Burns Flat CPC breaks digital ground. Photo-macforensics.com
On May 17th, 2009, the session of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Burns Flat, Oklahoma commissioned a group of men and women to explore the role of technology in this small, western Oklahoma part of the Universal Church.
The task was presented to the group, henceforth called the Technology Commission, was described in the following way.
Technology acquisition is tough business. Done well, it rivals pastoral search committees for intensity, building committees for volume of information to digest and internalize, and the discipline of maintaining a healthy diet while working in a candy store. Done well, it also produces good fruit, even if the decision is something other than a technology purchase.
Timid Souls need not apply...
There was a technology upgrade made fairly quickly. The video recording of church services entered the digital age. Not quite a year after this commission was effected, the Burns Flat Cumberland Presbyterian Church uploaded its first video to YouTube. There are still a few lighting and sound challenges to be conquered, but the message ministry of this small congregation has reached beyond its walls and beyond the copied VHS tape mode.
Why YouTube?
Videos take up a lot of server space—space that the church website doesn’t have and the website benefactor is not ready to fund or manage at this point. That means you will get some ads when you watch the video.
Here’s the good news for most ads. They have become very context sensitive. Christian videos usually have Christian or at least clean-living type ads. The videos can be shared simply by emailing a link to them and eventually, an index of what we post to Youtube will be available on our website.
For the kid that uploads a video every time he gets a new zit, this may be old hat. For a small church to be spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ in video, this is big step. For those of you old enough to remember the days before cable and satellite, most shows left you with the phrase I will use in regard to the Cumberland Presbyterian Church’s we presence…
STAY TUNED
Here is a look at the first video.
Don’t forget to tune into the One Month to Live Challenge going on now in western Oklahoma. Join the challenge anytime at www.onemonthtolive.info.
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