NorthPointOnline.tv

If you live in church-world you’re probably familiar with North Point and all the incredible things that they’ve done over the years. No sense in recapping what they’re about but – like ‘em or not! – they’ve made some bold moves over the course of their history and have been committed to doing whatever they can to make sure lots of people are hearing the gospel.

One new thing that they are just launching is an online campus at www.NorthPointOnline.tv. North Point is not the first church to do this (LifeChurch, NewSpring and others have done this) but you know that  if they are going to do it, they are going to do it right.

Check out this preview video -

Tonight was the soft launch of the online campus in preparation for the live service experience on August 16th and I was able to catch part of what was happening. Andy Stanley & Jeff Henderson talked about the what and why of the online campus and then they spent the last part of the session praying for opportunities and for the people who would be impacted.

All in all, these guys have done a great job so far. John Saddington & Carlos Whittaker have been talking this up like crazy and they did not disappoint. They and their teams have pulled off a great-looking environment and even though not everything worked perfectly tonight, they’ve got time to get it up and running for the August 16th launch dates.

Here are some initial impressions from the session tonight -

• The cohesiveness of the environment branding is impressive – but what else would you expect from North Point? The logo, look & feel of the site, promo videos, etc all have a very modern edge to them and they have definitely spent some time thinking about the vibe they want to portray
• Integrating chat, Facebook & Twitter all on the same page is impressive technically but I wonder if it’s too much all at once?
• The pulled back, out of focus camera shot while Jeff and Andy were praying was beautiful – a really nice way to take the attention off of those two guys and encourage the viewer to be focused on prayer
• I’m intrigued by the “live-to-online” concept that these guys are going with. As far as I know (other than a live stream to the web concept) this is the first true online campus that will be doing the full service live as it happens at the originating church. I’m sure there’s the potential for lots to go wrong with that :)
• I appreciated Andy’s comments around North Point’s view of why they should be doing the online campus and of technology in general. While I might not agree 100% with the HOW of what they’re doing, to know that they’ve spent significant time thinking about the WHY is encouraging.
• So why don’t I agree with the how? That’s a long discussion. Here’s an easy touchpoint – At one point Andy said that North Point hopes that the online campus should be a temporary substitute for a local church congregation until someone gets plugged in and comfortable. I’m not sure that North Point really believes that – I think they would be quite happy with people all over the world making the online campus their ‘home church’. If North Point DOES think it’s important and valuable for online campus viewers/participants to be engaged in a local church congregation, I’m guessing that we will see the movement from the NP experience to the local church not only talked about but also encouraged and facilitated.

All in all, these guys have done it again. They began with a dream, got the right people to take the first steps, put a plan in motion and then got to work. I don’t think anyone would disagree that the potential for a tool like this to facilitate the spread of the gospel is immense! I’m excited to see how this plays out and how North Point will encourage the right use of the right kind of technology in other local churches all around the world.