What a wonderful techno world!
I know some of us 50-somethings are entering the 21st century reluctantly, kicking & screaming as we go - but I'm not one of 'em. (Well, I am in the 50-something group, but I like technology). Today I had one of the neatest surprises of the year:
Between the 2 Sunday services I was standing in the atrium greeting folks, when I met a neat young couple who were visiting CLC for the very first time. When I asked my standard question, "How did you hear about us?", the husband replied, "Been listening to your podcast for this series, and decided to come today to hear it live".
Now get this: they live over 40 minutes' drive away from CLC and had no other contact with our church family whatsoever! In fact, he explained that he often watches Joel Osteen on television and noticed that Joel has a free podcast of his sermons. He thought, 'hey, that'll be something to do when I'm mowing the lawn - I can listen to the Word at the same time". After trying that for a while, he thought, I wonder who else has sermon podcasts, so he did an internet search, and CLC popped up on his screen!
He said we were about halfway thru the Old Testament portion of our "Road Trip 4 God" series when he & his wife started listening, and they enjoyed the teaching so much they went back to our website and downloaded the earlier messages, before deciding to drive up today to get the Word in person.
How cool is that? I've noticed for a few months already that virtually every newcomer I speak with in the atrium tells me that before they visited the church in person, they visited our website - but this is the first time someone has told me they were already listening to the messages via podcast.
This 21st century technology is giving us the opportunity to get the Word out to people all over the globe, in ways we could only have dreamed of before. My new friend, Mark Batterson has actually said that he now ministers to more people thru his podcast each week than hear him live in his church in Washington, DC!
Don't talk to me about the "good old days" - I'm living in them, right now!
Between the 2 Sunday services I was standing in the atrium greeting folks, when I met a neat young couple who were visiting CLC for the very first time. When I asked my standard question, "How did you hear about us?", the husband replied, "Been listening to your podcast for this series, and decided to come today to hear it live".
Now get this: they live over 40 minutes' drive away from CLC and had no other contact with our church family whatsoever! In fact, he explained that he often watches Joel Osteen on television and noticed that Joel has a free podcast of his sermons. He thought, 'hey, that'll be something to do when I'm mowing the lawn - I can listen to the Word at the same time". After trying that for a while, he thought, I wonder who else has sermon podcasts, so he did an internet search, and CLC popped up on his screen!
He said we were about halfway thru the Old Testament portion of our "Road Trip 4 God" series when he & his wife started listening, and they enjoyed the teaching so much they went back to our website and downloaded the earlier messages, before deciding to drive up today to get the Word in person.
How cool is that? I've noticed for a few months already that virtually every newcomer I speak with in the atrium tells me that before they visited the church in person, they visited our website - but this is the first time someone has told me they were already listening to the messages via podcast.
This 21st century technology is giving us the opportunity to get the Word out to people all over the globe, in ways we could only have dreamed of before. My new friend, Mark Batterson has actually said that he now ministers to more people thru his podcast each week than hear him live in his church in Washington, DC!
Don't talk to me about the "good old days" - I'm living in them, right now!
posted by Pastor Jerry McQuay at 5:22 PM
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