Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Tuesday Question Of the Week

I came across this article today.

McChurch: I'm Lovin' It

One pastor believes franchising congregations is the model of the future.

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"Church plants," "sister churches," and "satellite congregations" may be a thing of the past. In 2008, the language of missiology is changing, so look for "church franchises" in your town.
click here to read the full article

So here's the Q'

Tuesday Question of the Week #7

Would you attend a church where the teaching/preaching is done through video broadcast? Have you ever? Why/Why not?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

As you know, I already attend a church where the preaching pastor is projected onto a screen.

Does this work? Yes.
Should this be the way of the future? I'm skeptical. I believe convenience could become the popular adjective for church and true community could easily be lost.

There is a give and take, an ebb and flow when it comes these campus churches. I believe they, like all true fellowships of believers, have a God ordained purpose.

However, there is a fine line to walk.

I would like to hear your opinion.
Also, check out my blog at brandonirby.com.

Keep up with the posts.

Steve said...

I did attend a church where the preacher was on video 100% of the time, but they did have a "campus" pastor, but didn't really do "pastorly" things that I was accustomed to seeing. I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing, after all, how many pastors are available on a personal level after church anyway. I do think it is vitally important to have the rest of the staff HIGHLY knowledgable of the Bible and not a new Christian to make up for the fact that the "real" pastor is not available.

It's not for me any my family. BTW, check out this link - http://www.30minuteworship.com/ - a church in Waco that can do it all in 30 minutes or less!

Charlie Curran said...

I think franchising may look cool...but it also can lead to a sense of 'hero" worship.

Jesus' model seems better. Invest in people, teach people and then send them out... in person.

I prefer the idea of planting churches that have an individual personality of their own, reflective of the calling God has on them in their community, rather than exporting what works in my context to a completely different group of people.

Either way, Biblical truth has to be taught consistently from the "pulpit"

Other churches are making it work ( Life Church, Northpoint, Community Christian in Naperville Il) and are quite successful. However there is something distasteful to me about mass producing my teaching to people I do not know and never will.
Personal feedback is important...seeing truth change lives personally is what keeps me going at times. I am not sure having our church doing a video venue is really something that allows for that.

On the flip side, economics may necessitate such an approach. Planting churches is very risky and expensive.

So who knows what I really think.

Ty Prather said...

Whenever my family goes to Colorado every year we go to a church with two buildings on opposite sides of the city... Its pretty cool when they do worship because one building plays two songs then the other plays two... and the other building sees on screen and both bands play. Its cool becuase although there are two worship leaders, whenever youre being led by the one that is on screen it still feels connected.

While we've been there the pastor has been at our building all but once... In that one time i couldnt really tell much of a difference between him being live and on screen.

I think that its a great way to connect two churchs on different sides of the city but idk if i would want to be listening to someone 100 miles away...

Steve said...

Charlie ~ You crack me up, because I talk to myself like I think you do, "so who knows what I really think."

"Hero worship" is definitely something to watch out for. Remember the book, Good to Great?! In it, Collins talks about the "Great" organizations being able to transend their leaders leaving. Was it really great to begin with if it falls apart once the CEO or lead pastor steps aside?!

Wendy said...

i attend a cofc that videos between two campuses. we tape the sat night service and playback occurs sunday at one of the locations. the preacher rotates being live from week to week between the two campuses. we have invested alot in HD technology and it seems to be working for us. we are growing and adding services. we do keep a level of personal interaction between the preacher and congregation as he is at both locations weekly for some amount of time - even the video playback site.

i believe it takes an extra special minister and one who is a people person and energetic to pull this off. people want to be able to see and touch their minister at some point.

Anonymous said...

I attend LC on a regular basis, and as I have attended there I have totally changed my opinion on this matter. You would think that this leads to hero worship, but I think what I have seen is that it gives people the courage to lead in situations they would have never before. Whether it's a small group or children's church or audio/technical ministry, when you have the lesson/message taken care of, you don't have volunteers frightened about what to do or say. Yes they are just following a script, but it is giving them confidence to have that script strengthen their faith and bring others to Christ. == Huge supporter of this type of ministry! - Patrick R.