Church on the Move (Tulsa, OK) is currently renovating their facilities. In a recent building campaign update, Hank Spieker of Selser Schaefer Architects explains an interesting design decision to make a cozier feeling auditorium by randomly varying chair colors with gold (66%), scarlet (11%), purple (11%), and black fabrics (11%).
The idea is that whenever you are in the auditorium that it will always feel full. It will never appear like there are a bunch of empty seats anywhere.
Varying chair colors is a great design theory for large churches with multiple service times. For most of these churches, popular service times are packed while less attended service times can leave the auditorium looking sparse.
For more thoughts from Hank Spieker, go to the 4:55 mark on the following video:
For Discussion: - What are some of your favorite architectural design tricks?
It is not sermons on TV.
It is not a sermon vodcast.
It is not online archived sermon videos.
These forms of “preaching” have no community aspect, but the video teaching church model has pastors and/or elders and fellow believers to help you grow and keep you accountable. A church model is more than just Christian content.
Obviously, some people might replace attending church with watching VideoTeaching.com directly, but those same people may just as likely replace attending church with Christian television, podcasts, the Bible, a C.S. Lewis book, or even nothing at all.
We do need to cautiously ask questions before we dive into a new way of doing church. Video teaching is not for every church’s calling. To help us ask better questions, let us resolve one myth.
MYTH - Video teaching replaces human interaction.
Truth: The DNA of a church determines the quality of its community. While having an in-the-flesh preacher is one of hundreds of factors that can make a church more likely to have strong community, it is no guarantee.
Standard Church: Not every church with a live in-the-flesh preacher has good community. In fact, some preachers rarely interact with their congregations. And some preachers that do more harm than good when they interact with their congregation. Having an in-the-flesh preacher does guarantee a strong, healthy community. Unfortunately, some of the loneliest places are churches (particularly megachurches) without a culture of relationships.
Video Teaching: Just because a church uses video teaching does not mean that church can’t have incredibly relational pastors and elders that engage, counsel, and lead the congregation outside of teaching. A video teaching church is just as capable of a standard church in having good small groups and a culture of community.
Much like the One Prayer initiative, VideoTeaching.com allows churches to hear guest speakers via free sermon video downloads. The idea behind it is that churches can have a free resource to expand their teaching team, give the pastor occasional breaks, share the load with church planters and bi-vocational pastors, and even serve as an interim “pastor” during a leadership transition.
VIDEO TEACHING AS A CHURCH MODEL
But reality is the scope of how VideoTeaching.com can be used is far deeper and versatile. In fact, a church could use video sermons all the time. Many churches have likely not been planted because the church planter believes he is not eloquent enough, theologically deep enough, or seminary certified to preach. However, when free video sermons from some of the world’s best preachers are available, obviously this excuse is gone.
4 Possible Video Teaching Church Models
Central Organization Similar to a multi-site church, this model has central leadership that oversees all locations and determines video teaching content that is the same for all campuses. Locations could either be planted by the central organization like most multi-site church campuses or passionate followers could start a location similar to LifeChurch.tv’s Church Online watch parties.
Central Admin Similar to a denomination, this model has central leadership that oversees all locations administratively, but a campus pastor or elders determine the Video Sermon content for each location based on what that congregation’s spiritual needs are. For example, a New England location may struggle with greed while a location in Oklahoma may struggle with gluttony. While all sermon topics are important, this model allows for each campus to focus on what is most important to their spiritual walk.
Central Distributor Similar to a standard church, this model has a central distributor of sermon content such as VideoTeaching.com, but each church is independent, self-governing, and determines its own video teaching content.
Extra Church Similar to Sunday school and small groups, this model uses video teaching as extra doses of “church” in addition to weekend church services.
WHY CONSIDER VIDEO TEACHING?
Church conferences, authors, and blogs have been rallying for years for the Church to be like the early Church. We talk about organic explosive church growth that produces authentic disciples, but then we do little to change our methods. If we hardly change how we do church, then we can hardly expect to revolutionize the results we get.
So why don’t we change how we do church? I think it is because we are scared. We are scared of failing, and we are scared of doing something theologically wrong. Christians are notorious for boycotting anything new, including church organs and church choirs when they were first introduced. This is not to say that we should all jump on the Video Teaching band wagon like a bunch of lemmings. But I think we should ask questions.
Thinking rationally and theologically, why or why shouldn’t churches pursue the Video Teaching model of church?
I will be addressing some questions about video teaching in the weeks to come, including:
What size should a video teaching church be?
How can video teaching churches be kept spiritually accountable?
How does the video medium affect the message?
What about the development of future preachers?
What are the advantages of video teaching versus one or a few preachers?
What about video teaching children’s ministry?
Will video teaching create more celebrity pastors?
What does a multi-site video teaching house gigachurch look like?
For Discussion: - Share your thoughts about video teaching in the comments and join in the unraveling discussion in the weeks to come.
Boys are different than girls. As previously discussed, boys prefer a dramatically different learning environment and style than how girls prefer to learn.
The social preferences of boys and girls are also sharply contrasted according to new brain scan research from the National Institute of Mental Health. TIME summarizes the research nicely. Essentially, girls want one-on-one close friendships, and boys prefer to interact in groups.
