Can There be a Digital Church?
As I write this article in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, I have discovered a new explosion method for ministry to the Christian public, i.e., The Digital Church. Almost everyone has a computer, iPhone and iPad, but many do not realize their computer could be a digital method God can use to bring His people together in the middle of our medical fears and uncertainty.
For the past four weeks, I have attended Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, on my iPad. I have sung along with the praise team, and I took communion with my own bread and cup on Easter Sunday. Pastor Jonathan Falwell told me that the church had 50,000 people viewing the Easter message. On an average Sunday, Thomas Road has 10,000 to 12,000 including four separate satellite church services. Who were the almost 40,000 viewing visitors on Easter? Was it to celebrate a special holiday, or is this a new trend for the future?
Last week I decided to teach my Pastor’s Bible class online. It’s the Sunday school class I have taught for over 30 years. I sent an email telling the class members how they could get connected on Zoom. Around 40 logged in digitally at 8:00 am on April 19. About half had their computer cameras on, so I could see all their faces with their names below their faces.
Dr. John Hugo, professor of music at Liberty University sang, Amazing Grace, and David Bennett, a pilot for American Airlines, played the piano. I brought a lesson on “God’s Call Is God’s Enablement.”
David Benoit, associate teacher of the class brought “Headlines Behind the News,” a study of predicted plagues in The Book of Revelation, comparing our current pandemic to the end days. He emphasized that the Bible called them “birth pangs.” That means our pandemic, like a woman’s labor during the birthing process, increases in both severity and time, as the Second Coming of Christ approaches.
A neighborhood church down the road that has an average attendance of 300 had over 1,400 viewers logged in for their Easter service. Another church in Harrisonburg, Virginia, of 350, had 1,400 viewers to log in. Calvary Road Baptist Church, Alexandria, Virginia, that averages around 450 worshipers weekly, had over 2,000 viewers. Is the digital church a quick answer for quarantined families, or will it continue to grow in numbers after the nation becomes normal again?
The power of the gospel to transform lives draws people to a local church. But in times of crises, disciples who are determined to worship the Lord each Sunday find innovative ways to worship. I walked through the Catacombs beneath the city of Rome where early Christians worshiped when persecuted. I also visited the caves where churches in that same persecution met in the mountains around Antioch, Syria.
It is not the meeting place, nor the surrounding conditions that is important, it is the power of the indwelling Christ that overcomes barriers and uses whatever medium or method is available to draw Christians together. Didn’t Jesus promise, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in their midst” (Matthew 18:20)?
Methods are many,Principles are few.Methods may change,But principles never do.
I wrote the book, The Ten Greatest Revivals Ever in 2000, and when I finished the book, I was surprised to find the different methods that drew believers together for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The First Great Awakening in the 1700s was spread along with enthusiastic street preaching. The Second Great Awakening in the early 1800s began at the Brush Arbor meetings in the Midwest but spread to the Eastern seacoast. The Layman’s Prayer Revival, 1858-61, saw the great noon prayer meetings in the business districts of America’s towns and cities. They were not led by clergy, but lay businessmen who filled churches to pray.
When I first researched Church Growth in this century I saw the Sunday school movement in the 1950s motivated by laymen teaching small classes that propelled the Southern Baptist Convention to be the largest denomination in America. Pastor W. A. Criswell of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, built the largest church in America by dividing Sunday school classes when the class had reached an average attendance of 15 to 20 people. The basic laws of a Sunday school growth said the average class had 10 people and dividing and beginning a new class led to doubling their evangelistic outreach.
In the 1960s came the Sunday school bus explosion. Many churches bought whole fleets of old public school buses, lettered them with the church’s name and faithful workers canvassed neighborhoods on Saturdays inviting families to send their children to ride the bus to Sunday school. My church in Virginia had 100 buses, and the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, had 550 buses, which brought in over 20,000 children from South Chicago, Illinois.
The 1970s saw many churches expanding into television ministries. Their services were taped and replayed the following week; some had live telecasts. People all over America went to church with Rex Humbard . . . Robert Schuller . . . Jerry Falwell or a local pastor. The television “method” collapsed in 1987 when Jim Bakker was tried in a federal court and went to prison for illegal misuse of ministry funds. This shocking revelation in daily television brought his television empire down, but also many other local church telecast ministries were lost.
The next growth method seemed to be shifting to contemporary praise music in the 1990s. It was not the music of organs and pianos, but praise bands, drums and keyboards. Perhaps Jack Hayford’s song, Worship His Majesty, was one of the motivators, or it could be Darlene Zschech’s song, Shout to the Lord. Was it the modern music that drew worshipers to church? No! Contemporary praise music could be felt in the souls. Praise worship exploded because of the presence of Jesus in their contemporary music, but more importantly they felt Jesus in their hearts.
What is the next method God will use to revitalize His church and draw people to worship? Will God use the digital church to reach a world where everyone embraces the computer or cell phone?
Jentezen Franklin, pastor of Free Chapel in Gainesville, Georgia, has over 8,000 attending his two church services and another 4,000 in seven other multisite churches viewing by live streaming. But he testified, “I am motivated as I look into the camera and realize 90,000 people are watching me digitally.” That is a total of over 100,000 gathered to worship every Sunday.
Pastor Chuck Pierce, of Glory of Zion Ministry, Corinth, Texas, has about 1,200 in regular attendance at his church every Sunday, but many weeks the attendance doubles to over 2,500 because of all the online members who travel to experience live the worship located 60 miles northwest of Dallas. The total number of digital worshipers from around the world is over 60,000 weekly.
Pastor Pierce stands in the baptismal pool in Texas ready to immerse a new professing believer into the water. All over the world, faithful church workers are also standing in water with a new believer ready to be baptized. Pierce says, “It is not the authority of the one baptizing you – it may be a relative – it is the authority of the church and Jesus Christ . . . I baptized you my brother/sister . . .” Then Pierce lowers the new believer into the water, and simultaneously all over the world new believers are baptized to become members of the church.
Pierce – just like pastors all over America – take up tithes and offerings with PayPal or other forms of receiving online giving.
The Church of the Highlands, Birmingham, Alabama, has over 55,000 weekly worshipers in this Assembly of God church. There are 22 multisites, with 54 services every Sunday. But 19 of these churches meet in correctional facilities across Alabama. Whether they gather by computer or iPad, their lives are forever changed. This prison ministry made headlines in an Alabama newspaper where over 100 inmates were baptized on one Sunday day of worship.
God has always adapted to contemporary methods that reach people with the gospel and communicated the Good News. But the power and authority and each new method is the presence of Jesus Christ. Remember, “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20).
Elmer Towns
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