Web+2.0+Travel-log+part+2

I was planning to start a persona on Second Life and try out the Quaker meeting to see what a virtual service would be like. However, in checking out both of my computers (laptop and PC) it appears that my graphics cards are not strong enough or contain something that prevents Second Life from functioning on them. Therefore that will have to be a future project in 2008. SL is a virtual world where people can meet other residents and interact in an advanced social network. It is inspired by Role Playing Games (RPGs) but is not a game in the strict sense, since there are no rules, winners, or objective. Residents in SL buy and sell land, build homes and businesses, attend church services, and are even starting to get involved in crime and riots like the real world. There are some technical difficulty issues, as well as moral issues of money being stolen from members, pornography, gambling and lack of identity-verification (Wikipedia). I did find one website that discussed the potential for evangelism and church planting in Second Life. http://ied.gospelcom.net/secondlife-evangelism.php

So I decided to check out a Christian Search engine that I saw advertized on MySpace. ChristianGo- [|http://www.chrisitango.com] This is apparently an offshoot of Google. I tried typing in "prayer" and received more than ten pages of websites. Some were Christian magazines, churches and organizations. When putting "Web2.0 Christian uses" into the search I received many more hits.

One site I found was http://ied.gospelcom.net/blogging.php This site discusses the use of Christian blogs and whether they are useful for evangelism. There are many Christian blogging sites available and 99% of those posting are Christian. Non-Christians often do not find these topics attractive and will stay away, making blogging evangelism difficult. Their suggestion was to start a topical blog about something non-Christians might find interesting (sports, family, a particular need) and try to find a specific niche that has not been started yet. This may attract non-Christians. Then get conversations going and do friendship evangelism. There are also sites that offer RSS (Really Simple Syndiacation) feeds, which are XML-based formats to be connected to blogs or websites by the use of news readers. ChristianPost.com offers magazine articles on ethical issues and religion.
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There are webpages specifically set up to evangelize that they felt worked better, because they offered links, layered information, video testimonies and more direct access to the gospel. [|www.internetevangelismday.com] is a website set up to help churches, Bible colleges and individuals develop their own online evangelism tools. Their belief is that millions of people use the internet and this is a modern Roman Road to reach people. Some of the groups involved in this group are: Billy Graham Center, American Tract Society, Campus Crusade for Christ, Willowcreek, and others. According to their website they feel that the internet is the perfect evangelistic site (see Snag-It capture below). The internet is, however, only a channel to communicate with others and not the message itself. The internet is a tool that can be used for good or evil. So Christians must take care to protect themselves when online. They discuss ways to protect yourself as a Christian- spam filters and contact forms can be used for e-mail to filter out unwanted contact; internet filters or accountability software can be installed to keep the temptation to search illicit sites down (software like Covenant Eyes or Accountable2U keep you accountable to a partner you trust); let young people know never to give out personal information or agree to meet along with anyone they contact online. A key element for people who have been saved through the internet was e-mail relationships to others. They have several videos you can watch or stories you can read of people who have found salvation online. [|http://www.everystudent.com] is a student focused site that offers articles about sex, marriage, relationships, comparative religions and Christianity. They can discuss and e-mail questions to people at the site. They also list Christian organizations connected to local colleges, so students could connect to a person at their location. They even offer similar sites in other languages.

You can also find audio sermons, church website developing programs, online Christian magazines, Christian conferences online, online videos at [|http://www.godtube.com.] Some of the audio and video are choppy and quit when you move the mouse. Technology may need some modification to be user friendly and attractive to techy-type teens. Yesterday in our paper an article appeared on GodTube. Curry,M. (2007,November 2). Web site makes seminarian a businessman. //Grants Pass Daily Courier,6B.// Godtube apparently was started by a seminary student from Dallas Theological Seminary to be a resource for churches. It was identified as one of the fastest growing sites on the web earlier this year with over 4 million visitors in October. It has over 150,000 registered users. What once began as a video sharing site is planning to expand to producing entertainment programs, launching a new social network and providing tools like "Video Police" where parents can report concerns and speak with a staff member on an interactive window. According to Mosley, a user listed in the article "...for people who are looking for Web sites with Christian-specific content, it's meeting that need in a great way". GodTube reviews every video sent to them. They have 10 people doing this at any one time in five languages. There are more languages (100) that have been sent in, but until he finds translators who can review those videos they will not be posted. Muslims, Jews, and even Atheists are encouraged to use the website and post videos. They can't proselytize or post objectionable content, but diverse viewpoints are presented. Some get into rather heated theological debates.

Two other sites mentioned in the article that I will travel to next are: MyChurch.org- a Christian version of MySpace and Conservapedia.com that is a religious right version of Wikipedia. Head to Travel-log page 3 for more information.