The Distributed Church
The increasing numbers of worshipers after September 11, 2001, that forced Northland to create its first fully interactive multisite location at a nearby High School . Through fiber-optic cable, Northland was able to have a worship service at both locations. Duets were sung between singers half a mile apart, and Scripture read by either congregation was able to be heard in real time at both sites.
Northland replicated the multisite worship service in several different locations, and now holds concurrent worship services with more than a thousand congregants in Mount Dora, West Oaks, and Oviedo, Florida. The same technology has allowed the church to hold concurrent interactive services with partner churches in Windhoek, Namibia; Kiev, Ukraine; and Cairo, Egypt.
To more fully realize the potential of a truly distributed church, Northland opened a new facility in August 2007. The $43 million, 3,100-seat building features technology that enables it to be a hub capable of transmitting enormous amounts of data each weekend to sites around the world. Today, a growing segment of Northland’s congregation has never set foot inside the church building. Approximately 2,000 people worldwide now participate in Northland’s worship services online via InSite, an interactive online church application. Online worshipers participate in services via live webcast and have many ways to interact with the church and with one another, including instant online access to a pastor and the ability to chat with other worshipers. In 2009 this live worship tool also became accessible via iPhone and 2010 Northland worship services went live on Facebook.
Read more about this topic: Joel Hunter
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