In his book Christianity Rediscovered, Vincent Donovan (Missionary to the Masai people of Tanzania during the 60s and 70s) defined Evangelisation as “the process of bringing the Gospel to people where they are, not where you would like them to be… When the Gospel reaches a people where they are, their response to the Gospel is the church in a new place.”
Research from 2016[1] shows that the average person spends 6.5 hours online with at least 2 hours on social media. This implies that the church must re-examine its evangelism strategy to reach people in the digital age and to corner the market for soul winning. Amazon did this in the realm of online shopping! History shows that the Apostle Paul used the innovation of the Roman road system, and the Reformation used the printing press to carry out the Great Commission. So where shall we go to find the lost?
It is against this backdrop that we are chronicling the evolution of the Media Ministry of First Assembly of God Wortmanville (FAOGW) and the mandate to ‘go tell.’
Birthed on 1 January 2007 with the appointment of Celicia Paruag [now an Assistant Pastor] as the first Communications Officer, the Media Ministry focused on managing the Choices Television Programme and Kingdom Kids Radio Programme. These programmes were on the airwaves since 2002 and 2005, respectively. The Media Ministry also did video captures of Sunday messages, serving as a laboratory and training ground for what we see today in the fellowship.
Fast forward to March 2020, and we can see that the evolution of the media ministry was undoubtedly a game changer in facilitating the rapid shift to virtual platforms to continue church programmes and administration.
From L to R Isaiah Charles, Min. Anthony Foster, Latevia Williams, Yohance Austin, Dr. Robert Lee,
The editorial team sat down with the Change Agent-in-Chief, Deacon Robert Lee, MD and Minister Anthony Foster for their insights. Deacon Robert Lee, MD is a medical doctor by day and media innovator by night and was quick to state that the work is a team effort of youths passionate about pushing boundaries for the Gospel to reach the ends of the earth. While his first pioneering efforts saw him plunge the church into darkness during an important meeting as a nine-year-old, he remained undaunted about trying new things. Brother Anthony Foster on the other hand is a full ‘techie’ who shows how the technical and creative intersect as we spread the gospel. Here is the Q&A with Deacon Robert Lee, MD and Minister Anthony Foster.
How did the COVID-19 pandemic drive innovations in the Media Ministry?
Robert Lee: COVID was not all bad and I would actually credit COVID for many positives. I recall my time as a youth in the media team and going out to do evangelism with limited equipment. Leadership was hesitant to invest money and resources, maybe due to less familiarity and understanding of the technology. We graduated from recording on VHS to DVD, then transcribing to flash drives for sharing with members who may have wanted to share a message with friends or their boss if the message seemed pertinent to the individual. Our earlier attempts to stream to Facebook pre-COVID did not go well and were not a priority, probably because we were very local in our thinking.
The imminent lockdown due to COVID caused us to shift gears. I recall sitting down with Brother Anthony Foster to brainstorm on streaming equipment and software needs. Given the full financial support of our leadership and entrusting this responsibility to our youths to ensure continuity of services was heartening. Persons in the diaspora recommended platforms such as Uber Conference for our first virtual prayer meetings, but limited connections of up to one hundred persons caused us to shift to other software based on high demand to join. Prayer meeting was a hit, and the Media Team was excited, so we kept innovating.
I recall the first Sunday Service after lockdown having a great deal of excitement as we saw the viewership increasing to 700, then 800, then 860 persons. We were hoping the service would continue to top 1,000, but then the altar call came. We tried to stream Friday evening Prayer Meetings on Uber Conference, but connectivity would not sync so this shifted to pre-recorded services on Friday. From this, we evolved to Bible Study and celebrated many milestones when we achieved the same Facebook reach as Sunday Services. This has since caused leadership to retain Wednesday Bible Study online to accommodate the schedules of persons in the fellowship, even now that the country is re-opening in-person activities.
Anthony Foster: Our response to COVID and lockdowns was rapid since we had two years of prior practice and experiments on streaming. We had procured cameras and streaming software and understood the need for a full team – audio engineer, cameraman, streaming manager and cameramen to switch angles. The greater challenge during COVID lockdown was the restriction to five persons in the sanctuary, including Bishop, the Worship Leader, Musicians and Media Team. We had to forego the audio system within the sanctuary and use shotgun microphones to feed directly to the camera. We also had to equip one media person to do the job of five, which is testimony to our agility and innovative mindset as a team.
This led to some roles being performed remotely by other team members with much trial and error. Was it difficult? No, it was fun, especially trying to track Bishop Massiah with the cameras whenever he got active and moved around the pulpit. Once restrictions eased, it became easier.
Do you have new priorities as a Media Team Leader?
Robert Lee: Funny you ask this, as pre-pandemic, sound quality was the priority – to ensure that worship to the Word would be of the highest quality. We understood that our role was an important part of ministry. Saturday nights would include camera angle setups and anticipation of special items on certain occasions. There was less emphasis on video with the Choices Programme considered our biggest video production. One person could manage most Sundays.
Post pandemic, every service or activity is a production! Sound, video, lighting, camera angles, connectivity, multi-media and coordination with multiple persons are equally important. We seek to ensure that the online audience experiences the ‘presence’ as if in the sanctuary.
Lighting has improved tremendously. We had persons like Brother Yaphet Jackman advocating early on for better lighting in the church, long before the pandemic and live streaming. There was also innovation to counter our increasing operating costs for subscriptions to different platforms. We did not want to burden the treasury, so we adapted outdoor lighting, improved cable quality and leveraged software through which the videos pass to produce the quality people now see. We are also leveraging old investments where the church had paid for the media team to attend training courses on lighting for video productions. These were old investments that were now bearing fruit [and we could see the wisdom of God guiding us].
Feedback Drives Innovation
Robert Lee: It is important to capture parts of our journey, like the random conversation I had with Minister Saiku Andrews that caused us to improve our outdated graphics. He suggested we needed visuals and intro music to stimulate the younger generation. This feedback gave me a different perspective on how people were viewing our programmes. It led me to engage with our team to change our countdown visuals, adding photos, music and flashing graphics. Anthony, who has always been innovating, responded to my challenge and came through with improvements to our graphics in less than two weeks, demonstrating that his creativity keeps shining. We would look at megachurches for current trends, and I always ensured that our vision was actionable. We also discovered new ways to use some existing technology, especially during the time of restrictions to five persons in church.
Reader’s Note: This conversation forms a two-part series. The second instalment of this dialogue continues under the heading Reaching People in the Digital Age: The Conversation Continues.
1https://blog.gwi.com/chart-of-the-day/daily-time-spent-on-social-networks/
