I think I have been to every Internet Campus in North America in the last four months and I have found that for the most part they had two things in common.
- Re-Broadcast of the Real Life Experience :: This is cool, and I think it fills a some needs; people who can’t physically get to your church can experience your service. People who want to check you out before showing up can sample your service first, which can be a good or bad thing depending on how it translates to video.
- For Church People :: Yes, I will agree that non-christian people have been showing up at the internet campuses and becoming Christ Followers as a result based on the conversations that I have had with those involved in them, but all things considered the format is ‘churchie’. I think this works when someone has a prior relationship with someone who can help give context to what otherwise is a weird experience (singing goofy songs and listening to a talking head).
If you are familiar with what Gateway Church has been doing and how we speak to the culture than you already know we are passionate about truly speaking to the culture. I’m not sure that anything that resembles a real life church service speaks to the culture of the internet community.
The internet community will not watch a video much longer than two and a half minutes.
The internet community would rather look at 15 2-minute youtube videos of people crashing than watch a 30 minute worship set.
The internet community would rather mess around on facebook or look at porn than listen to some dude they have never heard of blab for 40 minutes.
I want to execute an experience that speaks to the the people on the web in their language and with a real understanding of their values. Nothing will shut down that conversation faster than if we force our values on them and expect them to engage.
Without giving too much away here’s the formula we are going to try:
Non-linear snack sized segments.
Each segment of the experience will have it’s own resolve while pointing to an overall theme at the same time. Jesus used to spout off a sequence of short parables that all had a similar ‘take away’ but would hit people in different ways. We’re gonna try this formula and see if it works.
Try and truly put your self in the shoes of a completely irreligious person who is stumbling around the internet…how could you capture their attention in the middle of all the noise and get them to think about God?
shaun mcmillan says
I concur. I think it might also be a good idea to decentralize the physical hosting place. What if one part of the experience was hosted in one place and the next snack sized section was hosted by another and they are were all connected remotely. Then those who are at each place are all connected through the website/chat/twitter client/facebook connect and not just those connecting from their home computer. This would make the site the central connecting place instead of just a biproduct. Who wants leftovers a different service’s leftovers?
klreed189 says
I think you are dead on with you assessment and then strategy.
I have a friend who does video podcast. They are 15 minutes long, I make it through about 3 minutes and then do something else. To be honest they are boring and really do not capture my attention. Now I can sit here and watch a sermon for 30 minutes, but I think I am different then most people (mainly because I was looking for that, not stumbling upon it).
I am really interested to see how you capture this in short movements and how you use the model of Jesus teaching short but powerful parables and how that translates to the internet campus.
One thing I have noticed is that chat helps with the longer amount of time. Having the chance to be doing two things at once (listening to the music or sermon but also having a conversation) helps with the longer times of video. Just a thought.
Vince says
We will definitely have plenty of interaction going on
Vince says
@shaun // look for us to hit the road next year at least once…maybe we can set up shop at your place?
Brian Barela says
great post vince!
i've launched a virtual campus for my ministry with Campus Crusade for Christ at Chico State in Northern California, http://chicocru.com/live/, and we realized that a 20 min worship set and 20-30 minute talk were too long for someone to watch on the back end.
we've started to think about our livestream broadcast as a running commercial to boost exposure and help those who have heard of us "see" us. our hope is by adding different media textures we can increase the trust between a new student and us BEFORE they arrive at one of our events.
practically we have recorded in hd one song of worship and then pull 2-3 minutes out of the talk, upload both to Vimeo, and then post them on our facebook fan page wall and our website.
Rich Kirkpatrick says
If your internet community was a group watching, you would think differently. With an online prayer experience I helped contribute to with Tony Steward of Life Church it became apparent that people were not just one-to-one screen to person ratio. There were whole families, dorm room lounges and other settings that kept pace with the whole deal.
What I think is most effective is a smaller group, rather than individualistic, internet strategy. I may help launch something like this so my theory (as of today) is to not do as things are done. The reality is, that really good Youtube clip is something my whole family gathers around my laptop for. This can be applied to internet church. Plus, it does not have to be a rebroadcast of life, but an actual interactive experience that way. We will see.
Vince says
Good points Rich.
We are definitely considering the fact that groups might be gathering to watch, and maybe it's the ideal scenario. We do however want to make sure we take the opportunity to rethink the whole thing.
Interactivity is super important.
I'll also add that we also think the experience can be fun.
dewde says
If the viewership of an Internet campus is heavily composed of group-watchers… the setup/production/music/message/programming/medium/etc. are all responsible for attracting that type viewership. Whatever they are doing in the service, combined with the delivery mechanism, is attracting groups over 1-to-1.
I think if an Internet campus is routinely attracting watchers in groups, then the writing may already be on the wall that they are reaching the saved, not the unsaved. Because I don't find it likely that groups of unsaved or seekers or even people of other religions are tuning in to our Internet campuses. Some of the 1-to-1 watchers may be seekers. And a person in a group may be a seeker… but if groups of people are tuning in my gut says the group, as a whole, is probably churchy as the day is long. And therefore so would be the vibe of the Internet campus.
If true, this would validate Vince's point #2 and give credibility to his ideas to meet Internet users where they are.
peace | dewde
Rich Kirkpatrick says
The thing that would make it be a "group" is only who is inviting the people–not necessarily programs or programming. FACT… 1/4 will come to church (small group, worship, meeting, etc) regardless of their background. Its all about the people, not the tools. Internet Church really is not a church any more than saying a physical building is a church.
Vince says
I think you are starting to uncover where I am headed, and it's the fact that what we are planning isn't church…
@richbirch says
Vince!
Thanks for calling out a real live issue with all new ministry initiatives . . . their tendency to drift back to serving the "already convinced". I really don't want to just polish the same stuff and make it look better.
i think there is huge potential in this whole area. thanks to everyone who is on top of pushing it forward!
Rich
Vince says
I think the tendency is to take a look at who is already listening to you and cater to them. It's a much harder task to shift who your audience is from Christians to non.
For the most part, the people tuning into Christian Social Media are Christians themselves.
What would it look like if the heavy hitters in the Christian social media and blog communities took that energy and switched their voice to one that speaks to the culture and not the Christian sub-culture?
David Miller says
Love your thought on internet campuses. I agree that shorter is better when it comes to the internet. My hope is that it wont have to come to controversial videos or bate and switch titles to draw attention. Will it be possible to get people to stop and check it out without that?
I think the answer is quality but quality what?
Vince says
Definitely don't want to do bait and switch…Quality is for sure part of the solution
Ron_Tuffin says
I really like this idea.
I am a bit concerned about church in general, that although we might be (in our case) a seeker sensitive church it is still church. we still to 'weird' stuff (where else do you ever see large groups of people singing along to words on a screen). And then to have that experience broadcast on the internet just multiplies the weirdness.
Weird for a non church person, but Awesome for church people.
What you propose here is really thinking out of the box (a term that is usually applied to what is actually "thinking in a box with a slightly different shape").
Am I right in assuming it will be a little like Nooma but shorter?
Vince says
The actual experience will be 40 to 60 minutes, but it will be full of 'bits' that are short (3-7 minutes) that all serve a common theme.
Ron_Tuffin says
ok cool. I must check it out. when?
vince says
we'll be doing 2-4 soft launch experiences in November/December. Follow me on twitter (@locustfist) to get the news on those, we won't promo them much.
Full launch in Jan/Feb
Ron_Tuffin says
I really like this idea.
rodlie says
Fascinating. Can't wait to hear more!