Recently someone got married in my extended family. I'm not too aware on the detail of said marriage, and when I say extended, I mean really extended. What was so significant about the event was that the individual who performed the ordinance happened to be a sibling of either the bride or groom, and he had only recently joined an internet church and became a pastor in order to perform the ceremony. I think that's clever. If you are going to do it in that type of setting, and you want to have the ceremony performed by someone significant to you, then sure, have your brother do it.
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My mom told me about this, and as my sister is getting married soon also, she suggested that I do the same, and conduct the wedding myself. Of course she was kidding... I remeber two BYU students who, perplexed by the strict religious rules on how to organize an event in Provo, decided to join an internet church as pastors in order to make their party a religiously-promoted activity. They were both expelled by the honor code. So I guess joining another church is bad, even if you aren't taking it seriously.
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But, I'm not taking it serious, I'm just curious. I'm searching through the internet right now just to know what it takes to be an "cyber" pastor. So far it's been rather interesting. The first church I found was the "Internet Church of Christ", with a less than appealing web site featuring midi music (something that I haven't heard in years). The next is Cyber-Church.com, which respectfully considers itself as merely "your church away from home", but it's google description is, "One of the first online ministries dating to the early days of the Internet." I nearly keeled over laughing. So many non-cyber christian sects argue over who was organized first, as that is the pure determinant of truth. For example, on my mission I ran into some Coptic Christians in Vienna, who claimed that their right to absolute truth lay in the fact that they were organized by the apostle Mark, long before Peter started up* the Roman Catholic church. But then the Greek Orthodox church argues that John started their church also before Peter as well, so I really don't know what to believe. Basically, the older you are, the more right you are, i suppose. I guess this type of reasoning has spilled over to the cyber world as well. I guess they must be the "only true internet church".
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*=questionable
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But I will say this... I think it is good that there are such organizations, no matter how many. Eventhough I strongly believe tha longevity shouldn't be a determinant of truth, they still promote a faith in Christ which is very important.
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But here are some other churches, that you should consider when making that big "which online church shall I join?" decision:
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"The First Online Church of Bob" (as if there is a second?) Google description: An online ministry dedicated to Slack and the liberation of your mind from the control of the Conspiracy.
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"St. Pixels" (oh good, Father Pixels made it as a saint!) G.D.: Welcome to St Pixels, the online church in 3D where you can meet others, talk about serious and not-so-serious stuff, discuss what you do and don't believe, ...
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"Duke Street Church Online" G.D.: Richmond. Service details and weekly activities for all ages, including homelessness and international student ministries, a church football team, ... (they must have miss-typed that one)
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"Universal Ministries" G.D.: Become ordained online for free. You can now perform weddings.
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BINGO!
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