilous new pitfalls.

Bio
Steve Knight is International Communication Coordinator for SIM (Serving In Mission), based in Fort Mill, SC. He writes about communication and mission on his Kingdom Journalism blog. He and his wife Becky have three children (Olyvia, Hayden, and Elliot), and live in Gastonia, NC.


Emergence as Understood via Narrative and Faith
By Michael Lissack


Hyperlinks Subvert Hierarchy: The Internet, Non-Hierarchical Organizations, and the Structure of the Church
By Brother Maynard

Abstract

With the advent of the Internet, technology and business cultures and structures are being reshaped by collaborative work environments and decentralized modes of organization. Other industries and arenas are following suit, with individuals becoming increasingly empowered within them. To date, local churches have not widely exhibited these new organizational forms, which has increased cultural distance between established forms of church and the culture which surround them. What can we learn from the phenomenon of decentralization… is it a viable option for the local church?

Bio
Brother Maynard is a respected thinker and blogger in the growing emerging missional church movement. He has written articles for Allelon.org, EmergingChurch.info, and The Porpoise Diving Life as well as published extensively on his blog. Before becoming "de-churched" in late 2004, he had been involved for some 20 years as a lay leader in virtually every level of church leadership, 15 of those in the same local church where he was a member of a church planting team. Since then, he has become involved with the growing emerging missional church movement and sat on various discussion panels in public seminars on the emerging/missional church in Winnipeg, Canada, where he lives with his wife and two daughters. Under his real name, he has been an entrepreneur, part-owner of an ISP, a technology and marketing consultant, and publisher of a Linux advocacy website. Presently he is a freelance writer and normal guy attempting to live his faith and share his life as best he can.


Eyes to See, Ears to Hear
By Scott McClellan


BlogReviews
By Scot McKnight—A Blogger formerly known as Professor


How Technology is Impacting Missional Ideas and Practice
By Rick Meigs

Bio
Rick Meigs is a 56 year old lay leader whose life purpose is to be a zealot who gets it and lives it. He is a missional catalyst helping others come to grips with what missional means, its implications and how to apply it to their lives. His virtual realms are [www.friendofmissional.org Friend of Missional and blog [www.blindbeggar.org The Blind Beggar]. Mr. Meigs lives in the Multnomah Village area of Portland, Oregon with his wife of 31 years, Fran. They have two wonderful boys who are both in college and three cats.


Digital Immigrants go Native
By Rex Miller


Theo(b)logy: The Technological Transformation of Theology
By Katharine Sarah Moody


Zeitgeist and Paraclete at Play
By Mike Morrell

Abstract

I explore how current web-based technology is influencing human mental processes and Christian spirituality, relating to how we gather as ecclesia. I look at resonances between Web-relating and Body/Family-relating in 1st century Way-faring idiom. I consider Walter Wink’s idea of transpersonal "Powers" and how every group's collective spirit is either an "angel" or "demon." I will look at the dark side of the Internet and its potentials (and actualities) of perpetuating injustice and a loss of liberty, bringing us to a crucial futures "choice point" of how we're going to harness our spirituality/technology for the good of the world.

Bio
Mike Morrell is a journalist and publishing consultant living in [raleighdurhamsaints.com intentional community] in Raleigh, North Carolina with his wife, [jasminpittman.blogspot.com Jasmin] and newborn daughter, Jubilee Grace. He is an editor with [TheOoze.com] and an emerging churches coordinator for Wikiklesia’s beneficiary, the contemporary abolitionist [notforsalecampaign.org Not For Sale Campaign]. Mike maintains [zoecarnate.com], an alt.Christian web directory, and begins Masters’ work this fall in Strategic Foresight under futurist [jaygary.com Jay Gary]. He is looking forward to tying many disparate parts of his life together under the aegis of the folks at [presence.tv Presence], an eschatologically adventurous think tank and activist cell funding visions of a new reality.


But does it build community?
By Stuart Murray Williams


Using the Machine
By Calvin Park


Open Source Theology
By Andrew Perriman

Bio

Andrew Perriman lives with his wife, Belinda, in the Hague in the Netherlands and works with Christian Associates. He manages the Open Source Theology website and is author of Let’s Visit Gabon (Macmillan, 1988), which is of no real interest to anyone; Speaking of Women: Interpreting Paul (IVP, 1998); The Coming of the Son of Man: New Testament Eschatology for an Emerging Church (Paternoster, 2005); Otherways: In Search of an Emerging Theology (Open Source Theology, 2007); and the forthcoming Re: Mission: Biblical Mission for a Post-Biblical Church (Paternoster, 2007). He also edited a report for the Evangelical Alliance in the UK entitled Faith, Health and Prosperity (Paternoster, 2003).


