EnterMission - Rob Wegner

$448,576.32

We are extremely excited to announce for the first time publically to the One Prayer Network, that together, we have raised a total of $448,576.32 for the One Prayer movement! 

That is almost half of a million dollars used specifically to plant churches in limited access countries, to disciple new believers and to radically change the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.  We are truly honored by the sacrifice of the One Prayer churches during this difficult financial season for many. 

Already since the first run of One Prayer two years ago…over (wait for it)…1800 NEW CHURCHES HAVE BEEN PLANTED in China, Sudan, Cambodia, and India!

If you’ve been reading these One Prayer updates and thinking, “I wish I could meet some of these amazing men and woman of God firsthand. I wish I could experience what God is doing on the frontline of the Great Commission.”

I have great news. You can.  We have put together opportunities for you to travel to each of the One Prayer sites.  Please see the information below on how to participate on one of the trips:

India

• Dates: March 5-14, 2010
• Cost: $3000 *Includes travel to and from India (from Chicago, IL) as well as your Indian visa. Also includes meals, lodging, travel insurance and all other expenses while in India. We will be taking care of all arrangements as well as preparing you for what you will experience in India.
• What will I be doing? Visiting church planters and churches that have been formed through the One Prayer network, and also be able to take notes on training processes and success of the overall implementation.
• Why should I go? To experience first-hand what God is doing through the network of churches in India and to witness the impact that you and your church have had...as well as to communicate that impact to your church body, once you return.
• Immunizations/Vaccinations: The list below are recommendations made by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Although we are listing the recommendations, we encourage you to check with your physician prior to making any final decisions regarding immunizations, asthese are only "suggestions."
• Hepatitis A & B,  Typhoid, Anti-malaria meds,  Tetanus immunization within last 5 years, Japanese encephalitis, Rabies, and Adult Polio
• Passport/Visa Information: Passport Required: YES/* At the time of the trip your passport must be valid for at least 6 months prior to its expiration. Visa Required: YES/*More details will be provided once your application is submitted.
• To Apply (Go to the following link):http://app.formassembly.com/forms/view/121053
• Application Deadline: Tuesday, January 5, 2010
• For More Information: Contact Jeanna Tripp at jtripp@gccwired.com or 574.243.3500, ext. 318.

China

• Dates: April 15 - 23, 2010
• Cost: $3400 *Includes travel to and from China (from Chicago, IL) as well as your Chinese visa. Also includes meals, lodging, travel insurance and all other expenses while in China. We will be taking care of all arrangements as well as preparing you for what you will experience in China.
• What will I be doing? Visiting church planters and churches that have been formed through the One Prayer network, and also be able to take notes on training processes and success of the overall implementation.
• Why should I go? To experience first-hand what God is doing through the network of churches in China and to witness the impact that you and your church has had...as well as to communicate that impact to your church body, once you return.
• Immunizations/Vaccinations: The list below are recommendations made by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Although we are listing the recommendations, we encourage you to check with your physician prior to making any final decisions regarding immunizations, asthese are only "suggestions."
• Hepatitis A & B,  Typhoid, Anti-malaria meds,  Tetanus immunization within last 5 years, Japanese encephalitis, & Rabies            
• Passport/Visa Information: Passport Required: YES/* At the time of the trip your passport must be valid for at least 6 months prior to its expiration.  Visa Required: YES/*More details will be provided once your application is submitted.
• To Apply: http://app.formassembly.com/forms/view/121054
• Application Deadline: Tuesday, February 2, 2010
• For More Information: Contact Jeanna Tripp at jtripp@gccwired.com or 574.243.3500, ext. 318.

