For those of you who are not familiar with the online campus concept let me get you up to speed. A online campus is another satellite of a larger church, it's suppose to reach those who wouldn't want to walk into a church building or face the whole concept of being face to face with the local body of believers. Supposedly you log on into a live service at one of the other satellite campuses and basically watch the whole service, Music, preaching the whole thing. After this you are put into what you could call a chat room format of a small group where you interact with people who have just watched what you watched at the same time. It's basically church for people who don't want to wake up and interact with people, it's great for the ubber introverts or those 40 year old men living in there parents basement playing the latest version of Gears of War, or should I even say World of Warcraft. Sorry if sarcasm afends you I tend to be kind of sarcastic. So the question that arises is this, is it real? and is it Biblical?
First of all is it real? I tend to believe that the holy spirit can convict you in any setting, this is because I believe we are the church more than we just go to church. What concerns me about this is really my second question. Is it Biblcal? Now I am definitely one for using technology for the betterment of the Kingdom but is this going too far, I understand that your worshiping but what keeps one from logging on checking off that they are present, but then they can walk away and make themselves feel good because they went to church or did they. I mean are they feeding themselves on a daily basis without the accountability of an actual face to face community (Church/Small group) ? I was even watching a video on this this past week where they were having a problem with the small groups they have, aka there chat rooms/small groups. Another question about the whole biblical issue is this, who is handling the Church discipline? In order to be a biblical church from what I've studied in the NT, is that there has to be an eldership or a group of godly men who discipline and disciple those who are in sin and need correction. So as you can see I have my doubts about online church, but I'm not the only one. Mark Driscol raised a lot of the same concerns at the recent Advance conference in North Carolina and I have come to have the same concerns, in my opinion it's a bad idea, it feels to fake and the last thing we need in today's church is more people who are fake. You know those people who think church is all about them being happy and becoming a better you now! All were doing I fear is catering to those who just want to be safe, safe christianity is an oki moron if you ask me. We need to be interacting with people in a community on a daily basis, and there is something about being in a room filled with people praising and worshiping the same God side by side. Before I go any further and if you want to do more research on this before you make up your mind, here are the churches I know of for sure who are doing this if you want to check them out. Central Christian Church Las Vegas, Lifechurchtv Edmond Oklahoma, North Point Community Church Alphareta Georgia. Check them out and tell me what you think, I really want to hear your opinions from both sides that is.
Now let me end with this, I just want to let you know that I still think highly of these pastors listed above I just don't agree with this new trend that they are embracing. So Jud Wilihite, Craig Groschel and Andy Stanley are still great communicators who speak the gospel well and I look forward to hearing and reading form them in the future.
Grace and Peace,
Clayton Wheeler
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