Archives For internet ministry course

Shane Hipps @ Biola

September 28, 2026 — 1 Comment

Shane Hipps spoke in chapel at Biola last week as part of a series on “Digital Formation: How Technology Shapes Our Faith”. Hipps, author of The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture and Flickering Pixels, spoke to the students on how the use of technology itself is not neutral and how we need to consider the effect that technology has on our spiritual life.

I have been an admirer of Shane’s for the last couple years, the highlight of which was my interview with him for my Internet Ministry class last January. I used his first book as a foundation for that class and again for my online course this summer. Â Below is the video of his chapel appearance last week. Hipps spoke again on Wednesday on the topic of listening for God’s calling in your life. For more Biola chapels, visit the Biola YouTube channel.

In Digital Ministry , , ,
permalink

Online Course for Summer 2010: Using the Internet and Social Media for Ministry

February 11, 2026 — 6 Comments

There is a need for those being trained in ministry to understand the full potential of the Internet. In their open letter to colleges, the Internet Evangelism Coalition states:

We thank God that some ministries and missions are already ‘seizing the day’ and using the Web effectively for outreach. But unfortunately, these are the exception. Although there are vast numbers of Christian websites and blogs, the overwhelming majority are only for Christians. Church websites can be very off-putting to outsiders. The situation is even worse in non-English languages. Most cross-cultural mission agencies are not using the Web for evangelism. The opportunities to use this God-given tool are immense, but not yet being grasped.

We wonder if this is a gap that colleges like yours could be poised to fill. With your vision, experience and resources, you could help to shape and establish a web evangelism movement that will impact the world for years to come. This new medium also offers many opportunities for student placements, assignments and research projects.

This coming summer (2010), I will be offering an online course in Internet ministry in my role here as a professor at Biola University. I am very excited about this course and hope it can become a regular course that I teach at Biola and possibly expand to other programs at other colleges. Â Click here to see the first draft of the course syllabus.

If you are a Biola graduate student and want to find out more about this course, please contact me via email.

If you are not a Biola student and you want to know how you can take this course, please read the letter I sent to dozens of other colleges regarding this possibility.

In Digital Ministry ,
permalink

Kicking off 2010

January 8, 2026 — 5 Comments

A belated “Happy New Year!” to everyone. I wanted to start off the new year by dusting off this old blog and making it what it was always meant to be: a resource for those who are doing ministry online. Â In particular, my focus is in the area of research and education for online ministry, though any topic regarding online ministry may show up here. So take a look around, you may notice that I have cleaned some things up and added some new information here and there.

So what is in store for 2010? Glad you asked:

  • I will be on a “half-sabbatical” this entire year at Biola, which means that I will only be teaching a half-load of classes and the rest of the time can focus on a research project. In my case, that research project will be a book on online ministry. Â This book will be based on the research that I have been doing, along with my experiences teaching a course in the topic and working with various ministries. As I am writing, I will be sharing ideas and questions on my blog and asking for your feedback.
  • I will be teaching a course in Internet Ministry this summer at Biola. This will be similar to the course I taught last spring, but with one big difference: it will be online. Â If you are student at Biola or another university (grad or undergrad) and would like to participate in this course, let me know! I will be writing about my ideas for this course on this blog as well.
  • I will be going to Turkey in March as part of TIEN 2010 where I will meet with church leaders and others interested in using the Internet to reach that part of the world for Christ.
  • I am part of a team putting together some sessions around the idea of online ministry at the CLA 2010 conference in April. Most of the ideas and writings for that are being done over at State of Ministry Online, but you will hear about it from time to time on this blog as well.
  • As any good researcher should do, I am actively seeking out others who write, teach, and research in this area. Â The goal of this is to stay informed and to be sure I am not duplicating the work of anyone else. I am now actively using Google reader to track what those people have to say. As I find articles or information that I find very valuable, I will share them on Google reader, which allows others (such as you, dear reader) to subscribe to these shared items and interact on them. I will be highlighting the best of what I am reading and sharing on this blog approximately once a week.

A lot of work on Internet ministry is going to happen in 2010 - stay tuned to this site for the latest. I would love to know what you are doing in the field of Internet ministry this year, or if you have a recommendation for someone I should be keeping up with. Let me know in the comments.

In Digital Ministry , , , , , ,
permalink