A Web campus: More than a podcast with bells and whistles

Web Campuses or Internet Campuses or whatever you want to call them are all the rage.

And as the Web Campus pastor for NewSpring Church, I’m blessed to have a small part in leading the Big C church to rightly embrace the web for church, broadly defined, as an environment for worship, a vehicle for community and discipleship, and a medium for evangelism.

I take what I do seriously enough that I’m always sharpening my theological understanding of what we’re trying to do through the web campus. So, inspired by this page on Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church Internet Campus, i thought I’d share here my internal vision statement for the web campus that has been in place since before we launched.

It’s aimed at getting my ministry team and volunteers on the same page. It’s a work in progress. It’s not proof-texted. It’s not officially endorsed by my church leadership. But it is I think a healthy approach that recognizes a web campus as something far more than a podcast with bells on.

Come on. You know you want to help critique it.

Our mission is to make Jesus famous one person at a time, helping people worship God, grow in faith and live in Christ-centered community online.

We believe the web campus can follow the model of a Biblical church. It provides a venue for worship of God, Biblical teaching, and opportunity for community, discipleship and evangelism.

For the lost, it can be a very powerful tool in welcoming spiritual seekers to hear the word of truth in a setting that may not be as intimidating as physically attending a church.

For those Christians who are not fully committed to a local church, it can be a more open and inviting path to involvement in a local body of serving, discipling, evangelizing believers who are passionate about Jesus and obedient to his word.

We believe that online attenders can and should participate fully in the life of NewSpring Church, which considers itself one church in many locations.

As with every NewSpring campus, our online attenders will be strongly encouraged to get baptized by immersion after a decision for Christ, give, serve each other and the church in online and offline venues and proclaim the good news as the Lord gifts them and leads them. Periodically, we also will celebrate communion together, rightly instructed by a pastor, with online attenders gathering and taking their own elements. (See our five purposes below)

Attendence of the Web Campus should never be viewed as a legitimate way to “go to church” while avoiding the challenges or the commitments involved in faithful participation of a local church body. We do, however, believe that full, consistent, surrendered worship among a body of believers on the web campus is to be preferred to infrequent attendance of a local church and membership of it in name only for whatever reason.

We believe that online social and communication tools can be used to ensure that we are “meeting together” in worship and in Christ-exalting relationship with believers as well as serving as a witness to God corporately. But as the body of Christ, each with a role in discipling, serving and evangelizing within “communities of grace,” our success can only come through deep investment in individual lives and communities that must include some element of offline, bodily interaction.

Although we donʼt believe that physical presence is the only way we can fulfill our role in the body of Christ, we do want to strongly encourage people to gather physically wherever possible, such as by viewing the web campus in physical groups.

Overall, the web campus is more than just a podcast with a chat room. In fact, we recognize that some podcasters may be using our media to create a personal church experience that risks isolating them and tends toward a false understanding of the Christian life as private and solitary, rather than public and communal. The web campus offers a chance to lead podcasters toward a more complete experience and participation in church.

Our theological conviction is to offer attenders a 360-degree church experience: communal worship experience realized through our chat room or in physical gatherings, pastoral guidance from me and other NewSpring pastors, and abundant opportunities to take “next steps” in their walk with Jesus. I think you’ll agree that taken as a whole, the web campus can serve as someone’s church home, should they need it.

We want out attenders to:

• Worship God through time, talent, treasure and prayer.
• Grow Biblical relationships that spur greater communion and connection with God, the church and each other.
• Grow spiritually through Bible reading and study and other resources to develop their spiritual understanding, gifts and leadership abilities.
• Serve their church and community by meeting needs in ministry and missions
• Share their faith with unchurched people by sharing testimony and inviting people to worship services online or offline.

Filed under: ruminations, web campus , community, community management, discipleship, evangelism, theology, web campus rollout

The complete start-up guide to the NewSpring Web Campus

I believe that 2009 is the threshold year for web campuses, or the recent phenomenon of churches building online environments for worship experiences.

There are already dozens of churches that have followed the pioneering efforts of Lifechurch.tv. And by the volume of inquiries we’ve gotten for our recently launched NewSpring Web Campus, there are bound to be hundreds of others following suit.

• Here’s NewSpring Strategic Officer Tony Morgan’s overview of our Web Campus.

