Over the last few weeks we have come to appreciate technology and the fact that we can watch the church service from the comfort of our homes. While we never expected to be doing so, the reality is that this isn’t anything new for Zoar Church. Matter of fact, we have been “live broadcasting” for 37 years.
In the fall of 1982, Pastor Gary Janzen presented the idea of delivering the Sunday morning worship services to Pleasant View Home so that the residents could participate in a local live worship experience. Albert Balzer, Ken Enns, Roy Ensz, and Charles Prieb were put on the task and they looked at ways to make it possible. After a visit to a church in Haviland, Ks, they had their plan in mind and beginning early 1983 began the work to dig a trench and run a video cable from Zoar Church, under Froese Drive and Park Lane streets, through the park, and over Center Street to it’s final destination at Pleasant View Home. Residents could then gather in the Chapel to view the services on the one TV set that was set up to receive the signal. Zoar was the first and only local church service to be viewed at Pleasant View Home for many years.
Today, thanks to technology, all of the local churches are able to be viewed at Pleasant View with each church having it’s own channel. With new internet streaming technologies, our services are now enjoyed by people tuning in from far beyond the confines of Pleasant View Home.. We have live streamed our Sunday morning services for about 6 years and have recently switched to a new company that gives us opportunity to expand this ministry in the future. In the first two weeks that we have live streamed during the COVID-19 Stay-At-Home shutdown, we have had viewers from California to Florida and from Texas to Wisconsin. So far we have had viewers from at least 15 different states and even from Canada. All of this began with a vision to reach the people across the park who needed to hear the Gospel.
The small decisions that we make today could turn into major opportunities down the road. What is the Lord leading you to do?