Liberty University vice president Johnnie Moore had a dilemma this past Wednesday night—where to hold church when both their usual venues were unavailable. As Moore told CNN in a special blog post, he and his team of 20-somethings decided to “make a sanctuary out of the social network that weaves its way in and out of our daily lives already,” saying the Apostle Paul would have done the same. Moore also said doing church on Facebook can “make doing church feel new again.” After all, “church and Facebook are placed where we share in life together, learn about one another, encourage each other, laugh together and live our lives in some kind of ramshackle harmony with one another.”
To make it happen, Moore invited the 70,000 Liberty students to log onto Liberty’s Facebook page at the time they would have met together in person. The service team filmed the worship time and message, led by campus pastor Clayton King, with a 200-member studio audience. A news story on Liberty’s website reported that viewers were allowed to comment on the service as it was occurring. The service welcomed 40,000 viewers worldwide including “a soldier in Afghanistan and missionaries in Uganda.”
