Once upon a time, not so long ago, there was a church located in the middle of America that streamed video of its weekend worship services.

Then something unexpected happened.

People viewing the church’s webcast began responding to the pastor’s invitation to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Somehow the viewers had found the church’s email address and were writing in to share their stories.

For church leaders it was God doing “exceeding abundantly more than they asked or imagined.”

The online salvations were an indication to them that God was on the move.

So they began to dream about what could happen if more layers of technology were added to the webcast. What if they created an online service “on purpose?” Was it possible to create an “experience” where people anywhere in the world, who might never step foot inside a church building, would feel comfortable?

The gospel would go out. There would be worship music. But there would also be group chat, live prayer, and live help. Technology was available that would allow the church to offer real-time, two-way conversation facilitated by trained volunteers. This would make response immediate, intentional, and personal for online viewers, especially those wanting to know Christ.

And so it was five years ago, by God’s grace and power, that Church Online was born at LifeChurch.tv.

The church and many observers continue to be blown away by the way God is using Church Online to bring people to Himself.

Each week more than 100,000 people from more than 100 countries attend Church Online. Many of these people are in parts of the world where they might otherwise never hear the gospel.

Irrational generosity

And now, the “faith-filled, big-thinking, bet-the-farm, risk taking” passion of LifeChurch is going forward once again.

Because of the way God has worked through Church Online, many churches and ministries are spending a lot of money to recreate the platform.

The leaders dreamed.

Was it possible to help the church at large, to create and deliver a world-class platform and service? With the support of a dozen churches and the Digital Missions ministry at LifeChurch, a rigorous beta test of that idea was initiated.

The results came back. It could be done.

The Lord Jesus himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Acts 20:35

Beginning January 9, 2012, the Church Online Platform will launch for churches everywhere in the world to use. And like all LifeChurch resources, from video messages to the YouVersion Bible app, the Church Online platform will be available absolutely free.

Any church in the world will be able to put their church service on the Church Online Platform. Everything about Church Online will be available except the video stream. Churches and ministries will be able to put their own branding, logo, skin, look and appearance on the platform and do their own implementation.

To learn more, interested organizations should contact the Church Online Platform Team.

LifeChurch pastor Craig Groeschel says the Church Online Platform “will go down in history as one of the most aggressive evangelistic tools ever.”

Moving in step

As I ponder this landscape changing event for Christian media, another question comes to mind.

What could happen if leaders throughout the Christian media world saw the Church Online Platform as an opportunity to find new ways of working together with the hundreds and thousands of churches that will soon be doing ministry and outreach online?

How many new local and international ministry outreaches could be developed if many organizations were to lower barriers, combine resources, and move in step together?

Linking arms with the Church Online community could be one of the fastest ways to get the gospel to the billions of people still unreached in America and globally.

The rest of the story is how the local Church Online becomes a part of God’s grand story line to reach the world.

Bobby Gruenewald and his team at LifeChurch.tv are leaders in the development of best practices for the use of technology in ministry.

Catching up with a man who travels 200,000 miles a year was not easy, so it was my pleasure to speak with him.

We started our conversation discussing the church’s growth.

Bobby, LifeChurch.tv just celebrated its 15th anniversary. You must be in awe and humbled by all the success and growth God has brought.

We are. We’re very ordinary, in many ways underserving leaders to be able to see and witness all this, but we feel privileged to be a part of what God is doing. Quite frankly, the simple approach that we’ve taken here is just see where God’s moving and what He’s doing and try to do more of it. We’re always reminded, there’s no way this is the result of our efforts. God makes it real clear to us that it’s His doing.

You just returned from the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. What was your purpose for being there?

Over the last few years, we’ve done a lot to explore how we can leverage mobile technology, in particular apps, to reach people with the gospel. The main focus of that energy has been on YouVersion, our free Bible app. This year, we plan to fully support eight new languages. That means modern Bibles available in those languages, the apps, the website.

