Jeremy Smith reflects upon the practice of large churches sending video sermons to other locations. He asks some pointed questions about a plan at the Church of the Resurrection to organize smaller churches into “circuits” that use video sermons from COR 75% of the time.
But the question still remains: if the Gospel of Jesus Christ is preached from afar, not informed by the receiver, is that congregation an individual church or is it an extension of a mother church? If the sermons come from the top-down and community comes from the bottom-up, are they their own churches or the same church in different contexts?
As a part-time local pastor, I would not want to enter into such an agreement. For one, I’ve not yet served a small church that had video projection equipment, so that would be a significant expense and change in the worship space. More to the point, though, my appointment is to provide for order, word, and sacrament at the church I serve. Plugging in an Adam Hamilton video 3 out of 4 weeks says I’m not really fit for one of my primary tasks. It also hands over theological discernment to Hamilton and his staff.
This may be wrongheaded on my part. The “training” and “coaching” aspects of the partnership might be quite helpful if the folks at COR can speak small church. I would not be lining up to hand over the pulpit in the church I serve to a video sermon any time soon.
I am a part-time local pastor serving 
This love we believe to be the medicine of life, the never-failing remedy for all the evils of a disordered world, for all the miseries and vices of men. Wherever this is, there are virtue and happiness going hand in hand. There is humbleness of mind, gentleness, long-suffering, the whole image of God; and at the same time a peace that passeth all understanding, and joy unspeakable and full of glory.
Another inherent problem is the lack of response.
I am reminded of Martin Copenhaver’s chapter “Shaking Hands” in “This Odd and Wonderous Calling” where he is just as responsible for knowing what his congregation thinks as they are of know what he preached on. In it he says: “The sermon is just the beginning. Then comes the conversation, which is often the best part.” One cannot converse with a video screen.
In a sense this goes back to the days of John Wesely where unless you were ordained you had to preach from a script someone else wrote. I would hope that Adam Hamilton would get around to those churches using his video feed and meet some of the people.
In this context the local pastor (as it truly would be) is responsible for order and the daily task of pastoral care. Likely too the local pastor would need to find other ways to teach such as small groups.
I’m also reminded of a statement from someone who spent time pastoring in the British Methodist Church. This person said the congregation didn’t want the pastor to get involved in general church business. They wanted the pastor to focus on visitation and studying the word (including sermon prep).
Re: the verbatim use of Wesley’s “standard sermons”…
This had nothing to do with ordination.
It also had nothing to do with congregations– but Methodist Societies (which are an entirely different kind of animal).
The role of the Standard Sermons was twofold. They were both texts and standards. First, like the Homilies in the Church of England, it provided a compendium of actual sermons that could be used, verbatim, by lay preachers in the Methodist Societies. While some lay preachers would simply read or present these sermons verbatim sometimes, they were also authorized to “take a text” themselves, provided that their preaching stayed connected to and did not move contrary to the established doctrines in Wesley’s Notes upon the New Testament or the Standard Sermons. The evidence is that the lay preachers would do a verbatim presentation more as an exception than the rule. One can hardly imagine a Methodist Society thriving if its lay preacher read one of these sermons 75% of the time or more.
So I can see no real historical points of contact between “video importing” of the preaching in current United Methodist congregations and what early Methodist lay preachers were doing with the Standard Sermons. Parallels, maybe– points of actual contact that would justify this within our tradition, no.
On a slightly different track: I don’t understand this practice at all nor what it is about. I’m assuming that Adam Hamilton is an excellent preacher and that’s ostensibly the reason that one would have him on video. However, I always suspect that there is much more than just “we need to hear a great preacher” going on in these situations. Frankly, the pastor who just left the church I’m now attending was a really fantastic preacher and, although I know that not everyone is, I think that there are actually a lot of excellent preachers around and/or that there could be more if they were properly taught. I always suspect that there is some kind of personality-cult going on in these situations and that they are largely unconscious, both on the part of pastors and on the part of those who decide that they want to attend a church that watches videos of “famous preachers”.
The sermon is where connections are made. From God to the people and people to God. From the preacher to the people and people to the preacher. It is an active relationship between the speaker and the listener. Something is lost in the video aspect of that. There is no ability to speak to the bat that just flew into window or half the congregation leaving. Plus I think COR is successful because of many reasons some of which are found in Adam’s preaching but not all. If the hope is to make these smaller churches more viable, I don’t think piping in Adam’s sermons will magically make that happen. COR is successful because of great leadership, worship, and a passionate staff that can hold the largest UM congregation in the nation together. That is completely different than small church culture and style. But maybe resistance is futile.