• Here’s a link to how Video Producer Will Rodes did the video production for it. (Updated)

• Here’s a link to how Web Creative Director Joshua Blankenship handled the web development for it.

• And here’s an overall discussion of our strategy for our web church

Don’t think you have to build a web campus just like ours. In fact, we know ours needs a lot of improvements.

And don’t think that you have to have a huge staff and huge amounts of money.

With free services such as Mogulus and UStream, some form of online worship experience is possible with a very minimal investment of resources. There is also at least one company out there offering a respectable and reasonably affordable off-the-shelf solution.

(NewSpring is planning to open-source our site just as soon as we have hired some web developers. If you think you have what it takes, email Joshua Blankenship.)

But I would definitely caution about jumping into it because it’s the new big thing for ministry success and ministry visibility.

I think you have to have a clear understanding of who you are trying to serve and whether your “audience” is going to attach to it in a way that would honor what God is calling you to do.

What the world definitely doesn’t need is a bunch of cookie cutter web “churches” that aren’t structured or staffed to really fulfill their proper ministry objective.

Sure, you can have a “live,” appointment-viewing video distribution channel for your worship and messages, but that’s just an update of TV worship, not really Biblical church.

Filed under: web campus , web campus, web campus rollout

Watch this interview to get behind-the-scenes of our web campus strategy

One of the huge perks of working for NewSpring Church is that you work with folks at the top of their game. I get stretched every day in casting clear, compelling vision that stays faithful to Jesus’ commands and maintains the excellence that is NewSpring’s trademark.

Watch this video interview for an interesting exchange on how we put together the web campus, what our guiding philosophy is and where we’re headed in the future.

Tony Morgan is everything you would want in a boss, especially in terms of his vision, wisdom and understanding of emerging cultural trends and social technologies etc. Joshua Blankenship is a freak of nature in just about any field he puts his mind to. And Will Rodes is simply awesome.

After watching the video, you may want to check out this overview of the Web Campus and Joshua’s more detailed description of what we’re doing.

Filed under: web campus , web campus, web campus rollout

The tears in church are just as real on the web

The NewSpring Web Campus launch was thrilling. You can read the official account at the Web Campus blog, including video.

But what blew me away was not the number of people that were gathered. Or the fact that people from all over the world worshipped with us.

It was that amid all the philosophical and theological debates about the Web church and whether web community is real and whether sacraments can be rightly administered, we forget that real people need us to make this work.

They are in real pain, they have real souls, they have real lives and real eternities.

Perry brought a tough, intense sermon today. He challenged people to totally forgive. He asked thousands in the auditorium on the Anderson Campus to write names on sheets of paper and to tear them in unison as they were set free from Satan’s grip.

Everyone heard that sound. It brought Perry to tears. And it brought the Web Campus to tears. It drove many people to seek help in our live prayer. And for one reason or another, these people were not in a local church on the ground in their neighborhood.

Sure, we could try and persuade them that physical attendance is the “right thing to do.” We could even take a crack at justifying why they should attend a local church.

Even if they are not being challenged and stretched spiritually.

Even if they are not in fellowship that encourages and strengthens them and that can hold them accountable.

Would we be successful? I doubt it.

But here’s the thing: They were at church. It was just online. And they need the church to stop arguing about whether they were really there and just figure out how we can be the church online for them; how we can help each other love God, love others and make disciples.

It’s time to stop talking about bit-rates, and web design, and the latest, shiniest new tools and to start talking about how we build genuine, Christ-centered community for the long haul.

The web has changed social arrangements forever. We cannot argue about that any longer.

In post-Christian Europe, local churches everywhere are being shut down and turned into luxury condos or bars. Physical, bricks-and-mortar church holds little to no meaning other than prejudice and anachronism for hundreds of millions of people.

We would be sinning against Christ and his sacrifice on the cross to turn our backs on them.

I plan to charge the gates of hell with our Web Campus. Who’s with me?

Filed under: community, discipleship, evangelism, ruminations, social media, web campus , community, culture, discipleship, evangelism, ruminations, social action, theology, web campus, web campus rollout

Reflections on an amazing beta test of the NewSpring Web Campus

NewSpring has a history of launching things before they are ready. I guess that’s our way of making sure that we’re desperately depending on God.

Joshua hit the wall

At 2 a.m. Sunday, NewSpring’s creative director/web strategist/sometime front-end coder, Joshua Blankenship, had admitted defeat.