So being there had a twofold purpose. First, to learn about where technology is going so that we can make good decisions as we extend out globally. And second, to develop relationships with the technology companies, to help them understand what we’re doing and explore opportunities for working with them to get the Bible out to millions of people.

Will Church Online continue to be a strategic part of your mission?

It’s very much a high priority.

We believe the platform and the format provides opportunity to engage a global population of people that would not step foot inside of a church building, whatever their reasons.

We’ve seen strong growth every year and think it has almost limitless potential for reaching people.

What’s neat for me is that it’s a self-sufficient community, meaning everything we put into it, including staff, is funded from the people that are participating. It’s not just a bunch of people watching a webstream. It’s a community very much engaged in the experience even though they are geographically separated.

Do you have plans for extending the platform?

Right now, we’re working on making the Church Online platform available for others to use. The things that enable us to do ministry in that way – the interactive, community, volunteer management, everything except the video stream – will be made available to churches and ministries. They will be able to put their own branding, logo, skin, look and appearance on it and do their own implementation.

We will host the technology. As we move it forward and venture into new places and innovations, everyone using it will be able to benefit.

I’ve heard that like all the other resources you provide to churches and ministries, the platform will be made available at no cost. That’s a huge undertaking.

We would like to make the platform available for free, but want to make sure we can deliver and create a world-class product and service. That’s why we’re going through a limited beta test period now with several churches and ministries. We want to fully understand what’s involved in properly supporting it. That may mean we have to release it in stages and have a certain number of ministries that we could add at any given time.

We also may look to a model where it’s free, but churches have the opportunity to contribute financially to help sustain it. Many churches and ministries are in the process of paying a lot of money to try to recreate the platform, so this would be a way to help fund something that everybody benefits from.

We hope to make some announcements on it soon.

What do you see in the future for how pastors use Christian media?

In any type of media, the number of people reached is really what’s going to attract pastors. Some pastors may only embrace new media because it’s what they’re familiar with. Limited resources force you to focus on what you know best. But as long as there’s an audience for radio and television, I’m pretty confident there will be pastors who want to get their message out through those channels.

If the audience is declining then the answer probably lies in how do you change that trend?

Broadcasters and churches have always worked together. Should we be looking for even more ways to cooperate to solve technological change issues?

Absolutely. My background is business, so my language still tends to rest heavily in that world. From an economic perspective, there’s billions, if not trillions of dollars of resources and assets that are collectively controlled or influenced by the Christian community as a whole. The unfortunate thing is, those resources are too often corralled into tribes or sections, sometimes creating competitive situations.

I recognize there will always be a certain degree of separation and sometimes there are valid reasons why people approach things differently. But if broadcasters and churches could find ways to bring synergy, break some of those barriers down, there’s probably an enormous amount of resource that could begin to move in step together to reach the world.

I know that’s the core of what ministry groups and broadcasters have as their mission.

With so much disruption, teams and organizations can lose their focus.

To stay focused on our mission, we will all need to be able to embrace change.

The Church as a whole needs to work hard at uniting around a common purpose and realize that our practices and methodologies will have to change to reach this next generation.

That has exciting opportunities associated with it because there are so many things we can do today that we could never do before.

A small example. One of the things we do at Church Online is run ads on Google for people that are searching for pornography. So in the privacy of their home, when they’re thinking about looking for a naked lady, they’re intersected with an advertisement inviting them to choose to be part of a church experience instead.

Being able to get into the thought process of somebody in the middle of sin is something that we could never do before.

I would encourage broadcasters to be postured toward embracing change, as a verb not a noun, especially in the world of communication. Not because we’re trying to save an organization or keep a ministry alive, but because it’s what’s required for all of us to collectively reach the world we live in for Christ.

That’s a great challenge Bobby. Thank you for talking with us.

