Yesterday’s Communique contained information about an online learning opportunity thru the United Methodist church that intruqued me. I decided to investigate and am now enrolled in ‘What is Web Ministry.’ This course is one of several on the church’s Moodle site. So far, all I’ve done is to update my profile and participate in a forum by introducing myself and responding to others in the class. Now I’m ready for the next assignment which is to define web ministry.
For me, the hard part of this assignment is describing ministry since that isn’t my vocation while working with the web is . A simple description might be working to advance the kingdom of Christ. This would involve a variety of tasks including preaching, teaching, prayer, Bible study, sharing, communicating and connecting. Many of these tasks can occur via the web.
However, if one limits their perception of web ministry to a web site and email, then they are not utilizing the full potential of the web. Collaborative sites, blogs, wikis, twitter, podcasts, vodcasts. Moodle, social networks and even sites such as Second Life all have potential uses for ministry.
The challenge comes in matching the web tool to the task and to the capabilities of those involved. For my church, not only is ease of use an issue, but also the amount of time required to utilize the tool. Another challenge in a small church with limited staff is getting the content – the raw material to work with.
I’m looking forward to expanding my knowledge in these areas as I progress thru this class.
Faith Journey 