VideoTeaching.com, another product developed by the folks over at LifeChurch.tv, has officially launched. Signing up is free (although a bit long and cumbersome), and all of the media is easily downloadable.
A great resource, without a doubt, but it does raise some worthwhile questions to ponder.
The “About” page lists a number of reasons why one might use these videos, which include Expanding Your Teaching Team, Developing Your Ministry, Helping a Ministry during a Transition, or Taking a Break. One could wonder, though, if everyone agrees (will agree) with this philosophy of ministry, i.e. letting a video take the place of someone physical to preach to their flock and congregation.
I speak out of experience, as I was a part of one congregation many years ago where the Senior Pastor “took a break” for the summer and let some material from another well-known Pastor be shown in his stead via video. The congregation was instantly split over this strategy and we never completed the series.
In addition, I think you could probably conjure up the same issues that have been poised at the multi-site churches and video-venues, but I think it’s worth consideration instead of blindly leveraging the videos for your ministry.
One final thought is whether or not this service is going to be sustainable? They are offering some extremely large-sized downloads with apparently no business model to make up for the cost. Yes, bandwidth costs and file hosting is cheap (and getting cheaper).
I appreciate their heart for ministry and service, without question, and not every web-service necessarily needs to make money, but it would be interesting to see what their long term strategy is to make this stay afloat.
All-in-all, I love the idea and I think many ministries will find it valuable and worthwhile. What are your thoughts?
CoffeeWithChris says
Seems to me that LifeChurch.tv is just looking at this as part of their cost of doing ministry. My real question is, why not invest in an up & coming preacher/teacher instead of falling back on something like this? There are almost always unintended consequences to our actions and I really hope that people with gifts in preaching/teaching won't be left behind because we have videos of some people who have already had a chance to develop their gifts.
On the other hand, I love the innovation!
human3rror says
good point chris. It'll be interesting to see how their library builds out over time. only established popular speakers? or new upcoming…? how do you vet?
joannamuses says
If i am understanding Chris right, i think he means raising up people to preach from within the church considering using the video. I think that is a worthwhile consideration. Surely many churches have someone other than the pastor with teaching ability. If not, maybe the long term solution needs to be developing new teachers with view to moving away from videos to fill gaps as soon as possible.
There is a risk with these kind of resources to strengthen the often unhealthy celebrity preacher/preacher groupie phenomenon. I saw a bit of that when a church i was at got heavely into rick warren's material.
joannamuses says
Looks like they have an interesting mix of speakers lined up to provide content. A few different countries represented which is nice to see. Will be interesting to see what messages they chose to feature because some of those speakers are miles apart from each other on some theological issues.
@soulsourcelive says
Two observations. 1)The web is continuing to change John Q and JaneQ public's church attendance habits. With so much online content (Live and VOD) are we going to see the paradigm continue to shift to small groups and fewer physical building attendance? 2) It'll be interesting to see how they handle royalties and such. You are correct, bandwidth does cost $ – and over time you've got to recoup costs or monetize the model. Maybe Craig keeps writing books. There is no doubt, Lifechurch is at the forefront in online ministry resources.
Jay says
I like the idea, and as I said in an earlier post about this product is that it might work out really well for small groups as they could do a short 4-6 week study based on any of the series that will be posted.
I do share the concern Chris and John have as well. Guys like Perry Noble, Steve Furtick, Mark Driscoll, Francis Chan etc. are well known and dynamic preachers, but it's true that there are a lot of excellent Pastors across the country. I may sound like I am bragging, but my Pastor is right up there with these guys when it comes to speaking passionate biblical truth and I am sure he's not the only one. So I would like to see Lifechurch invest in expanding their library to include some Pastors who aren't as well know and offer up a whole new variety of preachers for people to become familiar with.
That being said, I really like the concept.
human3rror says
I think my pastor isup there too.
😉
Jay says
Who that Andy Stanley guy? Yeah, he's ok I guess.
😉
Gordon Marcy says
I think of this teaching/preaching platform as being similar to Christian radio.
A radio station distributes the messages of established preachers, Chuck Swindoll, Charles Stanley, Chip Ingram, Alistair Begg, etc. LifeChurch.tv is using new media to essentially do the same thing, only with the ministries its leadership has selected.
Helping raise up new pastors, monetizing the endeavor, featuring live teaching vs. video, vetting…are all important considerations. Keep in mind, though, videoteaching.com is just one model for one church.