The all-important chatroom on the NewSpring Web Campus wasn’t functional. Joshua told me later he wasn’t expecting that we could move forward with our beta test at all. Next week’s launch was looking iffy, too.

God had other plans.

Today’s web campus “private” beta was successful beyond everyone’s wildest dreams.

What started out as a closed test broke-out across Twitter world in an unplanned way after someone in Overland Park, Kan., twittered about it.

We decided to embrace our “public” beta, and we ended up with nearly 250 visitors in our two services. We saw only a few minor issues, most of them user-interface related, and most of them known beforehand.

It was tremendously encouraging to receive so many positive reviews from our techno-evangelist friends in the “Big C” church.

But from the campus pastor’s point of view, I was even more amazed — and humbled — at how brilliantly our video production and web staff and 20-strong volunteer team performed today under considerable pressure, without much practice, with a total unity of purpose.

From the beginning, our volunteers — most would admit not being technologically sophisticated at all — were willing to believe on faith that God was in control of our Web Campus and would bring glory to himself through it. More than one volunteer shed tears of joy today when they finally saw what was possible.

Video producer Will Rodes (left) and Web genius Joshua Blankenship working the web campus chatroom

Volunteers Tim and Rhonda Evatt

Volunteers Micah Swift, Elaine Payne and Lynn Whitfield

Amid all the techno-chatter, there were some amazing stories:

• We had two people watching from hospital beds who received encouragement and prayer.
• We had one couple burst into tears while they watched video of baptisms in the web service stream.
• We had another person, struggling deeply, stumble across the campus while randomly surfing and receive comfort and prayer from two others who had experienced a similar heartbreak.

The web campus ministered to people. It was authentic. It was grace.

All I can say is “Thank you, Jesus!”

I don’t know how I got to be in this place and in this time, amid an extraordinary, unexplainable move of God. I’m all too ordinary. All I can do is praise God for his grace on me, and our church, and beg that he continues to shine his face on our ministry.

We had nearly 200 salvations today at NewSpring’s three physical campuses, bringing the year’s total to 650.

Join with me in praying that, with the help of the web campus, the number of those placing their trusting in Jesus for the first time will be multiplied by 1,000 times this year.

Filed under: community, ruminations, social media, volunteers, web campus , community, evangelism, icampus, icampus rollout, web campus, web campus rollout

A few reasons I’m pumped for the NewSpring Web Campus launch

This thing called technology. It changes everything. No matter where you are in the world, you can tell your friends about Jesus and get them to church at NewSpring.

Who are you trying to reach through the NewSpring Web Campus? Record a video clip and upload it to our special YouTube group for the NewSpring Web Campus launch Feb. 1. Or tell us your story in the comments at the NewSpring Web Campus Blog

Filed under: community, evangelism, social media, web campus , evangelism, social media, web campus, web campus rollout

Pray with us for the NewSpring Web Campus launch

The NewSpring Web Campus is launching Feb. 1.

And we’d like you to join in prayer with me and our launch team every day for two weeks, starting Sunday.

We want NewSpring members, friends of NewSpring all over the world, and potential web campus attenders can join together with one heart and one spirit in seeking God’s blessing on our ministry.

You can follow along on the Web Campus Blog. Or if you’d prefer, you can download the PDF of the Web Campus Prayer Guide, so you can have it with during your daily quiet time.

We’re also searching for stories of folks who have drawn closer to God through audio and video of NewSpring services and are excited about the opportunity to gather online as a community of believers and worship together, live.

If that’s you, drop us a comment, or share a link to your video.

You have no idea how encouraging that would be.

Filed under: web campus , web campus, web campus rollout

The last thing a web church needs is another social network

We’re not going to create a community on NewSpring’s web campus.

I didn’t misspeak. I’m dead straight. We don’t have any plans for any special community infrastructure to be built into our web campus.

Why? Because we think our attenders are already in communities, and they don’t need to add another one to their very long list.

We want attenders to create relationships, but we believe that they already have plenty of tools to make community happen. If they want community, they’ve got it.

Of course, we’re praying for great conversations in our web campus chat room. But we trust the Holy Spirit will lead people to connect them outside our worship services.

