We’ve covered the why and how we ended up streaming our Sunday service online, but we’re still trying to get to the answer to this question:
“Is the ‘online church’ experience- church?”
Let’s look at some of the pro’s for a minute:
Easily accessible to anyone with an internet connection
Saves money on building/facilities (assuming you are in a mobile environment like we are), because some of your audience will opt for viewing online instead of attending a physical campus
Allows you to capture the live feel without having to drive or go to a physical building- and save it for future viewing with many of the online services available
The amount of volunteers for Sunday mornings (or whenever you do this) greatly decreases with minimal set-up, no classes, no greeters, no ushers, etc.
People can share their worship, thoughts, feelings with others during the service via chat, Facebook, Twitter
With being home (or in your selected environment) you feel more comfortable and possibly more open to what is being said/communicated during the service
People who are far from God are more apt to tune in and check out the service if they don’t feel threatened or pushed into attending (they can be anonymous for a time if they choose, which helps some people ease in to experiencing God)
If you decide to do both (live site and stream online) people can check out the church (preview it) before they actually come and check it out on a Sunday morning at a building
Technology advancements have moved so far, so fast- that almost anyone can do this at next to nothing when it comes to cost. We used a free service (livestream.com), some gear we had for band practices, and computers we use for Sunday mornings
Engaging people using this medium has become the new norm. From Netflix streaming, YouTube, Hulu, Vimeo, Ustream, etc.- people are getting their information via video and much of that is by using the internet
Fill in the blank: “One of the pros of having church streamed online is _______ ?”
Those are just some, but let’s hear what you have to say and next time will jump in with the “cons of online church.”
Until next time-
I love Aaron and his family and completely respect his opinion.
You should check out his posts as well, and be nice over there.
I’d hate to drop the hammer on some unruly blogger comments. Plus, he’s HUGE and could destroy you with some old school WWF style moves that would leave you laid up in bed until you meet your maker. In all seriousness, he wouldn’t hurt a fly (his bark is worse than his bite).
The East Coast got hit with a pretty decent snow storm. Here in Va Beach is was the largest amount of snow we’ve seen in 20 years. With inclement weather on the verge and needing to make a decision, we knew getting people on the roads could be a bad idea. As a leadership, we began to brainstorm and talk through some of our questions:
“How do we still engage people?”
“Do we just not do service all together?”
“What are other churches doing? What about the larger churches in our area?”
“How does this affect the weekly budgeted needs?”
“How long can we wait to make this decision?”
“If we cancel, how many people will get mad? How many will be thankful?”
“Is there another way to do this and still connect with people?”
Dozens more questions ran through our heads and passed over our lips. It was an interesting time of juggling it all over a couple of days. When we recently had a large Nor Easter and the power outages all across our area, the high school we meet at was without power. We discussed back up plans then and someone mentioned using a streaming service to do everything from our warehouse space. It was entertained if need be, but the school received power back just in time. Well, discussion and weather collided and we decided to go for it-
we’ll have an internet service this week.
We chose Livestream.comto go with for our web/internet service. It’s free, pretty reliable, and you can customize the interface for the viewers. We’ve used it to bring staff members into meetings if they are out of town, training volunteers from the comfort of their home, and recording our creative planning meetings for series to go back later and see anything we might have missed. It is a great tool and has served us well in other areas.
So, here is what we used to make it all happen (techy stuff): 1 Sony HVR-Z1U camera, a MacBook (second edition white model), 5 mics, a power mixer, some garage shop/work lights, and a firewire cable to connect the camera to the laptop. Here are some photos & video of the set-up:
We loaded the videos we need for the day (opening service video, sonic commercial spoof, and a small groups promo commercial) into the interface, wrote up the order of service, prepped, practiced, and launched it at 10am EST last Sunday. Before the service began, quite a few people were in the chat interface making friends and getting to know one another a bit more. It was plastered all over Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. People we didn’t even know were promoting it, other churches were directing their people to it since their services were canceled. “No pressure,” I told our team as we an hour before we went live. Friends from Texas, SC, NC, CA, and DC tuned in as well to join in the experience. All in all, we were pleased with how it went. When our choices were gathering as a body and putting people’s lives in danger, not having services at all, or doing things online- I’m glad we made the decision we did.
Here were some of the responses:
“very cool thing this am.. was very thankful you all put this together, and so fast!! Our church rocks!!”
“I LOVED it!!! Forefront Rocks…and James gave a great sermon!”
“Awesome job on the online service guys. Although Jason didn’t look any better in HD … LOL ”
“Very impressed with the Forefront Service…..good job guys”
“WOW! What an unusual Sunday………….first church on-line, thank you Forefront”
“I’m eating a bowl of cereal and Watching Forefront Church @livestream”
“We are having church on line….pretty cool to sit at home and still be able to go to church…”
“I thought you guys did an awesome job putting things together. Everyone was on point. I will have to agree about the chat feature, it was cool during the singing and before and after the service, but a little distracting during the message.”
“Caught a few minutes of it, and I dug it. I’m not a big fan of internet campuses, but in the work I do to pay the bills (hospice chaplaincy), I can totally see this working in facilities or homes of people who can no longer make it out to church–and “old school” churches wouldn’t have to change how they do a thing. Just invest in some technology.”
“It was awesome! Everyone in my house was tuned in. We even had some friends in TX join too! Very great outreach for those who aren’t sure or aren’t comfy attending a service yet. Not to mention sick, shut-in, etc! Amazing!!”