What if thousands of churches were to build new media platforms (thinking like a Christian radio station), some independently, some working together with other churches and ministries? Each of the questions raised here could be addressed. New innovations explored and perfected.
For example, I would suggest consideration of using social media technology and data management systems for creating and managing community. Having "local" community (relationships) would be an important component too, I think.
If traditional media, including Christian radio, is stagnating, losing ground, or worse…then it's my belief that we should pray and work toward new collaborative models to fill the void.
In the human spaceflight imperative the progression was Mercury, Gemini then Apollo. In the Great Commission media imperative videoteaching.com may have brought us to the middle stage.
chad swanzy says
Radio stations had the intent of distributing the message of Christ to the lost across the widest platform possible. Their content and medium have shifted for sure.
With video teaching the content is exclusive intentionally or unintentionally to just churches. There is the assumption that the lost are at church but it seems like video teaching and message sharing might not be the best use of that technology. What if video teaching had no church logo or brand but instead were thought out, scripted, and hand crafted to agitate contemplation and inspiration for people who don't know Christ at all? If someone had this in mind they would not go into churches with that kind of production but instead their content would be sprinkled across the web in ways that did not wreak of insider only content and placating solutions.
Who is intelligently doing this? Please, don't show me a sermon series teaser or bumper.
chad swanzy says
This all accents one interesting question… is pastor or teacher a spiritual gift or position? If gift, how many in a church have that gift? How does the church integrate those whom God has already gifted in their midst? Does piping in video from another church affirm those in the body who feel gifted with pastoral or teaching gifts or does it discourage them from taking that next step?
Also, if it is a gift like hospitality is a gift then why not bring your social or gathering to another church or go to another church's gathering? I'm really not trying to be a jerk but church surfing or shopping is still something predominately frowned upon. But, it's not the message we are sending to attendees.
I like the unifying sentiment things like One Prayer does for churches but to the attender it must seem strange to them when their desire to get their "worship" at church x and in the same day grab a bite of "deeper" at church y later on that night is met with such resistance. The question they ponder is, "Why is it such a big deal for me to go here in the morning, there on Sunday night, and over there on Tuesday?" What's the difference when we do the same in one house for them verses when it's them doing it for themselves? If the gift pastor/teacher is not present in that body then that body's dysfunction is a greater and more immediate need to address.
I am not anti-video teaching just asking those who have this means to think through their content and channels. Is church to church the best use of this resource? All that energy, effort, and money to convey a message those in that body should be able to convey themselves. Grab your writers, production crews, and teachers and create a modern day conversation targeted and locked in on the lost and where they are watching online video.
Scott Cheatham says
I considered this question on my blog over a year ago when the "One Prayer" series started. http://ow.ly/hTrE It turned out to be one of the most commented/discussed posts of the year. I wrote some follow up columns to it a few days later and the input continued.
I'm still not convinced either way but my current thought is that video preaching has it's place within a "local" framework. Ideas like One Prayer are cool for a special event but I wouldn't use video preaching in my place or as a staple in the local church. I just recently took three weeks away from the pulpit this month and brought in some young guys who needed preaching experience and a veteran who retired recently. All local guys. I possibly would have used a video message had this been available but I would likely use it ONCE in that time. My thoughts in the year old column I linked to are there for further detail.
The next few years will be interested on the ministry front to see how this shakes out.
human3rror says
scott, good thoughts here, i'm checking out your post.
stephenbateman says
churches <2000 people aren't generally resourced w/ staff/volunteers and equipment to create really great recordings. It becomes less about teaching quality (high all around) and more about recording quality.
Here's my big ridiculous question: What if 75% of the time, a church used video teachers, freeing up money/time for pastors and everyone else to lead a church towards serving.
human3rror says
one would probably point to scripture that suggests the typical “duties” of a pastor and/or teacher… and then people would argue about that interpretation…
@chadkello says
Part ONE
Hey John, I appreciate your post but I think that there are even bigger things going on here.
I got a good bit of feedback not to long ago because on twitter I stated that I was amazed that many pastors have expressed their concern over how the average length of time a senior pastor was at one church is dramatically decreasing. I am amazed by that because in my opinion, there is nothing to be amazed by that. The only reason that stands out to ministry workers is because many times those that work in ministry are using a different measuring stick then those of the outside world. We have forgotten that someone who is far from God looks at churches and the endless amount of structures around town the same as they do a strip of fast food chains on the main drag. "If you don't like one, you can go to another one." I am not saying that I agree with that, but I am saying that we have to be aware of this.
