September 18, 2006

FC in the Press

There’s a nice article about Fellowship Church (FC) that was published recently in the Miami Herald. You might ask, “Why would a Miami newspaper write a story about a Texas church?” That’s because FC is no longer just a Texas church. This summer God led our staff to open a new campus in south Florida. It was more of a joining with another church that was in need of resources, members, and a fresh vision.

Our pastor, Ed Young, continues to do the majority of his preaching from the Grapevine, Texas campus. After his first sermon is recorded to DVD and delivered to each satellite campus, attendees watch the sermon on three huge hi def screens. Personally speaking, watching the video of the sermon isn’t too noticeably different from watching the pastor live. Even when the pastor is live, I find myself watching the side screens more than him anyway. The Miami campus is few weeks behind us, in that they are watching the Clueless series. All the other campuses started a new series this week called Sexual Revolution.

How do the multiple campuses work from a web standpoint? Our site was built to handle multiple campuses. Designed in-house before I arrived, the content management system allows us to pick and choose what content (including entire pages, individual content blocks, or images) displays for what campus. When we got word that we were opening a new campus, we were able to have the new campus’ site up in just a couple days.

As I’ve said, I believe that throughout history, God has always used the latest technology to communicate His grace to the world. This is just another way that we are embracing technology as a tool for ministry.