(The following was written as a side-bar to our Multi-Site Focus: A/V Support for Video Venues www.churchproduction.com/go.php/article/10701.)
With the same spirit that drove Methodist circuit rider preachers in colonial America to preach the same sermon in multiple congregations through “horse-power,” today's preachers are utilizing a different “horse-power” to preach in multiple locations simultaneously. No question, today's technology makes the multi-site church possible, but this is just an application of an old strategy.
Smart and innovative church leaders have always embraced the latest technology of their day to further the Good News and spread the Word. In the first century, the apostles wrote letters on parchment to be read in all the churches. As those writings were copied and drawn together into what we call The New Testament they could be read in many churches simultaneously.
During the Middle Ages, church leaders taught the illiterate masses biblical stories through images made of stained glass in the church windows. The Reformation teachings of Martin Luther, John Calvin and others spread like wildfire through the latest technology of 16th century Europe—the printing press. Church leaders in the 19th century used the fascination of the electric light bulb to draw crowds giving birth to the Sunday evening evangelistic church service. With the advent of radio, television and the internet in the 20th century the Gospel blanketed the entire globe. Billy Graham put his evangelistic crusades on television and brought the Gospel into homes, hotel rooms, hospitals, bars and places typically beyond reach of a church. As Pastor Rick Warren reflected, “I think God allowed us to have the internet so we could reach the world!"
Now in the 21st century, any local congregation can have the best Bible teachers on the planet show up in their pulpits every week by way of life-size, high-definition, affordable, quality, video technology. The ability to capture gifted teachers and preachers on high-quality video and deliver it to other locations concurrently makes “one church in multiple locations” possible in a way we never dreamed was possible. In a day when there is such a premium in our culture for great communicators, which many churches cannot provide, this becomes a viable option.
Sound systems, light fixtures, and video are just tools—but in the hands of church leaders dedicated to extending the impact and reach of the local church-- they can become powerful instruments for good!
“And this Message of salvation spread like wildfire all through the region.” Acts 13:49 (The Message)
