Adapting AG's Church Multiplication Network for the COGOP

[AllenNope]

Pastor Gary,
I saw the website and it is awesome. The family of God working together in unison will say more and effect more people than any preacher ever could. I look forward to hearing great things from Hawaii.

Most of the posts continue to talk as the church building and congregation are the same. The people (congregation) are the church. They meet in a building with the title of church. (Probably splitting hairs) Where does the money in support of a church go? If you are speaking of a church with a congregation of 10 -15 people the majority of the money goes to the pastor or to care for the building.

If the church building were to close, the 5 or 10 people that meet every Sunday morning, night and Wednesday night will do one of two things. They will continue to meet in a home (home church what a novel idea) or find another church that they feel accepted and that they like. The pastor will stay in the area and continue to work his second job or move on to another church. Their time, sacrifice and dedication is to be honored but the honor needs to be shown in other ways than statistics.

In regards to being connected to a church building, my feelings come from being a PK that moved a lot. It is just a building. It is not easy to let go of what you have helped build, pay for, and support. (Ask the people that still tear up or get angry when they drive by the old tabernacle, the old TC campus). The fact still remains they are just buildings. They are just brick and mortar that will pass away. (I mean no disrespect to the events and memories that occurred at these locations).

[EagerBeaver]

Pastor Gary and Dawgs10 said:
dawgs10 wrote:
...but there are some that have earned the right to have church in the building they paid for and be left alone.

I'm not sure I can agree. At what cost to the larger organization?

Pastor Gary, the biggest cost I could see would be losing a minister. To many times I have heard ministers going to a small church and after a year or so (maybe less) they get burned out trying to revive the church and get discouraged. Either quit completely or cross over to AOG or COG or elsewhere.

I personally would like to see some adaptation of some of these multi site churches that are growing by leaps and bounds. Instead of shutting down a small church let it be adopted by larger churches. Using new technology to provide a teaching/ministering resource. Lets face it not all pastors are good preachers. They may great ministering to people but putting a sermon together is there weakest link.

I read an article in one of my Church Resource Magazines about a mega church without a minister. At least one that preaches/teaches. When they began they adopted the video resources of Willow Creek. The pastor who was planting the church new that teaching/preaching was not his cup of tea. So he contacted Willow Creek and they began showing the sermon series from WC. They now are building a new facility to house several thousand and still using the sermons from WC.

Could some of our smaller churches that cannot support a pastor financially not be adopted by a larger church. Provide video sermon/teaching to them and treat the smaller church as a Small Group Ministry etc.

Back when we could watch the GA(IA) via satellite, I remember some of our members got involved in the P&W like they were sitting in the audience.

Why would it not work?

These are great ideas.

City Bible Church in my hometown of Portland, Oregon has two satellite campuses in Tigard and Vancouver, each about 15 miles away from the main campus. They feed video from the main church and it's as if they were there...it's a novel concept and people have taken to it big time.

[Pastor Gary]

These are great ideas.

City Bible Church in my hometown of Portland, Oregon has two satellite campuses in Tigard and Vancouver, each about 15 miles away from the main campus. They feed video from the main church and it's as if they were there...it's a novel concept and people have taken to it big time.

There are cheaper variations than satellite links -- one mega here with satellite campuses (and Mosaic in L.A.) records the 1st service of the weekend (usually Friday evening) and distributes DVD's to the remote sites for Saturday and Sunday services. Some of them have live, local worship teams doing the same songs used in the main service (in case the speaker references the song, or so that the songs coordinate with the theme) and others just use the main-service worship and all, and are seeing/participating in a delayed version of that original service.

[EagerBeaver]

These are great ideas.

City Bible Church in my hometown of Portland, Oregon has two satellite campuses in Tigard and Vancouver, each about 15 miles away from the main campus. They feed video from the main church and it's as if they were there...it's a novel concept and people have taken to it big time.

There are cheaper variations than satellite links -- one mega here with satellite campuses (and Mosaic in L.A.) records the 1st service of the weekend (usually Friday evening) and distributes DVD's to the remote sites for Saturday and Sunday services. Some of them have live, local worship teams doing the same songs used in the main service (in case the speaker references the song, or so that the songs coordinate with the theme) and others just use the main-service worship and all, and are seeing/participating in a delayed version of that original service.

I forgot to mention the worship...they do the exact same thing you described. They time it so each church connects to the main sermon preached by pastor Damazio after worship. Then after the message each campus is staffed with altar workers and there is no time limit as to when the altars close, when they have to get out by, etc.

[Billy n NC]

I have read a lot about (I have stacks and stacks of magazines) these satellite and remote churches. They vary in methodology. Some have there own local P&W and then when its time for sermon they fire up a VCR/DVD the previous weeks sermon.

Some of the churches with multiple services every weekend record the Sat night service (great Idea for those who want to miss out on Sunday AM) and transport the dvd to the remote sites.

The first one I read about was Seacoast in SC.

http://www.seacoast.org/storypage.asp?pageid=1141

When they started there first satellite they recorded Sat night and put on a trailways bus to remote site overnite. ''

But now.. Well in the EST of the USA you can tune into Bethany COGOP here in NC LIVE..

http://bethanycog.org/StreamingMedia/Li ... gVideo.dsp

Put it on a large tv or screen and your P&W and Sermon starts at 10:30 AM

And we already no that 10:30 AM Hawaii time you can watch Pastor Gary WWC P&W and Sermon LIVE..

http://www.windwardworship.com/know/webcast/index.html

No recording needed.


It is possible. It can be done. But will it.

Say you do not have the equipment. Who knows you need the equipment. Have you asked anybody in your church?

Take a look at this wish list a church has put together and made it so
easy to help there next satellite church get up and going.


http://www.heartland.cc/project601/



WOW.

[Pastor Gary]

Take a look at this wish list a church has put together and made it so
easy to help there next satellite church get up and going.


http://www.heartland.cc/project601/


WOW.

Wow! It's so impressive I'll say it BACKWARD -- !woW
That piece is just extremely slick and wonderfully done.