EMERGING CHURCH BLOGGERS IN AUSTRALIA:

Prophets, priests and rulers in God’s virtual world

Paul Emerson TeusnerRMIT :: School of Applied Communication

Completion Seminar :: 4 June 2009

Presentation

QuestionsConceptual framework & current debatesMethodologyDataReflections

Why ask?

YouTube disgrace of Melbourne priestWeb 2.0 promises:

Parliament on religious symbols, practices and structuresReconstruction of religious community and participationShift in the boundary between public and privateReshaping patterns of production, distribution and

consumption of religious text (information, cultural goods, shared knowledge

Ask what?

How do those involved in the emerging church conversation use blogging technology to construct individual and communal online religious identities?

How do religious attitudes towards blogging and the Internet contribute to the way people interact online?

What contributions and constraints do blogging software, and people’s use of it, offer the construction of online identity?

How are bloggers working together to construct an emerging church theology, ecclesiology and missiology?

How is authority distributed among emerging church bloggers, in relation to other systems of authority both online and offline?

What can be said about the place of the emerging church blogosphere in the current tensions of 21st century Australian religious sociology?

Conceptual framework

SecularisationDeprivatisationDeath of denominationalismReligious marketplace

Postmodern spirituality

Post-structuralismPostmodernismRole of technologySearch for meaning

Patterns of sociability

Me-centred networksDiscursive constructions of community and participation

Social construction of the Internet

Identity playDemocratisationPublic/privateUGC

Online discursive patterns

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Religious identity

• Emerging church

• Christian cyborg

Researching online religion

•What does online religion look like?•What can people do online and why would they do it?•What kind of people for online for religion and why?•Quantitative, and based on preconceptions

First wave

•Focus on ethnographic study•Establishing trust, asserting authorities, ritual practices•Online practice as distinct, and going online

Second and third waves

•Going online no longer a discrete step•I am cyborg because the world looks at the Internet and sees me•What is religious about the Internet being created•Internet as a place to consider place of religion in all parts of contemporary life

New wave

Contributions

What can this investigation say about:the continuity or fragmentation of online and offline

identities?shape and meaning of online networks and the discursive

construction of an emerging church blogosphere?rhetoric and realities of Web 2.0?what constraints and relations of power exist, how are

they uncovered, who uncovers them, how bloggers negotiate them?

Method

Informed byScollon and Wong ScollonBucholtz & Hall

Scollon & Wong Scollon

Bucholtz & HallAdequation

Distinction

Speaker

Authentication

Denaturalisation

Value

Authorisation

Illegitimation

Source

Discourse analysis

Blog posts• Scripture• Theology• Church structure

and authority• Mission and

evangelism• Social

commentary• Faith practices

Comment discussion• Use of text,

emoticons and simple formatting

• Presentations of rules of interaction

• Consequences of misconduct

• Debate• Redundancies

Cross-blog discussion• Hyperlinked

references• Tagging• Engagement in EC

discourses• Promotion• Allocation of

authority

Network analysis and interviews

CommentsLinksBlogrolls

Blogging practices and aims

Choice of softwarePerceptions of

audienceOwn connectionsOpinions about

emerging church

Identifying the sample

TechnoratiSmall number of Australian blogsMostly men

Looked to blogrolls and commentsTwo more bloggers added at beginning of researchTwo more added half-way through

Sample

33 blogs2 blogs have 2 or 3 authors: 36 bloggers in total5 are women3 Americans in the sample, living in Australia at or

close to the sample period1 Australian living overseas4 blogs empty during one sample period1 blogger returned to USA before second sample

period2 blogs changed name

Collecting data

Posts and comments collected during:1 July – 31 October 20061 February – 31 May 2007

Front pages at end of each period1500 posts5900 comments from 740 readers, plus each other3350 retained for study

Religious data

ScriptureHistorical and political reductionist interpretationDraw on stories for present ministry models

TheologyPolitical evaluations of doctrineCall for orthodoxy in pluralist environmentEmbrace doubt

Church structureEndeavours to build leadership modelsRole of clergyCritique business models of churches (Hill$ong)

Religious data

Mission and evangelismPolitical evaluations of evangelism practicesJust relationships with outsidersEmbrace pluralism

Faith practicesEmbrace new technologiesCreation of sacred spacesCritique of popular religious music

Social commentaryAustralian politicsEnvironment

Conversation data

Emoticons popularly used to add tone to wordsSome blogs have comment policies, aimed to

reflect how people would behave offlineSome bloggers encourage blogger behaviourOpen response to flaming and spamming

Cross-blog discussion

Little conversations occur across blogs. Many bloggers encourage readers to join in discussions in original blog

Blogs contain “filter” posts, mostly by men who blog regularly

Bloggers promote the sites of friends and colleagues, also mostly by men who blog regularly

Yet some bloggers actively support less known bloggers in attempts to undermine Technorati’s authority algorithm

Concerns about being perceived as similar to American versions of emerging church, especially when these versions are critiqued

Network data

5 bloggers have weak connections with majority of bloggers

More connections between bloggers of same denomination, except for CoC & Baptist

More connections between “Forge” membersMore connections between topic-heavy bloggersReferences tend to favour posts that are:

Male-authoredOn public issuesSupported by references to published works

Interview data

Reasons for bloggingJournalPractice writingNetworkingContinue conversationsAlternative congregation

AudienceKnown through face-to-face interactionKnown through emailsBloggers unlikely to say they write for specific people

Interview data

ConnectionsInterviewees more likely to read blogs of people they've

met offlineThese connections appear to be also topic-based

Opinions about emerging churchInterviewees reticent to label themselves “emerging

church”Some prefer “missional” or “alternative”

Findings

Discursive construction of identity

Emerging church blogger

Semiotic cycles

• Blogger speaks to autotelic audience• Commenters create connection

Interaction order

Social trust

EtiquetteDown-playIrreverenceHat-tip

Social capitalCommenting on others’ blogsReferencing bloggersInvolvement in offline networksComment on public issues

In context of wider debates

Bloggers seek continuity of offline identity, in their desire to create an authentic space, and a place to explore religion as a whole

Network that is more strongly connected to offline networks and communities of practice, than to idea of an emerging church blogosphere as a whole

“More of the same” when it comes to promises of Web 2.0

Bloggers are aware of constraints to equal voices, but are themselves constrained by the medium

Conclusion

Blogosphere seen as a place of safety, risk and authenticity, but an incomplete connection

Blogosphere offers this through the development of online symbolic/discursive practices

While old authority structures are called into question, the medium favours writing. Therefore the technorati are the literati.

Emerging church bloggers represent:Debates about the culture wars of secularisation and

deprivatisationThe place of orthodoxy in pluralismThe “left-right” dichotomy of public religion