It can be a challenge to serve an online church. It's a challenge to serve an online community, in general. But it takes on an interesting twist when it's specifically an online church. The difficulty comes out of the abundant anonymity. As the pastor, I don't often get to know what our regulars look like, sound like, or even what their real names are—unless Jeremy123 is actually on their birth certificate.
However, recently I have discovered that, while difficult, it isn't impossible to find out what folks are wanting from our community. We are able to serve people, even if we've never actually met them. We just have to listen (erm, read) and understand what they are saying. I made this discovery through our growing YouTube community. Even more than any of our other platforms, our viewers are interacting with our ministry through the comments section of our videos. Here's what is baffling to me: it's the same question or comment.
"I didn't know that Christians could watch ________."
The folks who are noticing Checkpoint Church are seeking out permission. They've been placed under a digital house arrest from various forms of media without being told why. They've missed out on quality stories, themes, and experiences since being fed lies about Satanic Panic or given erroneous sensationalism of popular media.
Checkpoint sees you, Anonymous Watcher of YouTube. We hear you. We give you permission to talk about these things. In a loving and open community. Let's geek out together—no more hiding in shame. We know you matter and we don't even know your name.
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