My Pastor Lives in Oklahoma

Not really.  My pastor lives 15 minutes away from me. But I’m trying to make a point

This morning Judah is playing with play-doh, Joss is taking a nap, and Kathy is sleeping.  I figured I could try to clean out my google reader, when I read this post from Bob Hyatt.  The basic argument is that video preaching may have a very negative affect on the development of preachers.

If you know me you know that I love technology.  I love the instant access to information, the ability to communicate with people around the world, etc.  It’s amazing what we can do.  But just because we can doesn’t mean we should.  This is the way that I feel about the video venue model that is growing like crazy in America.

I listen to pastors from around the country as mentors, and long distance coaches, but I never want to replace my local pastor with some guy across the country or even across town.  I believe that God calls people to a particular location and to a particular people.  I’m concerned that because that particular person has had particular success that a desire to reproduce that success in non-particular places can create franchise christianity.

The video venue can and is reaching a lot of people, perhaps thousands of people are going to be in heaven because of the opportunites that have been created because of the use of this technology.  However, I agree with Bob that this development will diminish the growth of preachers who are called to preach to a particular people.  Instead we could just see a rise in people who want to be affiliated to a certain preacher and sign on to start a church with that preacher video-ed in.

If we are not careful we will lose sight of the vision to reach a community, with a specific word from God to those people.  How can a pastor in New York really know the heart of a church in Indiana?

Here are some thoughts that have been tumbling around in my brain on this matter.

Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should – Not every church is going to do Video Venue, and not every church should even desire to.

Efficiency is not the same as effectiveness – It is efficient to have one preacher, and various locations.  It’s an efficent model of disseminating information.  But it isn’t necessarily the most effective way to preach the word.

Ends vs. Means – This is something that I am wrestling with in a ton of different areas of ministry.  But when the goal (end) of a church is to have multiple campuses then the campuses can become means to build an empire, instead of building local churches that are the end in and of themselves.

I could ramble on but I’ll stop now.