Steve Evans of Bridge Chapel Christian Church in Liverpool is saying that offering sermons in podcast form has increased attendance at Bridge Chapel’s regular services. This was interesting to me because it flies in the face of my conviction that we should be careful about podcasting sermons. To get a better sense of my perspective on the issue, see my earlier articles on podcasting:

Outreach Magazine Articles
NY Times Article on Godcasting
Videoblogging Article
Godcasts Growing In Popularity
Podcasting and Video

My perspective in the past several months has moved a lot more towards a positive outlook on podcasting, largely due to some of what Mark Batterson has written on the subject.

I still believe that a podcasting church should be careful to teach those who participate in their gatherings, that the gathering of the church is not primarily something to be watched or listened to. Instead, it is something in which all are called to participate (1 Corinthians 14:26).

As more churches get involved in podcasting (which is obviously a certainty despite my hesitation!), it will be important I think, to quantify the results as much as possible. I first learned about this article from Blogging Church, but it’s also being talked about at Church Marketing Sucks. The question and commentary from James Higgenbotham in the comments at Church Marketing Sucks is a very important one it seems to me and suggests the type of quantification that I’m thinking about here.

One of our readers, Graeme, recently wrote me with this question:

Have you come across anything new in the technology field that allows the deaf and hearing impaired to be included in contemporary church worship services? I personally consider there is something “out there” that (for instance) converts voice to text to include the deaf and hearing impaired and also two other groups : English as a second language and visual learners.

Through an employee I have become privy to the isolated world of the deaf and want to see our church provide a way to include these members of our society. Signing is not an entirely practical solution in the postmodern church because of the variety of speakers and hosts who do not entirely work from a prepared script.

Does anyone have any ideas for Graeme? Please use comments to contribute your ideas so we can all benefit.  Thanks!

In the middle of a blog post about the effectiveness of using movies (such as The Passion of the Christ, Narnia, and The Da Vinci Code) for evangelism, Dan Kimball made this statement:

I sort of find it kind of sad that the church has to get so excited about films to do evangelism, rather than being excited about the ongoing relationships we have with those outside the faith for evangelism. It feels weird that I would invite someone to a movie to explain what I believe in rather than letting my life and what I can be talking them about personally would be.

Although Dan’s article is not directly related to the sorts of things I usually talk about on this site, I do feel his post is worth reading in its entirety, so I’d encourage you to head on over to his blog.

I’d like to comment, though, on the portion I have quoted above. Dan’s right - personal relationships with unbelievers are the key to effective outreach. I’ve said it before — a demonstration of authentic Christian community is the foundation of all effective outreach (cf. John 17:21-23).

But where does that demonstration of Christian community begin? In one-on-one personal relationships with unbelievers. As we befriend unbelievers (primarily for the sake of simply being their friends, although we certainly hope that they will come to know Christ), they will begin to see what life with Jesus is all about in the interactions between us and our believing friends. They will be exposed to authentic Christian community.

The problem many believers have (and which I had for several years after being converted to Christ and still have, albeit not to the same extent) is that we don’t have personal relationships with unbelievers. We’re often too busy with internally-focused ministries of the church to actually befriend people outside the church. Astounding in light of Jesus’ call to take the good news to those around us, but still true.

Bringing this discussion back to digital outreach, my question is this: “How can we use digital evangelism approaches (websites, blogs, digital tracts, screen savers, wallpaper, etc., etc.) to be the catalyst for personal, one-on-one relationships?”

A relatively new church plant and a client of Strategic Digital Outreach, The Bridge Church in Atlanta, Georgia, recently underwent a heartbreaking tragedy:

Early Saturday morning a tragic auto accident took the life of one of our church family and worship band members, Michael Jones.  Michael is the son of Bill and Anne Jones who have been instrumental in helping start The Bridge Church.  Also injured in the accident were several band members and friends.

Urgent prayer is needed for Shea Hickok, the daughter of our Worship Pastor Steve and Susan Hickok.  Shea is in critical condition and on life support with severe damage to her lungs.  She is at the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon.  Also injured is Luke Hickok, with broken ribs and a concussion, and Rachel, a friend of Shea and Luke, with a punctured lung.

Immediate prayer is needed for these young adults and band members whose lives have been altered by this tragic event.  The Jones and Hickok families need us to urgently intercede for them.

The primary reason I am posting this is to ask the readers of this blog to pray for Shea Hickok, as well as for the Hickok and Jones families.

Secondarily, I think that the blog which was started almost immediately to keep friends and family updated on Shea’s condition represents a marvelous use of modern technology to rally the Christian community around a common cause. The comments in themselves are a joy to read.

Visit The Shea Hickok Blog

Scott Aughtmon, the pastor of Pathway Church in Palo Alto, California has a great article on his blog, Random Ramblings of a Church Gatherer, entitled Online Omnipresence: Be Everywhere!

From the article:

We Pastors/churches need to come up with ways to get links to our sites out everywhere where people who are questioning life or seeking God are. We need to focus on getting our presence everywhere instead of just on our one website.

