North Point Online
July 13th, 2009
North Point Community Church announced an exciting new venture that will go live on August 16, 2009. They are following in the footsteps of some other churches and offering live services online.
Check it out at northpointonline.tv, and keep them in your prayers as they venture into this new territory.
HT: Los
I’ve been to Buckhead Church and to be honest I was not impressed. Sure it was neat to see the speaker (Andy what’s his name) magically on stage as if he was actually there (though about 1.5 to 2 times the size of a normal man).. but the worship service didn’t feel like much of a family to me.
I wish them the best of luck and God’s blessing with this web initiative.. if I really wanted to experience this church.. I think it would be just as good to stay home then.. that is about what it felt like.
I’ve always been of the opinion that some churches are better a better fit than others for some people. I’m guessing Buckhead/North Point fits that mold for you. There are a lot of churches that wouldn’t “impress” me if I visited, and I hope they never get to the point where they’re trying to. The bottom line is that, whoever they’re reaching, they make sure they’re trying to reach them in the most effective way possible.
For example, since we relaunched our website almost 3 years ago, we’ve reached over 35,000 people in 124 countries, about 21,000 of which have become return visitors. That is so far above and beyond the amount of people that could have visited us in person that it’s crazy. Something as simple as having our messages online has allowed us to reach an audience over 100 times larger than our typical weekend. And I’m sure that there are people who we didn’t connect with in person or online, and that’s okay.
Before I killed it, my personal blog had an article on this topic. “Video killed the church minister.”
If you listen to Andy Stanley (one of my favorites by the way) talk he defines a video ministry as something he just didn’t get at first, and in a lot of ways still doesn’t get it. BUT that people are desiring it, so he’s doing it (though he was talking about satellite video churches when he said this).
But I wonder if churches that don’t jump on board in some way may find themselves left out of the loop with the next generation (hard to believe at 31 years old I’m old enough to look at the next generation…). Of course not that, that is bad… somebody has to reach THIS generation and past generations, but does put some issues in play as the congregation ages.
One of these days I’m going to sit down and fully experience LifeChurch.tv and now NP’s internet ministry.
Ironically, while on vacation we stayed with my wife’s aunt on Saturday night/Sunday morning and since they were seeing us off they didn’t go to church that Sunday… but there she was, watching her churches service online. And she doesn’t attend a big church by any stretch of standards.