Build

an Internet
Church Campus
excerpt from The iChurch Method
Vol.3 – Digital Mission Field

Jason Caston
THE ICHURCH METHOD
Internet Church Campus
Traditionally, when churches were organized, their goals were to impact the community
and bring the Gospel to the locals. The Pastor would be a part of the community, and
everyone in the geographical area would be the focus of the church. Today, things
have changed, and the moment your church goes online (Social Media, website,
mobile, Internet TV), you have the potential to become an international ministry.

Church is happening outside the walls of the sanctuary, and churches need to adapt
and take the ministry to the people. Additionally, the way people want to connect with
their churches has expanded beyond the traditional midweek and weekend services.
Now, they want to connect 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from anywhere in the
world, and on any Internet-enabled device.

Enter the Internet Church Campus and the need for an online extension of the offline
church. The Internet Church Campus is more than a streaming page that broadcasts
live services a few times a week. It’s a fully functional, interactive online experience with
an online Pastor and online members.

This is not just a place for people who decide not to watch online instead of coming to
service. This is a place for people who are online members of this church and possibly
live in places where traditional church locations are not an option. You may be asking,
“How can I implement this in my church?” Well, I’m glad you asked.

At The Potter’s House of Dallas’ Internet Church Campus, we have quite a few working
parts of our online campus—an online streaming platform, campus blog, mobile app,
Internet TV channel, Social Media platforms, online campus Pastor, 20 online chat
hosts, and 10 online prayer partners (and two tech geeks watching the platform,
including myself). That’s quite a number of people, but we have an online audience of
about 40,000 members. You can create an Internet Church Campus with a much
smaller number of people, and it’s free!

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Here are the four things you need to create an Internet Church Campus:
● Streaming video player.
● Online church platform with live chat and Social Media integration.
● Online donations software.
● Online Pastor who can be a chat host, prayer partner, and more.

The streaming video player is what you use to live stream your weekly services. Free
options are Ustream.tv or Livestream.com. I have frequently seen both of those used.
Keep in mind that the free options have commercials, and sometimes, those
commercials are not church-friendly.

Another option for free live streaming is YouTube. When you set up a “YouTube for
Nonprofits” channel, usually after receiving the Google Grants $10,000 Ad program
option, you can use YouTube to stream live services. Simply make sure you don’t use
copyrighted music. That will quickly get your channel shut down. Google Grants is a
great program that nonprofits can take advantage of to drive traffic to their websites,
and the best part is that it’s free. Lastly, if you decide that you don’t want to stream live
services, you can record your service and use YouTube or Vimeo to upload an archived
video of the service. That will also work on the next step we discuss below—the online
church platform.

Your online church platform is the main component of your Internet church experience.
There are many options out there, such as MediaSocial.tv and 316 Networks, but the
most cost-effective program is Church Online Platform. This platform, built by the
amazing people at LifeChurch.tv, has integrated all of the great features their online
campuses are known for—live chat, notes, Social Media integration/Sharing and
scheduling. Set-up is quick and easy, and they host the platform for you. You can add
a link for your online donation page (use Paypal if you don’t have other options), and
people can donate while watching the services.

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Lastly, you need an online Pastor—someone to lead this online community, guide the
conversations, pray for people, connect with people, and disciple people as they utilize
this online ministry platform. This is also a place to utilize volunteers who can help
connect with people as your online audience continues to grow.

If you want to learn more, you can check out OnlineChurchLeaders.com where there is
a variety of online experts teaching thousands of church leaders how to leverage
technology to expand ministry and further the Great Commission.

I want to emphasize, even though there is a theological perspective as to how an

Internet Church Campus would operate along with an ongoing debate on the validity of
worshipping outside the church walls, that is not what this book is about. My perspective
is that the Gospel needs to be taken to the masses and accessed so that life-
transformation can happen anywhere. Therefore, I am a proponent of the numerous
ways that technology can take the Gospel outside of the church walls and around the
world. My focus in this book is to present the ways that technology can advance the
Gospel online and help change lives.

