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.