The P2P Church
By Scott Ragan


Visible Church for an Invisible World
By Scott Ragan and John Sexton

Abstract

In HG Wells novella, The Invisible Man, technology transforms a brilliant scientist into a raving madman ready to launch a reign of terror on the populace. In a similar way, ordinary Americans enter the web and do things they would never consider doing in the “real world.” The key in both cases is invisibility. It's because the web is anonymous that music and software theft, pornography, pedophilia rings and web-based scams thrive there. In this new environment, the church’s role is to pull people out of the seductive grip of invisibility back into the world of flesh and blood community.

Bio

John Sexton is "Media Director" at a church in Huntington Beach, CA. Scott Ragan is an educator. Both have done freelance writing of various kinds. Currently they write about anything and everything that interests them — from faith to the metaphorical significance of fembots — on their blog Verum Serum.


Whoever Has Earbuds to Hear: Forming Missional Communities in a Personal, Immersive Technology World
By Matt Reece

Bio
Matt Reece is happily married to Jessica – his wife of over five years - and a musician, ad-hoc theologian, and Pastor of Community within [www.missiongathering.com Missiongathering] – a progressive, emerging faith community in an urban neighborhood of San Diego, CA.


Found Fragments: Open Source/Open Sores
By Mike Riddell

Abstract

This is a patchwork of diverse voices stitched together to open up the symbolic space between the liberating philosophy of the open source movement and the institutional captivity of the church. It is an ironic lament for the tragic hardening of ecclesiastical arteries, and a prayer for recovering the freedom of Christ – constructed completely from found fragments gleaned from a variety of (open) sources.

Bio
Mike Riddell is a screenwriter, playwright and novelist living at the edge of the world in New Zealand. He has ten published books, including the seminal Threshold of the Future: Reforming the Church in the Post-Christian West and the co-authored The Prodigal Project: Journey into the Emerging Church. For many years he was a columnist for Third Way magazine. Currently he is involved in the development of feature films. He holds a PhD in theology from the University of Otago, where he was a lecturer in Practical Theology.


Dune, Density, and Polymathology
By Brad Sargent

Abstract

Some people are destined as polymaths – those who absorb and integrate information from diverse fields of study, and become philosophers. Such a generalist leaning may come “hardwired” in at birth via DNA and learning styles, or perhaps by “software” programming responses to spiritual and cultural formation experiences. Either way, polymaths should follow the God-given muse to pursue new approaches to processing life, and not feel self-limiting or peer pressure to be only “The Theologian” or “The Practitioner,” since they will likely play those roles and so many, many more.

Since we tend to be ahead of our time, one way we who are polymaths can extend our impact through generations is by the equivalent of downloading our inherently complex hearts and minds into a virtual platform. For instance, we could create sort of a time-capsule of our journey to Christlikeness so those who come after us can data mine our hypermediation as sources for “Kingdom Culture” meditation. It is a stewardship thing, really, and I would suggest we should feel neither shame nor guilt for producing something dense, but only partially polished and with tantalizing whisps of incomplete ideations woven throughout. Think Frank Herbert and Dune. Think J.R.R. Tolkien and Middle-earth. Think Thomas Jefferson and preparation for writing the U.S. Constitution. Think Beatrix Potter, lichens/symbiotic mycology, and The Tale of Peter Rabbit… What kind of interdisciplinary legacy might we leave for those intrigued enough to explore the virtual voice that survives us, whether we are polymath-philosophers are not?

Bio
The “redemptive purpose” of Brad Sargent’s life seems to be primarily about culture and transformation. He has been called a cultural interpreter, futurist, and paradigm shifter. His heritage is fourth-generation on both sides from pioneering families in the Western U.S., and he has “people of peace” going back at least two previous generations in his family tree.

Beyond this, he prefers to see himself as a “Superhero Sidekick,” as his business card suggests: “I help individuals and entities identify, validate, amplify, and activate their superpowers … and help them (hopefully) prevent themselves from distributing their supercrud upon others.
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

A polymath and philosopher, he pays his rent as a freelance writer, editor, and creativity-catalyzer. Brad’s own current publication project is a system for observing, analyzing, and interpreting culture, and he occasionally produces case studies in “starfishy” (decentralized network) ministries. He lives in Marin County, California.


Love Will Tear Us Apart (Again)
By Steve Scott

Bio
Steve Scott is a writer, lecturer, performer and mixed-media artist. Since moving to America in the mid 1970s, he has published a number of articles on postmodern art, multiculturalism, and the Christian opportunity afforded by these developments in various magazines.