Sudan

• Dates: May 22 - 28, 2010
• Cost: $3400 *Includes travel to and from Sudan (from Chicago, IL) as well as your Sudanese visa. Also includes meals, lodging, travel insurance and all other expenses while in Sudan. We will be taking care of all arrangements as well as preparing you for what you will experience in Sudan.
• What will I be doing? Visiting church planters and churches that have been formed through the One Prayer network, and also be able to take notes on training processes and success of the overall implementation.
• Why should I go? To experience first-hand what God is doing through the network of churches in Cambodia and to witness the impact that you and your church have had...as well as to communicate that impact to your church body, once you return.
• Immunizations/Vaccinations: The list below are recommendations made by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Although we are listing the recommendations, we encourage you to check with your physician prior to making any final decisions regarding immunizations, asthese are only "suggestions."
• Hepatitis A & B, Typhoid, Anti-malaria meds, Tetanus immunization within last 5 years, Rabies, Yellow Fever, Meningococcal (meningitis), & Adult Polio   
• Passport/Visa Information:  Passport Required: YES/* At the time of the trip your passport must be valid for at least 6 months prior to its expiration. Visa Required: YES/*More details will be provided once your application is submitted.
• To Apply (Go to the following link):http://app.formassembly.com/forms/view/121055
• Application Deadline: Tuesday, March 2, 2010
• For More Information: Contact Jeanna Tripp at jtripp@gccwired.com or 574.243.3500, ext. 318.

More on Giants …and Contorted Tongues

My XO, Jack Magruder, is currently in India with Gene Ort, surveying future sights where intend to slay some giants. I received this report immediately after publishing that last post about giant-slaying.

I’m grateful to be in a church that knows where our giants live.

I’m grateful to be in a community of faith that runs to the battle.

We’re routing the enemies in places like Kalavai and Monroe Circle.

Give us a few years, watch for yourself, and together with local people, we will lop off the heads of the giants who oppress the little village of Vellavadu.

Here’s the latest report from Jack:

First survey here in Vellavedu was fruitful.  It's an Irula (untouchable caste) village similar to the one in Kalavai, but honestly, maybe just a little bit worse off.  My blood boiled to see the way that these people have not only been forgotten and marginalized, but exploited and oppressed.  The little community sits in a tight cluster of tiny thatched homes on the outskirts of town.  Several years ago, a wealthy land-owner bought the land bordering the little Irula grouping, turned it into a giant man-made lake in order to get mud for a brick kiln that he now operates with bonded slaves imported from elsewhere in the Indian interior.  Now, many of the Irula homes are in danger of literally sliding down the sheer cliffs and into the new "lake." The parents literally tie ropes around their children to keep them from accidentally falling down the cliffs and drowning. All the while, the kiln on the other side of the cavernous water-pit puffs away to crank out bricks at the hands of the slaves it employs.  In addition, alcoholism is rampant in the little village, but not for the reason you would think.  Most of the work that can be gained on a daily wage basis is back-breaking and inhuman.  Men initially turn to alcohol because it's the cheapest anesthetic to physical pain that they can buy.  They become addicted and then their families disintegrate.  Many of the men and women either die early or committ suicide, which seems to be fairly prevalent in the little village. Of course, their feelings of hopelessness and despair compound when they start using what little money they gain to feed their addiction. 

I met a courageous woman named Muthu who has 8 children, lives in a 12x12' thatched hut, and has an alcoholic deadbeat husband who fits the situation described.  She is completely illiterate and ignorant. I asked how long she had lived in the little 12x12 and she shrugged shyly and said, "I'm sorry, i don't know.  I can't count." She has no skills with which to acquire an additional income and no hope for anything different.  Her little 12x12 is one of the ones that borders the "lake.” There is no bathroom for her or her children, no schooling for any of them, and no prospects for any of them having a life different from their mother and father.  They eat boiled rice twice a day (provided by the Indian government ration card) and do the best they can to make it along.  It broke my heart.

On the plus side, however, person after person approached us to say that Pastor Anbuvannan (GCC trained church planter) was the only ray of hope in the village. I kid you not... one lady said this through tears as we were walking the village, "Anbuvanna is the only reason we have hope to live.  Otherwise, without this new hope that he brings us in Jesus, we would simply die." 

GCC, Life Mission International (GCC’s non-profit in India led by Raj), and Pastor Anbuvannan's church partnered in 2008 to build two houses in this village (one for a blind family). Pastor Anbuvannan has been continuing to work there steadily every since.  It was awe-inspiring to see the way that the people in the village respected him.

I think that if we were to establish this community as a next jump-point for development after Kalavai, we would find ready allies and capable souls who would love to jump in.  When I met with one of the village elders for the macro-interview afterward, it was obvious that really, they all just want a shot. 

Nothing more. 

They're not looking for handouts, or charity or welfare systems.  Just a shot. 

