I know that not everyone likes the thought of reading books or magazines in a digital format. Even if you don’t, you have to admit that this looks pretty cool.
I personally have converted to doing about 90% of my off-computer reading on my Kindle iPhone app and YouVersion Bible.
What do you think? Will this kind of interaction win over any of you who have been sitting on the fence when it comes to digital reading?
The other day I happened to have a phone conversation with the pastor and author Douglas Estes. When I got off the phone, I knew that I needed to check out his book, titled SimChurch. I finished the book last night, and I have to say that it took me by surprise.
Honestly, when I first came across the book, I thought it was just another debate about whether or not the church can really meet online. I was very wrong.
This book has challenged me in a huge way. He brings up so many important concerns and ideas that hadn’t crossed my mind before.
Here’s one of many quotes that really made a bit impact on me:
…a recent survey of virtual-world citizens found that 50 percent of people surveyed don’t even believe the virtual world has sin in it. Why? Because it’s not real. Here the church is poised to fail big-time – to drop a ball of monumental proportions. Here’s how it will play out. As tens of millions of people flock to virtual worlds, traditional Christians who fear change in the church at large will see alarmist headlines about the virtual world and will dismiss the virtual world as one big sinful fantasy, as being not real. They will turn the virtual world over to its own devices, and tens of millions of people – with no true ethical compass – will embrace greater free agency and then write their own rules on what is right and what is wrong. Before long, sin in the virtual world will start to redefine [people's perception of] sin in the real world; what’s permissible in the virtual world will start to seem less wrong in the real world. After a generation passes, new church leaders will ask, “How did we get into this mess?”
It’s a well-written book, and it has bolstered my passion for the Faith Promise Internet Campus. I’m very grateful for Douglas Estes’ thoughtful observations, and I’d highly recommend it to any pastoral staff who are interested in making a greater impact online.
Less than a year ago, Faith Promise took a new step of faith and started an Internet Campus. This weekend, because of ice and snow, we were forced to cancel our services on our Pellissippi Campus, and all of our weekend services happened exclusively online.
Here’s how it all played out: On Thursday, the weather report predicted massive amounts of ice and snow for the area, and since Pastor Chris already had the message ready to go, we set up cameras in the Worship Center, and he preached to four cameras and an empty room.
After he was done, our video guy, Matt James, edited the video to include the weekend announcements as well as several songs from a recent Wednesday night worship service. All of this was done before the weather got bad – just in case the weather forecast was right.
When the ice made our hill-top campus inaccessible, and we canceled all Pellissippi Campus services, Brad Roberts helped me rewire the iCampus for six worship services.
The services online went very well, and Pastor Chris got to experience the iCampus for the first time. It was really great to see he and his wife take an active role in the chat room over the weekend.
Online numbers are difficult to judge since each video connection likely represents multiple people – especially when people are snowed in at home. From what I can tell, I’d guess that at least one third of our congregation (and possibly over half) connected online over the weekend.
Crazy stuff! Who would have ever guessed that a whole congregation would be worshiping together online?
There are quite a few blogs that I follow on a daily basis. Keeping up with friends and family as well as trying to stay sharp in the area of technology and communications. One of my favorites is a blog called ChurchCrunch. Because of that, I’m pumped to be a guest blogger there today.
Maybe not the most exciting article unless you’re into video, but it’s cool to get to contribute there today.
I never thought that a video about Google searches would nearly make me cry. What a great example of engaging people’s emotions through media.
I’m a rather huge fan of the Faith Promise Internet Campus. We’ve added a third service at 9 pm, and this online ministry continues to gain momentum.
The ministry happening online continues to blow me away. Just this weekend:
And that’s just the stories I heard about this weekend. Many others attend anonymously until they are ready to take the next spiritual step.
My favorite part of the iCampus is that although the staff has provided this tool, it’s people leveraging their social networks via email, Facebook, and Twitter that has spread the word. If you haven’t already, you’re help letting people know about this would be appreciated and could even make an eternal difference in someone’s life. Just make sure that you include http:// so that the link will be clickable, and posting right before or during an online service is the most helpful.
To those of you who already play a part in spreading the word and who serve online as volunteers… thanks so much! You guys rock!
If you attend Faith Promise Church, you can hardly help but get into the spirit of personal evaluation during this time of year. Both Josh and Pastor Chris start focusing their attention on personal growth and establishing their plans for the coming year (excellent post by Josh here).
I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon to let you know about a cool update to YouVersion (a free Bible website that is mobile enabled and supported with mobile apps) that now allows you to select from a variety of reading plans. This is a very cool update, and if you’re a person who struggles with reading the Bible, I’d highly encourage you to take a look at their reading plans and find a good fit. There’s nothing that will help you grow spiritually like the systematic reading and application of God’s Word.
If you’ve ever attended an Internet Campus and dropped into the chat room, you’ll probably like this video. It’s a parody done by LifeChurch.tv, and I recognize quite a few of their staff playing roles in the video.
Funny stuff! Thanks, LifeChurch.tv for your innovation and humor.
Today was the day of group presentations at Faith Promise, and I have to say that I was totally blown away by the quality and creativity of the presentations presented by our staff today. Each had a unique approach and a fresh way of communicating their ideas.
My group decided to do almost the entire presentation through video, and you can watch it below.
http://www.vimeo.com/8045247(better quality video coming soon – Done, thanks to Matt James)
At Faith Promise, we just finished a marathon weekend of five productions of Home Invasion, Sacred Storm, a story of one family’s struggles and the spiritual battle happening around them.
The acting and script was great, and attendance was pretty amazing. All services combined, there were over 5,300 in attendance. From the stories I’ve heard, it’s clear that God impacted a lot of lives.
But not only was it an exciting day on our physical campus, it was also a great day on our Internet Campus as well. Combined online attendance for the day was 504 – a figure that is nearly three times our normal online weekend attendance.
The graphic above is a representation of the 279 connections during our 9:00 broadcast this evening.
Some other interesting stats for the iCampus today:
