One of the most important parts of church is the act of being able to gather together and hear the word of God. In times of coronavirus, though, we may avoid going to church for various reasons. Some churches offer video streaming of sermons, but not all. In class, we’ve talked about contextualizing the gospel, and part of that might be using the resources available to us in the 21st century to bring people to the gospel.
What it does:
RightNow Media offers what they call the “Netflix for Christian bible study.” With a subscription, users can have full access to streamed Bible study videos and sermons. With access to quality content ranging from full sermons to content for kids, Christians no longer have to worry about being isolated from good teaching. RightNow Media offers a simple user-interface to connect people with engaging content. Now, Christians do not have to leave their homes and put their health at risk for good teaching. The service can be accessed anywhere which ties into its mission:
“Our mission is to work with the global church to inspire people to love others before self and Christ above all.”
The purpose of the website/app is to feed the souls of Christians with the gospel and empower them to go out into the world. While that may not mean heading into a crowd right now, they remind people that they can also be a witness at work.
How it started:
The company’s President, Brian Mosley, tells the story of how RightNow Media came to be. He had been filming a documentary for a missionary and on his way home, he realized he wanted to keep making an impact like that. At first, he thought that to make an impact for Christ meant to be a pastor or a missionary. Eventually, though, he realized that you can live for Christ anywhere. Brian realized that the ministry Christians are involved in (to love God and others) already makes us missionaries. In 2000, RightNow Media was started as a part of Bluefish-TV (a Christian media company). At RightNow Media, the team wants to help people realize that the mission of the church matters. In a world concerned with self, this company wants to teach people to fulfill their purpose by loving God and loving others.
While the pandemic prevents us from being able to hear the word of God in a physical church building, this company reminds us that that Church is larger than one building. It innovates by using the technology available to us to make a difference. It takes a piece that has become ingrained in our culture and turns it into a broadcasting tool for Christ.
Excellent article! My high school began using RightNow Media recently and it is a great place to find sermons on a variety of topics. I’m glad that someone saw a need in the community and came up with a creative, but simple idea to solve this problem. I think that RightNow Media will become bigger and have a larger impact in the future, even when the pandemic is over!
Great post! I have personally used RightNow Media and I love it. I like that it gives believers access to more sermons and resources for their own personal growth, but also that it provides believers with resources for Bible studies and creative ways to introduce their peers to the Gospel as well.
Hey, good article! Digital resources for Christians can be very valuable, especially for those in persecuted countries. However, I think a major problem within the “Christian” community is that so many people seem to think that physical corporate worship is optional, that video and livestreams are a one-to-one substitution. God calls His people to gather together (being virtually present is not actually being present) and unfortunately, many so-called Christians are more than glad to punt on going to church as if it’s an optional part of the Christian life. It’s an easy trap to fall into for those of us of the tech generations; iot’s something I struggle with myself. But if we think that God views sitting in front of a computer and gathering in a church, physically, as the same thing, we are gravely, gravely mistake.
This is great! Thanks for sharing, I really had never heard about this business until right now. In today’s world, a media outlet focused on christ minded content is very needed! Especially growing families, I think it is hard to trust any media source because you want to be able to trust the source. This is similar to my post about K-Love because it focused on being family friendly and positively sharing the word of Christ.