The Internet Church Campus is the best example of The iChurch Method in action.
Internet Church takes every aspect of The iChurch Method—web, media, ecommerce,
social, and mobile—and puts it all into one integrated online experience, giving online
users an interactive, immersive online campus.

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Live vs. Archived Video
When creating your Internet Church online experience, there are two ways you can
approach the viewing of services, live services, or archived (pre-recorded) services.
Live experiences require a live streaming provider that broadcasts your church services
at a certain time. Live experiences also require churches to have a good size
broadband connection. I recommend 10MB, seeing that people will watch the services
and connect from around the world. Additionally, live services require cameras and
microphones that are connected to the Internet to make sure the online broadcast has
good video and audio quality. Archived services require cameras and microphones,
similar to live services, but they do not need to be Internet-connected. Services just
need to be recorded in High Defintion (HD) or Standard Definition (SD) format.
However, like many people, HD is preferred. This video can, then, be uploaded to
Vimeo or YouTube and added to the Internet Church Campus platform to be scheduled
for viewing.

There are benefits and drawbacks to having live and/or archived services. Your
audience and your church’s technical capabilities will determine which type of online
service experience will help them best connect online and grow your Internet Church
Campus. Now, let’s look at how to set one up.

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Setting up Your Internet Campus
Church Online Platform (ChurchOnlinePlatform.com)
Church Online Platform from LifeChurch has a very clear goal: To remove the barrier of
technology so any church can reach people for Christ through online ministry. They
break this down into three distinct areas:

● Technology - With robust controls and a sleek user interface, the Church Online
Platform packs the most powerful church online controls into one free tool.

● Community - It's more than a video player. It's an agreeing-in-prayer, real-life,

around-the-world community builder. With Chat, Live Prayer, and synced video
streaming, Church Online Platform is all about doing church together.

● Simplicity - By drawing the components together into one easy-to-manage tool,

the Church Online Platform makes it possible for churches of any size to reach
the world for Christ.

These three key areas are just the start of how amazing this free platform is. Did I forget
to mention that it is FREE? Yes indeed! Another one of their key focuses is to provide
free online tools to help churches advance the Kingdom, including this platform. If you
want to learn more, check out http://lifechurch.tv/churches.

Here are the key features of the Church Online Platform:

● Live Chat - Share life experience, answer questions, and encourage each other
in the real-time chat sidebar.

● Live Prayer - People supporting other people in prayer during any experience
and receiving prayer requests between experiences.

● Chat Moderation - Stay in control of your chat experiences with actions like

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 “Delete a Comment,” “Mute User,” and “Ban IP Address.” There's even an
“Expletive Filter” to keep your chats focused on Christ.

● Notes -Your Church Online attendees can take notes in the sidebar and, then,
print or email them for later review.

● Synced Viewing - The power of the Church Online Platform is the unity of shared
experiences. Broadcast your services as 'simulated live,' and all your viewers
and chatters can watch a service with a synced starting time. They'll discuss the
message or ask questions as the sermon is happening. You can also offer 'on-
demand' viewing that starts playback any time someone visits your site.

● Social Media - Engage existing attendees and attract new ones with built-in
connections to major social platforms.

● Mobile - Stream your videos to any mobile device and get the full experience on
tablets.

● Organized Data - Gain powerful insights into every facet of your Church Online
services to help you make solid, informed ministry decisions.

● Dashboard - The Dashboard is your home-base for data. Find stats and charts
for everything from new attendees to prayer engagement.

● Summary Email - Get all the high-level data you, your Pastors, or your board
could wish for right in your inbox with an automatically-generated recap of every
online event.

● Customization - The Church Online Platform is fully customizable. From color

choices to user interactions, you're in control.

● YouVersion Digital Bible Integration - Embed YouVersion's 700+ versions and

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 1000+ languages directly into your online experience, and reach people from
different countries and backgrounds in the language of their hearts.

