Tuesday, November 17, 2009

e-GOD! The New Millenium Way to Worship

Airing live via the web in about an hour from now is LifeChurch.tv 's online church ceremony. Yes, that's correct. Church On-Line!! Wow. This does make being a Christian slightly more appealing. You mean not only do I NOT have to get up early on a Sunday, but I don't even have to get dressed or leave my house?! I can attend church in my Pajamas or even Naked if I want! Holy Cow! It seems too good to be true.

While I admit that the whole idea is kinda strange at first, it IS actually a great idea. If musicians, and even the president have used the internet to reach out millions, why wouldn't religion want to do the same?! Rev Run, (former member of the Hip Hop group RUN DMC turned Reverend) has been using technology for sometime now to reach out to his fans...um er I mean congregation. He offers inspirational text messages called Rev's Words of Wisdom, that Rev himself text messages to thousands daily! I mean everyone can use a pick me up, some encouraging words every now and then.

So what's wrong with that? Nothing.... I think...
Well maybe...
Maybe not....

We all look for a path to follow and a guide to help us get there. But staying balanced is what life's all about. So basing your entire life based of of one set of word from one direction, can be very dangerous. If you read my blog every day and only did what I told you to do, no matter what degrees or qualifications or experience I had, it's still not a balanced way to live your life.

So WHO is behind this "Life Church" ?

I did some digging...
Firstly, LifeChurch.tv is on a very gorgeous website fun on the same expensive development platforms as the site for Britney Spears & The White House. Kudos to their marketing team. But being a fellow marketer myself notice some clear "red flags", as a potential follower. Main Red Flag - Lack of information. There is very little about who the cite is actually run by, and what exactly they believe. Even the page explaining what they believe, is very vague to seemly keep a broad appeal. It's also semi difficult to find out WHO they are.

(Actual photo from their website)


But it does say it eventually on the site... If you look for it. They are actually The Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) . Er what? who? I've never heard of them! Well according to their Other website they are a church "founded in 1855 by Swedish Immigrants" (again very vague) and they are practice based on the following: "The Evangelical Covenant Church has its roots in historical Christianity, the Protestant Reformation, the biblical instruction of the Lutheran Church of Sweden, and the great spiritual awakenings of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries." hmmm... okay well at least they are based in older more-established religions and not completely made up like Scientology...

(Actual image from their website)


Oh yes Scientology... well they ARE taking a few cues from them. Along with the beefed up new website, press & marketing push, they are also going after celebrity endorsements. Even though their entire worldwide congregation is only 278,000 (according to them), they've already got some notable followers. Their out-of-the-closet congregation so far includes, embers from the band, The Fray (I knew I hated them...) David Welsh and Ben Wysocki, AND Miss America 2008 Kirsten Haglund. Wow! That's a pretty good start. But still only 278,00 members and only 105 missionaries. Scientology claims to have 8 million followers worldwide & 3.5 million in the US, but surveys have found at most only 55,000 followers. Oh but we'll get to them another time! Well maybe this website is the Big Break this church needs...only time will tell.

I'll let you all judge for yourself, as we all do. And tune into the Life Church Ceremony Here:
JOIN THE CEREPHONY HERE

Till next time Sinners,
Your MC, Gv