Digital @ Leadership Network

Greg Atkinson Tours LifeChurch.tv's Internet Campus Studio

interview about the Central Online Campus

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.

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

Universal Technology

Several conversations lately have led me to consider the integration and universality of technology in a local church context. To be integrated means “combining or coordinating separate elements so as to provide a harmonious, interrelated whole” or “organized or structured so that constituent units function cooperatively.”

Universal means “affecting, concerning, or involving all”, “used or understood by all” or “present everywhere.” As I continue to chew on this concept, other words that come to mind are total, comprehensive and whole.  

I serve as a technology pastor at a church. For years “tech” was considered one person’s role (the techie, tech director or AV coordinator) – whether volunteer, part-time or full-time. Now in most local church situations there is still the need for this AV/tech role that oversees the sound, video and lights for corporate worship services and often oversees and supports campus-wide AV needs. IT is obviously another growing area in the church world and usually requires a dedicated volunteer or paid staff member or the use of outsourced companies.

I’ll be the first to admit that those that serve in “tech” and IT roles in a church have a unique gift mix and personality. In most situations these servants and leaders are seen more as geeks than pastors or ministers. I see my role as a pastor and shepherd, but that’s a topic for another article.

I bring the idea of universal technology up because we’re seeing a shift in the way the Church looks, functions and ministers to the world. The reality that we are missionaries in a digital age is becoming increasingly more apparent and hard to ignore. This brings the whole concept of “technology” to the forefront for regular pastors and church staff members – including the non-techie.

The conversations that I have regularly with pastors are about their desire to learn, understand, apply and fully utilize technology for ministry. The shift is bringing about what I call “universal technology” – meaning every Church leader is engaged in, using and communicating through technology – not just the tech pastor.

Events, gatherings and conferences that I’m regularly apart of look a lot different. The Church 2.0 Local Forums that I host around the country or the churchtechcamp, happening tomorrow in Dallas for example, 3 years ago would have been a room full of “geeks” (not my word, I got that from Mark Batterson) and “techies” (that is my word). Now, one walks into a “churchtechcamp” and it’s full of church planters, senior pastors, bloggers and lay leaders/volunteers that are involved in community/small groups and discipleship.

I’m fascinated by it and am enjoying just sitting back and watching this shift. Of course there are still giant conferences like NAB and InfoComm where us techies get together and talk about all things tech-related and the make up of attendees and speakers looks a lot different, but overall I see a change in the use of the word “tech” and the concept and adoption of “technology”.

This new reality that I’m referring to as universal technology is a good thing and a long-awaited one by me, personally. I’ve always viewed technology as a tool and not a toy, so the thought of senior pastors, worship pastors, youth pastors, communication directors, small group leaders, missions and outreach leaders, etc. getting interested, involved with and captivated by technology is a beautiful sight to me.

What about you and your situation? Are you seeing volunteers and staff members that don’t have “tech” in their title or job description talk about technology, Facebook, Twitter, blogging and online ministry?

Greg Atkinson
www.gregatkinson.com

Dan Ohlerking interviews internet campus pastors

Dan Ohlerking visited about a dozen churches’ internet campus experiences (read posts part 1 and part 2) and also interviewed a handful of Internet campus pastors. He wrote up his interview notes, and here's an excerpt:

In my discussions with IC pastors, one of the biggest questions they’ve discussed is manpower. There’s a deceptiveness to how inexpensive it can be to do an internet campus. Sure, there are free tools like Mogulus that will let you do a lot, but there’s money involved if you want to do it without ads all over the screen for God-knows-what, or if you want to offer a technically great experience, not just a good one.

... As far as I’ve surmised, the primary difference between a live webcast and an internet campus is the interactive factor. So we’re looking at how chat will look for us.

... Another common message I’ve been hearing is the possibilities of online small group events targeting those attending internet campus.

... Lastly, one of the huge facets of the internet campus (based on discussions with the other IC pastors out there) is simply the pastoring aspect.

Read his entire post for lessons learned and the first steps toward turning Healing Place Church’s live webcast into an actual internet campus experience.

He asks 3 great questions at the end of his post:

1. Have you visited any church services online?
2. Have you been to an internet campus? What did you think?
3. What do you think are the benefits/risks involved in people coming to church online as opposed to physically in person.

So, how would you answer?

-- posted with permission by DJ Chuang, Director at Leadership Network