Most people who pay attention to media trends and have a passion for evangelism have caught on to the fact that a number of churches are making it possible for people to catch weekend worship via live streaming Internet technology. Sounds great, right? The Lord Jesus commanded his followers to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19) and the apostle Paul exhorted Timothy to “preach the Word” (2 Tim. 4:2). The Web is another forum for obedience to these commands. But in this environment can the local church be the local church? We can interact. We can learn new things through solid preaching. You can even say that live streaming and interactive web technologies give us a greater glimpse of what it means to be the universal Church. You might be right. But you might be wrong.
Rather than aggressively launching live stream venues for the sake of adding “another bullet in the gospel gun” (a term used by James Harleman in “Pixelated Preaching,” a debate about video venues in the November/December 2008 issue of COLLIDE), vigorous debate should ensue. Christians should wrestle with how technology might change us in the process of increasing our influence. As Neil Postman observed in Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, “A new technology does not add or subtract something. It changes everything.” If you think that is a stretch, think of how the widespread proliferation of television reshaped worship, leadership style, and gospel presentation, particularly in our megachurches. Live streaming Internet campuses are the next step, and we’d better think about their potential for good and for ill.
In the past, downloadable sermons and takeaway audio CDs, DVDs, and, for the nostalgic among us, cassettes, have enabled persons to keep up with local church discourse. Now, persons from all over the globe may join in via the Internet to pray, sing, and hear the Word in sermon as services unfold, giving the impression that one is a live part of an event despite being geographically distant. An IP hit or an online registration becomes the new attendance record. Churches, who now use this technology, such as The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Kansas and LifeChurch in Oklahoma, are creating momentum for widespread usage. Other churches will follow. As science fiction writer William Gibson once quipped, “The future has already arrived. It’s just not evenly distributed yet.”
Using technology to advance the good news about Jesus Christ isn’t new. Gospel hours and religious programming have been available since radio and television went mainstream, making Christian discourse accessible with a turn of the dial. These media advances opened new doors and increased influence by reaching new people with the gospel of Jesus Christ and encouraging existing Christians. Live streaming offers a new twist on the use of technologies. Not only are you able to hear the sermon content, you are able to visually, intellectually, and emotionally connect with the worshipping congregation as the worship service unfolds. While you may not be able to extend your hand to a neighbor during a greeting time, you can open your pocketbook and financially support the ministry of the church through online giving or converse through chat rooms, making your presence felt in the digital world.
How will these changes influence the Church? No doubt there is some upside, but it is possible for technological advances to detract from truthful Christian witness, as the Amish have long understood. Communication theorist Marshall McLuhan was right when he observed, “it is the framework which changes with each new technology and not just the picture within the frame.” With that in mind, we should evaluate the implications of this movement carefully. There are advantages as well as dangers that come with the utilization of live streaming our worship gatherings. The benefits and drawbacks are numerous, but let’s focus on three positive and negative ways live streaming affects our ecclesiology, i.e. our doctrine of the church.
Advantages and Hopes
Live Streaming Creates New Church Audiences. The aforementioned “Great Commission” is the primary reason cited for adopting live stream technologies. There are people in our world who dwell in virtual space or live in areas devoid of solid churches, and Christians are called to reach them with the gospel. Live streaming our worship services creates this possibility. Anybody, anywhere can listen, sing, and hear the words of Scripture and be challenged by gifted teachers and preachers of the gospel. Shut-ins, persons with severe physical disabilities, and church members who are sick or traveling are given the opportunity to worship regardless of their location, granted they have Internet access. Otherwise, these persons are cut off from the church’s primary gatherings. I have read a number of stories of persons in assisted care facilities who were blessed by being able to access a live stream worship service. This technology may add to the numbers of the faithful, and in that regard, the church may grow.
Live Streaming Revolutionizes Our Understanding of the Church and Sacred Space. As Colossians 1:15-20 reminds us, the supremacy of Christ extends over all things, including our web space. Using live stream technology to join the church’s worship in our homes, our apartments, our offices, airports, or coffee shops makes the bold statement that Christian proclamation is not confined to a building. The church is better understood as a body of people, rather than as a building or location. Worshipping God alongside the church community in spaces other than the church building may broaden our vision, enabling us to better see the world imbued with God’s sacred activity.
