Greg Davis - Technically Speaking

p4050009
Originally uploaded by gregdavispsu.

To conclude my visit to Oklahoma, I had the opportunity to go to the 5:00 pm Saturday night experience at the Edmond campus and then the 6:30pm experience at the Oklahoma City campus. Edmond is a satellite campus and gets a live feed direct from the OKC campus. Both services rocked! The worship was incredible at both, but the thing that surprised me the most was how baptisms where handled at Edmond. During the service the main center screen showed baptism taking place live, but in a different area.

The really cool part was that during this time we did not stop singing or praising, but rather we were encouraged by the worship leader to do so even louder each time a new believe came up out of the water! I really felt like we were joining with the angels in hevean as they rejoiced and celebrated.

LifeChurch.tv OKC CampusAt OKC campus I got to see Craig Groeschel preach in person. I was impressed with how good the first service I saw at the Edmond campus was in comparision to the service where Craig preaches from directly. 

These service were enjoyable on may levels. First, I love the loud, all-out
Stage Area for Warror Series worship style with plenty of guitar and drums. These guys didn’t hold anything back and it showed. They gave everything they have and I believe Christ was honored. Second, these are definately services you could invite an unchurched friend or neighbor to. Nothing to be ashamed of or embarassed about. Third, the Word of God was preached openly.  There is no question that Craig is a man after God’s heart and it shows in his preaching.

I’m glad I got to see LifeChurch.tv in person. They are doing amazing things for Jesus not only in Oklahoma but all across the country and even the world. I had previously only seen them via the Internet Campus, which I must say is also very high quality and very real. If you have never tried it, you might want to take a peek. If you don’t believe the internet is an effective tool for reaching people for Christ, listen to campus pastor Brandon as he talks about the impact it had in the month of March alone. Over 400 people made decisions to commit their lives to Christ!

 
The team at LifeChurch.tv is not afraid to try new things. You may have heard last year about there virtual campus in Second Life.  If not, you can take a free tour here. 

In our ever increasing digital world which is rich in content delivered in many forms including the television, mobile devices (not just cell phones), computers, mp3 players, and more, it is easy to become very attached to ‘digital living’. So attached in fact, that we forget how to live without them.

 

I don’t believe there is anything inherintly wrong with modern technology, but like many things in life, too much of it can be a bad thing. It can become difficult to pull away from these devices and the digital nature of our lives today. We can easily fall into the trap of needing to always be “connected”.  I don’t believe the trend in technology will be changing anytime soon - it will become more and more pervasive in our daily lives.  I also don’t believe we should shun it either. Our culture is going to be faced with the ever changing face of the technology frontier probably until Christ returns. Our challenge will be to learn how to keep technology the servant and not the master of our lives. To be a part of it and understand it so that we can use it to help the Church be effective and relevant.

As part of that “training”, it is important to have regular time where you pull back, unplug and allow yourself to live the ‘analog life’ again.  I really appreciated the “Living Analog” episode that Matt & Rob did on the “Geeks & God Podcast” a few weeks ago.  The irony of it all… we actually need to unplug on a regular basis in order to get more done. It spurs creativity, productivity, relationships, clears our minds and gives us time to spend with God.

Don’t become a ‘Dilbert’.  Stay in touch with your ‘analog-self’ and you’ll be glad you did!  

 

Have you noticed how Easter has often had a very feminine feel to it? The tone and approach in many churches will have a very nice and beautiful feel to it. They may still deliver the good news about the resurrection, hopefully they do, but the appeal of their style is often geared more to the women and the kids.  They may not do that intentionally, but it happens.

This Easter, I’m encouraged by the efforts of LifeChurch.tv and NewSpring.cc.  I just experienced the first installment of LifeChurch’s “Warrior” seriesvia their internet campus, which seems to have roots in the “Wild at Heart” book by John Eldredge which I read last summer and am continuing to go through the study guide this year.

 

NewSpring is launching their series called “Sex Money and Power - The Man Series” on Easter Sunday.

 

Why would they do this? That is where I am encouraged.  Tony Morgan from NewSpring posted about it and said,

Men are MIA in U.S. Churches 

‘Nearly one-in-five men say they have no formal religious affiliation, compared with roughly 13 percent of women.’” With men under 50 being the largest group that doesn’t have a religious affiliation, I’m glad we’re launching a series on Easter that’s specifically targeted to men.

Have you ever thought about the American male as an “un-reached” segment of our population?  Maybe we haven’t done it intentionally, but have we historically driven men away from our churches and our portrayal of Christ because we have made them too effeminate?  Lord is a warrior, the greatest one ever. I’m glad to see these churches starting new series on Easter. If a guy only makes it to 1 or 2 services a year, it is normally Christmas and Easter. Maybe this will help get the attention of a few men who so desperately need to hear the life changing message of Jesus Christ!

