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Faith in the computer age

A Pass-a-Grille church streams its Sunday service on the Internet.

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE, Times Staff Writer
Published December 23, 2007

ST. PETE BEACH - As the Rev. Keith A. Haemmelmann delivers the Christmas Eve sermon at his Florida beachfront church, he'll know that his congregation just might include a few members homebound by snow somewhere in North America or others clicking away at their computers across the Atlantic.

Six months ago, Haemmelmann's church began streaming its 9:15 a.m. Sunday service on the Internet, expanding its reach to a virtual congregation of snowbirds, college students and church members from Canada to France to the Middle East. The technology comes in handy on other occasions as well. Recently, frail grandparents were able to watch a grandchild's wedding they couldn't attend.

The technology offers exciting potential, said Haemmelmann, pastor of Pass-a-Grille Beach Community Church. "It's been six months and we're still in the initial stages of what it is and what it means," he said.

David Roozen, director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, says that while the use of Internet technology for church Web sites has become commonplace, Pass-a-Grille Beach Community's move to streaming services "suggests that they are targeting a younger demographic." In fact, the church's live streaming program is being run by teen members.

Around the country, religious groups are embracing technology.

Among Web sites, the Christian video-sharing site GodTube.com was said this year to be the fastest growing.

Last week an elder with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints urged the graduating class of Brigham Young University-Hawaii to use the Internet, including blogs and other forms of "new media," to join the growing national conversation about the church. The Mormon Church streams its twice-a-year general conference worldwide, church spokeswoman Kim Farah said.

Pass-a-Grille Beach Community Church initially decided to begin streaming its services to stay in touch with its far-flung congregation, Haemmelmann said.

"Being on the beach, we have a very fluid congregation. Our numbers double in the wintertime," he said. The church goes from 900 members in the summer to 1,600 during winter months.

"Some of them are from England and some are from Scotland. It started out with us asking the question, how do we stay in touch with these people? The other reason is we have a lot of young families who travel with business and work," he said.

Members who watch the service while in town usually do so because they are recovering from surgery or have other health problems, he said. The church also hopes to build its virtual congregation with people who have never set foot on its property, Haemmelmann said.

The church, which streams its 9:15 a.m. Sunday service, tracks the cities from which people watch. Viewers can sign in if they wish. Becoming an official part of the virtual congregation gives them access to a newsletter and online educational events. They also can download the services and watch them later on their iPods.

"It's fascinating to us, aside from New England and the Great Lakes states, our second largest audience is from Mississippi and California," the pastor said.

One Sunday there might be 15 people signed on to watch the service and another week, as many as 50, he said. Two remote-controlled cameras record the service and can show the front of the church and pan the congregation.

Members of the virtual congregation can download sermons and submit prayer requests that land immediately on the pastor's desk to be passed along to prayer groups. This spring, the church is planning to offer a Lenten series by Carole Fontaine, a professor at Andover-Newton Theological School in Boston and commentator on the television programMysteries of the Bible.

Haemmelmann said his church wants to help other congregations set up similar systems. So far, it has helped to design interactive Web sites for the Vero Beach Community Church and the Florida Conference of the United Church of Christ. It also manages the sites.

"If you broadcast on TV or radio, you have a set market. With the Internet, the world is your market," he said.

"Most churches use the Internet like a bulletin board. What we are exploring is how it injects itself into the culture, rather than waiting for the culture to come to us."

Reach Waveney Ann Moore at wmoore@sptimes.com or 892-2283.

To watch

Armchair worship

Pass-a-Grille Beach Community Church will offer live streaming of Christmas Eve services at 4:30, 7 and 11. The regular 9:15 a.m. Sunday service is always shown on the Web. Go to www.pagchurch.org or call 727 360-5508 for information.

[Last modified December 22, 2007, 20:33:36]