A New Direction for the Church

Nearly twenty years ago, there was an interview with David Yonggi Cho, founding pastor of the largest Protestant church in the world, Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, South Korea with 800,000 members. Pastor Cho encouraged churches to skip over the older idea of starting new churches with physical buildings and go directly to the next generation strategy of using the Internet to connect a decentralized network of groups and people. He even suggested that many new people watched worship over the Internet. This was almost twenty years ago.

My wife, Joy, and I were in Korea about that time. We visited Yoido Full Gospel Church as well as Kwang Lim, the largest Methodist Church in the world with 85,000 members. We also heard them speak about the potential of using the Internet to connect people for church. The initial motivation for these Korean congregations, however, was simply not enough physical space for the huge number of persons with whom they connected.

Today, the Internet has become a powerful tool for the church, regardless of size or space. We have been video streaming the Sunday sermon live on Facebook for close to a year now. Our online attendance has been growing (a few weeks it even surpassed the physical attendance!). We have some work we’d like to accomplish in this area, increasing the quality of the video presentation and streaming the entire worship service.

This is leading to something new. Earlier this summer a couple from Ames inquired whether they could be members of Salem. They’ve worshiped with us a handful of times when they were in town, and they want to be a part of our congregation and support our ministry. After consultation with and support from the Leadership Board, for the first time I will be receiving new members who don’t live physically near the Cedar Rapids area.

Until now, the policy was that members had to be in somewhat close proximity. After all, they had to be present to live out their membership vows to uphold Salem with their prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. 

We’re rethinking that now, especially considering the change in our culture. With the growth of video streaming, you can talk face to face with a friend on the other side of the world. You can go to school and receive a degree without ever stepping foot on campus. Your doctor appointment can take place without leaving home. The Internet has changed our culture, and the ways we communicate over the Internet have changed as well. This has expanded our understanding of what it means to be present with others.

Regarding membership vows then, what does it mean to uphold the church with one’s “presence?” Does a member need to be physically present? Can we form groups of members in different locations that still claim Salem as their church? This would be somewhat like churches that expand to multiple campuses in different locations. Instead of forming an entire congregation, however, it would simply be a small group, at least to begin with.

Members from other locations would be able to stay where they are, serve where they live, and be the church in their community. They could participate in worship online, pray and connect with a small group wherever, support Salem financially through our online portals, serve and witness in their own community. 

This is exciting, and the Leadership Board believes this is the direction we are headed in our culture.  Of course, we don’t have it all figured out. How would these members receive the sacraments or other pastoral care? How would we help them form small groups or serve in their community? What kind of an online community do we need to provide beyond a live stream of worship?

There are lots of questions to answer. We will likely make some mistakes. Hopefully, we’ll learn from those mistakes. But we have decided to take a leap of faith and trust that God will help us figure things out along the way. Pastor David Yonggi Cho might even think we’re on to something.