We’ve batted around the how, why, pros, cons, and even a little glimpse into the process of what it takes to do a streaming service online. But, now to the real question at hand:

“Is the ‘online church’ experience- church?”

It depends. But in most cases- No.
Weighing the pros and cons against scripture leads me to believe a few things about solely attending an online service:

1. The Definition Of Church: The definition/picture of the “church” according to scripture points to live, face to face, living life together, rubbing elbows in service, worshiping the Creator together, kind of interaction. This does not happen with “online church.” Though some will debate this fact. There is no substitute for the local church. Now whether it takes form in the idea of “house church” or “congregational gathering style church,” this local gathering paints a clearer Biblical picture of how God’s church should move and breathe in the community.
2. The Accountability Of The Live Interaction: Accountability is almost vacant if not totally unavailable. Too many people we encounter through the ministry God’s called us to do here are introverted by nature and would attend online without ever saying a word, chatting a phrase, or interacting with the people involved. The argument could be made that these same people wouldn’t walk through the doors of your church. We have TONS of introverts and new people who attended every week. It’s all about the environment/culture you create. They won’t stay anonymous for long in a building with friendly people prompting them to move to another level with God.
3. The Practice Of Spiritual Disciplines: The practicing of spiritual disciplines is difficult even within the local church being together weekly and seeing one another face to face- with online church this grows exponentially. This new embodiment of the “online church” can restrain many  people from freely expressing and flourishing in their spiritual disciplines. Loving, giving, serving, worshiping, community, communion, and the list goes on. These are things done with others. Now granted being online, you have “other people” in the experience, but you are not interacting with them in the same way face to face discussion happens. For instance, I love my wife. We talk every day. We also use Twitter, Facebook, and texts to communicate. If I cut ties to all face to face interaction with my wife and just use technology- our relationship will fade (and I will fade). She is built for physical interaction and I cannot fulfill my duty as a husband if we’re cut off face to face. I cannot practice it. Likewise, I am built for acts of service and I cannot serve her the way God built me if we do not see one another. Our disciplines as a couple work better and we grow in them when we are interacting in real life. Online church does not afford people the opportunity to  flex their spiritual muscles and do what God built them to do.
4. The Idolatry Of The New & Improved: I love technology, but even in my own life I have to weigh the amount of time, energy, and resources that are being placed on computers, cell, mp3 players, TV, DVD’s, etc. It could go on forever. As we grow as a culture and advance ever so quickly into new and exciting technologies, my fear is that we could be whisked away by the shiny new toys of a culture heading away from the Creator. Now, I’m not saying any of these “things” are bad in and of themselves, but when we begin to rely on power, bandwidth, site analytics, user patches & updates, and tools that are supposed to make our lives “easier” instead of relying on the one and only God of the Universe… we are walking on dangerous ground. As a church we flirt with this technology line on a constant basis and have really had hard talks about what it looks like to scale back things so we can always know we’re relying more on God than the almighty Apple Computer. It’s a tough place to be in a “show” and “special effects” culture. People are waiting to see the glitz and glamor of something amazing, and as leaders many are trying to feed them what they “want.” but what if we stepped back and focused more on what they “need?”

I know some people who are doing streaming services and people’s lives are being changed. I think that is great. Any time people can encounter God- that’s a good thing. But, my fear is that we might be chasing the trends too closely and it could backfire on us as we try  to do the work God has called us to do. We should weigh everything against the Bible and see where it stacks up. As for Forefront Church, we won’t be going the live online route. In times of a crunch we will use technology as a way to keep the message from not being heard at all, but nothing can imitate or replace the local church.

Jason *over and out*

*I’ll take questions via Twitter, Facebook, & the blog and do a wrap up post from things you have interest in talking about