High tech tools let growing number of congregations meet in satellite sites By Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Silhouetted against giant projection screens, worshippers at North Way Christian Community's satellite church in Oakland watch the Rev. Doug Melder's videotaped sermon, "Colossians: Re-imaging the Gospel in an Image-Saturated World. " The preacher at North Way Christian Community's Oakland campus wanted to show how materialism has been burned into American brains, and called for corporate logos to be projected on the church wall beside him. Looking right into the eyes of people seated before him, he told them to yell when they recognized a symbol. A swoosh appeared and a few voices called "Nike!" "Good. Nike. But I need a little more participation," the Rev. Doug Melder said. The trouble was the Rev. Melder was no more "live" than the projected logos. He had delivered the sermon the night before at North Way's main campus in the North Hills and was recorded in high definition. Now his life-size HD image was being projected onto a speaker's platform in Oakland. At North Way-Oakland, the music is live and a there's a real pastor who cares for people's souls. A children's ministry meets downstairs. But the sermon is virtual reality. It is part of a growing movement of "satellite ministries," in which smaller offshoots revolve around a bigger church, sometimes hundreds of miles away. Some, like North Way, see themselves ...
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High tech tools let growing number of congregations meet in satellite sites By Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Silhouetted against giant projection screens, worshippers at North Way Christian Community's satellite church in Oakland watch the Rev. Doug Melder's videotaped sermon, "Colossians: Re-imaging the Gospel in an Image-Saturated World. " The preacher at North Way Christian Community's Oakland campus wanted to show how materialism has been burned into American brains, and called for corporate logos to be projected on the church wall beside him. Looking right into the eyes of people seated before him, he told them to yell when they recognized a symbol. A swoosh appeared and a few voices called "Nike!" "Good. Nike. But I need a little more participation," the Rev. Doug Melder said. The trouble was the Rev. Melder was no more "live" than the projected logos. He had delivered the sermon the night before at North Way's main campus in the North Hills and was recorded in high definition. Now his life-size HD image was being projected onto a speaker's platform in Oakland. At North Way-Oakland, the music is live and a there's a real pastor who cares for people's souls. A children's ministry meets downstairs. But the sermon is virtual reality. It is part of a growing movement of "satellite ministries," in which smaller offshoots revolve around a bigger church, sometimes hundreds of miles away. Some, like North Way, see themselves ...