Three Approaches for a Healthy Online Church
I do want to back up to a 30,000-foot view. There are three approaches for online church or expressing your church’s paradigm using the internet. Your church should consider all three strategies when making decisions from investing in a social media presence or why to launch a stream on Facebook. It all needs to connect to your church’s goals, and high-level conversations with leadership need to happen for success to clearly be defined.
The Tech (CRM) Your Church Needs to Figure Out This Year!
Your church needs to dial your CRM. Yes, I’m talking about Customer Relationship Management software. I explore two reasons why a killer CRM is essential for 2020 and moving forward. It’s going to be the foundation of everything in the years to come.
Gaming, Online Groups, and Your Church's Action Step
Your church can launch online small groups this year! Games like Fortnite and others have skyrocketed in popularity, but this trend existed with early versions of Halo on Xbox. The thing is online gaming today is a global community activity, and your church should learn from this trend. Gaming is popular because it's done with others (hint, hint FELLOWSHIP). I'll recommend a simple action step to get your online small group offering off the ground at the end.
Will top online churches cannibalize each other?
Explore “Will top online churches cannibalize each other?” and more in this blog.
The Flawed Thinking of Cannibalization at the Top
The point of offering your church service online isn’t to reach the world, but to reach who your church is called to reach. Think of your target audience and not the entire internet. Focus on local not global. Leverage the internet to evangelize and disciple the people your church is best equipped to reach. Think small with the very big internet.
2019 in Review + What's Coming Next
2019 in review around #ChurchOnline. Thanks for following my thoughts on the church this past year. It was a year of growth in many areas. I spent timing writing better quality posts, created a bunch of standalone resources around online church, and even published an eBook with Vanderbloemen and PushPay.
Featured Resources
The same four things, licensed for one reader. If you are buying this for a team, the Church License covers your entire staff and every volunteer for less than the cost of three copies.
What you get:
Online Church Is Not the Answer, the full book as a PDF. 227 pages, 15 chapters, each one ending in a big idea you can put in front of your team.
The complete audiobook in MP3. 5 hours 28 minutes, read by Jay.
A Guide to Digital Goal Setting and Online Ministry Planning, including the team assessment.
The Church AI Policy Template, an editable policy your board can approve. What staff and volunteers can and cannot use AI for, when it has to be disclosed, where the line sits in sermon prep and pastoral care, and how member data gets handled.
Read three chapters. If you do not walk away with at least one thing you can change this season, reply to your receipt and I will refund you. Keep the files either way.
Everything in the Digital Strategy Kit, licensed for your entire staff and every volunteer on your team. No seat counting and no per person pricing. Buy it once, download the files, and send them to everybody.
What you get:
Online Church Is Not the Answer, the full book as a PDF. 227 pages, 15 chapters, each one ending in a big idea you can put in front of your team.
The complete audiobook in MP3. 5 hours 28 minutes, read by Jay.
A Guide to Digital Goal Setting and Online Ministry Planning, including the team assessment.
The Church AI Policy Template, an editable policy your board can approve. What staff and volunteers can and cannot use AI for, when it has to be disclosed, where the line sits in sermon prep and pastoral care, and how member data gets handled.
Read three chapters. If you do not walk away with at least one thing your team can change this season, reply to your receipt and I will refund you. Keep the files either way.
Overview of Book: Digital is a confusing concept, and many churches struggle to understand it, with most limiting their digital experience to streaming their church services and nothing more. In this book, you’ll learn how to think strategically about digital strategy and how to best integrate digital ideas into your church that align with your ministry’s in-person objectives. The goal is to disciple more people and not just get an online audience. Readers of this book will learn to cut through the hype and discern the most critical, high-level concepts and find practical ideas they can implement in their church. You’ll walk away with a vision and a pathway to take your church’s digital strategy to the next level and beyond just streaming a church service.