Driscoll is a popular pastor in the Pacific Northwest. He heads a group of multisite churches that regularly draw 10,000 parishioners a week across 10 locations. He preaches live at one location, and his sermons are sent out by video to the other locations the following week, when the services are held with live music...
Driscoll said the sermon this week will be pre-taped, in part so he can attend a baseball tournament his son is playing in. The message, he said, comes from the Gospel of Luke and is about Zacchaeus, a crooked tax collector who found redemption...
If the preacher's a digital image, why "live music?"
A year ago, Taylor and I were at a large church in Evansville, Indiana, where the preacher only showed up for the later services and used video to feed the early service flock. During the sermon, the large digital image hanging from the ceiling in front of us asked those present to raise their hands if...
Most everyone enthusiastically raised his hand. Taylor and I looked around and began humming the theme from Twilight Zone.
By the way, they had a big grand piano on the platform and I noticed the keys moved even though no one was playing it. They did a video offering, too--which I kinda liked. There were a couple closeups that showed what rich men were pouring in.
At the end of the ritual, a real man got up and asked us all to vote on who we wanted to preach next month? He assured the older congregants that their own virtual pastor was happy to keep having his own image used, but if we'd prefer we could choose Charles Stanley or Alistair Begg or John Piper or Mark Driscol or Joel Osteen and he'd understand.
They asked us to cast our ballots and Taylor voted for his brother, Joseph.
I voted for Mary Lee--she's a looker.
(TB)
