Courtesy of a connection via 360Hubs' Dawn Carter, I interviewed the company that developed the Internet campus for Central Christian Church pastored by Jud Wilhite. Central launched its Internet campus, called Central Online Campus, in September 2008 with 400 online attendees. Attendace grew to 1,200 online in eight weeks.
The participants in the interview are:
- JP = Jonathan Prisant, co-Founder of 360Hubs and Senior Solutions Analyst for 360Hubs, Riverside, CA ( jprisant@360hubs.com )
- KE = Kurt Ervin, Executive Pastor of Church Expansion, Central Christian Church, Las Vegas, NV ( Kurt.Ervin@centralchristian.com )
- DJ = DJ Chuang, I posed the questions via email.
DJ: Describe how long it took to build and a ballpark estimate in terms of costs and personnel for on-going operations.
KE: We actually pulled of a miracle in launching this site. We had only a few months, and a very limited budget, 360Hubs was able to work with us and make it happen. Ongoing operations cost us approx. $70k a year, but that is because we are pulling it off with a small personnel staff. Basically it includes a live video engineer who captures, edits, and uploads the service (he only works weekends for us), I have a site administrator who is full-time, then another part time guy who we just brought on to help us get the online small groups going. Right now I am serving as the online campus pastor, but plan on hiriing someone else to do that sometime in 2009.
DJ: What tools do you provide that connect participants beyond the worship experience?
KE: We have online small groups, organized lobby chat times, not to mention the lobby chat is open all the time. We have also done 1 online campus mission trip which was a huge success, and have another one planned for march of 2009. Mid-January we will be opening our online resource center for our online campus to purchase and download Bible Study materials, small group materials, even downloadable teaching videos.
DJ: What makes an internet campus different from live streaming a worship service?
JP: The answer can be summed up in one word: COMMUNITY. An internet campus should focus on making "next steps" easier for believers and non-believers. Church is about much more than experiencing worship or a "church simulation", it is about connecting with God, other believers, and challenging yourself. Internet Campuses should complement a church's vision for connecting people. It definitely is not a replacement for experiencing community with other believers. That said, an internet campus provides a fantastic, safe, convenient, and comfortable venue for allowing people who would not normally seek church to learn more about God, experience worship, discuss their thoughts / questions, pray for each other, meet other believers, and learn about a particular church's vision.
One of the Church's biggest challenges is really thinking through the discipleship and care for these digital members of the church and having appropriate next steps / growth points beyond the online church experience for allowing them to connect and experience the community the body of Christ.
DJ: What functions did you build into the Central Online Campus?
JP: CentralOnlineCampus.com has a variety of features intended to connect people with God and each other. Members of the community have personal spaces where they can share their life stories, prayer requests, struggles, victories, etc using web 2.0 tools for managing a personal bio, blog, photo gallery, etc. They can also engage with each other through social networking, in-site messaging, chat, and instant messaging. Central also staffs a live help and prayer desks during and after each sermon, which pushes simulated live video on Sundays and Tuesdays.
Another important aspect of the internet campus is small groups. COC users may organize into public or private small groups and share about the sermon, engage in thoughtful discussion, learn from the Word / each other, prayer with each other, and digitally connect using many tools such as forums, calendars, photo / media gallery, news aggregator, blog, content pages, file management, and more. Additionally, each group may completely customize the look / feel / layout to their unique interests.
DJ: What have you learned since launch?
JP: An internet campus is much bigger than the technology that empowers it. The technology is crucial... it needs to be easy to use and available. It is also very important to facilitate a community of openness. Many churches might fear the types of things people might say... and while the community should be managed and monitored to appropriately protect the members... the community of Christ is about the healing and accountability that results from true openness and availability. The campus pastor has a unique job of trying to reach across many cultural barriers and really be a champion encouraging interaction and engagement.
KE: We actually pulled of a miracle in launching this site. We had only a few months, and a very limited budget, 360Hubs was able to work with us and make it happen. Ongoing operations cost us approx. $70k a year, but that is because we are pulling it off with a small personnel staff. Basically it includes a live video engineer who captures, edits, and uploads the service (he only works weekends for us), I have a site administrator who is full-time, then another part time guy who we just brought on to help us get the online small groups going. Right now I am serving as the online campus pastor, but plan on hiriing someone else to do that sometime in 2009.
DJ: What tools do you provide that connect participants beyond the worship experience?
KE: We have online small groups, organized lobby chat times, not to mention the lobby chat is open all the time. We have also done 1 online campus mission trip which was a huge success, and have another one planned for march of 2009. Mid-January we will be opening our online resource center for our online campus to purchase and download Bible Study materials, small group materials, even downloadable teaching videos.
DJ: What makes an internet campus different from live streaming a worship service?
JP: The answer can be summed up in one word: COMMUNITY. An internet campus should focus on making "next steps" easier for believers and non-believers. Church is about much more than experiencing worship or a "church simulation", it is about connecting with God, other believers, and challenging yourself. Internet Campuses should complement a church's vision for connecting people. It definitely is not a replacement for experiencing community with other believers. That said, an internet campus provides a fantastic, safe, convenient, and comfortable venue for allowing people who would not normally seek church to learn more about God, experience worship, discuss their thoughts / questions, pray for each other, meet other believers, and learn about a particular church's vision.
One of the Church's biggest challenges is really thinking through the discipleship and care for these digital members of the church and having appropriate next steps / growth points beyond the online church experience for allowing them to connect and experience the community the body of Christ.
DJ: What functions did you build into the Central Online Campus?
Another important aspect of the internet campus is small groups. COC users may organize into public or private small groups and share about the sermon, engage in thoughtful discussion, learn from the Word / each other, prayer with each other, and digitally connect using many tools such as forums, calendars, photo / media gallery, news aggregator, blog, content pages, file management, and more. Additionally, each group may completely customize the look / feel / layout to their unique interests.
DJ: What have you learned since launch?
JP: An internet campus is much bigger than the technology that empowers it. The technology is crucial... it needs to be easy to use and available. It is also very important to facilitate a community of openness. Many churches might fear the types of things people might say... and while the community should be managed and monitored to appropriately protect the members... the community of Christ is about the healing and accountability that results from true openness and availability. The campus pastor has a unique job of trying to reach across many cultural barriers and really be a champion encouraging interaction and engagement.
That's a wrap! Thank you Jonathan and Kurt for this interview! You can read more about the backstory from this recent Christian Standard article about the Central Online Campus. According to that article,
Add a comment below with your follow-up questions, and the interview can continue with your questions!
-- DJ CHUANG, Director at Leadership Network
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