Here is a quick summary of the recent blog series I wrote on the top 4 questions about Grace Online:
And here is the quick and dirty on some details:
Starting on Sunday, March 2, 2014, Grace Church is launching a brand new worship experience for an online audience called Grace Online. To start with, the service will air 5 times per week and we will adjust from there as needed. The first service time will be on Sunday, March 2 at 11 AM.
To begin with, weekly service times will be:
Sunday - 11 AM and 7 PM
Wednesday - 7 PM
Saturday - 11 AM and 7 PM
All services will be identical. Please invite your friends - all are welcome!
Starting on Sunday, March 2 Grace Church is launching a brand new worship experience for an online audience called Grace Online. To start with, the service will air 5 times per week. I'm sure we will adjust from there. The first service time will be on Sunday, March 2 at 11 AM. This series of blog posts will give some rationale and back story for this new ministry endeavor.
What will an online service at Grace Online be like?
Unlike some other online worship services, ours will be specifically crafted for the online audience. All service elements will all be recorded ahead of time, but will be specifically created for Grace Online. Elements will include:
- Sermon – the preaching pastor at Grace will record that week’s sermon for people who will be watching via screen. There will be sermon notes available for those who wish to take notes.
- Musical Worship – our worship and media teams are recording and producing songs that will be used to inspire worship as people watch online. The words will be on the screen so that viewers will be able to sing along or simply meditate on the content of the song as it plays.
- Online host – each week a service host will walk viewers through the service encouraging people to engage and introducing different service elements and action steps.
- Service Elements – creative videos, life stories, meditative moments will all be regular features.
- Chat/follow up – A care team will always be present to interact with viewers in the chat area and will be available to provide spiritual guidance, prayer, and advice for taking a next step.
- Giving – there will be a button available for people to financially support Grace Church and to worship God through giving.
- Prayer – there is a convenient way for anyone to request prayer at any time during the Grace Online worship experience.
- Invitation – we will be encouraging every person who attends Grace Online to invite their friends to join them as well. People will be one click away from letting others know about Grace Online via Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, or email.
Grace Online Blog Posts:
Starting on Sunday, March 2 Grace Church is launching a brand new worship experience for an online audience called Grace Online. To start with, the service will air 5 times per week. I'm sure we will adjust from there. The first service time will be on Sunday, March 2 at 11 AM. This series of blog posts will give some rationale and back story for this new ministry endeavor.
Is Grace Online a
substitute for physically attending church?
Let me start by saying that the breadth and depth of ministry that can be accomplished online is amazing. At Grace, we believe that real connections and real relationships can happen in an
online environment. However, we also believe that being the church involves
physically gathering together. Therefore, our goal is that Grace Online be a
front door into church life, but not a final church destination. One
of our goals will be to connect people who attend Grace online to a local
church in their area, whether that is a Grace physical location or
another like-minded local church. Here is why:
- Spiritual gifts. The church needs you! Many
people are looking for what they can get
out of a church. But the truth is – a relationship with a church is not
one-way. Each individual also brings something to the church that only they can
bring. Namely their spiritual gifts. Some of these spiritual gifts can be used
in an online environment and we will encourage people to get involved in Grace
Online. But some require a person’s embodied presence to be most effective.
- One anothers - if going to "church" once a week was
just about gaining what you need spiritually to make it through another week,
then tuning in online would be just fine. But the purpose of church is so much
broader than that. It is about corporate worship, praying and studying the
Bible together, serving one another and reaching out in mission together. In
fact the New Testament commands the church to practice 39 “one anothers.” These
can't be done in isolation.
- Ordinances – Jesus commanded his
followers to observe two ordinances (some churches call them sacraments) and
both are intended to be enjoyed in community: communion and baptism. Some
churches have tried to find ways of including these ordinances in their online worship,
but we believe for a church to be a biblical church that there must be a
physical expression of these ordinances.
Grace Online Blog Posts:
Starting on Sunday, March 2 Grace Church is launching a brand new worship experience for an online audience called Grace Online. To start with, the service will air 5 times per week. I'm sure we will adjust from there. The first service time will be on Sunday, March 2 at 11 AM. This series of blog posts will give some rationale and back story for this new ministry endeavor.
Who are we trying to reach?
- Friends and family of Grace who don’t have a
church. We still believe that a personal invitation to Christ and to
church is the most effective means to reach people with the hope of the gospel.
We want to provide another resource for
those who are attending Grace to share what God is doing with their friends and
families, both in town and out of town. Our online services will allow those
who aren't quite ready to step into a physical location to check out an online
experience in a safe and non-threatening environment.
- People who can’t attend church. There are
people who can’t attend church for a variety of reasons. Some consistently work
on Sunday mornings, some are out of town in business or vacation, and others
are physically unable to get out of the house to come to church. We will offer services multiple times each
week, so that people who can’t attend church during traditional times can still
experience worship and teaching every week.
- People in future multi-site areas. As we
continue to plan for more multi-site locations, our online service will expose
people to Grace Church long before we have a physical location in that
area. It will allow our advance teams to
host small groups and provide a resource to fuel bible studies and ministry
events in that community.
- The whole world. It sounds weird to say that, but the truth is there is no limit to who Grace Online can reach. The internet has over 2
billion users worldwide making it the largest and most accessible mission field
in the world. It is more possible today than it’s ever been in history for the
church to fulfill Jesus’ call in Matthew 28 to preach the gospel to all
people. We want to do our part.
Grace Online Blog Posts:
Starting on Sunday, March 2 Grace Church is launching a brand new worship experience for an online audience called Grace Online. To start with, the service will air 5 times per week. I'm sure we will adjust from there. The first service time will be on Sunday, March 2 at 11 AM. This series of blog posts will give some rationale and back story for this new ministry endeavor.
Why are we doing this?
- Mission: One aspect of our mission as a church is to
make more disciples of Jesus. This involves telling more and more people about
the love and hope and joy that comes from a personal relationship with Christ. This
mission drives us. One of the amazing
things about the internet is its massive reach. The internet has over 2 billion
users worldwide. 239 million Americans are on the Internet. 114 million
Americans are browsing the Internet on a mobile device. 107 million Americans
have smartphones. 59 million Americans have tablets like the iPad. The average American spends 32 hours per
month online. This makes the internet
one of the largest and most accessible mission fields in the entire world.
- Technology: We believe in using technology for the
purposes of the gospel. The church has always had a dubious relationship with
technology. Each time a new technology was introduced, the church has usually
been slow to embrace it. In the 14th C –the first organ was used in a worship
service and was considered to be of the devil. In the 16C the newfangled
printing press was viewed by some as a threat to the gospel. More recently
radio, and movies, and television have been run through the same gauntlet. But think about the historic impact of an
instrument like the organ in churches. Remember how the printing press was used
to make the gospel available to the common person and how great Christian
communicators like Billy Graham have used radio and TV to spread the gospel around
the world. We want to utilize all
technology available to us to spread the good news of Jesus to the world. The
internet is our latest technological tool. In 1 Corinthians 9:22 Paul says, “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.”
The internet is one of our current means
to save some.
- Opportunity: God has blessed Grace with teams of people who
are passionate about creative arts, music, technology, video production, etc.
Luke 12:48 says, “Everyone to whom much was
given, of him much will be required…” We believe that this is true for our
church. God has blessed us with people who are gifted in these areas and we
believe that these gifts weren’t meant to be kept to ourselves but to be shared
with others so that God can receive more glory. So, one of the reasons we are
doing Grace Online is because we can. God has positioned us to do it.
