Dan J. Brennan

Nice Link

This is a quote from the blog critic:

"Blog evangelism is about building online  relationships with people within an area of shared interest. The offline equivalent is the way we relate face-to-face with people we work or study with, or meet socially. We make friends with them and enjoy their company, rather than preaching at them. Online relationships can be deep and used by God. As they get to know us, they sense that we have things in our lives that they do not yet possess and they effectively give us permission to share."

If you click on the "God" link, it will take you to faith dance--and this post.

The Necessity of Open Cross Gender Friendships

I believe all intimate cross gender friendships must be "open" friendships.  I don't believe there should be any "closed" or private cross gender friendship--especially when marriage is involved.  Cross gender friendships need to be open from the beginning and stay open.  As a matter of wisdom, that's a big commitment to maintain and hold in cross gender friendships between a man and a woman who are married but not to each other, or a spouse and an opposite sex single friend.  One of my closest friends is a single woman.  There's no way we'd be as close as we are, if I had not practiced, if we had not practiced an open cross gender friendship.  There's a paradox.  I enjoy this deep intimacy with a single woman friend precisely because it is an intimacy open to my wife and my mentor friend.  I would not though, seek any cross gender friendship with a married woman if she could not also keep it open with her spouse.

Online Spiritual Formation in Small Groups

There's this perception out there, even among seasoned cyber veterans that cyberspace is limited to information, not spiritual transformation.  However I have witnessed spiritual formation and experienced powerful community both in one-on-one relationships (see Online Healing Story) as well as in online small groups.  My favorite online community group is the one I just so happen to moderate, HisPresence.  I started this group in Dec. of 2002. 

Some individuals have come and gone but most of the beginning core is still present.  We are open to taking others but we are a private closed community.  We pledge to keep what is shared on the list as confidential  It's a place where real, authentic soul-to-soul connecting takes place.  All of us attend real time local churches.  I believe most, if not all, of our core people have been around for a while, would say they have received deep blessing and have been shaped in some way or the other because of their participation and commitment in the group.  A couple of years after the group started, one of our members was asked in their real time Sunday School class, to write down a person who has influenced their journey of faith.  That member named me and my name was temporarily put up on the church's wall for their "Hall of Faith" poster for that particular morning.  Almost all of my input with this member had come from HisPresence. 

We've had some online disconnects and overhearing each other, etc. but HisPresence is a place where spiritual formation happens.  It's almost hard to believe that deep ministry can happen online but we have a core group of people who are bonded to each through cyberspace soul sharing.

These things happen regularly within our group:

Authentic sharing of what's happening in our lives

Confession of weakness or sin

Praying for each other

Encouragement

Connecting

Forgiveness when we've wronged each other

I invite those of you who are readers who are also members of our small group to share what this online community has meant to you or how it has impacted your lives.

Virtual Soul Friends and a Book?

So as I continue to seek the Lord's direction on writing a book or book(s), :-)  the interest I have received from my online healing story has kind of surprised me in some sense--a delightful surprise.  The depth of interest has stirred new thoughts about just working on a brief book on virtual soul friendship and just get something out there.

Blogging, Ministry, and Deeper Relationships

I've received a lot of good hits from the Online Healing Story I've posted back in March.  It seems  since this blog is an expression of who I am--duh! :-)--one of the developing dynamics in this blog will be some kind of expression of blogging ministry and relationship.  There's been so little out there about the ministry online--emailing, blogging, or community groups.  Perhaps my story as well as this blog will be a living expression of a practical/theoretical theology of online ministry. I am curious how this is going to grow and mature, but I am looking forward to a more specifically refined blogging ministry and community.  One of the examples I can think of, because this has been so much a part of my experience in recent years, is ministry to those who have been sexually abused.

An Online Healing Story

Have you ever prayed for a friend experiencing a deep emotional or spiritual crisis through IM (Instant Messaging)? Offered spiritual direction through email? Provided genuine soul-to-soul support through a Yahoo community list? Consciously (or unconsciously) applied insights you have learned from Crabb or Townsend, etc. in these situations? Claimed significant sacred online companions?

