What Happens When Chris Brogan (Blog Guru) Goes To Church
Chris Brogan is a blog guru. No doubt about that. A gazillion subscribers on his blog. Even more on his twitter feed.
What happens when a guy like that shows up at Lifechurch.tv’s internet campus? Chris writes about his experience on his blog. (Chris says he’s not religious, but he’s curious. Which makes me happy because I’m not religious either.)
There were four communication principles from that I took away from Chris’s post:
1) People look at church through their own lense. Chris loves techie things and its not surprising then that he writes mainly about the technology side of church while absorbing the spiritual essence of the message.
2) People are surprised (and become more engaged) when speakers use the normal words. Poop. There I said it. Pastor Craig Groeschel said poop in his message and Chris related well to his use of normal everyday language. I think we all want speakers to connect and understand what we are facing everyday in our lives.
3) There is a pulse in online church. Some Christian leaders I’ve spoken to about online church have poo-pooed it. (yeah! I said poo too) They are highly sceptical about online churches ability to help people connect and make disciples. Chris felt warm and invited. What a great start to his church online journey.
4) Online church feels normal for wired people. For people who spend alot of time online going to church online doesn’t feel (that) weird. Even if it is their first time.
Chris, if you ever read this post, thanks for being so honest in your post. I hope you continue in your spiritual journey
How about you, what did you think of Chris’s post? How effective do you think online church is?
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Online church is taking the place of the old Sunday morning TV church. It’s an old media reinvented for the present culture–smart churches get that. Also, for #2, I think people are surprised (and relieved) when speakers use “common” language. “Normal” isn’t necessarily a term that would surprise people, but outsiders expect Christianese to be spoken in church just like I expect technobabble to be spoken at a tech conference. I am always relieved and drawn when people take the time and thought to be common so I can feel accepted. Thanks for the good thoughts.
Old media reinvented for the present culture – really great insight Chris.
What has been your worst/best experience at a church?
The worst experience I ever had was when my husband and I were checking out a new church here in present town (I moved here after working at a mega church as a director of curriculum) to work at a university. They had a break right in the middle of the service where everyone was forced to go downstairs to a fellowship hall and mill around for a few minutes. A 30-something gal came up to me and asked me if there was anything I needed her to pray for–yikes. If I had been a seeker, I would have hig-tailed it out of that place and never come back.
What stuck out to me about Brogan’s post was that he mentioned so many people.
He specifically addressed the common concern that online church would feel impersonal, but he said it didn’t feel that way to him because:
1. There was a link to get live prayer
AND
2. There were many people talking on the forum and twitter.
Plus, he didn’t mention (though I’m sure he guessed) the many people working to make the web presence work (programmers, the media team, the graphics department, the pastors in charge of logistical issues, etc.)
For us as Christians, that’s a good reminder that we must be as willing to put the same effort into our web presence as we do into our in-the-building presence. We can’t see the web as a passive tool to just toss our existing content onto (like a Xerox of the sermon text would be). We must see it as another half of our auditorium, and that requires more ushers, more chairs, more pastors to care for the increased number of people, etc.