Engaging the digital Revolution We're experiencing the biggest communication shift since the printing press. Millions have adopted Facebook, YouTube, blogs, and Twitter. What does this mean for the Church? How can Christians harness these new tools to reach out, teach, cultivate community, and change the world? Following Pope Benedict's call to evangelize the "digital continent," The Church and New Media explores the power and risks of New Media while guiding Christians through this new environment. Foreword by Cardinal Sean O'Malley, O.F.M. Cap. Afterword by Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan Expert contributors include: Father Robert Barron Lisa Hendey Jennifer Fulwiler Father Dwight Longenecker Thomas Peters Mark Shea Matt Warner "The Church and New Media is the best kind of reading: timely, vivid, and rich in valuable information. For anyone seeking to understand and use today's new techologies in advancing the Catholic Faith, this book is an unsurpassed resource." -- Archbishop Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., Archdiocese of Denver

Online churches are internet-based Christian communities, pursuing worship, discussion, friendship, support, proselytization, and other key religious goals through computer-mediated communication. Hundreds of thousands of people are now involved with online congregations, generating new kinds of ritual, leadership, and community and new networks of global influence. Creating Church Online constructs a rich ethnographic account of the diverse cultures of online churches, from virtual worlds to video streams. This book also outlines the history of online churchgoing, from its origins in the 1980s to the present day, and traces the major themes of academic and Christian debate around this topic. Applying some of the leading current theories in the study of religion, media and culture to this data, Tim Hutchings proposes a new model of religious design in contexts of mediatization, and draws attention to digital networks, transformative third spaces and terrains of existential vulnerability. Creating Church Online advances our understanding of the significance and impact of digital media in the religious and social lives of its users, in search of new theoretical frameworks for digital religion.

Although written before much of the revolution in digital media, this book provides a lot of useful strategic input for those involved in media and Scripture Engagement.

Did you know you can read online reviews of your church? How often have you talked about “reaching people where they are”—and realized that much of the time, they are on the Internet? We’ve been living in a digital world for quite a while now. Justin Wise speaks about social media as this generation's printing press—a revolutionary technology that can spread the gospel farther and faster than we can imagine. It’s time to take what we know (and admit what we don’t know) and learn together how to move forward as the church. Are you ready to think theologically about this digital age and reach people in a new way?

Franciscan University of Steubenville Professor Eugene Gan authors this first-of-its-kind Catholic roadmap for the digital age: Infinite Bandwidth: Encountering Christ in the Media. He navigates you faithfully through the digital world, encouraging frustrated parents not to throw out cell phones, ban the Internet, chuck computers, or pitch portable media devices. That would be a mistake and believe it or not would be going against more than seven decades of Catholic teaching. From Church documents on social communications, Gan extracts seven principles or "media keys" of how to approach and use media. The Church and Gan say that we must enter into the modern day "Areopagus," the social and intellectual hub of ancient Athens where Paul preached to pagans, and use the media tools God has given us to make truth known and serve mankind. Cardinal John Patrick Foley says, "Frankly, I wish that such a book had existed when I was president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications as a text which I could have recommended. The important thing, however, is that it exists now to provide a text, context, and challenge for those who wish to bring both Christian principles and professional excellence to their work in the media." Gan offers chapter after chapter of real-life experience of how to assess movies, games, and gadgets for you and your teens. Of how to judge the merits of a film like Saving Private Ryan, and what sets it apart from Nightmare on Elm Street. Can the one be acceptable viewing and the other not? Definitely. And Gan details why. Infinite Bandwidth: Encountering Christ in the Media is way out front of the newest gizmo and will stay there thanks to its timeless principles that can be applied in all digital terrain, now and the future. Parents, educators, and students will put this book down with an entirely different attitude about the relationship between faith and media use.

"Are we still a Church capable of warming hearts? A Church capable of leading people back to Jerusalem? Of bringing them home?" - Pope Francis, Meeting with the Bishops of Brazil, 28 July 2013. Pope Francis, like his predecessors Benedict XVI and John Paul II, is calling for Catholics to embrace the new evangelization. But there has been ongoing confusion about who is responsible, what it really means and what it looks like in practical application. How can we respond to the Holy Father's call, creating evangelization opportunities that help bring people back to the Church? By transforming Catholics into digital missionaries - ready and able to take the joy and warmth of the Gospel online via social media to infrequent, inactive, or ex-Catholics around the corner or across the globe. Consider this: 1. Nearly every "lost" Catholic in the U.S. is most likely connected with at least one engaged Catholic - or is one "retweet" or "like" away from them 2. On the whole, Catholics have not been taught to see social media as a way to live out their faith 3. Motivating parishes to put a priority on evangelization has been a challenge 4. Catholics are more likely to be comfortable as digital missionaries than to participate in other forms of evangelization 5. Parishes can offer "digital missionary training" to parishioners - who would welcome it! In Transforming Parish Communications: Growing the Church Through New Media, you'll discover: How to embrace the Church's vision of evangelization in new media How entire parishes can become hubs of digital evangelization - and how to overcome obstacles Specific strategies for implementation How to create a consistent digital identity online Best practices for parish websites The nuts and bolts of Facebook, Twitter, email, blogging and more Consider this book your entry into an important - and urgent - call to each of us as Catholics. To bring the warmth of the Gospel to the "lost" and bring them back to the Church. Visit the companion site for more ParishGuideToNewMedia.com