Dana Byers is President of Blue Door Ministries, the only organization in the world that exists to resource pastors in non-English speaking countries to launch online ministries.

I met Dana at Ben Arment’s Dream Year Weekend Retreat in Nashville. In a recent conversation, Dana shared some of the stories behind her dream.

During Dream Year weekend, Ben said that without frustration, you’d never recognize your dream, let alone have the passion to pursue it. How did frustration shape your dream?

In 2007, my husband Chris and I were in Guatemala City adopting our youngest child. There had been some difficulties with the adoption that week.

We were going to LifeChurch.tv back home in Oklahoma City at the time, and Chris suggested that we attend Church Online in our hotel room.

What happened during the one hour of Church Online didn’t change the circumstances, but it changed my perspective on that week.

What happened?

I was shocked at how powerfully I experienced God by sitting on my laptop, attending church. Hearing a powerful message. Chatting with people. Worshipping God through the music. It really blessed me.

When the experience ended, I remember standing on the hotel balcony looking out over Guatemala City, thinking how much I loved not only Guatemala but many countries. I thought about my passion for missions and international evangelism.

I remember wishing that Church Online had been available in Spanish, right then. I knew the friends we had met during the adoption didn’t know Christ personally. I would have been able to invite them to come and watch the message with us. They could have heard the gospel in their local language. Wouldn’t that have been great, I thought?

A couple of years later I realized God had planted a seed on that balcony in Guatemala for my life’s work.

Not long after that, God led you and Chris to leave your jobs, sell everything, and move to London with your two young children.

We knew we were obeying, but didn’t quite know what God was going to do there. Eventually, we helped launch LifeChurch.tv in the GMT time zone. We trained teams in Australia, South Africa and other European cities. And the idea for Blue Door took shape.

What does a church partnership with Blue Door look like?

First, we go through an interview process with a church that is interested in online evangelism. Once we form a partnership, we provide them with a package of equipment, everything they need to put together the content that would go into their online experience. We also provide training and a network for sharing knowledge.

How much does it cost a church?

Our goal is to make Church Online free to churches. Sometimes it’s scary to enter the online arena when it’s new. If they really feel called to it, we want to take away some of the cost barriers.

Once they launch, we work with them on a ministry and business plan for the first year so that they can see growth and expansion and find creative ways to connect with people who are attending. And either plug them into a local church or get them more involved in their local online experiences.

It only takes thirty-eight hundred dollars to get one of these churches going. For less than twelve thousand dollars we can launch three churches in three different languages just with the help of volunteers. It’s incredible. We’re trying to raise thirty-thousand dollars by May to cover our plans for the year.

The cost of the equipment is covered by donors who have a heart for using technology to share the gospel. We all volunteer our time.

Do you have churches partners operating now?

Yes, Kosciol Online in Poland. And we’re preparing to launch in Slovakia, Bolivia and Guatemala with local pastors.

The power of God working through Church Online is very personal for you, isn’t it?

When we were traveling throughout Europe as a family, speaking to pastors and churches about using technology for ministry, we weren’t connected to a local church. So this was a perfect opportunity for us to dive into online ministry and the community that was available to us there. We used the free resources to teach our children at home.

Both of our children committed their lives to Christ during this time.

Are you experiencing any challenges or needs you would like us to pray about?

I want Church Online available in every language to connect with people who are far from God, who are unwilling or unable to go to church. Dana Byers

So many times when we’re having experiences, doing training or having an event, without fail, you can almost expect the enemy to try and stop it.

Also, there are some great organizations doing online ministry but no one is doing what Blue Door Ministries is doing yet. So we come up against the struggle of forging a new path.

And right now, we are looking for a camera person who can go train our pastors in how to use the equipment. We want to help them minister with excellence.

I’m grateful for the struggle. It constantly reminds me to return to the Word every day to say, ‘God, how are we going to do this? How can you work through us to use the Internet to lead people into your Church and a relationship with Christ?’

