The Village Church (Dallas, Texas) is featured in this Collide Magazine article, "Multi-Site Mishaps and Misconceptions". Before delving into how and why the church decided to go multi-site, the article opens with a story of a technical glitch at its video venue -- that caught my attention:
The service at this church is part of a growing trend. It is a multi-site video venue service. Usually, a video feed of the teaching pastor is portrayed on a massive screen above the stage, but at the moment, the pastor is no longer visible.
The audience laughs. The mix-up is a first, and the technology crew scrambles to rediscover the picture. Matt Chandler, the lead pastor of the Village Church, reappears, stretching across the screen as the video plays like an awful 1970s kung fu movie. Chandler’s lips are moving, but the words trail behind. Eventually, the techies give up and the video is stopped before the sermon is finished.
... The Denton Village has transitioned from tape to digital recordings and the malfunctions have become less frequent, but there is also a backup plan, which calls for Hughes to preach on demand. And surprisingly, not one person polled for this article felt that an occasional video glitch hindered their worship.
The rest of the article describes the benefits of a church in multiple locations, how it deals with the issue of limited space and facilities, and avoiding cult of personality.
Technical glitches can be minimized, but once in a while, they'll happen unexpectedly. Technical glitches could happen in a live venue too. My question to you is: what is your backup plan? Having a campus pastor ready to preach on demand seemed quite challenging.
-- DJ Chuang, Leadership Community Director at Leadership Network
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