As girls progress from early puberty to late adolescence, certain regions of their brains become more active when they face a potential social interaction. Specifically, when an older girl anticipates meeting someone new — someone she believes will be interested in her — her nucleus accumbens (which is associated with reward and motivation), hypothalamus (associated with hormone secretion), hippocampus (associated with social learning) and insula (associated with subjective feelings) all become more active. By contrast, boys in the same situation show no such increase in activity in these areas. In fact, the activity in their insula actually declines.
This research combined with our knowledge of gender learning preferences, gives insight into how we can create youth ministries that maximize both a teen’s learning and social enjoyment.
For Boys:
So when teaching boys, keep the group large but controllable (i.e., 12-24 boys) and in even numbers for team competition. Stand and move around while speaking forcefully and realistically. Allow the boys to occasionally move and keep the room at 69 degrees Fahrenheit. Use cooler colors in your environment and teaching. Play sports and competitive games, so the boys can naturally bond via social competition.
For Girls:
So when teaching girls, keep the group very small and intimate and allow for one-on-one interaction or even mentoring. Sit in a circle with the girls and speak descriptively and in a nurturing tone. Keep the room at 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Use lots of colors, particularly warmer colors, and use visual and/or tactile textures. Create a secure yet stimulating environment where they can feel comfortable in taking risks that you encourage them to take.
For Discussion: - If you teach kids and youth, what has your experience taught you about their preferences?
Ed Stetzer recently compiled a list of 48 questions to ask yourself for honing your personal accountability. Unfortunately, each year we hear of preachers, politicians, and average Joes who compromise their integrity and make life-ruining mistakes. Sadly, many of those mistakes could have been avoided with the right accountability systems in place.
For all 48 questions, you will need to check out Ed Stetzer’s original post. Here are my top 15 personal favorites:
Have I spent adequate time in Bible study and prayer?
Did the Bible live in me today?
Am I enjoying prayer?
Have I given priority time to my family?
How do I spend my spare time?
Am I a slave to dress, friends, work, or habits?
Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscience is uneasy?
Have I been with a woman/man anywhere this past week that might be seen as compromising?
Have I been exposed to sexually alluring material or allowed my mind to entertain inappropriate thoughts about someone who is not my spouse this week?
Have any of my financial dealings lacked integrity?
Have I secretly wished for another’s misfortune so that I might excel?
Have I damaged another person by my words, either behind their back or face-to-face?
Is there anything that has dampened my zeal for Christ?
Is Christ real to me?
Have I been completely honest with myself?
For Discussion: - What accountability questions do you recommend asking?
More and more churches are making their sermons available as free MP3 downloads.
It makes sense. If a pastor spends 10 hours preparing a sermon for his congregation, why wouldn’t he want to extend its reach past those who showed up that weekend to hear it. In a church of 500, why settle for reaching 500 people once when a free MP3 download could reach 700 people over and over again.
It does not cost much to create or distribute an MP3, so why do some churches charge $3 to $5 to download a sermon MP3?
It seems counterintuitive. If preaching the gospel is one of the primary purposes of a church, why hinder people from hearing the gospel by charging for MP3s? It is understandable to charge money for cassettes, VHS, CDs, and DVDs. The physical nature of those media requires money to produce them. But why charge for digital media?
Blame Tradition?
I expect the biggest reason why some churches charge for sermon MP3s is tradition. After decades of needing to charge money for sermons because of cassette and CD duplication costs, it likely seemed odd or even wrong to give away sermon audio for free. After all, free might devalue the perceived quality of the sermon that the preacher worked so hard to preach.
Blame Trends? Other churches might say, “The big megachurch down the road charges for MP3s, so we should, too!”
Blame Capitalism? Perhaps some churches see charging for MP3s as a great way to supplement donations. If money can be made, why not?
So what is right? I am not writing this to condemn one method and praise another. I am not saying it is a sin to charge for an MP3. I am, however, giving some food for thought. The people who need a sermon the most are probably those least likely to pay for one.
If a church says it exists to reach people for Christ and disciple them, why let a few dollars keep it from more effectively fulfilling its purpose?
Do they really need the money that badly?
Churches spend 100s of thousands of dollars on buildings, 10s of thousands of dollars on A/V equipment, thousands of dollars on advertising, and hundreds of dollars on free coffee and donuts just to get people to come hear the sermon. Why not make the sermon a free MP3 download?
Imagine if the Apostle Paul said his letter to the church at Ephesus was free for the Ephesians to read but the church at Corinth had to pay to learn from it. It seems counterintuitive.
Drew Goodmanson of Ekklesia 360 gave me a tour of their new community network product - Cobblestone. Its community management capabilities nicely complement Ekklesia 360’s website management system. It is one step closer to a total online church management solution.
Custom Aesthetic Design (to match your church brand)
It is powerful and robust, but I think Cobblestone’s greatest strength is its ease of use. For more details, of how it all works visit Cobblestonecn.com.
The New York Timesrecently reported on the growing trend of parents in prison and how it is affecting their children. In the United States, roughly 1.5 million children have a parent in prison.
How it affects poor urban children…
6% chance of becoming homeless
(versus 3% without a parent in prison)
More aggressive behavior like hitting others and destroying objects
(49% of 5-year-old boys versus 38% without a parent in prison)
More likely to experience feelings of depression, isolation, or anxiety
(35% versus 28% without a parent in prison)
Prison statistics claim that 1 in 99 Americans are in prison. We cannot forget that prison ministry is not simply about reaching those in prison but reaching their families, particularly their children, as well. Angel Tree is an example of one ministry that is serving these kids.
For Discussion: - What are some other effective ministries or methods that you have seen reach prisoners’ families?