Live Streaming Holds Potential for the Birth of New Church Communities. In discussing live streaming technologies with friends in pastoral ministry, they commonly hoped using this tool would lead to the birth of new churches. I was told a number of stories of persons who had tapped into a live web stream and began inviting friends and neighbors to watch the service and discuss what they had heard. In some instances, these groups of people began to function as a Christian community, putting into practice the things they had learned through the live stream worship experiences. Some churches have had the wisdom to monitor geographic locations where their web traffic was heaviest, then send a campus pastor to gather and shepherd those persons as part of a new, physical church community. This type of action is necessary for the church to fulfill her dimension as an outpost of what we call “Kingdom,” a political entity that gives witness to the gospel through communal living that is distinct from the kingdoms of this world.
Dangers and Challenges
Live Streaming Creates a Private Church. If it is the hope of the Christian community to transmit the right information to as many people as possible, live streaming our worship services is one more tool that will enable us to accomplish this goal. The Book of Acts reminds us, however, that being part of the Church is more than assenting to the right creeds. As the Church was born, communities of people began to form in visible ways. Baptism and the celebration of the Lord’s Supper were public, political acts that declared an alternative affiliation. Union with early Christ-believing communities could result in persecution. By enabling persons to gather virtually, our witness as a resurrected community disappears. We are given private teachings within the confines of private space, taking what we wish and leaving that which is undesirable. When we gather in person, we stand shoulder to shoulder with others that should call us to account.
Live Streaming Diminishes the Incarnational Church. God did not send us an email. God took on the flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. In another physical act, Jesus gave us a meal to celebrate and remember his death and resurrection, proclaiming the hope that he would one day come again. The symbolic act of gathering together at one table points to the reality that God, through Christ’s blood, has reconciled all people to himself. While live streaming may create a virtual communion, the Church needs leaders who will incarnate the gospel in local, particular ways.
Live Streaming Reshapes the Church. If the gathering of the saints can be mediated through live streaming technology, how does this reshape our ecclesiology? Being the Church demands more than the ability to connect. Being the Church entails a way of life with common confessions, common practices, and perhaps controversially, a common table in the real world. Second Life, the blogosphere, YouTube, Twitter, and other online communities are virtual, “not physically existing as such but made by software to appear to do so.” Can the church be the church in these spaces?
To use one standard, the Westminster Confession of Faith defines “church” as a community where, “the doctrine of the Gospel is taught and embraced, ordinances administered, and public worship performed more or less purely in them.” Internet campuses may be places where the gospel is taught and embraced, but it is questionable whether worship is “public” and whether the sacraments (or ordinances) may be administered. Church discipline, another important point of conversation in any discussion of ecclesiology, is notably difficult. Live streaming opens an entirely new conversation regarding what constitutes the Church.
Let the Debate Continue!
While I am compelled by a number of arguments for live streaming worship and Internet campus ministries, I am not yet fully convinced. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” (John 1:14) calling us to a common life, a common confession of faith, a common baptism, and a common table. We share the bread and the cup as a reminder of the New Covenant that has been made through the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The celebration of this meal is a mark of the Church, and perhaps our greatest reminder that Christianity is not simply a set of beliefs but a shared way of life entered by baptism and furthered in common discipleship.
Being the Church demands more than online communities can offer. We are “called out” as the Church to gather with one another, witness to the truth of the good news, and live the life of the Kingdom. We pray that through us the Holy Spirit would transform our world, and we await the day God will make his dwelling among people in the new heavens and the new earth (Rev. 21:3-4). The biblical story presents God dwelling with his people as a real, physical presence. The Church is called to mirror that picture. Live streaming may serve as a gateway for curious observers to peek and participate in Christian worship, but can never be a substitute for local gatherings of visible communities who give witness to the good news about Jesus Christ. As long as the assembly is mediated, it is not fully the Church.
Ben Simpson is a graduate student and freelance writer living in De Soto, Kansas. Visit his website at www.benjaminasimpson.com.