Our friends at the Saratogian Newspaper wrote a great article about Christmas With Northway Church.
Check it out below. CLICK HERE to view it on the Saratogian website.
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Northway Church launches TV blitz
By MAREESA NICOSIA, The Saratogian
CAPITAL REGION — The Northway Church is breaking new ground in the Capital Region by broadcasting its Christmas services on local television.
Starting tonight, worshippers can catch live services at the church’s Colonie branch; Thursday evening they will be held at the Clifton Park location.
On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, the one-hour special will be broadcast on the region’s CW station, TWTV and News Channel 13 over a span of 14 hours between the two days.
The TV blitz, as the nondenominational church is calling it, is yet another way of embracing technology to get the message of faith, hope and love out to as many people as possible, says the church’s pastor and founder, Buddy Cremeans.
“We know that there are so many people searching for a place of worship that is relevant to their modern lifestyle,” Cremeans said. “So we want to reach them where they are,” whether it’s in the church, online or in their living rooms.
Services revolve around interactive performances of inspirational music, including modern contemporary and classic Christmas songs performed by a six-piece band, plus stories, humor and “the message,” as relayed by Cremeans.
“With all the bad news — the economy, foreclosures, the rest of it, I think, maybe for the first time, we’ve come to an awareness that … there is more and that we need God to help us through,” Cremeans said, speaking via telephone shortly before he was due onstage in front of an audience of several hundred people at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, Mass., Tuesday evening.
“That’s why I want to blitz it — because I think we’re craving that message of faith, hope and love,” he added.
Cremeans said his aim is to leverage modern culture as a bridge to communicate about Christ with youth, teenagers and adults who might not know about the church. Its extensive Web site, www.northwaychurch.tv, includes videos, a Twitter feed and links to a Facebook account and the pastor’s blog. Worshippers even gather before services to “tweet” from their seats in anticipation of the upcoming event. Their messages appear on a Twitter feed displayed on a giant video screen in the sanctuary.
“We’ve leveraged the culture of the day like Jesus did,” Cremeans said. “Social media gives us a chance for people to know who we are and for us to know them.”
The message seems to be catching on.
Northway Church has been growing fast and furiously in recent years, beginning in 2002 with a handful of members who congregated in a former gym in Malta, to more than 2,000 members now spread between Colonie, Clifton Park and neighborhoods surrounding two soon-to-be-built locations, one in Malta and one near Pittsfield, Mass.
Plans for the new branch on Dunning Street in Malta are currently under way, Cremeans said. The building is expected to hold 1,000 to 1,500 people and is intended to be a hub and headquarters connecting the other churches.
“We’re looking to build as soon as possible,” he said.
The other new Northway branch is expected to open in the Berkshire County area in 2010.
