PLANO, Texas- Chris Wyatt is on a mission.
Walking hastily through his cavernous fourth-floor headquarters in suburban Dallas, the founder of the Christian version of YouTube is searching for an available conference room.
“I thought I was going to be a seminary student and then work maybe a couple hours a week,” he said. “Now I’m taking online courses because I can’t get over to the seminary, I’m so busy.”
GodTube.com, a video-sharing site with Christian content, drew more than 4 million unique visitors during October.
It maintains more than 150,000 registered users with active profiles.
Wyatt, GodTube’s CEO, is reaching more people than he could hope for in a lifetime of pulpit appearances. He points out that GodTube.com users on Sunday mornings outnumber megachurch pastor Joel Osteen’s congregation in Houston.
GodTube videos includes music, comedy, and heated theological debates. Two of the most viewed include a corny rap remix called “Baby Got Book” and a 4-year-old girl reciting Psalm 23 from memory.
“Basically, whenever I realized she could recite it, I pulled out my digital camcorder and I put it on my blog,” said the girl’s father, Brian Mosley of Allen, Texas.
A co-worker put it on GodTube, where it has been viewed more than 4 million times. The non-profit ministry where Mosley works, Bluefish TV, offers downloads of the video and other religious materials for sale to church leaders.
“It’s neat to see our ministry get more exposure because of one clip on GodTube,” Mosley said. “I think for people who are looking for Web sites with Christian-specific content, it’s meeting that need in a great way.”
With more than 25,000 videos on the site and 300 to 500 arriving each day, some question how Wyatt can continue monitoring them all. He maintains that the job is not as difficult as it might seem.
Wyatt moved to Dallas last year to attend the nondenominational Dallas Theological Seminary.
He created GodTube as a resource for churches and put a test site up early this year.
The official launch was in August, when it was rated the fastest growing site.
He said he still intends to become an ordained minister, but his seminary studies have moved to the back burner.
“It was a major surprise and with a great amount of joy that I have the skill set to do this,” he said.