Virtual Christians?

My mind is really moving with this idea so I figured better write it down before the cobwebs cover up all the good stuff! What could be done with a virtual Christian presence in an online alternate universe, aka a place like Second Life?

• Virtual missionaries. After about 30 minutes of trying to figure out where I was I happened upon two extremely fruitful conversations. I was just imaging how people could set aside on hour or whatever daily (maybe even just once a week) to go online and seek out people to share the Gospel with. Seemingly, relationships can be built with people...you can make it so that you talk with the same people often. You can also just do "street evangelism", going to the seedier sides of the virtual world to share Christ with passer-bys. Could the International Mission Board be sending missionaries to the virtual mission field someday??
  
• Small group meetings. If you find yourself with a few friends, you could schedule a time to meet and talk about a passage of Scripture together. There are places all over where such a meeting could take place...for example the Christian coffeehouse pictured in the post below this one. It wouldn't need to take a long time...you could talk about what's going on in each other's lives. People walking through would hear (see) your conversations and be exposed to Truth.
  
• Church services. Like the virtual church in the post below churches could actually setup services online. People could come if they'd like to take part. Music can even be streamed online so attenders could worship "together" (strange concept, I know). And some sort of teaching could be shared with the group.
  
• Survey work. If you'd like to get an idea of how the general population (or global population) thinks about something in particular, hit the web. You can talk to anyone, anywhere and ask whatever questions you'd like to ask. You could do some surveys to find out about anything from technology trends to something involving evangelistic-related questions.
  
• "Safe" practice environment. Here's the beauty if all of this...it will be far easier for most people to talk with others online about these issues than in person. The anonymity is what so many people crave. If you're afraid to speak to someone on the literal street outside your house (yeah, I admit I'm in that group) then you can practice walking up to people virtually. My feeling is that (1) those conversations will not be wasted as you will still be sharing Truth with your virtual contacts and (2) you will likely be building boldness and readying yourself to speak more openly with your non-virtual friends.

Just some ideas I wanted to throw out there. I know this stuff seems strange. Every generation thinks that younger gens are strange...that the technology they bring with them isn't needed or that it dilutes the strengths of whatever that generation worked to build. But really we can find ways to cross over those generational gaps and embrace the good possibilities that emerging technologies present us......especially when we're doing it to spread the love of Christ, since all of those weird little online characters really represent real human lives!