Chapter 6 of 15 · Framework Thinking
Who Should Own Digital Ministry at Your Church?
Chapter 6, “Deciding Your Structure,” from Online Church Is Not the Answer by Jay Kranda
Short answer: Structure flows from your objectives and approach. The chapter lays out four options: a stream host, an online church leader, a microsite or house church role, and "Duh Digital," where every team owns digital and nobody needs it in their title.
What is this chapter about?
Anything can happen at your church, but structure decides what happens on purpose instead of as an exception. A weed can push through concrete, and I'd rather your digital strategy be a garden than a few stubborn weeds. My kids were born in the early 2010s and assume everything is online. I remember the AOL dial up tone. Everyone who was here before digital was an assumption has to manage the transition, and the church changes slowly by design.
A little history helps. Early digital pastors were really IT people keeping the building's internet up. Then communications directors brought marketing tactics in, uphill, because the church tends to see marketing as a dirty word. Life.Church's Church Online Platform in 2011 introduced the online pastor role to a lot of churches. I volunteered in 2009, got a few hours added to my role in 2010, and was hired full time as online campus pastor in August 2012. My first decision was renaming the Internet Campus, because the name was terrible. Years later we renamed it again to the Online Community, and that name change is a whole point of this chapter.
Here's my pet peeve. Too many churches call a weekly stream and a response card an "online campus" or "church online." Campus and church communicate a full replication of what church is. If you only met one hour a week and did nothing else, you wouldn't call it a church. So call the thing what it is, and resource it to match. Then pick a structure. The first is a host who runs the stream well, which fits Broadcast and Front Door approaches. The second is an online church leader with the gift of shepherding who builds assimilation, discipleship, and multiplication pathways online. The third is a microsite or house church role whose reason for existing is raising up faraway watchers to start in person gatherings. The fourth isn't quite possible yet. I call it Duh Digital: every team from kids to greeters integrates digital in their own role and no title needs the word online in it.
What are the big ideas?
One person can't and shouldn't do it all. Whoever holds the digital role should be teaching everyone else to think digitally so they can solve their own problems. Structures are for seasons. My title has changed many times, and God used a couple, then a tribe, then a kingdom, then the whole world. Pick the right structure for this season and pray you don't wander the wilderness too long.
Who is this chapter for?
Anyone about to hire (or become) an online pastor, and any lead pastor trying to figure out where digital sits on the org chart.
What is the Big Idea of chapter 6?
Big Idea: Get more people involved in digital strategy at your church. Don't limit the vision and execution to one person, but empower everyone to explore digital integrations by picking the right digital structure for your season.
What else do people ask?
Should we call our stream an online campus?
Not unless it actually replicates what church is, with groups, serving, care, and next steps. The book suggests labeling and resourcing your online ministry to match what it really offers.
Do we need to hire an online pastor?
It depends on your approach. Broadcast and Front Door churches need a good stream host. Alpha Omega churches usually need someone with the gift of shepherding, staff or volunteer, who champions digital across every team.
What is the Duh Digital structure?
A church where digital is so integrated that every ministry owns it and no role needs digital in its title. The book presents it as the future default, not something most churches can do today.
Why did Saddleback rename its Online Campus to Online Community?
So local people watching from home didn't think they belonged to a separate campus, and so faraway people knew the goal was to get connected in person through a microsite. Labels shape expectations.