Over 500 Christians gathered in central London's The Brewery venue on
Saturday for the fourth annual Christian New Media Conference and
Awards.
Delegates were encouraged to "reimagine Church" by engaging in social
media during the event organised by Premier Christian Media and CODEC.
The
evening saw an awards ceremony during which websites including
iBenedictines (Blogger of the Year), The Bridge (Multi-author Blog of
the Year), and The Salvation Army International (Accessibility Award)
were recognised for their achievements – see here for the full list of
winners
http://www.newmediacentreofexcellence.org.uk/cnmac/awards/shortlist
The 36 speakers at the day conference included Archbishop of
Canterbury's daughter, Katharine Welby, the CODEC project's Dr Bex
Lewis, and James Poulter of You Version, and presented 32 seminars on
topics including 'Podcasting Without Tears', 'Raising Funds Online' and
'Apologetics Online: The Good The Bad & The Ugly'.
Reverend Dave Gilpin from Hope City Church in London opened the
conference with the words: "There's a lot of boffins in the room, a lot
of nerds, a lot of geeks.
"I want us to build a community today. Everyone is in their own
bubble, let's explore each other's worlds. There's so many worlds in
this room that are incredibly interesting."
In his address, the Bishop of London Right Reverend Richard Chartres
argued for a better partnership between local churches and the worldwide
web and said cyberspace was "the new town square".
The bishop praised the YesHeIs.com as a "remarkable site" that had "reached 42 million for the gospel".
Six streams of seminars titled Theology, Beginner, Communication,
Nuts & Bolts, Church & Charity and Networking ran throughout the
day.
The afternoon main session heard from Reverend Kate Bottley, who was
catapulted to fame after the video of her leading a flash mob at a
wedding went viral. She spoke on the abuse she had received from
Christians who found the video offensive.
Katharine Welby, whose Twitter followers jumped from 40 to 4,000
after her father became Archbishop of Canterbury, also gave a speech.
Speaking of her own struggle with depression, which sparked
controversy in the mainstream media, Welby encouraged people to write
down their attitudes to mental health, then read them back and
"reflect".
In a discussion session 'The Future of Social', Bryony Taylor
predicted the "slow death" of email, as social media tools such as
Facebook and Twitter increase in popularity. She cited Prezi, a virtual
whiteboard company which stopped sending emails this year because
"you're probably not reading them".
Rachel Barach, General Manager of Bible Gateway revealed in her short
talk that 400,000,000 hours were spent reading the Bible digitally in
2012 and 41% of Americans read the Bible online this year. But she also
warned: "Don't substitute a status update for engaging in a
relationship…Don't just broadcast when you can disciple."
Pete Phillips from CODEC raised the question: "What do you do when a
computer says 'I believe in God?' AIs could have freewill and be open to
the spirit of God."
He ended with: "The future isn't mine to prophesy, the future is ours to create."
Sheridan Voysey shared his experiences of creating a Christian radio
station in Australia that reaches out to those outside the church.
Explaining his four values of being missional, credible, holistic and
hospitable, he encouraged Christians to be more outward-looking in
reaching the secular world.
The conference's closing reflection was given by David Adabale from
New Life Church who shared, "We have all been equipped today for an
assignment," before praying: "Father help us as we go from here to
publish the good news, there are people out there who are waiting for an
answer that you have."
Hundreds of delegates used the conference hashtag #cnmac13 to quote speakers and voice their own opinions.
@GabriellaRusso commented "Church always been at forefront of
technology - printing press and first book published was the Bible. BUT
are we keeping up now?"
@xiannewmedia tweeted "World population of 7bn, internet uses 2.4bn,
1/3 of people connected to the internet. On the rise in developed &
developing world."
Organisers are already planning another conference and awards ceremony for next year.