I’m intrigued by your comments for a couple of reasons:

1) First, because I’m involved fairly heavily in the internet evangelism community (although I would hasten to add that, for me, this doesn’t mean I’m involved in Christian social networking projects but only in the community of folks seeking to use the internet to spread the gospel).

2) Second, because I actually agree with what you say.

My philosophy is that the church should aggressively use the internet, not to directly evangelize, but to intrigue people enough to want to join us in the regular physical gatherings of the Christian community. I think you’re right when you point out that evangelism should take place in the context of community. John 17:21-23 is telling on this point. It’s only when Christ’s disciples are one (i.e., living in deep community) that the world will know that the Father loves them and that the Father sent Jesus (and without those two points of understanding, who can be converted?).

I advocate using in-depth profiles of people in our churches to become bridges between believers and unbelievers around common life experiences and interests in a local geographic area.

And so the person whose faith in Christ has enabled them to cope with the emotional struggles they experienced when they found out they have cancer can befriend the person with cancer who has no faith. The person without faith sees the profile of the person with faith and is so intrigued that they want to meet them face-to-face. This friendship may then become a conduit into the faith community. The person without faith may never experience the faith community in terms of a gathering in a church building, but if they befriend the person of faith with cancer, they will most certainly be introduced to the faith community through backyard barbecues, dinners, outings, etc.

The only arena in which this approach may not be effective is in creative access nations, where different strategies may be necessary.

Thanks for your contribution to the conversations surrounding internet evangelism. My hope is that your contribution will be widely read and understood!

NOUN:

The act or an instance of sharing, as of thoughts or feelings.
Religious or spiritual fellowship.
A body of Christians with a common religious faith who practice the same rites; a denomination.
Communion Ecclesiastical
The sacrament of the Eucharist received by a congregation.
The consecrated elements of the Eucharist.
The part of the Mass or a liturgy in which the Eucharist is received.

Iink
http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/communion

That being stated, wherever, whenever, whatever the medium we are in communion. True?

I like what you said here, “I find it another blessing of modern technology to be able to cross cultural barriers, geographical barriers and personal barriers by interacting online. It is an old saying, originated in Toronto, but the medium is the message here. ”

McLuhan’s sociology and stuff on the “medium and message”is awesome as is Ellul’s both of which I too am influenced by. On the other hand I haven’t read “Tournier and Terruwe,” I’ll add them to the list.