Their dreams for their community were for things like a community latrine. I didn't even mention or bring it up. They literally said that they felt that lack of privacy for their women and children prevented them from being as healthy as they could be. They dream of simple, decent houses that don't slide into the "lake.” The would like to have a home adequate room for 10 individuals rather than being the size of the average American's bathroom. They dream of vocational training so that they can do something that provides a steady income. The dream of better access to medical care because the nearest hospital is a 4 km walk away. Finally, they have a great dream for a common hall or center where they can gather, celebrate weddings and funerals, have a safe place where their children can play (without wandering into traffic or sliding into a "lake"), and have a space that is "their own". 

The folks of Vellavadu will get their shot…in Jesus name. All over the world, there are people in villages like this waiting for us to run to the battle. Please take a few minutes and pray for our friends in Vellavadu.

Let me ask the same question I asked yesterday: Do you know where the giant is that God is calling you to slay? 

On a lighter note, Anbuvannan not only has serious skills as a pastor, but as a contortionist.

Look at this shot of him from the Family Life Conference last summer.  Want the story behind this?  Read here!

The Wet Wipe Warmer Incident

Last night at First Wednesday, our amazing pastor, Mark Beeson, led  us on a whirlwind tour of Biblical History. At each stop, great works of art from the likes of Rembrandt or Dore’s woodcuts were projected larger than life on a 30ft wide screen.

While Mark told the story of David and Goliath, this picture was displayed.

Charming, eh?

Instantaneously, breaking the hushed silence of worship, my daughter Whitney spewed out with little volume control, “Ewwww! Disgusting!”

The point is inescapable. David slayed Goliath. When I’m holding your head in my hands, that means game over.

Many religious people have arbitrary rules about film ratings, like “No R movies EVER!,” forgetting that much of the Bible itself is rated R and some times NC-17.

Of course, we must be wise and selective about what we watch. Accordingly, not many parents will let their children watch movies about kids who decapitate people. That’s a good thing. But the same parents will open up a children’s Bible with an image of a little boy, arms raised, holding a blood-dripping decapitated head in his hand. That’s a good thing too.

What is the point of this picture? Injustice must be addressed. Evil must be vanquished. The giants must be slain.

I want my kids to know that. I hope this image is burned in their brain.

All over our world, the giants of oppression, poverty, hunger, ignorance, spiritual lostness and evil rape, pillage and plunder the lives of countless millions.

We must not ignore these giants. We must not appease these giants. We don’t want to toss a few pebbles at the giants of evil, tuck tail, and run. We can’t hide behind the battle lines waiting for someone else to fight.

I want to run to the battle.

God hasn’t called us to play patty cake with the giants.

Giants must be killed. Decimated. Decapitated. Put in the ground.

We were made for this battle. We were born into a world at war. We live in a massive conflict that is far deeper and more profound than we even know. You and I have a crucial role to play.

Like off-duty, drunken sailors fighting each other, when we don’t man our battle station, we end up fighting the wrong people and the wrong battles.

Maybe that is why she shops a lot. She was created for the battle and she’s not in it. So, she wanders the mall look for a sale to conquer. She was made for something more.  But until she finds it, she’ll settle for tossing pebbles at a sale sign at the mall.

Maybe that is why he yells at his kid’s referee like he does. It’s not just that it was a bad call. It’s something deeper. Maybe he was created for the battle, to overcome evil with good, but he is not in the battle.  So, he has to make a battle over stuff that is not really the battle.

That leads me to the Wet Wipe Warmer Incident.

Shortly after Christmas 2003, our youngest daughter Belle was born. Around the first week of January, I was sent on a mission to buy a new wet wipe warmer since the old one had expired. A baby’s job description consists of three things: eating, pooping, and hopefully, sleeping. I figure the least I can do is provide the proper equipment to ease the process.

While in the checkout line with my wet wipe warmer, a women pulls up behind me with a cart jammed full of Christmas clearance items. She easily had a dozen Santa Hats, a dozen of those Reindeer-Antler Head thingies (she was sporting a pair on her head), scores of those little Chocolate Santas, and other a sundry holiday items. She peaked over my shoulder and asked, “What is that?”

Confident that I would be perceived as Super Dad, I said with a smile on my face, “A wet wipe warmer for our new baby.” No doubt, I’m a great parent.

