namahatta.org - Congregational Development Ministry

by phanisvara das

North Point falls into the categories megachurch and video-church. The first because of the sheer number of regular worshipers, the second due to the fact that often the preacher isn't personally present during the sermon—the "Message," in North Point lingo, is then delivered via high-resolution video.

Here is Brad Herring, a consultant for church-technology, describing his experience of one of Buckhead Church's video-services in an article at tfwm—Technologies for Worship Magazine (Article link: Spreading God’s Word in the 21st Century: Video and Satellite Churches):

... I stood on my feet with my other 1,000 fellow believers, and thought to myself, “Aside from this being REALLY well done, I don’t see such a huge difference from every other contemporary church service I attend”. The people were real, the worship was genuine, and the congregants were engaged in worshiping God.

Now, I must take a moment and point out—the people at Buckhead Church do an excellent job. Often times, I work with churches to be the “critic”. As a consultant, I look for the weaker areas and help the church develop new techniques to make these areas stronger. I’ve got to tell you—there were no “weak” moments here. The sound was perfect. All the time, every time. The lights were perfect. All the time, every time. The video was perfect. All the time, every time. (This is important, and we’ll get to it later), but for now—hats off to the men and women making this happen. They were dedicated, well trained, and focused on the task at hand. They had the equipment necessary to do the job and they executed their task with precision. Not once was I distracted by technology. Every aspect of the technology used built the worship and teaching experience.

As the praise and singing portion of the worship service began to close we transitioned into the teaching time of worship. The congregation was led in prayer by one of the campus pastors and at the conclusion of the prayer a large 30 ft. wide screen had taken the place of the main “stage” area and there was Andy Stanley in full size! I had to do a double take! I KNEW this was video, but it didn’t feel like video. I’m looking at a 6 ft. tall Andy Stanley surrounded by a set (that was VERY similar to what I had seen since I first walked in the door), and on either side of the worship center were two large IMAG (image magnification) screens with Andy’s face larger than life.

Wow. I’m watching video—but it doesn’t feel like it. As Andy began to teach, I watched the congregants, and witnessed an amazing phenomenon. The people completely bought into it. As far as everyone was concerned, Andy was there in person. It was amazing.

Now, part of what pulls this off (and for that matter makes the satellite church mentality a reality) is that Andy is a great communicator. When he told a joke, the crowd laughed. His timing was impeccable. As the laughter died down, he continued on. His message was timeless—but packed with Biblical Truth. This message could have been played that Sunday or 3 years from now. Either way, it’s going to apply and God’s going to work through it. The message wrapped up, Andy asked the congregation to join him in prayer, and when the prayer was over, the two side IMAG screens remained as Andy concluded the final portion of the service, but the main screen was gone. The band was back, and out walked the Campus director.

He concluded the service by thanking everyone for worshiping there that day. He also spent time explaining how they could go deeper in their walk and get plugged in via medium-size meetings with just a couple of hundred people at a time, and ultimately small groups where they would join 8-10 other people and learn together and hold each other accountable in life. You see—for North Point, this is the goal - 100,000 people in small groups. The Worship Service is for corporate worship, and the experience helps people from all walks of life feel comfortable as they are drawn into worship. But the real purpose is to connect people with God and get them into small groups where they can be with other believers, study God’s Word, and walk closer to Him each day. ...

The first thing to notice is the use of state-of-the-art technology in a way that supports the message instead of distracting from it. Only recently, for the last two or three years, do I see evidence that devotees here in Mayapur are learning to use sound equipment in a sensible way. Previously they used to tickle every decibel of amplification out of low-class amplifiers and horn-speakers, presumably trying to extend "the mercy" to every cowherd and tea-shop owner three miles away—never mind that listeners in the pandal tent were holding their ears in agony and still couldn't understand a word, because a couple of poorly silenced, stinking generators stood right next to the stage.

Expectations of festival crowds in Mayapur and middle-class-and-up professionals in Atlanta are quite different, of course. Still, a little sensible investment in decent technology and, more importantly, capable and thoughtful use of the same would go a long way to improve the overall impression visitors take home after the festival. I assume equipment and it's use in 'the West' are a little more sophisticated, but according to what I read in Sitapati's Sunday-feast articles, there's room for improvement, too.

Why run Video-churches?

What makes North Point a video-church is the fact that often the main-speaker isn't personally present during the sermon. He's projected on three high-definition video-screens, the sermon having been recorded previously, either at the same or a different satellite-campus. Brad Herring again:

... Initially in 1995, meeting every other Sunday night, North Point began its ministry. In 1998 they moved to Alpharetta, GA and built their first auditorium with a building that could seat in the neighborhood of 2,400 people. Within 2 years, God had blessed the church and they were busting at the seams. Running two services each week, they were faced with a challenge that many churches have faced—where do we go from here? Should they build a huge 6,000+ seat worship center that is larger than life or do something different?

Being North Point, they opted for something different. They decided to build a mirror auditorium that was just like the original only without a balcony. The idea was basically an overflow room on steroids. This second auditorium had it’s own praise and worship team, lighting, and sound system. Then, when it was time for the teaching to begin, on came the projector and there was Andy Stanley (or another communicator)—live sized and ready to teach. Does this sound familiar?

Brad Weston of Renewed Vision (and member of North Point Community Church) remembers the first Sunday they opened the second auditorium. He recalls that everyone was on pins and needles wondering if it was really going to work—were people going to connect with Andy or were they going to check out knowing it was video. He said, he remembers when Andy asked a polling question—“how many of you in this room have ever...”, and immediately throughout the second auditorium hands shot up everywhere. He smiled and at that point knew—THIS WORKED. People connected with Andy—even on video. ...

As the North Point staff looked at this, they realized that their “overflow service” was a huge success. People loved it. Then they started to think, well, if it works in another room, why not another building—ON ANOTHER CAMPUS? They started looking at the demographics and realized that people were traveling 40+ miles to attend North Point. So they tested the idea. ...

The megachurches I looked at are centered around one charismatic preacher with superb communication skills who convinces the masses by his presentation and the fact that he is "real," believes in and lives the message he preaches—at least when the church is beginning to grow; what happens later, if and how they are affected by stardom and power is a different question.

ISKCON's 'mega-preacher' is Srila Prabhupada, and there is no high-resolution video footage available to prepare this type of presentation, I'm afraid. We do have some gifted speakers and memorable classes have been recorded (though not in hi-definition quality), but I don't think that, at this time, we would want to advertise some devotees to larger-than-life celebrity status with the aim to draw in the masses in North Point style programmed events.

Recorded training courses for our devotees, in congregational preaching techniques, book distribution, deity worship, or other specialized fields could be useful, particularly in remote areas; but decently recorded Hi-8 video played back over standard TV equipment should be sufficient for that purpose. (That's just my personal opinion, of course; if you have different ideas, please comment!)