You know Central Christian Church in Las Vegas. Remember Senior Pastor Jud Wilhite’s 2007 book “Stripped” that rocked some folks in the church world with its real-life stories of grace for the untouchables; strippers, drugs addicts and homosexuals. (BTW he has another grace-filled volume due out this month,called “Uncensored Grace: Stories of Hope from the Streets of Vegas.” Hold onto your pews—or maybe just let them go.)

The big news at the moment at Central Christian is something that’s increasing the church's outreach to the untouchables by bringing them together in a way that they don’t actually have to touch. A new interactive Web site is mixing virtual church with real church in an attempt to combine the appeal of other social networking sites with a community of believers.

According to a news release this fall from the developer of the site, 360Hubs, the platform was part of the church’s vision for extending its reach into cyberspace.

"It was an honor to bring Central Christian Church’s vision to life with this online campus," said Tony Ferraro, president of 360Hubs.

The online service may be the latest extension of the multi-site movement that has franchised so many mega churches in the past few years.

"Kurt Ervin, executive pastor of church expansion for Central, said, "With our new online campus, we hope to spread God’s Word to the world, while continuing to execute on our vision to be one church, many campuses."

He mentioned other social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, which attract hundreds of millions of users. Like those sites, visitors to www.centralonlinecampus.com also must register before participating in the simple, point and click interface that is controlled and owned by the church. Site visitors can go to a virtual service online where they are virtually greeted, given a chance to chat, take notes and give an offering.

Like MySpace and Facebook, the 360Hubs online campus allows people without training to create online profiles, personal blogs and interact with other church members. Leaders can also manage individual group or ministry Web sites that are personalized to meet specific needs. Other amenities include: group-level discussion boards, collaboration, blogs, photos, prayer request management, and podcasting capabilities. It can also integrate with popular church management software solutions.

Unlike other social sites, Central’s site asks users to agree to be "Christ-like" in their postings and user etiquette. What Would Jesus Blog? Well, for starters, he wouldn’t virtually yell at people in ALL CAPS—something the Central site creators specifically prohibit. They also recommend users avoid advertising their own stuff or harvesting emails—and think it through before they post. There’s a thought.

Is your church up for something like this? Do your members MySpace or Facebook?

Church Central’s new site redesign offers a bit of social networking now, too. (It’s a bandwagon—jump on!) Sign in and you can comment on the content on our site, build your own site, network, get the news delivered straight to your email and download tools and resources with one click. You can even respond to this blog--but remember, what would Jesus blog? :)