She came out from behind her cart and said, “Let me that see that.” She turned it in her hands, locked eyes with me and spat out, “What is this for?” I could tell she was offended. I wasn’t sure why. I explained, “ It’s a wet wipe warmer. It warms up wipes, so they’re not ice cold on the baby’s bottom.” She looked at me and exclaimed, “This is the most obtuse appliance I’ve ever see!”

If I had known what the word obtuse meant, I probably would have been very offended.

Remember, I’m at the check-out counter. The check out guy was waiting to scan the item. Other people are in line behind us now. It’s was getting awkward.

She continued in a mocking tone, “Now I suppose mom can’t just take a towel and dip it in some hot water? She could do that…or you could by this convenient wet wipe warmer for 19.95!” I exchanged glances with the guy at the check-out line, he had this frightened look on his face, and I can tell he was thinking about pressing that little emergency button under the counter.

Again she continued, “I suppose that it has to be plugged in all day, every day, just burning up electricity. I wonder how much that adds to your electric bill each month?” She closed her tirade with these words, “The most obtuse appliance I have ever seen!”

I was dumbfounded and discombobulated. I wasn’t expecting to be mocked by a total stranger. I took the item back and mumbled, “Yep, it keeps the wet wipe warm.” The irony of the fact that she was wearing fake reindeer antlers on her head the whole time never even dawned on her or, even worse, on me. If I wasn’t a lame pastor, I would have said, “Yeah a white wet wipe warmer is so much more obtuse than a dozen Santa Claus hats, reindeer horns, and 500 chocolate Santa clauses!”

For some reason that is beyond me, that women wanted to turn the wet wipe warmer into a battle with a stranger.

When we are not tapped into the real battle, we make stuff into battles that isn’t battle-worthy.

Maybe you feel it this Christmas season. Maybe there is slow-burning anger brewing inside of you, a longing for something worth fighting for. We were created to be up to our neck in a cosmic battle between good and evil.

You were made to slay a giant.

But here’s the question: Do you know which one?

Do you know where your giant lives? Do you know what your sling is? You have a unique set of God-given skills you can leverage to take that giant down.

David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.                           1 Samuel 17:45 (NIV)

The Hebrew for the phrase can also be translated:

… Commander of the Lord Army’s

….The God of Angel Armies

….The God who is at war.

We live in a world at war, a cosmic battle between Good and Evil. Until we come to terms with war as the context of our days, we will misunderstand life. We will misinterpret 90 percent of what is happening around us and to us. We will misunderstand who we are.

⁴⁶ This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. ⁴⁷ All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD's, and he will give all of you into our hands."

                                                 1 Samuel 17:46-47 (NIV)

If you’re looking for a place to start, consider Second Saturday next weekend.  If you’re wanting to leverage your resources along with other warriors, consider giving to the Christmas offering.

For goodness sake, don’t just stand there.  Do something.  You were made for this battle. 

How Do You Count Members?

Here’s a story about a 2 month old church plant in the One Prayer movement that is making in-roads in the student population in a college town in China. A common problem new church plants face is “Where do we meet?”  That problem became opportunity in Harbin, China.

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How are you counting your members? We count by tables.

Harbin is a student town. Many students from various towns and cities of China’s North-East region come here to study. When Christians come they look for a church for fellowship and worship.

In May 2009 one network of home churches decided to organize a church for students who come here to study . A young family was sent to Harbin to accomplish this task.

The young Lee family was facing challenge of finding a location for this new church plant. Brother Lee was able to work out a deal with the owner of a local restaurant in the area. He asked the owner for permission to allow him to conduct his meetings. After paying for a meal, they could use the restaurant for a few hours for church.

In September, Lee joined the One Prayer Church Planting training program and the church began to meet in the restaurant. At the end of that month, the core group of the church numbered 10 people.  The entire church was able to fit around one table.   But in the last two months, they have tripled in size with 30 people now connecting.

Now, they need at least 3 tables for a joint meal.

And now they keep counting members by the number of tables.

The ministry of Lee took off as did the business of the friendly restaurant owner!

Now  Lee is renting a more convenient facility where they no longer use tables and meals, but as a joke they keep counting their membership by the number of tables.

What’s the size of your church? How many tables do you count?

