Hello Church Family,

Another week has passed and we are one more week into this crazy new normal. I must confess, the first week wasn’t so bad because we still had a worship gathering on our campus. The second week was fun because everything was so new with live-streaming. But this week has been hard because I really miss seeing my church family on Sunday mornings.

We will be live-streaming our Sunday morning worship service this Sunday at 10am. I know this isn’t the ideal and it’s certainly not the “same thing” at gathered worship in a building with everyone present. But it’s the best we can do for right now in light of the circumstances.

I know last week some of y’all had a problem with the link I sent out to use for the livestream. The company we partnered with to do live-streaming had an overload to their system with all of the new churches using streaming now. They’ve addressed the problem and we should not have the same issues this Sunday.’

One of the things I WISHED I would’ve done last week was send you an email with all of the backup platforms you can use if the Church Online platform happens to go down again. So here are the links to all the ways you can stream the sermon on Sunday.

Church Online Platform

This is the preferred method because it has features for requesting prayer, making decisions, engaging with the staff through the chat and built in Bible and sermon notes tools. You can also access our Family Discipleship Resources that are custom made for this week’s message.

Broadview.Church/Live

This is a great option because you can stream straight from our website. You don’t have to use a third party application. Just go to broadview.church/live in your web browser (or click the link in this email) and you’ll see the live stream populate on your screen at or soon after 10am on Sunday morning.

Another benefit of this option is our online giving tools are on the same page directly below the livestream. You’ll also see links to our other platforms and the family discipleship resource for the day. Sermon notes are also linked below the livestream so it’s essentially just as good as Church Online but without the prayer request and chat features. You can always email us with that information. 

Broadview Facebook Page

By far the most common way people tuned in last week was through our Broadview Facebook page. We had close to 3,000 views for last week’s worship service! The benefit of this platform is most everyone is already using Facebook on a day by day basis. The livestream is very reliable because Facebook has plenty of server space. Also, it’s very easy to share the livestream with your friends and it increases the exposure of the message God wants to give through his Word.

You don’t have to have a Facebook account to watch the livestream on Facebook because it’s through our public page. Without an account you cannot comment in the chat nor share on your timeline but if you don’t have an account and the other platforms aren’t working, you should try Facebook.

I must admit I was blown away by how much engagement there was through our Facebook page over this past week. Not just Sunday but everyday of the week saw increased traffic.

We are connecting to and reaching people in the city of Abilene who’ve never set foot in our church facility and when this crisis is over I believe some of them will choose to join us for worship “in person” because of their virtual connection over these past few weeks.

Broadview Smartphone App

Last but certainly not least is our Broadview Smartphone App. We’ve had this app for several years now and have never activated the live-streaming feature. Well that’s all changed. Now, when you open the app, the second button to the right on the bottom menu bar will say “live events.” Click that button and follow the prompts and you’ll be directed to the stream.

Our sermon notes are built into the app platform so it should connect seamlessly. Our app also has a built in giving platform (fifth icon on the bottom menu bar) so you can give straight from the app if you planned on doing so.

The benefit of using our app is you can stream it to your big screen TV using your Air Play feature or Google cast. (you can do that through the other platforms but it’s easiest through the app). This way you can gather your whole family around the living room television and worship together

Please Join us Sunday at 10AM!

Now that you know all of your options, I want to challenge you to wake up Sunday morning, get dressed (get your kiddos dressed if you’ve got them at the house), pull out your Bible and a pen and paper and open up the livestream at 10am. The first 1-2 minutes will be an announcements preroll and then the worship service will begin.

I am 100% certain that God will use our time together to encourage you and grow you and your family in your faith. Now, more than ever, we need to stay engaged with each other and hear from our Lord. We need wisdom and direction for the difficult decisions we have before us. I hope you’ll carve out an hour and spend time with us online as we experience God’s presence together.

You can always send me an email if you have any questions, prayer requests or decisions made as a result of the live stream. Have a great weekend!

Sincerely Yours,

Pastor Wes