My message is the same, but it too is presented and filmed differently. I’m in a studio format, sitting instead of standing, talking directly into the camera. It is much more intimate—as if I’m having a conversation just with the person watching. We have groups of people engaging our online campus that can number in the 20s and 30s, whether at a local brewery or over lunch in an office conference room, but we know that the average person watching is just that—a single person or a couple, maybe an entire family, but that’s it.
But the whole idea behind an online campus is that when people sign on, and then later sign off, they feel they attended a service. Experienced a service. They just left their church home and their community.
Because that is their church home. That is their community. They would tell you they attend Meck and that Meck is their church home, even though they may have never darkened the doorstep of our physical campus even once in their life.
The other day, someone in one of the chat rooms said that they were asked at work where they went to church. They said, “Meck.” The person said, “Oh, where is that?” to which they responded: “Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve never been there. But it’s my church!”
And with an online campus, the goal is not to get them to transition to physical attendance. We make it clear to everyone to attend whatever campus is best for them on any given week. For some, it’s a hybrid—some online, some in person. For the vast majority — and I do mean the vast majority — they are very content with the online campus being their church home.
And so are we.
We can have robust biblical and theological debates about the pros and cons of an online campus. Trust me, as a professor of theology, I have them with myself. But as I will attempt to argue in future writings (my next book), and have touched on in past blogs (see “The Importance of Affirming Online Attendance”), I believe there is a strong case to be made for the church embracing the digital revolution and expanding our (often) narrow doctrine of ecclesiology to embrace where most of the world we are trying to reach for Christ currently lives.
It’s called “online.”
Which means it might be good to plant a church or two there to reach them.
This article about church online originally appeared here, and is used by permission.