The Religion I Want: Sudan One Prayer Church Planting Update

The last few days of family time have been wonderful, filled with warmth, abundance, community and  high caloric Thanksgiving feasts.   While I savored the depth of these life long relationships and the great meals, I simultaneously experienced a deep tension.

I always carry with me in my mind a panorama of faces.  The faces of children from around the world. What I do and how I live must never become disconnected from my responsibility to these children.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27

This Advent season my we leverage our affluence for those who have none.

This Advent season may we leverage our influence for those who have none.

I’m giving the rest of my life to serve heroes like Rose and Cosmas, One Prayer Church Planters.  Their religion is one our Father accepts as pure and faultless.

May we remember the faces of these children this Advent.

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At the invitation of Church Planters Rose Saidia and Cosmas Goma of the Episcopal Church of Sudan, the One Prayer Church Planting training team visited Jabel Kujur (outskirts of Juba city). Rose and Cosmas decided to plant a new Church in this semi-urban community neighboring some upcoming industries in Juba. The area is fairly populated with significance new settlements coming up in all direction. The population is increasing as many of their own are returning from exile caused by the civil war in Sudan.

The new church plant began with children outreach, currently ministering to more than 100 kids. A basic primary School began within the compound with an enrolment of 227 pupils, with more continuing to enroll everyday. This school is run by the Church with the help of four teachers serving as volunteers. The classes are conducted under the shades of sycamore trees around the compound. The church is meeting under the same shade and has an average Sunday attendance of between 130 and 150 members within the first three months.

This is a fast growing church and strategically located to reach the many people who had settled here many years ago, the returnees from exile and those who are moving in as a result of the new settlements.

Pray that the Lord will strengthen the financial capacity of the congregation at Jabel Kujur to support the Church planters, teachers as well build classrooms for the school. The School is in dire need of teaching materials.

A Thank You to One of My Heroes

In November 1919, President Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day with the following words:

"To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…"

If you read my blog regularly, you’ll know that this year God surprised me with a new friendship with a veteran who is making a HUGE impact in our community.

A few weeks back, I had the honor of sharing a long lunch with Judge Bob Miller.  I asked him to honor me by telling me the story of his service in the military. By the time Judge Miller finished, I recognized I was in a holy moment.  His story marked me.  More than that, his story is now shaping mine. 

Today I offer him my gratitude, respect, and honor.

Judge,

I wanted to thank you for the lunch, but most of all your example.  As your story unfolded, I felt humbled and grateful to call you a partner and friend.  I have read extensively about WW2 and watched many documentaries.  None of that compares to being in the presence of a vet as they tell their story. I have a growing sense of debt to your generation.  We stand on your shoulders.  Your sacrifice pushed back the night that was sweeping the world.  You paid the price. It was a costly sacrifice.  You paid that price with your own blood. Near the end of our conversation you said, “Shedding blood for my country was the greatest thing that ever happened to me.”

I will not forget those words.  They are etched on my heart.

The character that was forged in you while you faced the furnace of the Depression and WW2 is sorely lacking in our current culture.  That character carried our nation through those perilous moments, when our very future was at stake. My hope is that in my vocation God will use me to facilitate that kind of character transformation in the lives of men and woman all over this community and around the world.

Gratefully Yours,

Rob

If you know a vet, please take the time today to look them in the eyes and thank them.

Class Matters

"...never be condescending but make real friends with the poor."   Romans 12:15  

The poor don't need our pity, but our respect & friendship. Respect and friendship involve seeking first to understand. These insights from the workshop, Class Matters, were illuminating to me and expanding my understanding.

• When middle class people think of food, they ask, "will it be good?" When people in poverty think of food, they ask, "will there be enough?"
• People in the middle class take hygiene for granted. Yet we pay a great deal for cleanliness: water, a place to have privacy, all the items needed to clean our clothes and our bodies. People in chronic poverty often do not have access to those items we deem essential.
• Morality is abstract. Survival is concrete. Chronic poverty is about survival.
• The role of men in poverty: lover & fighter. Not provider. The role of women in poverty: martyr & rescuer.
• People in the middle class look to achievement as a measure of success or happiness. People in chronic poverty look to relationships instead.

Which one of these stood out for you?

Thanks to Talbot David for the sharing!

