I have no problem with online theological debate, encouragement and lively banter among believers, but I do not consider it fellowship. I used to, though. I feel that online relationships represent a strong illusion of closeness. You think you have friends, but when hard times hit, they're not going to be there for you. Even when good times hit, they're not going to be there. If you don't believe me, then try inviting someone from the forum to dinner sometime. Get someone to help you move. The excuse is distance, but a true friend could take the time off and buy the airplane ticket. At the end of the day, these are only words.
The church for the most part creates a similar illusion of closeness. Sure, there are some exceptions, one might have a few folks from church they are truly friends with, but by and large, for the most part in good or in bad, the church won't be there for you, and neither will online... but a few friends, whether online or offline, from church, or not from church probably will be. I think back to when my wife passed away, the last folks I wanted to deal with were people from church, so I came in late and left early for the first few months. And fwiw, I've been invited out to dinner with CF folks, and have done the same with other online folks. I even drove 5 hours and worked all night long to fix an online friends car, even though we'd never met each other before.
Online relationships are anonymous. There's no accountability. Most of the time your "friends" are people you've never seen, whose real names you don't know, whose phone numbers you've never called.
Its the same deal with church, most folks names I don't know, and I certainly don't know their phone numbers. Beyond that, even if one did, unless one has already built up a relationship, they aren't going to answer an unknown caller ID.
Online relationships are easy, but by similar reasoning they're also cheap. There's no real investment, no commitment, no inconvenience. If someone makes you uncomfortable, you can make them disappear with a click.
And the same happens in physical proximity, folks can be ignored.
Online relationships have no physical proximity. I've walked into churches and felt the Holy Spirit. I've walked into most and felt nothing. I walked into one and felt a demon. What I feel when I'm online is more a factor of my own situation than that of an online "location," which is something that doesn't even exist.
I'm leery to attribute feelings to the presence of the Holy Spirit or lack there of. Granted, some physical locations can be really creepy.
Online fellowship is public, vulnerable and recorded. Sooner or later persecution is going to come. All online relationships and this entire network of believers will be dissolved, at best, or used to track us down and destroy us, at worst. Physical word of mouth may be less effective a mode of communication, but offline relationships and communications are much harder to trace and intercept. This may not be much of an issue, yet, but when the hammer does fall, it will be too late to form the necessary real relationships if they do not already exist.
And church records, including financial ones and massive databases exist as well, plus the NSA has metadata at its fingertips. If they want to persecute you, they will. Alas, when the chips are down local social capital is really important, but it comes from ones community and neighborhood, the church much less so.
Rites cannot be performed online. Communion cannot persist online. Nor can baptism. Church offices are not held. Tithing and offering, along with all that the cash flow means to local and missionary efforts comes to a crawl. Your online mentor cannot marry nor bury you.
That is a challenge, but had it not been for online resources and mentors, I doubt I could have planned and performed the graveside services for my late wife. Pastor was swamped and was heading out on vacation, so it came down to me to put things together as well as do the readings and homily stuff. Without the online stuff, it would have been a nightmare. That being said, Paul did talk about baptism for the dead in 1 Cor 15... so while I am not convinced that online sacraments are wise practice (Gnosticism is a real danger with this)... I'm not convinced they are impossible.
Marriage. It's going to become an issue not just for the church, but for society at large. The distance, socially, between people is increasing with the advancement in technology. You can see it in nations such as Japan, who had this level of technology before us, that while we sustain a great number more relationships, the ability to form close relationships is greatly hampered. This has its effect on courtship and marriage. More so, it has a strong effect on the ability of a person to meet and develop a close and meaningful relationship with a member of the opposite sex...
This I do happen to agree with, but there are many other factors driving this as well... but then again I am an old guy, who shakes his head at youngsters out dating with heads buried in their phones... not that seniors who are phone savvy are any better at it. Then again, maybe I am too much a luddite, despite tech being my career path Lol
In all seriousness though, the societal change in interpersonal relationship skill is very concerning. I don't know what the answer is... perhaps the pendulum will need to swing through a few generations before we get a handle on it. Alas, population growth is slowing, and if we are to be caretakers of God's creation, its not necessarily a bad thing. We don't need to hit 2050 only to find out we can't game agriculture enough to put food on the table anymore due to overpopulation... and yet, we are loosing something too. Its not an easy thing by any means.
...who not only happens to be a Christian, but also has similar doctrine and values (denomination). People love to berate the diversity of Christian doctrine, but the fact remains that it does exist, and a marriage needs more agreement than simply that Christ died and rose again.
And while I agree that marriage needs more than agreement on Christ's resurrection... one also has to consider that even if two folks are at the same place with their walk with Christ when they get married, its pretty likely they will be in and out of sync with each other through out their lives, and that's irrespective of the church they attend. Successful Christian marriages requires folks to deal with theological disputes just as much as financial ones... short of one or both spouses doing the doormat thing just to keep the peace.
The physical church is an awesome thing, but its not perfect nor blameless. The body of Christ otoh, is much much larger than a local physical gathering of similar minded believers, rather it is the entirety of all who walk with Christ, past, present, and future, in physical proximity, as well as those who are far from being able to do so. Online fellowship can show us glimpses of the body of Christ as a whole, that one in a local gathering is unlikely to ever experience... and yet, there are social skills that only develop with close physical interaction over a period of time. Each can have a place in each individuals life, some will lean one way more than the other, and I think thats ok.
