Studying Technology and Ecclesiology in Online Multi-Site Worship

Abstract

This study brings together research approaches from media studies and practical theology in order to study and understand the relationship between online technological features of multi-site worship and the larger offline worshipping community to which it is connected. From the perspective of media studies we reflect on how new media technologies and cultures are allowed to shape online worship spaces and how larger institutional traditions and structures are allowed to shape technologically mediated church events. From the perspective of practical theology we use the notion of inculturation as a lens for a better understanding of the specific ways in which Christian worship practices adapt, change, and respond to the new cultural setting which emerges from the online worship context. Together, these approaches illuminate the interplay between digital technology and ecclesiological tradition in shaping multi-site church worship practices.

Notes

1. According to Warren Bird and Kristin Walter’s report “Multisite is Multiplying”, the internet and technology play an important role in multi-site churches. Of the 3,000 North-American multi-site churches identified and represented in their study, 15% use video delivered via the internet at their sites and 11% have internet campuses, with another third hoping to develop online campus options within the next few years.

2. The work of the Ecclesiology and Ethnography Research Network has largely involved collaborative projects (such as the one represented here) between a theologian and a social scientist, seeking to combine theoretical and methodological reflection from social science and theological studies in order to develop new qualitative empirical research approaches to the nature of the Christian Church.

3. Although there are conceptual similarities between our use of inculturation and the broader discussion in the theology of culture or the theology of missions, we are using inculturation with a narrower focus. We are explicitly interested in the meaning making that occurs within Christian worship, not in the broader missionary concern related to Christianity’s encounter with other cultures and religions (Blosch) or the theoretical concern raised by the theology and culture dialogue (Tillich; Tracy; Tanner; Graham). The limited scope of this article centers on worship and seeks to identify how inculturation—as borrowed primarily from liturgical theology—provides an interesting theological lens for studying the experience of worship at the online campus of a multi-site church. We are particularly interested in the way this theological term complements the media studies perspective, as developed from Heidi Campbell’s notion of the ‘religious-social shaping of technology’, (When Religion).

4. Material quoted in this article represents extracts from transcripts of live dialogues taking place in the chat room of the Northland Internet Campus during specific services streamed online. Names/log-ons of members have been replaced with gender identifiers; time stamps appear as noted on the live streaming transcript.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Heidi A. Campbell

Heidi A. Campbell is Associate Professor of Communication at Texas A&M University where she teaches in media, religion, and culture and where she is Director of the Network for New Media, Religion and Digital Culture Studies. Dr. Michael W. DeLashmutt is Professor of Theology, Academic Dean, and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Trinity Lutheran College in Everett, WA, USA. He is a practical theologian with wide-ranging interests; his primary area of teaching and research engages with the coalescing of theological beliefs and practices and everyday life. CORRESPONDENCE: Heidi A. Campbell, Dept. of Communication, Texas A&M University, MS 4234, 102 Bolton Hall, College Station, TX 77843, USA.