NEW ORLEANS (BP)–Internet users worldwide can now attend chapel services at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary without leaving their home, according to Charles Kelley, president of the seminary.
By simply logging their computers to “www.nobts.edu/chapel/videoresources.htm” each Tuesday through Thursday at 10 a.m., Kelley said alumni, missionaries and friends of the seminary as well as extension students and other computer users have access to the same sermons and presentations that on-campus students have.
Using RealNetwork’s RealVideo, NOBTS is the first seminary to provide complete Internet coverage of its chapel services via live streaming video and audio. Internet users can watch and listen in real time to featured speakers as they deliver messages to the students and faculty of NOBTS.
At other times, internet visitors can view the Leavell Chapel archives web page to listen to the sermons of their choice. Eventually, the seminary will make available these sermon archives on CD-ROM.
NOBTS Director of Auxiliary Services Stan Watts said that the Internet video streaming is the communication technique of the future. “It’s a very important medium for a student to learn because of its ease of use and its cost,” Watts said, explaining that the cost is typically less than $15,000, well below the hundreds of thousands of dollars it costs to broadcast through television.
“Our chapel services have allowed all of us on campus to experience meaningful worship,” said Jerry Pounds, assistant to NOBTS President Chuck Kelley. “We are now excited about this opportunity to communicate to our missionaries and alumni all around the world what God is doing on our campus through our chapel services.
“Our prayer is that God will use these services to minister to needs world wide. We will also pray that the services will remind others to pray for the needs of our students, faculty, and administrators. Distance has no power over prayer!” Pounds said.
The availability of these services worldwide is another expression of the seminary’s core value of spiritual vitality, Kelley said. “We are a worshiping community emphasizing both personal spirituality and gathering together as a seminary family for the praise and adoration of God and instruction in His Word,” he added.
