• Brandon Leonard •
• Originally published July 25, 2008 at 5:19 p.m., updated July 25, 2008 at 5:19 p.m.

Tammy Hartman does not know how a simulcast works, and that does not bother her.

“It’s an interesting thought,” said Hartman, a member of Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, 4102 N. Ben Jordan St. “I don’t even understand how the TV or telephone work, and now we have this.”

The church is the only one in the area to receive a live, satellite broadcast of a sold-out two-day conference in Louisville, Ky., featuring Beth Moore, a best-selling Christian author.

Moore is the founder of the Houston-based Living Proof Ministries, a nonprofit organization that provides Bible teaching focused primarily towards women.

The conference is coming to San Antonio on Aug. 22-23, but Hartman said the church decided to do a simulcast, which would cost less than taking a group even on a short, overnight trip to San Antonio.

“Not everyone has the privilege of having a world-renowned speaker in their back yard,” said Mike Walker, who owns a company in the Dallas area that acts as a technology consultant for churches of varying sizes and well-known Christian speakers, such as Evangelist Billy Graham and Bishop T.D. Jakes.

Walker, 37, spent his childhood in what he called “grassroots churches” –churches with 200 to 500 members – across Texas, helping his father who was a music minister.

“Technology was a necessary evil when I was growing up,” Walker said. “It was more of an afterthought.”

“I still remember my dad saying, ‘Hey, Mike, go up there and see if you can get the sound to work.’”

These churches did not have a media crew or full-time staff working with technology, Walker said.

A piano, organ, hymnals and basic sound system were all the technology these churches had.

“Modern churches have become much more sophisticated,” Walker said.

The media staff at Faith Family Church, 2002 Mockingbird Lane, agreed.

“Media is a big part of what we do,” said Chris Clem, the church’s associate pastor of fine arts.

With a team of six full-time media staff and five to nine volunteers, the church produces a live, streaming simulcast over the Internet to an average of 500 people each week.

The simulcast had a much smaller audience when they began broadcasting it a year and a half ago, averaging 15 to 20 viewers each Sunday, Clem said.

What does incorporating more technology mean for churches?

“We get to tell the best story in the entire world,” Walker said. “And now, it’s starting to get to where the presentation is almost as good as the story.”

From his experience, the quality of a church’s presentation is the most important element for gaining a dedicated audience.

Churches are beginning to produce more and more of their own content and are using the Web to distribute them, Walker said.

Which churches are doing that the best?

Smaller, mid-sized churches with congregations of 750 to 1,200 people who have high speed Internet in their homes. Generally, people under 25 years old, Walker said.

“These churches are at the bleeding edge in their use of technology and the Internet,” Walker said. “They feel like they are at a place where they can try stuff.”

Brandon L. Leonard is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact him at 361-574-1286 or bleonard@vicad.com. You can comment on this story at www.VictoriaAdvocate.com.

• What is a simulcast?

  Simulcast - shortened form of simultaneous broadcast; a program that is broadcast simultaneously on both television and radio, on multiple channels or in multiple languages; a live broadcast of an event on closed-circuit television.

• Print
• •
• Share
  • Share this item

    Send this to a friend

    Share on FaceBook

  • Grab the link

    Copy and paste the link:

  • Blog about it

    Blog about this page.

  • Close
• •
• Post a Comment
• •
• Favorite
• •
• Report error
  • Thank you for your submission.
    Error report or correction

    Contact name (optional) Contact phone/e-mail (optional)  

    
  • Close
• •