"church. anywhere."

The online community I found for this week is an online internet “campus”, based out of a large church in Rockwall, Texas called Lake Pointe. Lake Pointe is a very large church with four offline campuses. They just recently launched an “internet campus” with the clever motto: “church. anywhere.” The intent of the online church is to “ease that transition by allowing people to experience Lake Pointe online first so they know what to expect when they attend one of our physical locations at a later date” as stated on the church’s website (http://www.lakepointe.org/live/information.aspx). They also seek to provide opportunities for individuals with special needs such as physical handicaps/disabilities or are permanently home-ridden, or for individuals who are in a location where a thriving church does not yet exist. There is no blatant definition of community on the website, but even on the online campus page, there are links to the side such as “Believe”, “Connect”, “Build”, “Discover”, “Reach” and “Heal”, many of which are very communally focused. The online campus of Lake Pointe is very similar to the ChurchOnline based out of Oklahoma that we studied in our last class. There is a chat function, but is only enabled during the “live” service times. There is also an online campus pastor, specifically for the online realm of Lake Pointe. The online community seems to be defined as anyone who is seeking to grow or become a part of their church, but the church does put an emphasis on the need for more than just online interaction. There are multiple links and advertisements for offline “life groups” for the individual to be involved in for the sake of “interactive bible study, fellowship, and encouragement”.  There is also links for submitting prayer requests and donating to the church and various mission projects. As was ChurchOnline, Lake Pointe’s internet campus is a largely controlled community, more of a place of broadcast and interaction according to what the offline establishment of Lake Pointe offers. This is structured through the highly organized website, with specific links for specific activities/areas of interest. This online community could have an impact on the offline community in several ways. One could be that people will choose to skip church on Sunday mornings and just opt for the more convenient internet campus (even though this is implicitly discouraged by Lake Pointe staff, as they seem to push the importance of being known offline). This could have positive ramifications for the offline community as well if Lake Pointe’s purpose actually works. They present the online campus as more of a spring board or a sort of dipping-your-toe-in-the-water-before-jumping-in approach, hoping that wary newcomers will see what’s going on at Lake Pointe online and will eventually transition to being a part of the offline community. If this actually happens, this would cause growth in the offline community of Lake Pointe and could potentially help further the spreading of the message and faith that Lake Pointe preaches.