Virtual relationships confirm once again an ancient truth: intimate sharing and connection does not require someone’s physical presence. Our triune God has known this from eternity. Christians should be more than open to the power of intimate online friendships because our God knows physicality is not a prerequisite for spiritual intimacy. If anything, online spiritual friendships reinforce something fundamentally Christian: God is spirit and knowledge of his heart is not only possible but real and life-transforming.

The Tree of Life

I am reading Steven Chase's new book, The Tree of Life: Models of Christian Prayer.

I was intrigued by his comments on verbal prayer in transformation.  "Though we are not as apt to hear reports of radical transformation through simple, persistent, verbal prayer, those who pray primarily in the verbal style are just as likely to experience transformation as those deeply engaged in silent, contemplative prayer."   I am glad he acknowledges this. 

There is such a deep place for verbal prayer in the transformation of others.  Why is this so?  Maybe Chase provides the answer in another chapter.  He observes "In a real sense, through the gift of human relationship, we practice receiving the presence of God...The deep mystery of relationship with God in prayer is that it has an equally powerful side effect: To be in a prayerful relationship with a friend or lover brings us into the presence of God."

The Shape of Virtual Soul Friendships

I was thinking this morning on the many books/authors who have shaped me as I pursue my goal on writing about virtual soul friendships.   Below is an adumbrated but not complete list on the books that have impacted me.  I hope my book will contribute to the conversation about future online soul friendships and ministry.  These are probably my top thirty books that have seeped into my ministry, life, calling and virtual friendships.  Some of the authors are evangelicals, some are catholics, and some are feminists.  I didn't include classic authors like John Calvin or John of the Cross, for example.   

In no specific order:

Relational Leadership by Walter C. Wright

Ancient-Future Faith  by Robert E. Webber

Spiritual Friend  by Tilden Edwards

Spiritual Mentoring  by Keith Anderson and Randy Reese

Spiritual Theology by Simon Chan

Divine Conspiracy  by Dallas Willard

The Spirit of the Disciplines by Dallas Willard

Renovation of the Heart   by Dallas Willard

Becoming Friends by Paul J. Wadell

Sacred Companions   by David Benner

Care of Souls  by David Benner

The Shape of Practical Theology  by Ray Anderson

Healing Presence by Leanne Payne

Restoring the Christian Soul by Leanne Payne

Friendship: Interpreting God's Love by E.D.H. (Liz) Carmichel

(The above book I couldn't find at Amazon but I have in my hands)

Virtual Faith by Tom Beaudoin

The Reciprocating Self  by Jack Balswick, Pamela Ebstyne King, and Kevin S. Reimer

Faces of Forgiveness   by F. Leron Shults and Steven Sandage

Soul Friend by Kenneth Leech

Connecting by Paul Stanley and Robert Clinton

Connecting by Larry Crabb

The Jesus Creed by Scot McKnight

Counseling Women  by Christie Cozad Neuger

Practicing Theology  Ed. Miroslav Volf and Dorothy Bass

Faith, Hope, Love  by Josef Pieper

The Psychology of the Internet by Patricia Wallace

Rediscovering Friendship by Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel

Beautiful Risk by James Olthuis

A New Kind of Christian by Brian McLaren

Counseling Survivors of Sexual Abuse  by Diane Mandt Langberg

Virtual Soul Friends

Okay, I think I got it.  I've had a good day of praying and reflecting today sitting in a park.  I think I have a working title on my book project: virtual soul friends. I began to see how everything I have had an interest in writing about has come together under this topic.  I will be able to explore idea of prayer friendship which I had in mind back in the spring as well as the notion of healing God wounds.  They are interconnected and I will be able to explore these issues under the topic of virtual soul friends.  I see this beginning to signficantly gel for me.    I am working on the outline this afternnon.

The Power of Internet Intimacy

After a long hiatus, I am back to blogging.  The idea of writing something about the power of internet intimacy struck me a couple of days ago.  I am toying with the idea of putting something down for publication or maybe a book.  I am looking for something with a balanced view on internet intimacy.  Some think its a myth.  Others think that internet relationships are an escape from pursuing the messiness of genuine face-to-face intimacy with family, friends, and neighbors.  I've tasted the power of internet intimacy in the past few years.  Several of my closest friendships have developed through internet intimacy.  I've also experienced the negative side of internet friendships.  The topic is stirring within me.