Blue Door Ministries is already a great source of inspiration and blessing to many. Friends, would you please take a moment to pray for Dana and Chris and everyone associated this great kingdom endeavor? Thank you.

“I was pushed back and about to fall, but the Lord helped me.” Psalm 118:13

Trying to keep up with trends in the constantly changing, ever-expanding world of technology and new media is a daunting challenge.

Inexact science, predicting future trends is. I will leave the sophisticated research to the professionals.

Watching, on the other hand, is very important.

History has many examples of those who failed to grasp the opportunities revealed by trends.

When you have time, I’ve listed four reports to help you examine the emerging global trends that are reshaping Christian media.

Trendsetting thrills and chills

View from the top: global technology trends and performance, Ernst & Young – Benchmarks, insights and questions around communications equipment, computers, Internet, IT services, software, and smart mobility.

10 Social Media Trends for 2011, Entrepreneur.com – A take on social trends that are on the horizon next year. From plug-ins, to location-based marketing initiatives, to the move to higher bandwidth.

7 Digital Media Trends of 2011, Daniel Anstandig, President McVay New Media Consulting – Digital ad targeting technology, Audience-driven programming, Social networking for broadcasters, Local retail ad networks and more.

Mobile Ministry Forum – 16 mission strategists representing 15 organizations focused exclusively on the mobile platform’s potential role in the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

Rebuilding the platform

In 1996, I began watching how traditional church and broadcast media were adapting to the changing world of global communications. In 2011, I think a full scale reconstruction of the legacy platform is under way.

Christian media has always been something “they” did. Radio and television stations, publishers, broadcast ministries. The expansion of electronic media platforms – Internet, mobile, social -  has empowered every Christian to become a communicator.

YOU are Christian media!

Individuals, as well as organizations, are now leveraging the most powerful communication technologies tools ever created to do the work of the gospel.

People around the world are keen to learn, improve and share ways to use digital tools for ministry. They are hungry for information and help.

Twelve communications improvements

With a deep sense that God has opened a door to an astonishing array of opportunities through information technology, doers are coming forward to set the pace of the reconstruction:

1. Extending complete Christian community to the Church online – teaching, personal interaction, stories, prayer, sharing faith.
2. Creating tools and resources for one-on-one Internet evangelism in local and cross-cultural environments.
3. Developing free Bible applications to run on mobile platforms.
4. Harnessing the power of film and digital media to communicate God’s Word.
5. Offering college courses to help the next generation of leaders learn how-to use the Internet and social media for ministry.
6. Establishing a peer learning community of Church and ministry IT people.
7. Writing books inspiring and challenging Christians to live their faith online.
8. Forming online communities to share spiritual experiences, distribute inspirational content and do social good.
9. Building church systems for content management, search engine optimization and search engine marketing.
10. Providing software solutions to support effective ministry, discipleship, and decision making.
11. Hosting web-based workshops to teach church leaders and volunteers about the latest technologies.
12. Initiating an annual worldwide focus day to showcase the potential of the Web for effective evangelism.

Cross-organizational collaboration and non-traditional partnerships and alliances are starting to emerge. Christian organizations are combining resources in new ways to have the greatest possible impact in their communities and globally for the gospel. These are trends that have encouraged me greatly.

Growth trends

Statistical data shows that a strong foundation is being put in place. Two mind-blowing reports paint the picture:

On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Matthew 16:18

Global Media Outreach, an Internet ministry based in Campbell, CA reported for 2010 that it had 119,444,072 visitors to its 102 websites; 15,507,537 decisions for Christ, and 2,468,662 emails requesting follow-up.

LifeChurch.tv, a multi-site church in Edmund, OK finished 2010 with 2,848,144 absolute unique visits to its Church Online campus, representing 231 countries and territories. 16,162 people received Christ, and 2,809 new believer kits were mailed to people around the world.