Fearless: Rob and Michelle's 3 Minute Love Story By Maddie

Maddie said, "Daddy, come here I have something to show you."  Three minutes later I was a puddle of warm fuzzies.  I can just see Michelle and I watching this 40 years from now, blubbering through the whole thing. Maddie's gift is a precious reminder that our kids are always watching us, learning what God's design for love, marriage, and family is...or isn't.

GCC in AP Story

My buddy from Tampa sent me a text this morning, “I saw a quote from you in St Petersburg Times today.”  It appears an AP article about Online Churches is making the round in quite a few papers around the country.  Here’s the AP article.

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Internet believers: Pastors open online churches

By RACHEL ZOLL
AP Religion Writer

Church volunteers greet visitors entering the lobby. The worship band begins its set and a pastor offers to pray privately with anyone during the service.

When the sermon is done, it's time for communion, and the pastor guides attendees through the ritual. Later, worshippers exchange Facebook and e-mail addresses so they can stay in touch.

There is nothing remarkable about this encounter, which is replicated countless times each weekend at churches around the world. It's all happening online.

The World Wide Web has become the hottest place to build a church. A growing number of congregations are creating Internet offshoots that go far beyond streaming weekly services.

The sites are fully interactive, with a dedicated Internet pastor, live chat in an online "lobby," Bible study, one-on-one prayer through IM and communion. (Viewers use their own bread and wine or water from home.) On one site, viewers can click on a tab during worship to accept Christ as their savior. Flamingo Road Church, based in Cooper City, Fla., twice conducted long-distance baptisms through the Internet.

"The goal is to not let people at home feel like they're watching what's happening, but they're part of it. They're participating," said Brian Vasil, Flamingo Road's Internet pastor.

The move online is forcing Christians to re-examine their idea of church. It's a complex discussion involving theology, tradition and cultural expectations of how Christians should worship and relate. Even developers of Internet church sites disagree over how far they should go. Many, for example, will only conduct baptisms in person.

The staunchest critics say that true Christian community ultimately requires in-person interaction. They deride the sites as religious fast food or Christianity lite.

But advocates consider the Internet just another neighborhood where real relationships can be built. Rob Wegner, a pastor at Granger Community Church of Indiana, which will soon launch its Internet campus, calls the Web the church's "front porch." Pastors who back the sites say they feel a religious duty to harness this new way for reaching the spiritually lost.

"We live in a day and age and a culture where people go to school online, bank online, date online and do other things online," said Kurt Ervin, who oversees the Internet campus for Central Christian Church, based in Henderson, Nev. "Why not create a platform for them to go to church online?" Central Christian started a new church service this fall on Facebook.

The sites share the same basic approach: rock-style worship music and a sermon recorded at the in-person weekend service that is quickly mixed with live or recorded greetings expressly for online viewers. Volunteers on live chat emphasize that day's Bible teaching and block inappropriate posts. (During one recent service, a man who said he was logged on from India wrote that he was looking for a Christian wife.)

Still, each has individual features.

At Seacoast Church, based in Mount Pleasant, S.C., online viewers can repent by posting a private record of their sins on a cross. Thumbnails of viewers' Facebook profiles appear during worship on Central Christian's Facebook Church so people can click on each others' pages to quickly connect. On the Granger site, visitors will be able to choose "seats" in an auditorium, then click on surrounding seats to exchange Facebook and Twitter addresses.

In this environment, evangelizing is nearly effortless. Regular viewers and volunteers post messages to their entire online network inviting them to the Web service in progress.

"Fifty years ago you could expect everyone to come to you," said Tim Stevens, Granger's executive pastor. "Now, we have to meet people where they are."

The phenomenon is so new that no one has an exact count of interactive online campuses. The Leadership Network, which studies and supports innovative churches, has found at least 40. Churches with the sites say they regularly receive calls from other pastors starting their own.

An Oklahoma megachurch named LifeChurch.tv in a nod to its use of technology is considered the pioneer of the form. The congregation had already expanded to physical sites in several cities when in 2006, pastors launched what they now call Church Online.

LifeChurch.tv now broadcasts more than 25 online services each week and plans more. The services collectively draw up to 60,000 unique views weekly, although the number of new computers that log on for several minutes is about 5,000, LifeChurch leaders say. Broadcasts are listed in Greenwich Mean Time, drawing viewers from more than 140 countries.

