An October 2009 Religion News Service story, posted at Crosswalk.com, discusses the issuing of a “digital fast,” and it includes links to columns by Christian leaders discussing the pros and cons of social networking.

Observing a “fast” from Facebook and Twitter and even email is becoming a popular spiritual practice — at Lent, for example — as shown by this National Public Radio story from March 2009.

Observing a “fast” from Facebook and Twitter and even email is becoming a popular spiritual practice — at Lent, for example — as shown by this Star-Ledger story from March 2009.

Read a Feb. 1, 2013, column at the Patheos website about the tension between Christian dominance and religious freedom in America.

Felipe Mesa has just started a house church in Taneytown, Md.

Jared Looney is a church planter involved in house churches in the Bronx, N.Y. He is part of MetroSoul, a cooperative organization of church organizations and church planters working to plant simple churches throughout the New York metropolitan area. He blogs at Urban Ekklesia.

Robert Fitts is a church planter and author of The Church in the House: A Return to Simplicity (Preparing the Way Publishers, 2001). He lives in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.

Frank Viola is the founder of Present Testimony Ministry and the author of several books on house churches. He lives in Gainesville, Fla.

Bill Tenny-Brittian writes for the House Church Network Association. He says people say they join house churches for reasons of intimacy, the ability to participate more fully and the level of discipleship opportunities.