A group of us NewSpring-ers flew out to Oklahoma City, OK this past weekend to check out how things are done at LifeChurch. Here are some ruminations from the trip:

• We had to get up at 3:30AM to make our flight — that should be illegal
• One of the planes we took had to be rebooted “like a laptop”
• Oklahoma is not the most scenic place in the world
• I kept remembering that God loves the inhabitants, just the same — It is hard to get my mind around God’s universal love
• We ate a big steak at the world famous Cattlemen’s Steakhouse where the specialty is lamb fries — I had a small bite of a fry, too
• The giant cross that flanks the buildings of the Edmond campus is, well… giant
• The Digerati team was able to endure ample brain prodding proving their graciousness in sharing information and collaboration
• The Tulsa Hurricane pizza at Hideaway is spectacular
• We saw four campuses (Edmond, Oklahoma City, NW Oklahoma City, and Internet)
• I love technology and the various ways it can be used for ministry
• I shook hands with Craig Groeschel

But perhaps the coolest thing that I saw, though, was during the live Internet campus feed on Sunday morning. A variety of things were happening during the show — volunteers were milling about, live prayer was taking place, a live video feed was broadcasting in a sort of lobby experience, and we were immersed in all of it. One of the cool aspects of their Internet campus is the map showing where in the world people are watching from. The map is small and does not have country borders, but I noticed a few dots in the Middle East. It looked like there were a couple dots in Egypt and one that looked like it was in Syria.

I have a passion for the Middle East and know well of the difficulties we face in getting the Gospel message delivered there. Some of the tactics currently used include mobile phone texting and small businesses created as covers for evangelism. It dawned on me, though, that the concept of Internet campuses is a fascinating alternative. We are not living in Orwell’s 1984 [yet] and so what happens in the privacy of our homes is still ours. If we have more people enjoying the Internet from their homes in developing areas, then the Internet is a valuable method in getting the Gospel to them. I am encouraged about the possibilities of using the Internet and technology to broadcast the Gospel to places we have never been able to before.

Thanks to the LifeChurch team for their graciousness; thanks especially to Digerati for their willingness to share; and thanks to God for encouraging me to think about how technology and evangelism can complement each other.

Tags: LifeChurch, NewSpring, travel

This entry was posted by zac on Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 at 7:23 am and is filed under NewSpring. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.