“I was impressed with how smoothly it seemed to go; I was afraid there would be lots of technical difficulties! Great message from James, and Jessica and the guys sounded awesome, as usual. The chat thing was kind of neat, a little distracting though. Great job, thanks for putting it all together!”
“We thought it was great Jason, good job gang!”
“Great service today. I am really glad I got the chance to watch it. I def would have been at service last sunday but was in a car accident that sat. Came out with whiplash. I thank the Lord that I didnt get seriously injured or that I had anyone else with me. The other driver is ok too. Plan on being at service this coming Sunday. I am def making changes in my life and letting God finally in. And ForeFront is def helping. So thank you.”
I just grabbed those from Facebook and from Twitter. Take away- it went well. Our measuring tool, people’s response in how it connected them to God. During the music portion, we prompted people to talk about their joys in life, what God was doing through them in the community, how we could pray for them, and what brought them to God or to church today. With each question, the response was received well.
All the people involved did a fantastic job making it happen in a matter of less than 48 hours. Just under two days planning. Seriously, that was it. We had to act quickly and if it only moved one person closer to God, it was worth it. But…
the question still remains, “Is the ‘online church’ experience- church?”
We will tackle that with looking at the “pros of online church” in the next post.
This is something I’ve never really talked about. It’s nothing new. Churches everywhere stream their services online. Others even have full blown internet campuses (with internet campus pastors). At heart, I am a total technology geek and anything dealing with processors, giga-anything, and has a power chord gets me excited (my wife just wants to destroy them all, I don’t blame her).
The camps have staked out their tents, gathered their compadres, passed out the e-leaflets, and have begun to spread their viral message about how they like or dislike the idea of internet church. The debate is laid upon the foundation of this heavy question…
“Is the ‘online church’ experience- church?”
In essence what people are asking is:
“Does it count?”
“Is God going to decide to not let me into heaven because I went to internet church? (or maybe send me to Second Life Heaven where you interface with your MacBook Pro in the lonely basement of someone else’s mansion in heaven.)”
“I feel weird not going to a building, but does that matter?”
“When I attend, I’m in my boxers and taking communion with Frito’s & Apple Juice. Is that cool?”
“I read in the Bible about community. Is online chat and social networking community?”
I’ve read quite a bit from both sides of the internet church debate. Everything from people saying, “You’re not a true Christian if you think the internet isn’t a way to do church,” to “If you attend a service online you’re going to Hell.” Now these aren’t my words or feelings, but I wanted to share how passionately people feel about this fairly new embodiment of internet church.
I’m not here to condemn people to hell for attending internet services or to sing it’s praises and move the church solely online. But, there are some true lessons to be learned as we dive into this idea of “internet church.” Advancements in technology are a tricky thing to dive into and as leaders we need to be aware of the pros and cons before we blindly adopt new ideas & concepts. Before we dive into that- I’ll share some things involving why we did a live webcast church service and some of the feedback we received from it in our next post. Until then-
I wonder what God’s church would be like if we acted on opportunities to share life and conversation with others. I love the way the following video portrays the passion of making a connection with another person. I pray I can have this same kind of passion every single day, in the form of reaching people for Jesus. I never want to miss an opportunity…
So, I was heading home yesterday listening to the radio, and they began to play this tirade and I had no clue who it was. Well, come to find out it was Christian Bale as he was filming his last movie “Terminator 4.”
Who goes off like this? Seriously. And the news caster notes, “People there said he might have just been having a day day.” C’mon, a bad day?! Dropping 36 F-bombs on someone in less than four minutes for walking into your shot on a movie scene is more than just a bad day. Two words: Anger Management.
Check out the video below, but it made me think… How do we respond when things get heated? How do we handle outbursts from others? Better yet, how do we handle our own outbursts when the emotions are rising?
Sometimes there are stories on the news for which there are no words. Listen for the quote, “Maybe if more people had a duck in their life…” Classic. [HT: Nat]
I was so excited to preach the message today. When it comes to community, it’s something I can always use more of. It also doesn’t hurt that I got to use Sugar Hill Gang, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, Beastie Boys, and Run DMC sound clips all the in same message. I told a story about trying to find a place to fit and used my “Wanting to be a Hip Hop Rapper” Phase. (I know, pretty lame- I could never make it as a rapper).
I placed the clips below for your listening pleasure. Enjoy.
I got the opportunity to see Jon perform this song at Catalyst. I’ve seen the full band (Switchfoot) a few times and they are great, but he’s doing a solo thing and this song convicts me. Check out the video and the lyrics are below. I can’t get the idea out of my head.
I hate all your show and pretense The hypocrisy of your praise The hypocrisy of your festivals I hate all your show Away with your noisy worship Away with your noisy hymns I stomp on my ears when you’re singing ‘em I hate all your show
Instead let there be a flood of justice An endless procession of righteous living, living Instead let there be a flood of justice Instead of a show
Your eyes are closed when you’re praying You sing right along with the band You shine up your shoes for services There’s blood on your hands You turned your back on the homeless And the ones that don’t fit in your plan Quit playing religion games There’s blood on your hands
Instead let there be a flood of justice An endless procession of righteous living, living Instead let there be a flood of justice Instead of a show I hate all your show
Let’s argue this out If your sins are blood red Let’s argue this out You’ll be one of the clouds Let’s argue this out Quit fooling around Give love to the ones who can’t love at all Give hope to the ones who got no hope at all Stand up for the ones who can’t stand at all, all I hate all your show I hate all your show I hate all your show I hate all your show
Instead let there be a flood of justice An endless procession of righteous living, living Instead let there be a flood of justice Instead of a show I hate all your show
”