In a message to his congregation on January 9, during the 15th Anniversary service of LifeChurch.tv, I thought Pastor Craig Groeschel summed up the building process so far, with this vision:

“We will not continue to do what used to work. In order to reach people no one is reaching, we will have to do things that no one is doing – video church, church online, and leveraging technology. We will do anything short of sin to reach people who do not know Christ. This is just the introduction. The foundation is being built for something God wants to do everywhere.”

Question: What trends are you watching? What communications improvements have you seen?

Chris Brogan is a highly respected and influential leader on New Media. He recently visited LifeChurch.tv online and described his experience in “Digital Church.”

Up front, Chris acknowledged “He’s not religious, but he’s certainly curious.”

Frankly, this honest admission, combined with his excellent media credentials, heightened my interest in what he had to say about Church Online.

Churches put a ton of work into welcoming visitors, helping people connect and form relationships. It’s the same with digital church, where the process also begins with a great first impression.

So what kind of experience did Chris Brogan have when he visited LifeChurch.tv online.

Here’s what his reflections said to me.

An understandable church service. He seemed to have enjoyed the “rocking” contemporary music. Not the “horrible singsong with an organ” he had previously associated with religious music. A humorous, down-to-earth analogy early on in the message from Pastor Craig Groeschel grabbed his attention and helped make a clear teaching point.

A genuine church experience. His understanding of what a physical church does paralleled his online experience. He made note of the prayer, the friendly conversation among the people attending, the opportunity to financially support the mission of the church, and the (gospel) message being shared.

A church accessible to people everywhere. Chris expressed his view that church online is a good option for anyone that isn’t able to be at church in person. People in the chat room shared reasons why they couldn’t be there. That confirmed what he saw as the value of having digital church for shut-ins, or for people like himself, just wanting to check things out.

A church with high technical standards. Ministry or not, the online world can be an unforgiving place when it comes to poor utilization of digital media. Chris gave the church high praise for its technical excellence.

A church putting technology to work. He noted the effective use of technology to carry out the various functions of the church. And the integration of the service elements into social media channels.

A church using online tools to engage people in the Bible. With the smartphone’s rise from gadget to necessity, it wasn’t surprising that Chris saw the power of “distributing religion” through apps for Bibles and religious texts. While he didn’t mention it by name, likely he was, or has become, aware of YouVersion, the free Bible app from LifeChurch.tv. It’s currently, the #1 free reference app in iTunes.

My key takeaway

Some of you might be thinking that an online church might feel cold. On the contrary, I felt totally warm and invited. Lots and lots of people were chatting in the live chat window. There were people standing by for live prayer online. There were tons of people on Twitter watching the chatter, too. It was VERY alive. Chris Brogan

No special event. No holiday. No well-known guest speaker. No dancing elephants (a “Purple Cow” … maybe). To Chris Brogan, Church Online was warm and welcoming. This is a compelling point to be made in the ongoing conversations about digital church. (See my post Seven Views of Being the Church Online.)

And why did Chris visit in the first place? He tells us. “Thanks to a very gentle nudge from Tony Steward,” an online community pastor at LifeChurch.tv.

This is living proof, I believe, that digital church can be – and in the case of LifeChurch.tv IS – a remarkable place where you’d want to bring your friends. As Tony did.

And LifeChurch.tv has made it very easy for their congregation to spread the word. The church has plenty of online invitation tools and if I counted right (4 times), 49 service experiences per week.

Church online working it’s way to the masses

I thought it was great that Chris had a favorable experience at Church Online and, most importantly, was willing to write about it.

I was even more impressed by the gracious invitation he gave to his audience (hundreds of thousands on Twitter and at his blog), to “check out LifeChurch.tv for yourself, should such things be of interest to you.”

That was a very generous thing to do.

Chris Brogan concludes his impressions of Church Online by suggesting that LifeChurch.tv has built an online ministry platform that others, inside or outside the church, can learn from.