Miss church?
Log on.
That’s the message being sent out by the Santa Barbara Seventh-day Adventist Church.
“We’re the only church in Santa Barbara that’s on the Internet, reaching the world,” said the church’s pastor, the Rev. Pete Geli.
A small robotic camera, nearly invisible in a corner of the sanctuary, is trained on the pulpit at 425 Arroyo Road.
Weekly since June 28, Geli’s sermon, a short opening prayer and a closing hymn have been broadcast live at 11:30 a.m. Saturday.
Geli has already heard from a 73-year-old man who left the church at 14 when his parents divorced. After hearing the Internet message, “He sent an e-mail that he was returning to church,” said Geli. “It made me feel all the work was worth it.
“We really are on the cutting edge here. I’m very excited about it.
“Members of the church have moved away. It thrills my heart that they can still tune in to the home church.”
If they can’t listen on Saturday morning, the services’ audio and visual formats are on the website archives.
“They can tune in later,” Geli said “This is Dial-a-Sermon, so to speak. We’re sharing Biblical answers to today’s problems.
“I’m finding out kids are tuning in. Youth are tuning in. It’s appealing across the board.
“It’s an awesome responsibility. We’re reaching people across the country and across the world. We’re making a difference.”
People in other countries are also using the program to brush up on their English, he noted.
“At the same time, we’re giving them some hope,” he said.
The worldwide outreach fits the 400-member congregation with people with roots in Hawaii, Chile, China, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines and Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Chile, as well as blacks.
“We have a mini United Nations here,” said Geli, pronounced “Hel-ee.”
“It’s a Spanish name,” he explained. “My first name is Pedro — Pete is easier.”
The son of a Seventh-day Adventist pastor, Geli is Puerto Rican. His first language was Spanish, his second English, his third Greek, which he taught at a Seventh-day Adventist university in Chile along with systemic theology. While he has spent time in the mission field and as an educator, administrator, preacher and evangelist, “What I enjoy most is being a pastor of a local church. I love Jesus and I love people.”
At his previous church in St. Helena, the service was on the Internet, although by audio only.
“I received such wonderful testimonies from all over the country,” he said.
Several members of the Santa Barbara church talked up the idea of doing something on the Internet here, he said. A church member’s husband, Vince Imani, is president of Trivision Solutions in Solvang, which came up with technology to lower the cost of Web broadcasting .
“Our mission was to make it available for people and families,” said Imani. Funerals were an early utilization, allowing far-flung families to share in services.
Thought Geli, “Why not do it for the good news of the gospel?”
Noting he has done work in Spanish TV and taught radio and TV in the mission field in Chile, Geli said, “I think it’s beautiful how God leads. God was preparing me.”
Church members provided funds for a year’s test, the first installation Imani had done in a church.
“Already we are receiving wonderful reports of people being blessed,” said Geli.
“It’s neat that Santa Barbara can have one of its churches reaching out.
“It gets the message out there.” |
