Remember how, in the movie, Matrix, any body who entered the virtual world of the Matrix ended up looking super cool with dark sunglasses, slicked hair, and black leather? I worry that some people want Church 2.0 to allow them to bring such a false appearance to church.

I've already blogged some second thoughts about how churches use online technology for community purposes. I was reminded of it again when I looked at a video of a virtual reality application of Web 2.0 being used for "worship."  You can see the video here, along with the news story.  I wish I could remember the last time my waist was tapered from my shoulders the way those computer-generated avatars are shaped.  And I'm pretty sure that plastic surgeons are not quite able to produce the shapes given to the female avatars.  What kind of community can be formed out of idealized nonhumans?

I was led to this video by an entry in a blog dedicated to church 2.0.  He notes that the story is filed under tech: gaming. In an earlier entry, the same blogger pointed out,

As for shared communities like Kaneva, MySpace, Facebook, Bebo and Xanga (among others) the members often portray themselves as well — not necessarily who they really are. So what does this say about church 2.0 and new entries like GodSpace (a Christian social network). Will avatars mask reality? Can you walk into Second Life and really start a church without physical community and transparency?

This is a really important issue.  In order to genuinely build a local community, an application service provider needs to not allow the program to get so entertaining that it makes people want to go online for the same reason they play videogames.

Connect Our People is dedicated to bringing members of communities together in ways that will promote more fellowship in real reality along with vitual reality. For example, our "share yourself" feature provides the following features:

• Personal Info
• Gifts/Skills
• Interests
• Education/ Occupation
• Groups
• Photos
• Email

Noticeably absent are blogs and other tools that would allow a lot more individualized self-expression.  There is nothing wrong with blogging (of course!), but that is not Connect Our People's mission.  Our mission is to build community by allowing people to find one another so that they can help and minister to one another.

A blogger could always let others know of his or her blog and give a password in that private area so that blogs of interest to fellow church members could remain safe and private.  But Connect Our People encourages other sorts of community, especially community built around the needs of the congregation.