@chadkello says
PART TWO
Many, Many, Many people use to go to record stores and search through records and tapes and purchase their favorite music. So why is it that, people love music, however record stores are closing down all over the country. Certainly it is not because people stop listening to music! In fact, in many cases the convenience of getting the product without leaving your home has caused sales to increase. The record industry ignored this. In fact I have read many articles from music executives that just flat out said it won’t happen. Now, they have either lost the battle or they are rearranging everything in a mad dash to try to hang in there.
So with all that said, here’s the question? If more people have a relationship with God and that number is increasing because they are only one click away from the resources to make them grow spiritually, then is it a bad thing if the attendance is going down in the local church?
Lastly, do you still love music?
When’s the last time you bought from a record store?
Like it or not, with or without our leadership vote, things change.
Thanks for your time.
Gregory Davis says
Good points and healthy debate / discussion for sure. I believe we are at a crossroads of history where the church will either adapt to the communicating in methods that the culture around us is moving or we will be left behind with no one to tell the life-changing story of Jesus to but ourselves.
I think it really helps to have big-picture perspective for conversation on this subject. What if the church was so stubborn that it never changed from 1st century tools and practices of preaching? We'd still be mostly outside and without the use of any audio or video equipment. While some may like that idea or want to return to it, I don't think those far from God would be listening.
If the church is to be more than a resounding gong or only a noise in the wind that no one is listening to we need to understand and leverage the tools for communication that God places around us. We should not care about method but instead about results in terms of life change and people becoming fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. Everything else is details.
I applaud LifeChurch.tv for being forward thinking and radically shaking up the model of how we "do church". In the world outside of church, organizations learn to adapt and change or they die. Why do we think the church should not change as well?
Sometimes we reject ideas simply because they are too big or too radical for us to adjust to all at once. This might be one of them, but in time, I sure hope we see more churches using the technology that the culture is already immersed in. Can you imagine the arguments about the printing press? What about all of those capable young writers / scribes out there? How will we ever train a new group of scribes if we rely too much on books (bibles) printed from this machine? How crazy is that? What are we more concerned with, the careers of preachers or life change in those far from Christ?
tonysteward says
Hey John, thanks for the post!
There are many different ways that VideoTeaching.com can be used, and our passion in offering it comes from many of the learnings we've had leveraging it here at LifeChurch.tv. One key learning is that the campuses that are having the largest growth (life change and attendance) for us are ones that get their primary teaching via video. It is awesome to hear the stories of life change from the campus pastors and local ministry teams from these campuses!
VideoTeaching.com is supported the same way that the rest of our initiatives are through the stewardship and resources of LifeChurch.tv. That has already included OPEN, YouVersion, ChurchMetrics, Babelwith.me, and now VideoTeaching.com. Craig Groeschel is actually doing a series of messages in September about the heart and passion of LifeChurch.tv for these initiatives – something I think this community would connect with.
Most of all I am thrilled to see the passion for teaching and preaching I see here in this conversation. The power of God and his Word effectively preached into people's lives is our passion as well and part of why we want to make these messages available for everyone to use as it meets their church's needs.
Tony Steward
Online Community Pastor for LifeChurch.tv
kevincooper says
Tony your last sentence is the key. John Piper has said that preaching/hearing the word of God changes lives. And honestly, some do it better than others. If VideoTeaching.com can bring great preaching to local churches by being a supplement to local pastors, then I say what a great resource. I'm more interested in seeing people in my local church have their lives changed and not so concerned whether ego's of local pastors are dinged.
tomesnyder says
Some posts have already mentioned One Prayer but let me give a link (http://2009.oneprayer.com/). With One Prayer LifeChurch.tv posted messages from unknown pastors as well as well-known, small churches as well as large. Knowing LC.tv like I do I suspect the same will be true of videoteaching.com. LifeChurch.tv is attempting to empower other churches. They are not forcing anyone to use video teaching. They have been giving away their own resources for some time. This is a way to help other churches do the same who might not have the money to do so.
If your audience is mainly church members they can tolerate an inexperienced speaker knowing it is helping him for the future. But if you audience is 25% or more seekers, is that what you want? Suppose you have the heart of a pastor and have great people skills but you're not a good speaker? This gives you an option to fill your dream.
Video teaching is not for everyone, but I thank God for churches like LC.tv who are willing to share what they have–for FREE.