Video @ Church?

Last weekend I had the great privilege and honor of capturing the launch of the Theatre Campus for Victory Church in Lititz, PA.  Victory is one church with two locations.  Everything is live with the exception of the sermon, which is streamed via the internet.  

I am part of a church that uses this technology and I love it.  However, I started out as a sceptic.  I like a live preacher.  When I communicate and engage with people I like it to be live face to face.  Don't know why, it's just the way I'm wired.  But reality is church is not ultimately about my preferences.  It's about connecting people to Jesus.   In Acts 2 we read about all the people who came together when the church started.  Verse 5 talks about Jews coming from every nation.  I'm not a bible history person but that's gotta be a lot of people.  In verse 13 we see that some of the people made fun of what was going on.  Ultimately that day about 3,000 people came to know Christ through Peter's preaching.  Peter engaged with the culture, he connected with the people gathered, he shared The Truth and people choose to follow Christ.

Peter stood up and faced the critics.  He stood up and faced the people laughing and questioning God's methods of bringing The Gospel to all nations.  The fact of the matter is God has chosen people to be his instrument to bring His message to a lost and dying world.  Ask anyone who has met Jesus through a Chuck Swindoll radio message or a Billy Graham TV program if it matters that they never saw them live.  Ask anyone at my church if they care that they came to know Christ via video preaching.  They'd tell you that they could care less.  They would say that they are just overwhelmingly thankful to have heard the message and that they meet Jesus when they did.  They are just thankful for God's grace and forgiveness.  Do you think that any of the people who accepted Christ at the day of Pentecost cared that it was Peter bringing the message and not Jesus.  NO, they were just overjoyed to have heard the message.

In the end I really don't think that the medium the message is delivered in really matters.  I've personally talked with many people at my church who have become followers of Christ via video preaching.  I'm no longer a sceptic.  Some day there will be churches using technologies that don't even exist yet to connect people to Christ.  What matters is that people are hearing the hope that having a relationship with Jesus Christ brings.

I am super excited for Victory Church.  I'm excited for all that God is doing and will do through this body of believers.  If you've got doubts about video preaching, just talk to the 2 people who came to Christ via video last weekend at Victory's Theatre campus.  I'm sure they wouldn't complain.  How awesome would it be if every screen in Penn Cinema was streaming video every Sunday?