This can provide the opportunity for churches to be served by Certified Lay Ministers, volunteers who have passion but may not have skills and keep churches alive in areas that would otherwise go underserved. I commend you for your commitment to serve as a PLP which may be the greatest need in our connection but the day of every church being able to have paid “clergy” may be coming to a close and a return to a missional community//house church model similar to first century church may be returning as we become more diffused in culture.
In many ways this is not disimilar from Wesley’s model where he provided thirty or more sermons per year to his lay preachers and required that they be read verbatim in early Methodist meetings to insure theological integrity and intentional training.
I am not saying that I fully embrace this model, I have one I think is more feasible but not yet implemented and, of course, I don’t have the resources that COR has to spread its concept. The end of the day all community is indigenous, and a key leader (class leader) must also be indigenous, but if we can free them up from preparing poor messages to do excellent evangelism it may be a worthwhile endeavor.
Wesley was an experimenter and pragmatist. We learn more from trying something radically different than we do from maintaining a broken system. I remain:
Consumed by the Call,
Dr. Marty Cauley
Already one may buy recordings of Adam Hamilton’s sermons along with study guides. Many congregations use these in their Sunday school classes or other small groups. There may be value in making this process more immediate. I’m sure COR has more resources to develop weekly study guides than a smaller congregation would even if it would be better for congregations to focus on the sermons of their own pastor.
Thanks for the link, John. I think you hit on it: if we are called to provide word, sacrament, and order…does that mean we outsource Word so that we might do better at Sacrament and Order? Or are we called to do all three at the excellence level we have?
Great comments already. Thanks for articulating the problem in a more accessible fashion.
Many small churches struggle with being able to get decent Pastors to serve them. I currently serve two small churches in a small town that are different denominations because neither can afford a full-time Pastor. Let’s face it, a real, live Pastor is expensive! I think that we should be working on getting more local Lay-speakers and part-time pastors to fill pulpits, But if one is not available I don’t think the “Video Preacher” is a bad idea. It would take some getting used too! However, almost everything we watch on TV is prerecorded so it’s not a big jump. Our older people would probably have the hardest time adjusting to it but it’s not like they don’t have a Pastor.
First, according to my understanding – they would get a “real” preacher one Sunday a month. And I’m assuming they would celebrate communion that Sunday. Second, it would be very important for the preacher (or preachers) to visit the sick and come out for Bible Studies at other times. In other words, the preacher(s) must work hard at becoming their Pastor(s).
As far as the cost goes, I purchased a used projector on Ebay for $250. I was able to integrate it into our meager sound system. The projector and a DVD player and a white wall are all you need. If you don’t have a white wall, I bought an 8 x 8 foot screen for less than $100 delivered (also from Ebay).
I’d say that there is a big difference between getting videos to serve existing small congregations and intentionally setting up satellite churches that only get the videos.
As a disabled pastor on family leave participating in COR’s online services have been a Godsend. RezOnline provides a ministry setting that most small and local congregations can’t even imagine especially for people with special needs. I truly see this as one component to our ministry with all of God’s children and especially those of us who are not capable of worshipping in a local church at this time.
As far as using COR services in a local public setting, a projector, a white sheet, a computer, and internet connection (most of which are already available, if you ask around) are all you need to share in a public space. If not for less than $600 everything could be set up and I am sure there are other churches if not COR itself that would work with smaller groups to provide the basic needs. But having used Alpha, Disciple and other video based programs as well as done live satellite linked conferences for years, either live streaming COR services or using recordings can be incredibly beneficial tools especially for communities with few financial and or “Elder” resources but committed “lay” people who want powerful evangelism. The spirit moves in mysterious ways and I believe this is one of many available to us at this time.
In Christ Service,
Rev. Deborah Talbott
Illinois Great Rivers Conference
“My appointment is to provide for order, word, and sacrament at the church I serve. Plugging in an Adam Hamilton video 3 out of 4 weeks says I’m not really fit for one of my primary tasks.”
John, I echo your thoughts here. If the dCOM and/or my DS feel that I am incapable of performing the duties of my appointment then let them deny my annual license. The people that I serve deserve more than an impersonal video… even when it features a dynamic preacher like Adam Hamilton in this case.
Gasoline is expensive, so shall we just stream it, so we can each sit at home in front of our computers?
I don’t want to become a fuddy-duddy … and the church does indeed need to speak to the surrounding culture in a way that can be heard … but what is our ecclesiology? I am concerned about relationships becoming more and more “virtual” if you will — and think that the church has a great opportunity to live something different.
Maybe not wholly on point, but I thought relevant to this discussion:
http://www.christianpost.com/news/mars-hill-church-dont-call-us-campuses-anymore-53736/