It’s a well known fact that my 3 favorite church info websites this year are:

1) Church Relevance

2) Church Marketing Sucks

3) Your site (obviously)

which is why I’ve had a keen interest in the recent developments within the LifeChurch.tv volunteer staff.  Kent Shaffer, long-time blogger/developer and the well-respected author of Church Relevance, is joining forces with LifeChurch.tv.

I got to interview Kent a couple of weeks ago and probe around about his transition, plans, and goals for the future.

First of all, Church Relevance will still be hosted by Kent as will Bombay Creative,  AcreScout & the other projects Kent develops.

And here’s what he told me about his transition:

His move was precipitated by a two year interaction with the LC Digerati Team as he supported their ongoing online efforts.  In Jan’08 he began attending the Tulsa campus.  As LC continues to expand on a global level, Kent found that he really enjoyed the challenges of thinking strategically about serving the Kingdom on a world-wide level.  Not to mention, serving with a team of experts.

“The breadth and scope of  mega-church ministry often produces congregations with significant impact but what usually comes with that are more pitfalls, red tape and the slowing down of ministry efficiency,” Kent says.

“LifeChurch.tv offers the ability to work on a global level but still move around with agility.  I’m attracted to it’s core components, namely highly evangelistic outreach strategies employed by little monies that are stretched a long way.”

“In fact, it not just the technology that I’m attracted to, it’s the financial responsibility that I see demonstrated by LC that I can align myself with.  LifeChurch.tv operates with a spirit of generosity that I want to support. I will continue to operate the companies I’ve started so that the income from those services will provide me the opportunity to volunteer more fully in ministry.”

One of the things that I told Kent at a conference we spoke at last year, the Internet Ministry Conference, was the fact that I feel LifeChurch.tv is acting in a serious U.S. leadership role with online ministry exploration & experimentation, in an apostolic way, if you will.  The opportuinity to “go and plant” where few have gone before really appeals to me.  And Kent.

More developments for LC right up ahead as they interview candidates for new online staff this week.

1. Accept the Virtual World’s significance (MySpace is the most visited site on the Internet)
2. View online expressions of Christianity as valuable extensions of real world faith
3. Embrace the opportunity for Church without borders (time, geography, etc.)
4. Welcome the presentation of God’s Word in the vernacular of current culture
5. Respond to the globalization of the planet with hope not cynicism
6. Develop and maintain an online presence purposefully populating cyberspace
7. Establish virtual outposts for evangelizing, preaching, equipping & training
8. Create interactive portals for experiencing Church (streaming media)
9. Practice spiritual disciplines in the global online conversation
10. Encourage strategic investment in the iGeneration
    

Why?    Because there are “multitudes in the valley of decision” online.

If you’re a regular reader you might recognize this post from May of last year.  MySpace has given way to Facebook in terms of popularity but other than that, not much has changed.  It’s funny how some observations seem outdated so quickly (when it comes to online technology) and others have a longer shelf life.

Although it’s been well over a year, the point of this post still seems to work.  What would you add?

You can also read the original comments for Ten Challenges facing the Church in Cyberspace.