Midland Heights Seventh-day Adventist Church has become the first in Bermuda to broadcast its services live on the Internet, reaching new worshippers across the globe through embracing technology.

Pastor Kelby D. McCottry, the brainchild behind the initiative, is proud of what the Crawl Hill, Hamilton Parish church has achieved through using the World Wide Web. ?We are excited to be the trailblazers, and one of our slogans is ?evangelism through technology?,? he told .

The church in Crawl Hill broadcast its first service on the ?net on Saturday ? enabling worshippers as far afield as the UK, Jamaica and Canada to follow the service, explained Pastor McCottry.

This will now continue on a weekly basis, with the sermon at 11 a.m. each Saturday being both broadcast live, and also recorded so that it can be viewed later through the website www.churchpond.com.

?The idea is both to spread the gospel and also to reach the sick, and other folks who cannot make it to church,? said Pastor McCottry.

?People are very excited about it, and I received emails from people in the United States, Canada, London, and Jamaica saying that they watched on Saturday.

?We can?t continue to do things the same way as in the past. I have been around ministry my whole life and to do evangelism the way we did 30 years ago just doesn?t work any more.?

He added: ?Instead of knocking on doors I can send out emails and reach people in every place that way.?

The church already reaches an audience beyond its 300-strong local membership through Adventist Television, which is broadcast on Channel 80 across Bermuda.