When you care about church, but not that much
September 29th, 2006Maybe LifeChurch.tv is the church for you. You can stay at home and yet “attend” church, even in your pajamas. There’s an “internet foyer” for all the fellowship and community you could possibly want. When you get really serious, you can “register” for baptism. And, just think how dynamic the worship will be when you don’t have to mess with all those other people.
What more you could possibly want out of a church?
Hat tip: Ray
Why can’t we just go to church in our pajamas?
Funny stuff. too bad it is serious.
I go in my pajamas. I don’t know what you are talking about.
As for the website, I think perhaps it is better than not attending or attempting to attend church at all.
However, it SHOULD NOT be in substitute of actually becoming a part of the body.
Well, every Easter my church has a sunrise service where we go to this spot on the river and have a message and sing as the sun rises. It’s a pretty cool deal.
But anyway, that’s not the point. Every year I always go to the sunrise service in my pajama pants and everything - just because it’s so early. But, after that’s over, I go home and take a shower and change and all that good stuff to get ready for the real deal Easter service.
So hey, don’t say anything bad about wearing pajamas to church.
Wearing PJ’s to church is the more rediculous thing I’ve ever heard of.
I know I’ll get reamed for this, but jeez guys, why can’t a church do more to get themselves in front of people by leveraging today’s technology (however insufficient a replacement for real-life that it is)?
The organization that makes up LifeChurch.tv is actually a collection of churches with real facilities that Craig Groeschel (author of Chazown) pastors. They put a lot of their services online for people to experience.
It’s an oversimplification to imply that this is their only effort of holding worship.
The methods may be different (which doesn’t make them wrong), but Groeschel’s theology (to the extent I’ve read him) is sound.
FYI: What LifeChurch.tv believes
Jason,
I don’t have any problem with churches using technology to spread their message. Audio and video sermon files, Sunday School outlines, books online (such as what John Piper has just done), etc. — all are great tools. No complaint here, whatsoever.
This, however, communicates more to me than that. This seems to be saying that it’s OK simply to do “cyberchurch” rather than the real thing. I know they have real facilities and real churches, but I didn’t see anything on the website encouraging people to get involved in a “real” church. The message I got from the site is that it’s perfectly OK for people’s only involvement in church to be online. Now, maybe I missed that memo somewhere, and maybe that’s not what they’re doing, but that’s what I got from it.
So yes, I have a problem with that.
OK, that’s fair. Maybe they need a clearer message on involvement in a local church, perhaps even if it isn’t one of their own church campuses. I can see that. Even if it’s there, it’s not obvious at least to you and I.
I’m actually skeptical of how effective this could be, but there may be a certain appeal to some folks that wouldn’t darken the door of a church. There is an anonymity they can have and still receive sound teaching. Can that lead to brining them into knowledge of Christ? Can that lead to better discipleship and therefore attendance with a regular body of believers? I hope so.
OK, because I’m one of those uptight Type A personalities, I looked a little closer. They have a concept of home groups that serves as their local extensions.
…just FYI.
Over the past few years, the church I attend has had a few people who attend for the solid teaching of our pastor, but that’s all they want. Left to themselves, they arrive late (just as the message starts) and attempt to leave before we are dismissed in order, evidently, to avoid contact with any other attenders. (Although I must say that some of our people make it a point to greet these folks before they can leave.) These are generally nice people, but they seem to really want to be anonymous, to the point of avoiding the other parishoners. Is this a new disorder amongst Christians?
Bob, I’ve just started what looks to be a interesting read in Josh Harris’ “Stop Dating the Church”. In it he addresses this mentality.
“Is this a new disorder amongst Christians?”
I think it is a result of the increasingly consumer-minded culture. Is it new? Can’t say, but I think it is intensifying.