LifeChurch.tv has even found a way to attract people surfing for experiences that are far from pious. The congregation buys Google ad words so that a person searching for "sex" or "naked ladies" sees an ad inviting them to a live worship service instead.

Bobby Gruenewald, a pastor who oversees the online efforts at LifeChurch.tv, said the goal is to move people into some in-person Christian experience, in church, a small Bible group or even a group that watches online services together. He noted that many people watch online and attend a local church.

But he said some people are so transient that they have little opportunity to join a brick-and-mortar congregation. In countries where Christians are persecuted, a Web church is often the only way they can be reached, he said.

Amanda Sims, 38, of Starkville, Miss., was on Twitter during Christmas Eve last year when a friend posted that he was watching a LifeChurch.tv service.

She logged on and kept coming back, soon offering to volunteer online. She now works for LifeChurch as an online volunteer coordinator, managing a team of people from across the world who help with online worship.

One new friend whom she and her husband met online is a South Carolina-based truck driver who started watching LifeChurch.tv because he's so often on the road. When he drives through Mississippi, he stops in for dinner. He now volunteers for the site.

"It started out as augmenting my spiritual life, and it gave me a way to be in fellowship with believers I never would have met otherwise," said Sims, who still belongs to a local church. "They're like my family."

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On the Net:

Flamingo Road Church: http://www.frclive.tv/

LifeChurch.tv: http://internet.lifechurch.tv/

Central Christian Church: http://www.centralchristian.com/onlinecampus/

Granger Community Church: http://www.gccwired.com/

Seacoast Church: http://www.seacoast.org/

© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.

Story 09 Session Six: Stacy Spencer

You go back to the caves, you’ll see the cave dwellers painting their stories on the walls of the caves.

All through the OT, the people of God are called to “remember” and tell the Story of deliverance.

In your family, there is a story that needs to be told.

In the African American tradition, we are well aware of story telling because we had to pass on our history through the oral tradition.

The preacher pulls you into the Story in a fresh way.

Samuel DeWitt Parker, The Sound of the Trumpet.

Five Types of Preachers

1. The Comfort Dispenser. The Tylenol to get rid of the pain. But, we need more.

2. The Scholar. The one who wants to be known by how smart they are. They have a cemetery degree and like to use $5 words.  If you would have went up like you came down, you would have came up like you went down.

3. The Social Prophet. Every Sunday they provide commentary on the social deterioration. We need the watchman on the wall. 

4. The Bible Repository. Knowing the Book is necessary, but knowing the God of the Bible is more important.

5. The Preacher Who Embodies All Of These. They Hybrid. We need all of these in the right balance, at the right moment, with the right understanding of the Scripture, with the power of the right Spirit.

Keep a sermon in your pocket and a sermon in your heart.

Karl Barth, “When you prepare a sermon, you have to have the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other.”

Now, you have to a Bible in one hand and an iphone in the other.

A hand in God’s Word and the finger on the pulse of society.

Jesus was so cool he would be talking about you and you didn’t even know He was talking about you until you realized, “Hey, he’s talking about me.”

We have to blow the dust of the text, so people can see, “This is my Story!” Jesus did this primarily through story and parables.

Where do we find many of these today? Facebook, YouTube, Movies, Songs, and Twitter.

Put the people in the movie. Jesus stories were a portal for people to walk through. You got to get people so in the story, so build up the character in the story, break down their life, so people can find themselves in that character.

You got to have a twist. What’s the twist. Inevitable, in a good story there is a twist.  A common thread in every sermon with a twist that takes them back to the Gospel, every time.  Everything means something in the Text. Nothing is wasted. Moses staff is not wasted. When Jesus was writing in the dirt. Nothing is wasted.  Bring the twist, waste nothing, surprise them when the ordinary takes on extraordinary meaning. 

You got to have Redemption in your story. I don’t need a horror. I can read the paper if I want horror.  I need something at the end that shows me the Hope of Redemption. Hope is a dangerous thing. Shawshank…he got out spoonful by spoonful.  He crawled through 200 yards of sewage to get to his freedom. He need a spoonful of redemption, he go through 200 feet of garbage to get to where we are free.