A church without walls: Finding community in Central Christian Church's online campus

Churches today are expanding beyond the physical walls of a church building. They are now online and interactive. This study explores the differences and similarities of communities of online churches and their physical church locations. It incorporates Stanley Fish's interpretive community theory by looking at Thomas Lindlof's common elements of a community and characteristics of an interpretive community. Using an ethnographic approach, survey and interviews were conducted to collect the data. Conclusions include determining that Central's online and physical church communities are in fact interpretive communities and that the online church is not replacing the physical church, but supplementing it.