Be honest: Do people really respond when churches force them to befriend and nurture random strangers? Who can claim real success from a lifegroups model that involves placing people with leaders they don’t know?

What if the way to honor God’s desire for us to be in Christ-centered community was for every church attender to be constantly seeking and finding people within their existing networks that he wants them to pour into and to take those relationships deeper, individually or in groups?

The vision I’ll be casting to our web attenders is simple: Get to know one another. Share any details your comfortable sharing so that you can take your friendships further. Maybe that’s an email. Maybe that’s your Twitter ID. Perhaps it’s inviting them to friend you on Facebook.

We’re not going to hold your hand or do community for you.

Got a problem with that? Why?

Filed under: community, social media, web campus , community, community management, Facebook, social media, social networking, Twitter, web campus, web campus rollout

Don’t lose sight of basics in the tyranny of the new

I have a confession.

It’s been just four weeks since I took on this role as Internet Campus Pastor, and God’s already teaching me some hard lessons about how I view success and what I’m trusting in to achieve it.

God showed me my fallen desire to “prove myself” in this new, breathtaking world of church possibility when I should be letting him focus my heart on reaching and deeply touching people who desperately need to know more of Jesus.

On three different occasions in one week, God showed me that I shouldn’t be relying on innovation to have an impact in my ministry.

• The first came last Sunday during LifeChurch.tv’s beta test of its new icampus. We noticed that all the main components of the site we were building were practically identical, right down to the open, public chat and the map showing global attenders.
• Then came word on Tuesday that Mars Hill Church’s On The City community building application had been bought by Zondervan. That reminded me that in spring 2007, after at least two years of envisioning what I call the “networked church,” I submitted a plan for such an application to E.W. Scripps Co.’s enterprenuer fund. They loved the concept. They just couldn’t see a way to make money at it from churches.
• And then today, LifeChurch.tv debuted its new icampus, with a post-service live show webcast using Mogulus. Yup, you guessed it: We planned a live show to start just a few weeks after our Internet campus launch. I referred to in this post as a “distinctive.”

I should have been happy that two leaders in the Internet or Internet campus church movement had affirmed our strategic direction and gut instincts. Instead, I was worried that we’d look like copycats.

That’s when it helps to have a friend and colleague like our Creative Director Joshua Blankenship. “Who cares?” he said. Thanks Joshua.

Living in the online world carries a certain slavery to it. Be new. Be original. Be innovative. Be successful. Be discussed.

But those can be huge, distracting temptations if you’re not holding every tool, every platform, every community building strategy captive to Christ and the work he wants to do through them in people.

What’s new quickly becomes old.

There’s nothing new under the sun.

When it comes to online church, what counts is the quality of our attenders’ devotion to Christ and the depth and durability of their relationships to each other.

Tools are just tools. It’s how you use them that makes the difference. An eternal difference.

For internet campuses, offering an excellent, authentic experience of the love of God and the love of his people is infinitely better than making your site shiny and slick and original.

I need to remember that.

Filed under: community, web campus , community management, ruminations, web campus, web campus rollout

No to hosted livestreaming

If you’ve read the last few posts, you’ll know we’ve been discussing whether to go live for our internet campus launch in January.

In our team’s Monday morning meeting, we decided to nix the idea of using a hosted livestreaming solution, after considering it for three days.

Instead, we’ll move forward with our plans for “simulated live,” with the intent of launching a custom livestreaming solution shortly after.

It took about an hour of live testing Sunday with U-Stream and Mogulus to realize that:

• we didn’t like using the 4:3 aspect ratio
• we didn’t like the quality of the video. Even the highest quality stream available through those services wouldn’t meet our standards for full-screen viewing.
• we didn’t like the uncertainty about the reliability of the hosted streaming services. Stuttering on both services, but especially with Mogulus, didn’t appear to be connected to our (admittedly less than ideal) network bandwith.

Obviously, there are plenty of churches using Mogulus and U-Stream. That’s not a knock on the streaming services or the churches that use them. We simply believe we can develop a modestly priced live-streaming custom solution of our own that meets our needs better. And we think we can do so relatively quickly, so we’re happy to wait.

The bonus: starting with a simulated live worship service will offer priceless learning opportunities for us as we consider webcasting “simulated live” video events, such as membership and discipleship classes.

Does your church have any insights for us about a custom live-streaming solution?

Filed under: web campus , web campus rollout