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Beaming in the pastor

As membership numbers soar, megachurches are setting up satellite television feeds to other sites.

LONGWOOD - It's a less traditional crowd that packs the pews of Northland Community Church. They're happy to forgo hymnals for lyrics projected onto big-screen TVs, eager to trade their Sunday best for jeans and even amicable to substituting a live sermon for one delivered by a virtual pastor.

On this particular Sunday morning, Pastor Joel Hunter's eyes well with tears as he recalls a recent journey to a poor African village. Several audience members also reach for tissues. Throughout the 25-minute message, the congregation nods in agreement, many jot down notes, all along, their eyes fixated on the Jumbotron at the front of the sanctuary.

They hardly notice that Hunter is actually a mile away, preaching the sermon live at the main church on Dog Track Road.

With limited space, zoning battles and a growing membership, Northland set up a satellite television feed 27 miles away in rural Mount Dora, and four other sites followed. The church also has held satellite services in Egypt, Ukraine and Namibia.

The technologically infused culture has given rise to the satellite church. Northland is one of roughly 1,000 U.S. churches broadcasting sermons live to another venue or dubbing Saturday night's sermon onto a DVD and hand delivering it to another campus in time for Sunday morning, according to the Leadership Network, an organization that promotes church growth.

Almost 30 percent of the 400 churches surveyed last year by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research said they're also considering satellite venues.

With mammoth facilities that sometimes rival indoor sports arenas, megachurches are landlocked, bursting at the seams with few parcels of land large enough to satisfy their needs. Parking spaces are scarce, child care workers are overloaded and they're running out of room for people.

Church leaders said satellite sites are a logical way for the church to expand in this multimedia era. They provide an alternative to new construction that is millions of dollars cheaper and offer a more intimate setting than the sometimes intimidating megachurch experience.

"When you try to get everybody at one location, it's just terribly expensive," said Hunter, who was leading seven services a weekend to accommodate the growth. "Why not develop the church congregations closer to where the people are?"

Experts credit the success of the satellite church to the technology boom and the relative ease with which the Internet-surfing, iPod-carrying generation has embraced the notion of a virtual pastor. Most of the satellite churches have live musicians and onsite pastors, who deliver the announcements, shake hands with congregants and perform baptisms and weddings. Some have high-definition televisions. The concept allows members to access the resources of a megachurch, while plugging into a smaller church in their own back yard, church leaders said.

The mother of all megachurches, Willow Creek in the suburbs of Chicago, is starting its fourth satellite location this year. Seacoast Church in South Carolina boasts 7,000 members in nine locations.

At Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale, where roughly 19,000 churchgoers vie for a sanctuary seat every weekend, Pastor Bob Coy said he was stunned when he heard that 600 people were already attending the church's first satellite site, which started in Boca Raton in November.

Even local satellite churches have their pitfalls. Multiple sites can splinter congregations, skew a sense of community and foster a culture that idolizes one preacher, said Dr. Scott Thumma of Hartford Institute for Religion Research.

[Last modified March 26, 2006, 00:25:14]