 

Here is a great reminder of why we sometimes really need to not listen to what others say about what we are “supposed to” do in regards to how we do ministry or serve Christ. Granted, only highlighted in this post from the Collide Blog are success stories and there are probably many more untold stories where others tried and failed, but it does remind me at least, that God often brings about change in ways we don’t expect. What happens if God asks you to step out of your comfort zone and try something new that you (or maybe no one) has done before?  Will you follow God’s leading or brush it off because we are “supposed to” do things that way?

If you aren’t familiar with the stories highlighted, I encourage you to dig a little deeper and be inspired.  Who know what God will do next and who He might use!

 

In my previous post, I talked about how it isn’t such a far fetched idea to see your ministry on TV.  I wander how many church techies are aware of YouTube’s nonprofit program?  The church has the most compelling story of all to tell and this is a great and effective way to do it.

Some of the highlights include:

 

• Premium branding capabilities and increased uploading capacity
• Rotation of your videos in the “Promoted Videos” areas throughout the site
• The option to drive fundraising through a Google Checkout “Donate” button

 

You can watch the following YouTube video to get an overview as well.

 

Has anyone out there reading this tried it out?  I’d definately be interested in hearing your comments.

One of the reasons we want to keep an eye on technology trends is to understand when there is an opportunity to take advantage of that can serve the church in reaching people for Christ.  Bobby Gruenewald, from LifeChurch.tv, posted this perspective on the on the new Apple TV.  While it can be brushed off as a ‘fad’ or ‘entertainment’ only, I think we would do well to reconsider that. 

With the trends of YouTube and other social media content watching still on rise, why shouldn’t the church be taking advantage of it? With this easy of use from Apple TV, you don’t even need a computer to watch content from the internet.  As Bobby points out, think about your shut-ins, house churches, etc. who could benefit if your ministry (think broadly) were readily available to them? 

And Apple isn’t the only one. TiVo has also announced a new release of their TiVo Desktop software which will allow you to subscribe to any video podcast feed and transfer to your TiVo for watching on your TV. While this one does require a home computer, the concept is the same - more availability to watch internet-based content right in your living room - no more requirements to sit in front of the computer to watch it.

As a church, our job is to preach the gospel and reach the next generation for Christ. So, recruit some young volunteers and get them involved. Start video recording your messages and get them out there and tell people where to find them.  You never know who might be impacted!

Powered by ScribeFire.

 

Tony Morgan has posted about America’s Most Innovative Churches of 2008. The list came out in the Jan/Feb issue of Outreach magazine. You can see the full list of the most innovative churches on Tony’s post, but you can read more about what really makes churches innovative today here.  The top 10 for 2008 are:

1. LifeChurch.tv, Edmond, OK, Craig Groeschel   
2. Mars Hill Church, Seattle, WA, Mark Driscoll   
3. Granger Community Church, Granger, IN, Mark Beeson   
4. Flamingo Road Church, Cooper City, FL, Troy Gramling   
5. Seacoast Church, Mount Pleasant, SC, Greg Surratt   
6. Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, CA, Rick Warren   
7. Mosaic Church, Los Angeles, CA, Erwin McManus   
8. Fellowship Church, Grapevine, TX, Ed Young   
9. North Point Community Church, Alpharetta, GA, Andy Stanley   
10. Willow Creek Community Church, South Barrington, IL, Bill Hybels  
    

In a an article titled “Church Forward” which is also found on the same link,Lindy Lowry “How are America’s most innovative churches reaching a changing world?“  This is an interesting question and obviously a subjective one, but some things to consider are in the areas of:

• Technology
• Multi-location
• Non-traditional church experiences
• Church planting
• Communication and Media
• Global DNA
• City/community renewal
• Church Resourcing/Partnering
• Raising Up the Next Generation

Whether you agree with how these churches do things they are experimenting with different methods of how to reach their areas of influence. To see some examples in action check out these 4 wild and crazy Christmas Eve services. One of the things I like to do is pick a church each year and follow them closely to really study what they do from communications to their worship services.  It can be a great way to get new ideas if you are part of a worship design team or to broaden your perspective a bit.  I have followed Fellowship Church and Granger Community Church in the past.  This year, I’m paying closer attention to LifeChurch.tv and I’m very excited about some of the things they are doing (more to come).

The point is not to intimidate other churches or just copy whatever is successful somewhere else, but rather to learn how to think creatively and  in innovative ways. If you only ever live in you own box and never look up to see how God is at work in other places you can miss a great blessing and maybe the chance to be inspired.  So for this New Year, how about picking a church off of the list and let God use it to help you be innovative in your church. I’d love to hear which church you pick and what you learn (just add a comment below!).