How many people last month visited National Community Church?
12,771.
I couldn't see them. I didn't shake any of their hands. Truth be told, they didn't really visit us. National Community Church visited them.
They didn't physically attend one of our weekend services. Many of them aren't ready to walk into a church yet. Others live halfway around the globe. But all of them invited NCC into their iPods. They gave us a fraction of their storage space. In a sense, they invited me to go jogging with them; commute to work with them; hang out with them.
How? These 12,771 people clicked into our www.theaterchurch.com podcast.
Spiritual multitasking
About a year ago I started experimenting with spiritual disciplines.
I regularly work out at a gym on Capitol Hill, and I found some of the music offensive. Instead of allowing myself to be a captive audience to whatever station the gym tuned into, I got proactive. I purchased an iPod and started downloading music and messages. I started feeding my spirit while I exercised my body. I redeemed the time with a little spiritual multitasking.
That personal experiment was the genesis of our theaterchurch.com podcast. I wanted to make our weekend messages available to anyone who wanted to use their workout or commute as devotional time. I also wanted to reach out to people who might be willing to check out NCC via a podcast.
We were already recording every message on CD. We simply started uploading them to MP3 format so that people could download them to their iPod. We only had a few takers when we launched the podcast in July 2005. Then the New York Times did an article on religion and podcasting that featured National Community Church. The headline called it "TiVo for Your Soul." That was followed with primetime stories by both CBS and FOX news in our local market.
Now, months later, we're impacting more people via our podcast than we are with our weekend services. And it's redefining the way I think about evangelism and discipleship. Podcasting 101 wasn't offered when I was in seminary. Neither was Blogging 101. But the digital revolution has presented us an unprecedented opportunity.
Carpe digital
I have a growing conviction that the Church should be in the business of redeeming technology to serve God's purposes.
Like Johann Gutenberg did when he used his new printing press to get more Bibles into more hands. Why not redeem the iPod into a tool for evangelism or discipleship?
The message is sacred; the medium isn't. We need to use the resources we've been given to share the gospel with as many people as possible. It's a stewardship issue. We're far too analogical in our approach to ministry. Carpe digital!
Who said preachers have to preach from behind a pulpit and parishioners have to listen while seated on wooden pews?
When John Wesley was ordained into the Anglican priesthood in 1728, it was assumed that preaching would take place behind a pulpit inside the four walls of a church sanctuary. Preaching outdoors was considered a violation of canon law. John Wesley broke that law and broke the mold.
He wasn't trying to be different for different's sake. His unorthodox methodology of "field preaching" and "circuit riding" prompted disenfranchisement and death threats. Wesley even admitted in 1772: "To this day, field preaching is a cross to me." So why did Wesley take his preaching offsite? In his own words: "I look upon the world as my parish."
Over fifty years, Wesley preached more than 40,000 sermons; traveled 250,000 miles on horseback; and saw 150,000 people convert to Christ.
What's that have to do with podcasting?
Podcasting is field preaching. Podcasting is circuit riding at the speed of light. Without having to saddle up, digital technology enables any preacher to travel 250,000 miles and preach 40,000 sermons with the click of a mouse!
I'll be the first person to say that podcasting is a poor substitute for church. But it's a great supplement.
Here's a sobering fact for those of us who are preachers: 95 percent of what we say is forgotten within three days! But retention rates are more than doubled if people hear or read something twice. That's why I email a written version of my weekend messages to several thousand subscribers. That weekly e-votional™ enables NCCers to read what they've heard. It's a double dose of every message. Podcasting has the same effect. We encourage double dipping!
Trojan horses
Remember the battle of Troy? The Greeks sailed across the Aegean Sea to rescue their kidnapped queen. They thought it would be a short war. Ten years later, the city of Troy was still impregnable. Then, according to Greek mythology, Athena gave Odysseus an idea. The Greeks built a hollow horse big enough to hide a regiment of soldiers.
They parked the horse by the city gate and sailed their ships around the tip of the island.
The Trojans thought the horse was a peace offering. They thought wrong.
In the middle of the night, a regiment of soldiers exited the horse, opened the gates for the Greek army that had sailed back, and they rescued Queen Helen.
Long story short: it took a Trojan horse to accomplish the rescue mission.
Our podcast is a Trojan horse that enables us to get behind the impregnable defense mechanisms that keep people out of church. Why? Because a podcast is asynchronous and non-threatening.
It's a form of e-vangelism, enabling us to reach people we may never meet face-to-face this side of eternity.
Here's a recent email I received:
Dear Pastor Mark,
I read about your church in the New York Times article. It was through that article that I started subscribing to your podcast. I'm writing from Singapore, and I just wanted to thank Theaterchurch.com for expanding their outreach outside the U.S.
Your last series really spoke to me. After listening, I really heard and felt God telling me to return to my burning bush experience. I needed to re-anchor in the things that God had done in my life when I was at college in the U.S. eleven years ago.
As I listened to the messages over my Powerbook, God's presence was SO strong. He enveloped every corner of my room. That evening, God met me and gave me back my fervor.
It's exciting to hear what God is doing with Theaterchurch.com 10,000 miles away from where I am physically. I live halfway around the world, yet it doesn't sound like it's that far away!
Here's the bottom line: If it's worth preaching, it's worth podcasting!
Mark Batterson is pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D.C.
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