the cartoon is so hilarious!

Online church - well, I don’t think it ever can replace the fellowship of the saints. You have to be present with other believers. It would be like the early Christians considering themselves in fellowship with Paul if all they did was read his letters. I am becoming a big multi-site fan, though.

To answer your question in regards to how healthy is our staff relations. Well, as I write this our Lead Pastor, our Executive Pastor and our NexGen Pastor are all together on a fishing boat on Lake Erie. Two weeks ago our entire staff and families went to a Pittsburgh Pirate baseball game, and this Thursday we are getting together for a family day of boating, swimming and of course eating. Also last month our Church Treasurer and I (Administrative Assistant) went to California together for a fun vacation. Soooooooo I would say our staff relations are extremely close. This is the best place to work by far, even with out the extra curricular events.

Re: Attending multi-site - - - Yes, I’ve attended two different multi-site churches here in the Chicago area. In both instances, I have been left with a question. Are these churches saying that the gift of teaching/preaching is more rare and highly prized than other “platform” gifts? Both churches I visited had live worship teams, a campus pastor emcee, and, in the case of one church, an on-site drama team, but this church also piped in drama from the mother church on occasion as well. Only the best of the best verbal communicators will ever give a message at these churches; and the message seems to be that this particular gift/skill mix is even rarer and more highly prized than that of other gifts. (Oh, I know - other preachers/teachers can exercise their gifts in small groups and classroom settings at their particular campus).

As a guy who works for a church in Cleveland I’m super jealous of your time down at the Jake.  I watched the first 6 innings before I had to go to work.  Here’s hoping that Travis Hafners’s back and will continue to hit like he did yesterday!

If there is a price for most distracting event, I believe that I have got it covered in spades. Several years ago when I was a relatively new single pastor, a visiting middle-aged woman stood up in the middle of service, pointed her finger in my direction and in a loud voice, screamed, “Adulterer!” No words would calm her down. At the last, we were forced to have the police escort her out. I never did learn why she came to such a conclusion, nor did we ever see her again, but needless to say no one remembered the Bible Study that night!

Sorry - the use of the personal pronoun in your quote above does it for me:

“My experience at the LifeChurch campus was very good.”

“My” is the essential problem—what about what you bring to the community?  How do you know if the “worship was good” - wasn’t it directed toward the Lord - shouldn’t it be his opinion that matters? 

I have been to a multi-site church, and I was surprised to be quite turned off.  It struck me as worship of the wrong object - worship of a star-preacher.  The community that existed seemed to have in common their excitement at being at this really cool church. 

I think this is really a fad, and we will have to pick up the pieces some day.

In addition to our local church, my wife and I regularly participate online in another church’s services. It allows us to not only get new ideas for implementation in our own local services, but also gives us the chance to participate in services without our usual distracting responsibilities.
While I believe this delivery method will never truly replace the fellowship and other community aspects of the local church, it does provide a very good opportunity for others to be involved who cannot physically attend services.
During the portion of the service before the message and for quite a while after sthe service, an online chat is available where we can connect with others viewing the service.  We share ideas and provide encouragement to each other.  Among those I communicate with regularly are those church members serving in church supported ministries that have taken them away from the local community.  We hear regularly from a missionary in India and the church camp directors who participate with their home church body through online services.
This church because of its location has a large military contingent.  One of the regular online participants is a church members and his unit mates who view each week by commandeering the mess hall in their camp in Iraq.
The online services are also viewed regularly by local people who prefer to see what the church is all about with some level of anonymity.  Several of the first time decisions made this past Easter were online through chat discussions with church leaders who also viewed online.
I’m not convinced that an online church provides all of the things God intended in a local body of believers, but it can provide another avenue for those who can’t or won’t physically attend church.

Funny you should ask about disturbances in church this week. Just yesterday after I had finished speaking and praying at our 8:30 Worship service, only 4 of the 8 members of the Praise band came back up on stage. What made it worse is that the keyboard player could have played the invitation song by herslef and closed up the service, but the power to her keyboard had been shut off during the message due to a humming noise. There was a lengthly uncomfortable silence as the band members slowly trickled back up on stage.

We’re currently addressing the issue. Seems the missing band members (teenagers) were in the lower level and failed to realize service was about to end. One requirement for future Sundays will be that anyone performing in the band will remain either in the sanctuary or directly in the lobby.

The current band leader is stepping down. That may solve many of our problems.

Most distracting thing; a young lady who was sitting in the third row very close to the platform who began to pick her nose.  Her endeavor apparently took on some urgency as the object of her desire began to slip away from her, not to gradually her finger went from what might be able to be explained away as just scratching the inside of her nose to a second joint full on picking.  The seating area was small so she was only seated about ten feet from me.  Try as I might (and I really wanted to) I could not remove her from my peripheral vision.  Unfortunately she did not stop with a simple “dig roll and flick” when she finished her task (I thought) she examinied the end of her finger and finding it pleasing; ate it.