When an author is trying to convince you that something means what you know it doesn’t, they’ll often go to the dictionary for support.
How can a virtual church be [a local church]? Glad you asked. If you look up the word local in the dictionary, it means “belonging to or existing in a particular place,” or more specifically, “of or belonging to the neighborhood.” [...]
Local churches are local not because of geography but because they are one specific group belonging to a place of seeking after God together.
From SimChurch
By this point the author has already redefined place in a way that includes “virtual spaces”, like a neighborhood in Second Life, so by saying that local is about place, he can reasonably conclude that a congregation that exists only in cyberspace is a true “local church”.
But is the dictionary definition really the best way to go about this? It seems problematic to me, and I expect others are uncomfortable with it as well. Read more
