So are they going to church or a movie? That's pretty incredible. In fact, why get out at all. If the sermon is video and the worship, how is that diffrent from watching it on t.v. at home? At least there the parking is great, traffic is almost nothing, and you can watch in your pajamas!

Around 400 adults show up each Sunday at 10 a.m. to see the same message the folks at our main campus see. Of course, the Midtown folks see it with ample parking, less traffic, and the smell of buttered popcorn. AND, they can catch a matinee after the service. Now, that's a cool church!

Wow. Church, with buttered popcorn. AND you can catch a movie right after, without leaving? Sweeeet. Church should always be so... cool?

Honestly, I'm more in favour of church plants than satellite church services. But that's just me, I like it "real".

Oh, Jared. You awaken my inner troll.

(...) to help reach people that are far off from God and disenfranchised with traditional church.

That may be one of the most insightful malapropisms I've ever read in churchy promotional literature. Disenfranchised! Wow.

You must FIGHT...for your RIGHT...to PAR-TAY non-traditional church!

Get up, stand up...stand up for your rights. Get up, stand up...don't give up the fight.

Which correction is better: (a) to substitute a word that fits better, like 'disenchanted'; or, (b) to correct the grammar so that it is the "traditional" church that has disenfranchised people?

Jared, you're a prophet

My wife's grandparents used to do something similar while snowbirding in Florida. Looks like it's being repackaged for the current generation.

I suppose that there isn't technically anything wrong with video worship, so it's hard to rail against it. Still, I cannot see it as ideal.

Worship is so often contorted in our churches. American culture has brought us to the point that people believe that worship can only happen in the confines of a musical setting. I asked my Junior High students in our ministry a couple of years ago how many believed that worship was only possible when the band was playing on stage and about half of the 120 students there raised their hand. I had to immediately regroup and change course with what I had to say (something a video speaker could not have done, absent the supernatural leading of the Spirit). This lack of understanding convicted me as one of the shepherds of the ministry.

My goodness. What if we did church without any music at all? Isn't it possible to worship corporately without a single note sung/played, etc.? I love music, but if it is becoming a hindrance to an individual's understanding of the basics of what love for God looks like, isn't it a reasonable suggestion that we just scrap it altogether?

I haven't been to seminary, nor have I studied church history. I know that Paul sang hymns with Silas in prison (Acts 16), but did that always happen corporately in church settings? I don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water here, but I am wondering how necessary it is to have worship in a corporate setting.

I suppose the real question I am asking is, if you don't have live worship leaders, isn't it just better to not have music at all until God provides such leadership?

I don't condemn the methodology of that church, but I'm not reaching my hand out to pat them on the back, either.

My goodness. What if we did church without any music at all? Isn't it possible to worship corporately without a single note sung/played, etc.? I love music, but if it is becoming a hindrance to an individual's understanding of the basics of what love for God looks like, isn't it a reasonable suggestion that we just scrap it altogether?

Matt Redman again. I think he and the other leaders of his church were right to conclude that music had become an idol for them; I think it has in many congregations. Scrap it is exactly what they did (for quite some time), and I think there are others who would do well to follow their example.

AM, do you have a link to a story about that? I can't seem to find anything via Google, but it sounds like something I'd like to read about.

Here's a brief one. According to this account, that period wasn't actually completely devoid of music--it seems to have been rather a Quaker sort of thing, where individuals in the congregation would sing as their offering of worship--and Redman gives all the credit to his pastor, but the broader point holds. According to what I've been told, this period in their church's life lasted several months.

"According to what I've been told, this period in their church's life lasted several months."

And coming out of it is what I consider (though some here I know disagree :-) to be one of the best, if not the best contemporary worship songs ever: The Heart of Worship.