Today, we are often faced with many challenges that inhibit us from attending a church on Sundays. Many churches that I am in communication with are now having a worship service on Sunday evening, that have two main goals. One of those being to allow members/attenders to worship because they are not able to make it on Sunday mornings. Two...to give room for more people to attend on Sundays.

Another option I have noticed here more recently is the advent of streaming the services online. This seems to be a more cost efficient method with the popularity of the Flash video encoding. This allows the video/audio image to be crisp and clean, yet not too bandwidth consuming. Even so, the turnout seems to be good for the services.

Many people have family situations or have to work in this day and age on Sunday. They can still connect with the church via a video stream while also allowing them to worship and be fed spiritually at the same time. This is hopefully another reason that churches allow streaming of their services.

Back in the 80's and 90's, many churches had to pay a lot of money to have their services broadcast on television stations. This was a lot of work and expense. Trust me, I worked at a church doing this. I think with the advent of the internet, it is more feasible for churches to send a live video and audio feed to the online community. This would require about the same amount of money up front to purchase and maintain the systems, but at the same time, internet broadcasting is a much cheaper medium of sharing God's message. Plus, you are not limited to a specific time block. You can stream the entire service because the ministry controls what goes out there.

I "attended" a church stream about a month ago. I was fascinated with how it worked, mainly because this church had a chat room contained within. Viewers could chat with pastors and seek prayer for specific needs that the person had. I thought this was a great asset to add to the streaming service. That way, it makes the viewer feel more connected with the church's broadcast ministry.

I want to hear from you guys. What do you think about online worship services? Do you have any experiences that you would like to share?

Thanks for taking the time to read.
-Ken

Labels: 316 networks, Buckhead Church, Chapel Hill, church, digital, FIrst Orlando, Flash, God, gospel, informative, internet, internet growth, Media, North Point, Orlando, Scott Link, simulcast

As I grow older, the only thing that I regret is not doing something when the time is right. I am sure that many of you can relate.

I received an e-mail from my Grandfather earlier in the week. It was one of his forwards that he blesses me and many others with daily. It was a very interesting story. In a nutshell, it is an elderly lady who begins taking college classes. When asked by one of the younger students why she was going to college, she responded with something to the extent of she had always dreamed of coming to college, so now she is finally doing it. She also said that the one thing that older people regret is dreams they did not follow through with during their life, making it to late to do anything about it now.

It took a couple of days for that to sit in, but this morning that line really spoke to me. I thought on my way to lecture this morning, how many opportunities have I passed up that may be to late to do anything with? How many dreams have I passed up because I was not totally dedicated?

Monday evening I was chatting with a friend of mine. I mentioned to him a dream that I had, that had been developing recently. He was very encouraging with the idea and thought it was great. I have also mentioned this "dream" or vision to other people and they have been very encouraging as well. Sometimes you need that type of support in order for a dream to become a reality.

Through the years, I would like to think that I have not let too many dreams slip away. My move to Orlando was probably the biggest dream that I have had in a very long time, and that was tough, but it has been great since I have been down here studying. Another major dream I had was to serve at a church again. It had been a couple of years since I had done that, but I was able to work through some stuff I was battling with and had lunch with the Media and Communications Pastor at First Baptist Orlando. Every since that day back in early 2008, I have been serving in the broadcast ministry at First Orlando.

Let me encourage you to read this post, and take it to heart. Please, do not let you most cherish dreams of today become a big regret later on in your life, because you were too scared or afraid to pursue them.

-Ken

Labels: application, Buckhead Church, dreams, First Baptist Church Orlando, ministry, no regreats, Orlando, politics, serve

I have been out of town (Orlando) for the last week, and sadly I was not able to join my home church, First Orlando (physically) in their worship services this weekend. I did, however watch the stream online on Saturday evening. This morning, I was able "multi-worship" and attend two churches here in Atlanta that are very dear to me.

I was blessed by visiting Buckhead Church this weekend. The scenic atmosphere was ingenious, as it always tends to be. They had a rig on stage that consisted of truss', plasma displays and LED light fixtures. It was a nice setup, which wasn't a surprise.

Todd Fields led the worship set this morning. It was great experiencing his worship style again. I have not been in a worship service with him for sometime now...probably the last time was back in the day when I was at a 722 service!

The churches in the North Point family, have moved toward a new technique of letting their congregation be a part of the sermon. Instead of the Satellite churches being a week behind NPCC...or whichever church Andy or the speaker was at, they elected to invest in simulcasting each week. I am not sure of your knowledge of streaming audio / video, but this is a major task! I am not quite sure on the technical setup they have for this new option, but all churches have to be timed right in order for this to work appropriately. I am sure they have some type of DDR (digital disk recorder) that each facility uses "just in case" something goes unexpected. I know when Shane Stevens took me on a tour of the NPCC facilities early 2008 he was mentioning doing something like this. I guess it finally happened!

Simulcasting allows for members at all satellite churches to hear the same message the same week, which makes everyone feel included moreso than a delayed message. It was interesting to see the audience's reaction to the sermon. Andy Stanley (Senior Pastor of NPCC) had a question time, and people answered aloud the questions and even laughed out loud at jokes...just as if he was preaching at Buckhead!

It was a great experience. I hope that one day, I am lead into a ministry that not only am I broadcasting God's message...but incorporates streaming to multiple venues. It will be an exciting experience.

After the service concluded at Buckhead Church, I traveled over to my home church, Rehoboth Baptist Church. After visiting around with my kids, the Minister of Music (Andy Newsome) approached me and asked if I was willing to go CG for the service. I accepted. **It turned out that Michelle (Andy's Wife) was not feeling well and was unable to make it to the service. Michelle is usually the CG masterette...and take care of those responsibilities week-to-week. It was very humbling to be trusted enough by someone that you have never worked for to just up and ask you to do something major for a worship service. That went well. Although, it would have been more convenient to have ProPresenter, they have Media Shout...which is fine, but I do prefer the GUI of ProPresenter much more. Plus...it works on a Mac... :)

I was impressed, though with the state of the technology at that church. Most of that equipment is older than me, so it is good to see A) that it is still functioning after all these years and B) that the staff at RBC is using the stuff...to assist the worship experience. Nothing is worse that having something **sit** because it is not up to today's standards. Put it to work! It cost good money. You should not waste it, if it is still meeting your needs.

Tonight, I will be attending the evening service at Rehoboth. I am really looking forward to that as well.

-Ken

Labels: Andy Newsome, Andy Stanley, Buckhead Church, church, MediaShout, North Point, Pastor Rusty Womack, ProPresenter, Rehoboth, sermon, simulcast, streaming, Todd Fields, worship