The Internet is a vast playground for billions around the world wanting to do almost anything they can think of, from researching how to grow squash in a personal garden, to watching full seasons of SpongeBob Squarepants, to analyzing every picture ever posted by a mutual friend of theirs on Facebook. Since the Internet has such diversity, many different churches have made attempts to reach out to the world and make themselves more accessible to all who may ("Internet church -," ) or may not be interested in what they believe (Acorn, 2010). From these websites, blogs, forums, email groups and etc., churches have made efforts to form communities online. This week, I will be reflecting upon how online community is fostered through online connections such as those found at http://www.Stpixels.com.
St Pixels is self-described as “a space to discover, to share, to worship, to make new friendships and to have fun,” while encouraging members to join them in Biblical discussions and studies, worship, and online chats about the Christian faith ("Internet church -," ). Some people see this as a place to supplement their offline faith (Campbell, 2005), while others view it as the defining place of their faith, having had bad experiences with local or physical churches (Hutchings, 2011).
St. Pixels offers many different options for Christians and curious non-Christians alike to connect with other Christians on their website, via chat boards, peer to peer discipleship groups, more commonly referred to as a “P2PD,” and worship online during set worship times ("Internet church -," ). St Pixels is designed in a way to draw in those interested; leaving users as the main authors of information and the consumers of information able to register and post as they want as well.
St Pixels operates in cyberspace much similar to how community operates in physical reality when users can be both producers and consumers of information. St. Pixels also limits conversations in threads to appropriate topics, much like how churches naturally limit their discussion topics to only what is appropriate at the present time, but still open up the possibility to converse on important topics to users in more private settings.
On the surface level, St Pixels is an online church that looks similar to most offline churches in that it holds worship services and events that all are welcome to take part in, allows for members to meet other members while encouraging interaction outside of worship, and even allows for one-on-one learning experiences ("Internet church -," ). The only thing missing are sacraments that would be found in most physical churches, which are limited to baptism and Eucharist. Overall it seems that religious community can be fostered, even if it is limited, online.
Acorn. (2010, May 03). Trolls. Retrieved from http://www.stpixels.com/article?article=d5c83370-07f9-4c73-bed0-0181b5794ae4
Campbell, H. (2005). Exploring religious community online: we are one in the network. New York: Peter Lang publishing Inc.
Hutchings, T. (pending). Considering religious community through online churches. Retreived from https://lms.tamu.edu/webct/urw/ssinboundNetID.snWebCT.si20926..C04CD068EADB41B9E0340003BA2CAE2A/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct?appforward=/webct/viewMyWebCT.dowebct
Internet church - sacred space online. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.stpixels.com/headline-news
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