His two books are: Crying for a Vision (Stride Books, UK, 1991/reprinted 2006, Authorhouse) and Like A House on Fire (Cornerstone Press 1997, Wipf and Stock 2003). Transcripts of his Cornerstone lectures were included in Artrageous: Volume One (Cornerstone Press, 1992). In addition to this he has published several small press books of experimental poetry both here and in the UK.

Steve has released nine albums that range from rock music to ethno-electronica and spoken word, and worked with painter Gaylen Stewart on a mixed-media collaboration called Crossing the Boundaries. He has performed and lectured from Belgium to Bali and is the director for CANA (Christian Artists’ Networking Association), a predominantly majority-world arts and ministry organization.

You can find out more about Steve here and he can be reached at by e-mail here.


The Legitimacy and Limits of Online Relationships
By Stephen Shields

Bio
Stephen Shields is the founder of faithmaps.org, a Manager with USA TODAY, a consultant, and a freelance writer. Stephen serves on the Leadership Development Team of Grace Community Church in Fulton, MD, where he and his wife, Beth, also co-lead a ministry serving folks in Louisiana that survived Katrina and Rita called KatrinaGrace. Stephen received a M.Div from Grace Theological Seminary and lives with his wife and three daughters - Michaela Siobhan, Skye Teresa, and Alia Noelle - in the Baltimore-Washington corridor. He can be contacted at gro.spamhtiaf|sdleihss#gro.spamhtiaf|sdleihss and blogs at the faithmaps blog.


Social Networking and the Long Tail Church
By Joe Suh


Technology and the Virtual Church: Postmodern Seekers and Skeptics
By Cynthia Ware

Abstract

Convincing Christ followers to evangelize and equip the iGeneration using the vernacular of the day (i.e. social networking, interactive media, streaming audio/video casts, etc.) is no easy calling. Technology, as opposed to human frailty, is often cited as the culprit of our day.

The next decade will produce unrivaled developments in ubiquitous, immersive technologies, both gray and green, and Christians have invaluable opportunities to seize the moment. We can embrace early adopter postures that communicate leadership to an emerging next generation. We can expose the pitfalls of technological illusions by participating in the conversation rather than sitting in judgment over it. We can produce salt in a flavorless sea of online dialog and light in the dark recesses of cyberspace. But to do so we must be convinced, convinced that we have a mandate to communicate the gospel with all means culturally possible.

Bio
Cynthia Ware, along with her husband Bob, co-pastors The Shepherd’s House, Thousand Oaks Foursquare Church in Southern California. They have two teenage children and have been affiliated in ministry with the Foursquare Church for the last two decades. Cynthia has held her current ministry position for the last six years. She holds a B.S. in Radio, TV and Film and an M.S. in Print Journalism, New Media Technologies and Mass Communications with an emphasis in the Diffusion of Innovations.

She can be found blogging at The Digital Sanctuary or happily editing video with Final Cut on her Mac Pro.


Invitation to the Heavenly Buffet: The Impact of Information Technologies on Christian Worship
By Br. Karekin M Yarian, BSG

Abstract
The ease of communication and the proliferation of resources made possible by the internet could lead to a revolution in the ways in which we approach worship as individual communities. Accessible ancient texts and forms make possible a contextualizing of worship based on cultural and socio-political identity.

Bio
Br. Karekin is a social and political activist located in San Francisco and is the Minister Provincial for Province 8 for the Brotherhood of Saint Gregory. He provides Spiritual Direction and has been involved for several years in ministry to homeless youth with alcohol and substance abuse issues. He is the former Executive Director of Every Voice Network, an organization dedicated to social activism for progressive Christians, is a member of Cross Left, a clearinghouse for news and networking for progressive people of faith, and is a Circuit Rider for the Social Redemption. In addition, Karekin develops liturgical software for the Episcopal Church. At his parish he is a Liturgical Planner and occasional preacher.

Br. Karekin earned the nickname "punk monk" as the first gen-x member of the brotherhood. He is the subject of the documentary film "Changing Habits" and the author of two books The Skillfullness of Shepherds and Equipping the Saints. His interests are liturgy, poetry, cooking, gardening, and tearing down unruly establishment politics and trying to replace them with respectful dialogue. He used to think he'd lived a glamourous life, until he realized he'd simply lived a life trying everything and found it wanting. Now he simply tries to be quiet and appear as wise as the folks who really know him will let him get away with. He's not really a cranky old man, but plays one on television, taking rather annoying pleasure in pointing out the appalling lack of civility in social interaction. He thinks reality TV rocks, so please pray for him.


Afterword The Myths of Technos and God's Kingdom
By Len Hjalmarson

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