Have You Been to WWPF Lately?

[tstew]

Originally Posted by bishoph

Tstew,

Pertaining to your first quote, I agree that the teaching of principles is paramount to developing and maintaining a healthy/Godly lifestyle. The scriptures, however, teach that we are like sheep which do not have a good sense of direction, and often get into great difficulty when left to their own devices. We are no different! I have taught principles to my children, yet that did not negate the necessity for rules that would reinforce/instill those principles through practical application.

The whole "how can you be against TV and not against internet" is really a flawed idea IMO. That is like saying how can you be against illegal/recreational drugs and not against prescribed medication for real health issues. The purposes/intent are totally different. There is no doubt that principles must be in place in ones life for them to be safe no matter where they are. However, TV was invented for the sole purpose of entertainment, and when the average person sits down to watch TV, they are appealing to the lust of the eyes and of the flesh. This makes them more susceptible to being influenced by ungodly, evil, communications which corrupt good manners.

With regard to your second quote, I would be very interested what you base your statement on. From all the statistics that I have studied the exact opposite is true. The denominal world has gone to great lengths to establish well documented stats that show the ineffectiveness of TV advertising for churches. This is why the large churches do not advertise on TV. (If you watch TV, think about when the last time was that you saw a ad/commercial promoting a local denominal church. I am not talking about an ad promoting their broadcast, but rather advertising their church.) They discovered that while TV advertising is very effective for retail, goods and services, it was not effective for churches.

The denominal world has established that they do not use TV broadcasting for evangelism. In fact Rod Parsley's ministry and several others have stated that not one new convert has been added to their church thru TV, but that they use TV to raise money with which to fund their operation. That is why when Rod Parsley started out he did 20 minutes of preaching and 10 minutes of commercials, now he has 20 minutes of commercials and 10 minutes of preaching. They have grown their ministry to a great extent from TV, but not by new conversions, the growth has been from people who saw the broadcast and moved to the area to attend the church because they liked the program or the preacher.

When a person is logged into the internet and is looking at a church's website they are intellectually engaged, (not just being entertained) and because of this, they are more likely to be effected by what they see/hear.

Yes, but the average sheep does not have the Holy Ghost living inside of it to give it a good sense of direction. If my sense of direction came primarily from what my pastor said and not from my personal prayer life, relationship with the Good Shepherd, the leading of the Holy Ghost, the illuminating word which is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path...I would be pretty concerned.
Your analogy with all due respect is flawed. The stance you have is like someone having told people for years not to take Tylenol due to the potential side affects, but embracing the taking of much more dangerous habit forming drugs like OxyContin that have much more serious potential side affects.
It is a misnomer that people have used to say that the TV is only for entertainment. There is plenty of educational and informational information that you can choose to watch. There are channels that only provide such content....And by the way, not all entertainment is bad. Even the things that I would watch for entertainment would not violate my Biblical principles. Is there a difference between watching Bassmaster fishing on ESPN and watching someone fish from your boat. Is there a difference between your children watching Barney, Blue's Clues and Sesame Street via DVD or TV.
In regards to the other issue. To answer your question, in Houston many churches spend a lot of money advertising their churches with phenomenal results. A young pastor started a church called Higher Dimensions and due to an aggressive ad campaign, the church became a household name and has thousands of members. Had I never seen the commercials (while not even looking for his church), they could exist for 50 years and I would never know it.
I can tell you that the Fellowship of the Woodlands has opened a second location not far from my house. I can tell you this because they advertised it aggressively. I can tell you that Second Baptist is the "One Church with Five Locations" because that is there ad campaign. And I could go on and on believe me.
This underscores why I said that TV advertising is more effective than the internet. I was not looking for these churches. I did not know the names of these churches to even search for them in the first place. The millions of people who still do not have cable only have a half dozen or so viewing options. People with basic cable may have 70 or so. The advanced cable gives you options in the hundreds. Whereas the internet has an infinite amount of viewing options.
The chances of reaching someone who is watching 6 channels are pretty good. A dozen adds on your local stations would hit so many people.
I maintain our churches website and I keep up with the site traffic. I did list us with as many search engines as possible...but the fact remains that someone would have to be looking for us, and specifically our kind in order for us to have a chance at reaching them.