Video Venue issues & some possible solutions

I just finished reading Dan Kimball's book Emerging Worship and he cautions against a video-venue as a part of an emerging worship service. This was a bit of a blow to me since that is what we were initially planning. Kimball's sense is that video-venues can work for those with a Judeo-Christian perspective and, while it might take some getting used to, those folks will be more willing to go that route.

What concerns me is that he doesn't believe that the video sermon is in step with emerging worship values and will cause a disconnect if you are trying to use it in a community where you are trying to reach people with a post-Judeo-Christian perspective. These are people that are absolutely foreign to the things of God as expressed through Christianity and have little, if any, clue as to what happens in a church.

This is the group that my heart is beating for. I believe that there are any number of churches already in our community that are capable of reaching those that have walked away from the faith of their childhood or have had a bad experience with Christianity but are interested in giving it another shot. I see very few churches, however, that are connecting with the rapidly increasing number of people who grew up outside of the church and have never even really considered being a part of a Christian community. That is what I hope we will be. I hope we will be a place for extremely messy people to begin to find something that eventually causes them to fall hopelessly in love with Jesus.

This presents a problem with the video-venue sermon style. One reason for the disconnect with emerging worship values is that what happens in successful emerging gatherings is generated out of the worshipping community. There is much less value placed on quality and more based on whether or not we have relationship with those that are creating the services, teaching the messages and creating worship expressions with. It is much more organic than what we've experienced at Hanfield, although we are seeing moments of it there as well.

So, I'm looking for possible ways to continue to consider this as a "video-venue" church and still promote emerging worship values for those that are in that 22-35 year-old demographic.

Possible solutions:

1) Use the video of Tim's teaching for an evening community gathering where we could share a meal and organize a service project around the theme of the teaching that we could engage in as a response.

Example: this weekend Tim is preaching on developing a daily quiet time. One obstacle that people face is that they are too busy. We could potentially do something around that theme as a way to help one another with that obstacle. We could encourage those with kids to watch each other's children for a half-hour each while the other spends time with God.

Example: next weekend Tim is preaching about sharing our faith. As a response, we could share our stories with one another and pray for opportunities to do so to people who don't know Jesus.

(okay, these are weak examples, but they are from right off the top of my head and we would have better ideas emerge from a planning team built around this gathering)

2) Use the video of Tim's teaching for our groups in homes. This is a possibility with a few issues:

a) not every group will probably want to use the video

b) might distract from the more intimate setting that groups would try to establish

3) Use the video of Tim's teaching for a group leader time held every week (as a solution to #2)

We know that we are going to have to create a solid support network for our group leaders. This would be an opportunity to build curriculum for the groups to discuss about the theme without the group actually watching the video. The group leader's exposure to the teaching would help them to facilitate a group meeting on the subject that Tim talked about on Sunday.

Obviously, there might be scheduling issues for group leaders, groups may sometimes spend most of their time in prayer or a service project instead of getting to the lesson, but I throw it out there as an option to consider.

I'll probably think of more ideas later. If so, I'll check back in.