Online ministry, commonly called #CHURCHONLINE, can and should strengthen your local church(es). I talk about this approach and more on the Vanderbloemen Leadership Podcast with Holly Tate. I share two recent stories of people attending online and assimilating into our local campuses while openly discussing how a healthy online ministry is cultivate.

I was featured on the Vanderbloemen Leadership Podcast on EXPERT INSIGHTS, a series bringing together Christian leaders – from across the theological spectrum and from a variety of professions – to share their expertise on leadership topics, all through the lens of faith. It was a fun conversation where I answer different questions on the topic of digital church even being church with my friends Nils Smith and DJ Soto.

I’m excited for this new ebook called “State of the Online Church” eBook. It’s the most extensive survey of what is actually happening with online church. No opinions, but real data. I partnered with Vanderbloemen and Pushpay to conduct the survey and visualize the results.

Your church’s leadership wants to know people watching online will be cared for correctly. Those seat warmers on big boards monitoring all the vitals of the bride do care about everyone attending locally and possibly tuning in online. The barrier of embracing an online ministry usually comes down to trusting you, the online pastor or potential online pastor.

Your online church will either amplify an existing well-executed strategy or highlight widespread issues. It won’t magically fix your church’s problems. If your church knows how to attract younger people then your online ministry will attract younger people. If your church is good at small groups then your online small group strategy will work. If your church is great at getting people to fill out response cards then your weekly digital response card submissions will be high. If your online ministry doesn’t grow most likely your church is lacking in evangelistic outreach.

Getting started as an online pastor can be overwhelming. What is my first step? Do I switch to entirely Facebook streaming? How do you become a tech expert overnight? So many questions. I would suggest first reading over my Start Here page and digest what other churches do on my Funnel page. After getting caught up check out this podcast from the Social Media Church podcast on “Started as an Online Campus Pastor with Aaron Magnuson.”