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

Tonight I had the pleasure of being able to be a part of a small group session started by the one and only @jacalopekid (Adam Smith). This is something that he started last week, but due to my school schedule I was unable to attend last week.

Tonight's session was led by @leslieblueeyes. The entire time was a complete blessing after a long and hard day...emotionally. Will post about that tomorrow. But...I was blessed tremendously by many people that I daily interact with on Twitter. Even though we (the body of Christ) were in many different states (possibly even countries...) we were able to connect and grow with one another through video, audio and text chat online. Amazing what technology has allowed us to do.

For all that attended, it was great. Just remember the things that we discussed, and please apply them to your life. I hope we were able to minister or encourage one person...if not everyone that was in the chat room tonight. If you missed it, we therefore missed you as well. We will be having another one next week. Not sure who will be leading it, but I know they will bring a great message and it will be a great opportunity. Plan on attending next week, if you schedule allows.

Thanks for reading. I hope that you all have a blessed day tomorrow and the rest of the week.

To GOD be the GLORY, HONOR and PRAISE!!

-Ken

Labels: Bible, gospel, Jesus, small group, social networking, study, twitter

So, this evening I will be joining in an online small group discussion. I am excited about it, I have a really good feeling about this. If you feel as though it is something that you would like to be a part of, here is the information:

Time: 7PM EST, Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
Login to: http://tinychat.com/smallgroup
Password: jackalopekid
Leader: @leslieblueeyes

Hope to see you all then!

-Ken

Labels: Bible, gospel, Jesus, small group, social networking, study, twitter

One of my most favorite things about Satellite radio, is they tend to play a different variety of music . . . among many other good things.

Last night, "Beautiful One" by Jeremy Camp (video above) came on the radio. Now, I have not heard this wonderful song in years it seems! The song sounds beautiful (no phun intended), has a great message and for me is one of those all-time favorite songs. This song is what opened my eyes to the amazing artist, Jeremy Camp. He has an incredible story. If you are not familiar with it, I would recommend that you go and read it here. I promise that you will be blessed by it. Enjoy!

-Ken

Labels: CCM, favorites, gospel, Jeremy Camp, music, Sirius, story