● Slides - Poll questions and salvation slides allow your attendees to participate
with certain cues in your experience, and you can create custom slides for event-
specific needs.

● Automations - Create triggers and responses that tailor messages and

interactions for certain attendees. For example, use the Entrance URL
Automation to greet an attendee who finds your site through a Facebook ad with
a custom welcome video, or thank an attendee who invited a guest to Church
Online.

● Theme Editor - Choose colors, video sizes, and chat modes, and customize
virtually every button and function of the platform. You can also choose from our
library of theme templates and be up and running with a classy look in minutes.

● Streaming Provider – Virtually every third-party streaming provider is compatible.

Try YouTube, Media Fusion, Stream Monkey, Lightcast Media, or another
streaming provider of your choice. Simply embed your third-party streaming code
in the Church Online Platform and start broadcasting.

● Roles & Permissions - Allow different access for different roles. Volunteers and
hosts can perform basic functions while you and your admins can make major
changes.

● Translations- Serve attendees in their native languages with automatic, real-time

chat translations. For example, if your Chat Hosts type in English, an Arabic
speaker will seamlessly receive those messages in their own language. More
than 70 languages are translated by the platform. Therefore, you can reach every
major language group with the Gospel of Christ.

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 ● 100% Free - We believe in the larger mission of the Church so much that we
want you to have this tool without worrying about fees, trial-periods, or hidden
costs. The Church Online Platform is free, and so is every new feature and
update. Period.

● Help Desk - Another free thing that's included with the Church Online Platform is
world-class help/support and documentation from the very people who built it. -
help.churchonlineplatform.com - @coplatform

With this many features, there’s an abundance of reasons why your church can create
an Internet Church campus today!

Media Social (MediaSocial.tv)

An Internet church platform that has a great user experience is Plain Joe’s Media Social
Internet Church Campus software. Media Social has come up with a great solution, and
with a price tag of $250 per month, it is within the budget of many churches.

Here are the features of Media Social’s Internet Campus Software

● Ad Space – Ad space area for the ministry with images to showcase products,
events, and services of the ministry.
● Login/Logout – This is the login/logout area of the administrator.
● Who’s Online List – This area shows who all is logged in to the Internet campus.
This area is used for the ministry to communicate with individuals and see
important information about everyone logged in and watching.
● Video Player – This is the major viewing area of the online campus. The live or
archived video stream is shown here in 640x480 format.
● Announcements/Polls – This great feature allows for real-time announcements
and polls displayed right under the video player. A great way to communicate
with online viewers in a quick and efficient manner.

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Here are additional features with Media Social’s Internet Campus Software. When you
are looking at their platform, you will see the following icons that are in the left column of
the interactive module, beneath the Announcements/Polls area.
● Livewall – The Livewall is the live chat area for real-time communication and
chatting with administrators and online viewers.
● Notes – The Notes tab allows users to take notes and email them to themselves
or others.
● Schedule – The Schedule tab shows the schedule for live and/or archived shows.
● Facebook – The Facebook tab is where users can interact with Facebook within
the Internet campus.
● Map – The Map tab shows the locations of online users anywhere in the world.
● Unlock – The Unlock tab allows the tab to unlock from the page and become it’s
own webpage module.
● Additional Ad Space – Beneath these tab features is additional space for image
ads for ministry events, products, and services.

With all these features set up for you, your organization is responsible for providing
video content that you want to stream (mp4 video files) and a live streaming provider
(unless you don’t want a live experience). In The iChurch Method Vol. 1, I talked about
how to use livestream.com or Ustream.tv as a free live streaming provider, and that
solution could work with Media Social as well. Another feature not mentioned here
that’s available on the back-end is the scheduling feature. Many ministries want to
broadcast at a certain time and/or set up a schedule of shows for the day or week. This
feature is available via Media Social, and the Internet campus can become an entire
media center for the viewers with scheduled programming very similar to the traditional
television experience.

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