India: Urban Youth

While many of us are accustomed to hearing about extreme poverty in India, there’s a growing demographic that you might not be as familiar with: the middle class urban youth. This is a group that’s globally connected. They’re not only being influenced by input from around the world, they are influencing and adding to that input as well.

These are the people it’s possible to reach right now using media and technology. In the past, you might have heard me say, “There are more people alive today than at any other point in human history, and they are more connected now than at any time in the past.” India is at the very center of that…both from a population standpoint, and in terms of being globally connected.

We have an incredible opportunity in front of us to reach this population, but we’ll need to move beyond conventional methods. That’s one of the reasons we’re so excited about India being the country with the largest attendance at Church Online. With just a few clicks, these globally connected youth can experience a message of hope and salvation from across the world.

Several churches have adopted experiences at Church Online as an online mission project. We’re in the process of adding more experiences, so if you’re interested in learning more about this opportunity check out this post from Church Online.

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Joel A’Bell from Hillsong - 1

We were blessed to have Joel A’Bell, Lead Pastor under Hillsong Church’s Senior Pastors Brian and Bobbie Houston, with us last week all the way from Australia.

In this session, we discussed some new things that God is doing at Hillsong and talked about developing a strong culture of worship.

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Responding to Haiti

It’s heartbreaking to see the images that are coming to us from Haiti, and difficult to fully comprehend such devastation. But along with this tragedy comes an opportunity—our opportunity to be the Church. As fellow believers, we can stand together and actively display the love of Jesus to the people of Haiti.

At LifeChurch.tv, we’re joining forces with other churches to offer prayer and financial support for disaster relief efforts. We’re partnering with Convoy of Hope and Samaritan’s Purse in their response, and providing an opportunity for our people to give on top of what we’ve already committed as a church.

Also, Compassion International is raising funds to re-equip their local support structure and to provide for the needs of the more than 64,000 children that they assist in Haiti.  Included in those 64,000 children is Staci, one of the several children that Craig and Amy support through Compassion.

We’re also taking part in a special night of prayer with churches around the world. You’re welcome to join us, either individually or as a church, and if you’re on Twitter, please use the hashtag #pray4Haiti to help spread the word. We’ll be meeting online at 7:00pm CST this Monday, January 18.

How is your church responding to aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti?

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Why Church Online?

Today I’d like to share a story with you that is a perfect example of why we’re passionate about online ministry. Please take a minute to check out this video from an individual who connected with Church Online:

While some of the stories we hear represent a dramatic change like the one above, there are many other cases where Church Online has made a difference in someone’s everyday life…direction for a big decision, strength to break a harmful habit, encouragement to reconcile a fractured relationship, and more.

How about you? Whether through an internet church service, podcast, or other experience, has online ministry had an impact on your life?

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Church Online: Limitations

Yesterday we had a great discussion about the advantages of online ministry. Thanks for all your thoughtful feedback! Today we’ll discuss some of the limitations—or unanswered questions—of online ministry.  Here are some examples:

• How do you baptize people and serve communion in an online environment?
• How do you deal with people who prefer to remain anonymous and avoid the kinds of relationships where accountability can occur?
• How do you meet the physical needs of your people? For example, who visits them in the hospital?

I’ll repeat my invitation from yesterday…if you haven’t had a chance to experience online ministry yet, I strongly encourage you to try Church Online for yourself before you weigh in. Experiences take place seven days a week, and the next one starts in:

What unanswered questions do you have about online ministry? What limitations do you see?

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Church Online: Strengths

Every church and ministry—no matter the size, style, or approach—has strengths and limitations. For example, a smaller church may have the ability to be more welcoming, more intimate, and encourage more discipleship, but have a limited ability to make a global impact. A larger church may have an easier time making a global impact, yet struggle to reach the level of intimacy and discipleship found at a smaller church.

Church Online is no different. Over the next two days, I’d like to discuss the strengths and limitations of online ministry. Today, we’ll talk about the areas where online ministry has clear advantages. A few of these include:

• Taking the Gospel to places we wouldn’t be able to go physically.
• Reaching people who can’t or won’t attend church in a building.
• It gives people an anonymous way to investigate Christianity.

If you haven’t had a chance to experience online ministry yet, I strongly encourage you to try Church Online for yourself before you weigh in. Experiences take place seven days a week, and the next one starts in:

What are some other advantages to online ministry that you would you add to the list above?

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Change the Method, Not the Message

This weekend we launched Behind the Curtain, a new series where we’re looking beyond the weekend experience to see how the Church is making a difference around the world. We felt so passionate about sharing where God has been leading us during this season that we pressed the pause button on the series we had planned to do next, Five Easy Steps to Wreck Your Life. Here’s a clip from Craig that captures the vision…

Craig went on in his message to talk about YouVersion, free messages, and Church Online. These are some of the ways that LifeChurch.tv is changing our methods, but not our message, to reach our culture.

What are some of the ways you think the Church needs to change to reach people today?

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Who are you reaching?

I’ve been in lots of conversations about online ministry lately as more and more churches launch internet campuses. One of the questions that usually comes up is, “Who are you reaching with Church Online? or Who are you trying to reach?” A wide variety of people show up at Church Online, and you could loosely describe the community there in four segments:

•    Distant: people who are outside the physical reach of the Church
•    Curious: people who would prefer to explore their interest in spirituality in an online context
•    Mobile: people who are a part of our church, but are looking for an option to worship together because they are traveling or displaced
•    Digital: people who prefer to experience much of their community in an online context

Whether your ministry takes place online, in a physical space, or both, I’m curious to know who you’re reaching. How would you describe the people you’re connecting with? Are you trying to broaden your reach, and if so, how? Or are you trying to narrow your reach?

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