CHRISTCHURCH NZ (ANS) -- Imagine walking around a virtual Bible world. You log on to the Internet and enter a world where you can walk among three-dimensional representations of key Bible stories, climb the Mount of Olives, or explore Old Jerusalem.

That’s one of the projects on the drawing board of the Bible Society in New Zealand, which hopes to have its new web page up and running within the next couple of years.

It’s somewhere between reading the story and experiencing the story, said chief executive Mark Brown.

The Bible Society in New Zealand is leading the way for the rest of the world in innovative ideas and use of new technology.

Bible Society staff members are building a new website to take advantage of the technology, with the launch planned for early next year.

Mr Brown has been leading a group of Anglicans worldwide to establish a cathedral in the role-playing world called Second Life, where numerous services are now held every week, attended by people around the world who log on to the website to join in.

What he calls variously the “virtual platform” or “Web 3.0” technology is, he believes, the next wave for the internet. He believes many more websites will convert to this over the next few years.

He sees many different ways in which this can be used by churches and not-for-profit organisations, either bringing cost savings or making their work more accessible and relevant to the public.

For instance, staff and volunteers could “meet” in a virtual office online, eliminating the need for expensive travel.

Mission organisations could raise awareness and funds for projects by creating 3D representations of the areas in which they are working.

Mr Brown is a strong promoter of what is now known as “social media”. These are websites where people can interact with each other, or use the site to communicate in various ways with their social networks. Popular examples are Facebook and MySpace, but there are many others.

“We’re also thinking, what is the next step?” said Mr Brown. “One of my drives as a church agency is to not be late adopters, but to lead the way. Not to just lead the way in talking about church, but when society looks at us we are not way in the distance; we are right next to them.”

This does not mean the Bible Society has lost sight of its prime mission, which is to get Bibles into people’s hands. The society is prepared to do whatever it can to achieve that aim.

Mr Brown is deeply concerned at Christians’ lack of engagement with the Bible.

To try and get people thinking, he recently created a group on the Facebook website called “Bible Crisis – Time to Act”, where he asks the question, ‘If your reference isn’t the Bible, what is it?’ People joining the group make a commitment to daily engagement with the Word.

As part of his experimentation, he also goes to other Christian groups at Facebook.

“One of them is a 67,000 strong Catholic group. So I decided to start a discussion on the Bible crisis. Last count, it’s had 50-60 posts, and up to 30 people involved. So I’m engaging with people around the world about the issues.”

Not all the people in these groups are Christians. Mr Brown said the Internet was a good place to dialogue with others.

“There’s an anonymity online. People I’ve met through Second Life and social networking sites have openly said, ‘I struggle socially. But in this setting I feel safe engaging in conversation with you.’ Some of the people are very blunt, which I don’t get in real life. But that’s great; I like that, because it’s really the rough edge of where people are at.”

Mr Brown said churches in New Zealand had struggled to come to terms with the new technology. He estimated fewer than 10 per cent made use of it. Reasons ranged from lack of understanding to a concern that getting involved would exclude some people in the church, and a perception that it was very expensive.

But he says that fundamental to a successful church is community, making connections.

Mr Brown said Australian psychologist and social commentator Hugh Mackay believed people no longer expect to be physically present to connect.

“That scares church people. But many people have no issue in connecting in that way. And they have vibrant social lives as well. Society is moving from a local to a global focus.”

John McNeil, a veteran of 40 years of newspaper and radio journalism, is South Island editor for Challenge Weekly, New Zealand’s non-denominational, independent national Christian newspaper.