Author Interview: Michael Huerter on The Hybrid Congregation: A Practical Theology of Worship for an Online Era 

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Leader’s Edge: Missions & Ministry

The Hybrid Congregation: A Practical Theology of Worship for an Online Era

By: Michael Huerter 

IVP Academic, 2025   

187 pages

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Summary

The book focuses on the intersection of church music and online communication, by asking the central question: “what does the church need to understand about digitally mediated interactions… in order for individual communities and ministers to make well-informed, effective, and contextually appropriate decisions in their ministry?” (page 2). The book reframes the common misunderstandings on participation (activity and passivity), embodiment (embodied and disembodied), mediation (mediated and unmediated), and virtuality (real and virtual). Using insights from various disciplines (digital ethnography; musicology; theology; and technology studies), the author proposes a practical theology of hybrid worship through the intermingling of online and offline realities in a “world that has increasingly internalized the internet and digital technologies” (page 19). 

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