Kicking off 2010

A belated “Happy New Year!” to everyone. I wanted to start off the new year by dusting off this old blog and making it what it was always meant to be: a resource for those who are doing ministry online.  In particular, my focus is in the area of research and education for online ministry, though any topic regarding online ministry may show up here. So take a look around, you may notice that I have cleaned some things up and added some new information here and there.

So what is in store for 2010? Glad you asked:

• I will be on a “half-sabbatical” this entire year at Biola, which means that I will only be teaching a half-load of classes and the rest of the time can focus on a research project. In my case, that research project will be a book on online ministry.  This book will be based on the research that I have been doing, along with my experiences teaching a course in the topic and working with various ministries. As I am writing, I will be sharing ideas and questions on my blog and asking for your feedback.
• I will be teaching a course in Internet Ministry this summer at Biola. This will be similar to the course I taught last spring, but with one big difference: it will be online.  If you are student at Biola or another university (grad or undergrad) and would like to participate in this course, let me know! I will be writing about my ideas for this course on this blog as well.
• I will be going to Turkey in March as part of TIEN 2010 where I will meet with church leaders and others interested in using the Internet to reach that part of the world for Christ.
• I am part of a team putting together some sessions around the idea of online ministry at the CLA 2010 conference in April. Most of the ideas and writings for that are being done over at State of Ministry Online, but you will hear about it from time to time on this blog as well.
• As any good researcher should do, I am actively seeking out others who write, teach, and research in this area.  The goal of this is to stay informed and to be sure I am not duplicating the work of anyone else. I am now actively using Google reader to track what those people have to say. As I find articles or information that I find very valuable, I will share them on Google reader, which allows others (such as you, dear reader) to subscribe to these shared items and interact on them. I will be highlighting the best of what I am reading and sharing on this blog approximately once a week.

A lot of work on Internet ministry is going to happen in 2010 – stay tuned to this site for the latest. I would love to know what you are doing in the field of Internet ministry this year, or if you have a recommendation for someone I should be keeping up with. Let me know in the comments.

Tags: 2010, Biola, CLA 2010, sabbatical, TIEN

Internet ministry curriculum

So I have confirmed that I will have enough students to go forward with my course on Internet ministry next semester. So far I have five business students and four Talbot seminary students. I expect to get a few students from the Christian Ministries department and maybe a couple Intercultural Studies. The cap on my course is 16, so I have may have to turn some away.

I am beginning to work through exactly what should go into my course on Internet ministry. I am hoping that whatever work gets done in this course will be a first step toward a more comprehensive Internet ministry program here at Biola. My plans at the moment are for the course to follow a high-level format similar to this:

1. What is ministry?
2. The Internet as a tool for ministry.
3. How does the Internet change ministry?
4. Case studies: who is doing it successfully?
5. Developing a philosophy of Internet ministry.
6. Hands-on projects: doing it ourselves (runs concurrently throughout semester).

The folks at the Internet Evangelism Coalition (IEC) have put out a call to Bible colleges to teach Internet evangelism, which is one form of Internet ministry. They envision some sort of online course directed towards graduate students. They include a long list of topics the course would cover, such as:

• A Theology of Cyber-Space
• Cross-cultural Communication and Cultural Sensitivity
• Communicating with Post-modern Culture
• Incorporate Web Outreach Within a Wider Strategy
• Counseling In Cyber-Space
• Issues in Cyber-Ethics
• Email/Web Security for Missions

I like much of what the IEC has to say here and will incorporate some of it into my course. I will also bring in much of what I have learned teaching my “E-Business Strategies” and other Internet-related courses here at Biola.

What do you think should go into a course on Internet ministry? My goal is to find topics that are not going to be affected by every new technology that comes along but are instead strategic and longer-lasting.

Tags: Biola, internet evangelism coalition, internet ministry course, talbot