Why not head on over to read the article and learn the three ways Scott plans on implementing this conviction in Palo Alto and beyond.

Mark Batterson, lead pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D.C., and I recently wrote a “tag-team editorial” for Outreach Magazine.

Mark and I were asked to write a short response to this question:

Does sermon podcasting offer churches an effective way to connect with the unchurched?

Mark has posted both of our answers on the GodiPod blog

Here’s Mark’s half: Podcast Logic.

And my half: Strategic Podcasting.

It was nice to see how both of our portions, written independently and without knowledge that the other was writing (although I suspected that if they had done their research, they would have asked Mark to write), dovetailed nicely.

Also, this gives me a good reason to give a plug to GodiPod.com in general.

GodiPod offers iPods preloaded with audio Bibles and sermon content. From the site:

The driving motivation behind GodiPod.com is digital discipleship.  GodiPod.com is in the business of redeeming technology to foster spiritual growth.

Good post from Jordon Cooper on the focus of most church websites.

Church Marketing Sucks has a new guest columnist, Alex Seidel, the Director of Communications for Timberlake Christian Fellowship in Redmond, Washington.

Alex’s first article, Making The Most Of Technology For Churches is a fantastic start.

What I liked most about Alex’s perspective is his conviction that church websites should be focused on outreach:

After looking at the web sites of the top 100 churches in the US, I was struck by how internally focused they were. Trying to view their sites from the perspective of a non-believer left me wanting, nay turned off. It is time to stop being organizationally focused and start reforming our web content to speak to those who are desperately seeking transformation.

Here’s a bit of a departure from what I normally write on this site.

I’m currently participating in an online conversation about church branding which has recently begun at the Church Marketing Sucks website.

I suggest that you read the entire conversation (it’s not too long at the moment - just one initial post and three comments), but here’s a portion of my last comment to whet your appetite:

I suspect that if we concentrated most of our efforts on seeing authentic Christian community developed to a depth we haven’t known before and in such a way that the depth of our community is seen by all (the kind of community that says, “I love you so much that I would die for you tomorrow, but I love you so much that I will live for you today,” lived out in full view of the unbelieving city - outside the church building), we wouldn’t have to market ourselves. The world would _know_ that the Father loves them and that He sent Jesus, and they would come to us to find out why.

....

But sometimes I think the traditional forms of church marketing are just ways we can continue to keep ourselves at arms-length from unbelievers. “We’ll tell you all about our church in the newspapers, in television spots, on doorknob hangers, in direct mail, etc. If you want to learn more, come to us and participate in our programs.” All instead of taking the life of the Christian community to the streets and public parks and bookstores and malls, etc.

I know that perspective is fairly different from how many of us think today (and it may seem strange coming from someone who talks ad infinitum about how to use the web to, in effect, market the church), so I’d be very interested in the perspectives of others. Feel free to comment!

I would also add that although it might seem at first glance to suggest that churches and ministries should forget about websites, that’s not at all what I’m saying or, in fact, believe. If a church or ministry uses its website and other digital means as a way of introducing unbelievers to believers in face-to-face relationships, then this strategic use of digital outreach tools is, in fact, furthering the mission of taking the life of the community of believers “to the streets.”

UPDATE: On the other hand, read this blog entry on Mark Batterson’s Evotional blog. Interesting food for thought.

Brian Slezak is blogging at The Appian Way blog about this article which appeared in the New York Times a couple of days ago: Missed Church? Download It To Your IPod (registration required).

I have to admit that I have mixed feelings about podcasting, godcasting, or videocasting church services, or for that matter including streaming audio or video of church services on a church website. This is not to say that I think podcasting or videocasting is problematic in itself — I think there are great uses for it, primarily in memorializing the spontaneous life of the church. But actual services, I’m not so sure.

Aaron Flores is blogging about an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about Christians who are videoblogging (you may need to register to access the article - I did, but it looks like you might be able to reach it without registering by going through the front page).

About a week ago, I was contacted via email by the author of the article asking for my perspective on videoblogging. I guess he had found this site through an earlier article I had written about vlogging (another name for videoblogging). Some of what I wrote back to the author ended up in the article, but Aaron had something valuable to say in response to something I had said which was quoted in the Journal Sentinel article.

My portion:

If the church could catch a vision for using video technology to present an authentic presentation of the life of the church - not rehearsed videos, but spontaneous records of conversations, laughing with one another, weeping with one another, people sharing their lives, etc. - the average person might take notice,” Frank Johnson wrote in an e-mail interview.

Aaron’s response:

The key is that spontaneous conversations and showing life should not be a strategy to proselytize / evangelize. The videos then become suspicious to the viewer as religious propaganda.  It must be natural to the community sharing their life.  They must be as open, sharing, and accepting as what they portray online.  If anyone meets me in real life they know that I am just as open, sharing, and accepting of others (some say too open and sharing).  It would be a shame to share the life of the community in a positive light online, but in real life the community is nothing like its online presence.  Also, weeping with one another and showing the gritty side of sharing life with each other is so important.

Aaron’s right - authenticity is so important and what we do online should not reflect something different than what we are in real life.