First Baptist Dallas iCampus Extends Local Church Into Global Community

By Mark A. Kellner

Pastor Manny Pandula, who helps shepherd the iCampus ministry at the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, is happy to welcome virtual congregants. Indeed, he offers a video greeting at the close of each service.

But if you can attend a local church, Pandula would prefer you eventually go there.

Pandula said the goal is not to replace the physical congregation but to supplement local church life.

“We don’t really call it membership. The reason why we don’t call it membership is because … we are not supplementing the church, but we are being a supplement to the church. We encourage people to go to their local churches. You know, [if] they’re not able to go, we encourage them to be part of our community,” he said.

Recent data from the “Exploring the Pandemic Impact on Congregations” (EPIC) research project from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research shows that many worshippers engage with multiple churches, with some even claiming more than one church home. 46% of surveyed worshippers regularly attend or view other church services, and 7% identify as having more than one “home” church.

First Dallas, as it’s commonly known, is a historic congregation that’s been in the city’s center since 1868. It was for many years the church home of the Rev. Billy Graham, even if the late globe-trotting evangelist wasn’t a weekly attender.

The church has risen to global prominence. Unveiled in 2013, the main hall is notable not only for its auditorium seating but also for a 105-foot video “wall” that displays hymn lyrics and Scripture verses during services.

The congregation, Pandula said, was already thinking digitally long before the COVID-19 pandemic forced congregations across the United States to move their services online. In 2016, the church began live-streaming its worship services, launching what would eventually become the iCampus. Today, the livestream now reaches more than 100,000 people worldwide weekly, he said.

He said the decision to launch an online community reflected the foresight of senior leadership.

“They were really futuristic, and they were thinking about how we can go from here to another step. How can we expand? How can we grow? How can we take the Gospel to more people? How can we share the gospel to the unreached?”

Such innovation arrived years before a global pandemic made virtual worship a necessity.

“It was not a reactive, proactive effort that they did,” Pandula said. “That’s the thing that I really like about First Dallas … they’re really thinking about, Hey, what is it going to look like 50 years from now? How can we make sure that our church is standing on the Bible and is taking the gospel to people through all generations?”

According to “Exploring the Pandemic Impact on Congregations” (EPIC) data from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, prior to 2020, just 45% of congregations had virtual worship services, and only about half of those livestreamed their worship on a regular basis. By 2023,75% of congregations were still providing online worship, and 80% of them noted that they would likely continue this into the future. 2025 data shows that 26% of attenders regularly participate in virtual services.

“We found that larger churches had a head start with online worship service streaming during the pandemic, but congregations of all sizes quickly caught up. With 70% of churches still offering virtual services, the potential reach of even very small churches has greatly expanded”, said Scott Thumma principle investigator of the EPIC project.

Ready Before the Crisis

By the time COVID-19 swept through the United States in 2020, First Dallas was already equipped to serve worshippers online.

“We were already prepared, and everything was in place, and it was just a matter of, oh, so something happened. That’s no problem. Let’s switch, you know, we’ll just continue to do what we’re doing, and even more efficiently,” Pandula recalled.

Shortly after, the church launched a dedicated website, which became the central hub for worship, sermons, community groups, and online fellowship.

Community, Not Membership

While many churches track online “membership” numbers, First Dallas takes a different approach, stressing an online “community” rather than formal church membership

That cohort now exceeds 100,000 globally, with participants who give offerings, join small groups, and interact during worship services.

“They very much are engaged with us,” Pandula said.

On any given Sunday, between 6,000 and 7,000 worshippers attend in person, spread across two services. “About 3,000 or around maybe 2,000 to 3,000 each service,” he said.

Some in-person members also join online from time to time, but the church does not attempt to calculate those hybrid patterns.

“Regardless, we serve them where they are,” Pandula said.

Whether it’s a business traveler watching a livestream from an airport hotel or a young professional catching up on a sermon during a work shift, the iCampus is designed to meet people in their circumstances.

The Digital Future

Looking ahead, Pandula sees online ministry only continuing to grow.

“People are on their phones almost … 24/7. All that to say is that they’re on their phones all the time, and we are in a world … where information, through small bites and bits, is transporting insanely fast,” he said.

That constant connection, he argued, creates both opportunity and responsibility for churches.

“We want to make sure that they’re not consuming bad content, but good content and biblical content and solid, grounded-on-Bible content when they are on their phone,” he said.

Though virtual, the iCampus has demonstrated that genuine community can flourish online. Pandula recalled speaking with an 86-year-old woman who could no longer participate in church life as she once had, but was overjoyed to find an online community group.

Worship, too, is very real for participants, whether they are homebound or tuning in from abroad.

“These guys, they worship. … That’s the thing that God is looking for, is … the heart of worship, wherever they are,” Pandula said.

The reach now stretches across continents.

“People globally are coming to worship. Like, oh, wow, this is good. We’ve never seen this before. We’re just like, I’m worshiping from Nairobi or India or Nepal or Brazil or Canada, so many different [places],” he explained.

From Broadcast to Interaction

Pandula noted that iCampus represents a sharp departure from earlier eras of religious broadcasting, where services went out over radio or television with little chance of interaction.

“It’s a two-way and it’s not done after. It’s not a rebroadcast … but it’s happening instantly. Literally, you’re talking to that person,” he said.

Participants don’t just watch a service; they pray for one another, text chat during sermons, and share life updates. Hartford Institute for Religion Research data shows how the pandemic affected congregations’ use of digital media. Nearly a fifth (19%) of attenders say that they participate via a mix of online and in-person, and only a small handful (7%) are primarily or exclusively online attenders

“People are able to talk, connect with the people, and feel like they’re in the church in person … that is really a wonderful thing,” he added.

What began as a forward-thinking extension of First Baptist Dallas’s television ministry has become a worldwide platform, uniting worshippers from Texas to Asia, South America, and beyond.

For Pandula, the takeaway is clear: “It just shows how much the impact of the Holy Spirit is when it’s going and reaching out to people through different media… it’s unifying, it’s uniting the people to come to worship.