Chapter 5 of 15 · Framework Thinking
Which Digital Approach Is Your Church Using?
Chapter 5, “Picking Your Approach,” from Online Church Is Not the Answer by Jay Kranda
Short answer: Four digital approaches: Amish, Broadcast, Front Door, and Alpha Omega. Most churches landed at Front Door by default after COVID. The chapter retires the old "levels of online church" and hands you a graph that shows exactly where your gaps are.
What is this chapter about?
I don't love the phrase "online church" anymore because it shrinks everything to streaming a service. The title of the book is a little tongue in cheek on that point. So I retire the four levels of #churchonline (stream, online campus, microsites, VR church) and replace them with a question: what's your digital approach? Think of it like picking a worldview. It's the lens you see everything through.
The Amish Approach avoids technology out of fear it leads people astray. Admirable on some level, but not how Jesus lived, and it's the gas station of church experiences: nothing digital expected, nothing digital offered. The Broadcast Approach streams the service and posts events, and that's it. I've called it the aquarium approach, because the fish and the people peeking in never meet. National parks do digital this way, and it's fine for a park. The Front Door Approach embraces streaming, social, and conversation up to a clear line, after which everything meaningful happens in the room. The IRS is Front Door (I've mailed in my taxes twice because of fraud flags, Pony Express style). Most doctors are Front Door. My dentist is not. He texts reminders and I haven't filled out paperwork there in five years, which is one of the reasons I keep going.
The Alpha Omega Approach is a range from 1 percent to 100 percent healthy digital integration, baked into how you bring people in, raise them up, and send them out. Picture a graph. The x axis is your six key ministry areas. The y axis is healthy integration. Start at the A in the lower left and draw your line without lifting the pen. It'll look like a roller coaster or an EKG reading, and that's the point. The dips are where you can conquer ground in the next few months. I'd draw it in a monthly team meeting and ask why kids ministry sits at 20 percent and how to get to 50.
What are the big ideas?
Healthy integration never means everything goes online. It means digital is in the original mixture before the cake gets baked. Write out your pitch for why your church should embrace digital, as if you had to change the mind of the most Amish person on your team. I did that for years at my own church before COVID finally turned the zombies into believers, and riding that wave was a blast.
Who is this chapter for?
The leader who suspects their church is Broadcast or Front Door and wants a way to name it without insulting anyone, and the team that needs one visual to argue over.
What is the Big Idea of chapter 5?
Big Idea: Integrate digital into all areas of how you do church. Think bigger than streaming, giving, and social media.
What else do people ask?
What are the four digital approaches in the book?
Amish (ignore digital), Broadcast (push content out, no engagement), Front Door (some digital, everything meaningful in the room), and Alpha Omega (healthy digital integration baked into every ministry area).
What is the Alpha Omega graph?
An x axis of your key ministry areas and a y axis of healthy digital integration from 1 to 100 percent. Draw one continuous line across it and the low points show where digital could help next.
Which approach are most churches using?
Front Door, by default, since COVID. They stream and post but the strategy stops at the building's door. The good news is a few small changes move a church toward Alpha Omega.
Does Alpha Omega mean everything happens online?
No. It means digital is integrated wherever it serves the objective. A church can be 100 percent Alpha Omega and still have a building and get people into a room.