Back in mid-2004, while serving as the senior pastor of Wekiva Presbyterian Church in Longwood, Florida, and while dreaming about new initiatives for the church, an idea began to form in my mind...
I was trying to think of how we might reach others who for one reason or another were not able to be with us in person on a Sunday morning
Now, I knew that TV broadcast was one way, but the cost of setting up such a ministry seemed out of the realm of possibility.
I also remembered fondly from my Pittsburgh roots that the Rev. Dr. Hugh Thomson Kerr had initiated regular radio broadcasts of worship at Shadyside Presbyterian Church, during his tenure there - the first church anywhere to do so. It would be great to do as he did (a minister I have long considered among the very finest ever). But, again, the cost of a weekly radio broadcast seemed daunting.
Fortunately, my thoughts moved from the past to the present day.
One was hearing that businesses were having meetings virtually, rather than in person. If a business meeting could happen via computer, I wondered if perhaps worship meetings on Sunday morning would be able to do the same.
I don't pretend to be technically savvy but I know someone who is very much so.... David Larson who is the youngest Charter Member of Wekiva Presbyterian Church. So sometime in the summer, I asked him if he would be willing to look into the possibility of our doing worship on the internet each Sunday. Dave liked the idea, and said he would research it.
After having done so, he told me that it wasn't possible. That the technology wasn't there.
I was naturally disappointed, but of course understood. So I put that idea completely out of my mind.
Fast forward a few months later. One fine day, Dave telephoned me. After we had said our hellos, without further ado, he said, "We can do it!"
I - having forgotten about my earlier request - said, "Do what?"
Dave explained that he had done more research. That a member of his staff had a brother in Puerto Rico who had managed to do live worship in his church there, for a special occasion, and that fortuitously, Dave's office and computer hardware were just within the proper distance to allow the webcast to be sent there and then broadcast on the internet from there.
He asked me to visit him at his office so he could explain it in more detail. Which I did. And which he did.
You know those visuals of a rocket scientist at a huge blackboard working out an intricate equation? It was like that. A huge whiteboard was in Dave's conference room. While I sat watching, he started at the left, and began making his way to the right. Numbers. Diagrams. Arrows. They filled the board. It was totally impressive.
And I was t totally lost, after the first few markings Dave wrote...
When he got to the far end of the whiteboard, he turned around toward me grinning, and said, "There you have it!"
I could tell he was expecting a wise and informed response. What I did manage to say was this, pointing first to the left end of the board: "So you video the worship service there..." and then pointing to the far right of the board, "And the worship service appears on people's home computer, there."
"Exactly!" Dave said. With a huge smile.
So we had the plan.
Being Good Presbyterians, we took the plan to the Session of the church for their approval.
And we set the first Sunday in January 2005 as our launch date. Which went off as it should have, and began a live worship webcast that Wekiva had continued each week, up to today - and on to the future.
It is good that what was brand new then has become a universal aspect of churches everywhere, now. I am glad to have been a part of its inception.
There's a sequel to the story, which I will add at some time in the future.
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