This week two of my twitter friends (@bdivine and @jdivine) are in Orlando for a conference that @bdivine is doing music for tonight. I had the honor this afternoon of meeting them at their hotel.

They are just as great in person as they are on Twitter...if not better. They have three amazing boys. I originally met @jdivine in the lobby as @bdivine was on his way back over to the hotel. We had a little conversation, but the boys were so energetic...they were all over the place. That was cute. Somedays...I wish I had that much energy.

Within 4 minutes of initially meeting them, they were treating me like that had grown up with me. It is great. This reassured me that one day, I want my own children. I must say, this was the second tweetup that I have had, and again it was a great one. I have said it before, and will say it again...Twitter is a great way of meeting people with your same beliefs or interests, but again, please use caution. If you are talking to some stranger, I would not recommend following through. Luckily, the Divine's are mutual friends of people I knew already...so I knew that everything would be okay. Just please use caution always when meeting people that you correspond online.

It was great to meet the Divine family! Hopefully, next time we are in the same town we would be able to meet up again and continue our conversation. See you on Twitter!

-Ken

Labels: boys, Chapel Hill, meet, safety, social networking, travel, twitter

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