Church at Home Potential
August 31, 2010 2 Comments
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The idea of gathering a group of people in someone’s house to watch a sermon and experience church together is nothing new. One of the things I was blessed to see during my time interning at the Bridge in Canada is how they were getting ready to implement this to a town 45 minutes away from where they were. The potential of being able to record what is done on Sunday morning and show it during the week somewhere else in furthering the Kingdom is undeniable. It also puts “having church” in a new atmosphere for those who may not want to attend in a building for whatever reason. Think about shut-ins and what you are able to provide for them by bringing the message to their televisions.
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And while none of this is uncharted waters, it just got a little bit easier. As a Netflix subscriber, I also own something called a Roku player. Roku is almost to TVs what the iPhone is to mobile devices. Having Roku allows me to take advantage of the “watch instantly” service included with my Netflix subscription without staring at a computer screen to do so. This $60 and up set-top box loads content over a wifi connection, and gives a wide range of options in its channel store (think an app store). The channels are free to add (although some channels, such as Netflix, require a subscription service to use).
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Roku has recently added a new channel in Vimeo. For those not familiar with Vimeo, think a YouTube-like service with less “leave Britney alone” and more high quality content. It’s great for uploading a number of things. One of those things are sermons from your church.
My church, TrueNorth, has been using Vimeo to post messages on for awhile now. And thanks to their new channel on Roku, these messages can be viewed from a TV.
What does this mean?
This means that it’s as simple as having a $60 box to be able to connect a home group to your church. This small fee can meet someone who is unable to leave their house where they are. You have greater potential in spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I look forward to seeing how this is used in the Church.
About Matt Ames
Our church’s casual service is experimenting with streaming the service on Sunday…no tape delay or charge to receive. Sweet.
Will this affect a church’s ability to exist “brick and mortar” and possibly hamper overall growth and ministry…a quandry to ponder?
Sounds good, Sam. Let me know how everything goes with that. An upside to live streaming is everyone being able to worship at the same time, thus keeping community in the mix. Will there be any sort of chat room?
I think the key word is “community.” Whether a church’s meeting location is their own building, a school, someone’s house, etc. Whatever we do, we don’t need to lose that.