Church 2.0: Lifechurch.tv

When you think of church, "cutting edge," "relevant," or even "cool" probably don't come to mind. Lifechurch.tv has incorporated the best of what the web has to offer—social networking, compelling content and thoughtful design—and created a virtual church. Lifechurch.tv is a multi-campus church that is networked via satellite. Their physical locations include Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, Florida, Tennessee and New York, but the best feature is their Internet Campus that reaches the rest of the globe.

The Internet Campus serves up live weekly teachings from senior pastor Craig Groeschel (viewers can Twitter each other during the message), or you can subscribe to previous teachings via iTunes. There's a blog that's updated daily (with RSS and e-mail subscriptions) and an multi-language Bible called YouVersion that allows members to add commentary, links, images or videos to any piece of Bible text.

Lifechurch.tv has a presence on YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and even a location in Second Life, the 3-D virtual world. There are also LifeGroups, small groups of people who meet regularly in order to make a difference in the community, develop friendships with each other, and challenge each other. Lifechurch.tv offers two ways to join a LifeGroup: locate a face-to-face group near you or join an online group through the site or on Facebook.

Lifechurch.tv has also done a decent job with SEO. They show up in the top ten if you Google "online church."