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Snow pushes Dobson church to webcast service
Dianna L. Cagle, BR Assistant Managing Editor
March 17, 2010
2 MIN READ TIME

Snow pushes Dobson church to webcast service

Snow pushes Dobson church to webcast service
Dianna L. Cagle, BR Assistant Managing Editor
March 17, 2010

With six-year-old Daniel

belting out a solo, and 10- and 12-year-old sisters, Lydia and Samantha working

the technology, a church in Dobson aired its service online during inclement

weather Jan. 31.

“We had a great day,” said

Andy Atkins, pastor of Fairview Baptist Church. “It blew us away.”

Expecting 10 to 15 people to

log in to view the service, the church instead had 65.

“We were amazed,” Atkins

said.

Figuring most log-ins had at

least two people watching, Atkins estimates 130-140 people were able to view

services that Sunday.

“And it was free,” said

Atkins. “That was the best thing.”

Atkins not only preached but

he played the piano as he led his family — wife, Tracy, and three children —

along with a neighbor from across the street, in worship.

Atkins said the church had

never tried livestream.com before but said it was easy to use.

Despite a winter of bad

weather, Jan. 31 was the first service Fairview cancelled. One Sunday they

limited services to one, but with 30-plus inches of snow, “believe it or not,”

they had not had to cancel before that day.

The family rehearsed the day

before to check equipment and options on livestream.com. Atkins said his mom

and dad as well as some college students helped by watching and giving feedback

about what was working and what wasn’t.

“It turned out to be

something big,” he said.

Lydia has been running

Mediashout at the church to display lyrics during worship services. She used

those skills to display lyrics during the livestream.com feed. Samantha served

as chat-room administrator.

Atkins said the church uses

call-em-all.com to notify church members of announcements, including letting

members know where to log on to view the service Jan. 31. He knows not everyone

has the ability to log on but Atkins indicated that it was nice to gather as much

of his church family as he could even on a snowy, stay-off-the-roads day.