Opening Lecture at "Theology After Google" conference, Claremont School of Theology, March 10, 2010

1. “Church” ≠ Slow and Dead:
Inviting Christianity
into the Age of Google
Philip Clayton
Claremont School of Theology
March 10, 2010

9. •
Then… and Now…

14. How big is Google?
Google runs over one million servers in data
centers around the world, and processes over
one billion search requests and twenty
petabytes of user-generated data every day…
Alexa lists Google as the Internet's most
visited website.Google is also Fortune
Magazine's fourth best place to work, and
BrandZ's most powerful brand in the world.

15. What is the Google zeitgeist?
"Zeitgeist" means "the spirit of the times", and Google reveals this
spirit through the aggregation of millions of search queries we
receive every day. We have several tools that give insight into
global, regional, past and present search trends. These tools are
available for you to play with, explore, and learn from. Use them for
everything from business research to trivia answers.
Take a look inside the world of search
• Google Trends - For a broad look at search query data, enter up to
five search terms to see relative popularity over time.
• Trends for Websites - Google Trends for website traffic data. Type in
a website address to see visitors by region and related sites visited.
• Insights for Search - A deeper dive into search query data for
marketers and power users. Create your own lists of "most popular"
and "fastest rising" queries for different geographic regions over
time and by topic.
• Hot Trends - The top 100 fastest-rising search queries right now
(U.S. only). Updates throughout the day.

16. Facebook stats…
• More than 400 million active users
• 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
• More than 35 million users update their status each day
• More than 60 million status updates posted each day
• More than 3 billion photos uploaded to the site each month
• More than 5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes,
photo albums, etc.) shared each week
• More than 3.5 million events created each month
• More than 3 million active Pages on Facebook
• More than 20 million people become fans of Pages each day
• Pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans

17. Beliefnet.com…
“Your Trusted Source for Free Daily
Inspiration & Faith”

20. Tell a Story
Connect a Tribe
Lead a Movement
Make Change

21. Belong
Behave
Belong

22. Where have we gotten to?
• It’s been a time of decline of the mainline
churches and progressive Christian organizations
• Many of these are linked to pre-1960s culture.
They convey info in the Gutenberg mode
• “Google” is a metaphor for new modes of living &
communicating. (We are not evangelizing google)
• Core concepts from the new technologies open
up new vista for talking about church and
theology today. LET’S EXPLORE IT!!!

23. Core principles of
“Beta theologies”
• Try it and see if it works…
• Let users make it better
• “Wiki” it …
• Experiment!
• Christian community gets exciting when the
safety provided by the old cultural authorities
is no longer there.
• Now you really know you need grace!

24. 1. Theology is not something you
consume, but something you
produce

25. 2. No institutions, and very few
persons, function as authorities for
theology after Google

26. 3. Theology after Google is not
centralized and localized. Likewise,
the church cannot be localized in a
single building. We find church in the
most surprising places

27. 4. The new Christian leader is a host,
not an authority who dispenses true
teaching, wise words, and the sole
path to salvation.

28. 5. Theology after Google does not
divide up the world between the
“sacred” and the “secular,” as past
theologies so often did. All thought
and experience bears on it, and all of
one’s life manifests it. All of one’s life
as a Christian is missional
.

29. The Old Logic
1. John Franke is an evangelical.
2. Philip Clayton is a progressive Christian.
3. Therefore…
4. they will be saying completely different
things. They will not like each other; they will
not understand each each; they will have
trouble sharing in one mission and
acknowledging the one church.

30. The New Logic…
Look at what’s happening here.
Tonight. This week.

31. Theology After Google…
Learn
Participate
Enjoy!