Chapter 12 of 15 · Ideas to Ponder
Why Don't Online Viewers Ever Show Up in Person?
Chapter 12, “Understanding the Gap,” from Online Church Is Not the Answer by Jay Kranda
Short answer: There's a gap between watching online and walking into a room, and digital won't close it by itself. Name where people get stuck in your assimilation and discipleship pathway, then use digital to make the leap less scary. Saddleback's texting based Plan a Visit is the worked example.
What is this chapter about?
Most people never consider the gap between exploring your church online and walking into it, let alone the gap from watching a stream to going deep from a hundred miles away. Digital doesn't fix that gap. It creates more places to get stuck. Someone can watch forever and never attend. Someone can stay in an online group and never start one in person. You don't show up to college and take senior level courses, and Jesus took three years with his disciples, so a slow process is fine. But you can't leave people in the early stages. You have to turn up the heat at key moments.
Online is so easy that it's too easy. You can lurk and never be known, and all we have is an IP address, which means nada. (Also, the "watch church in your pajamas" pitch needs to die. I watch other churches' messages on my runs.) So how do you get people to make themselves known? Our answer became a texting based Plan a Visit. Two experiences collided. A church in Tennessee had a first time visitor page with a real person's photo and contact info, and it made me feel comfortable checking them out. Around the same time, my daughter Elle was freaking out about her first day of preschool until her teacher sent a video tour of the classroom, and she went from scared to excited. Email felt impersonal, so we built a page with photos of the location and its people, what to expect, reminder texts, and a text connection to a real human at the campus before you show up. Personal, like Jesus is personal.
To find your gaps, think about the emotion of the gap. Imagine a Muslim friend invited you to a mosque. Would you know what to wear? Most new people feel that about your church, and that uncertainty easily becomes sleeping in on Sunday. Then walk your whole pathway. An online group can be the step before a home group. A Zoom class can lead to showing up next week. A parenting podcast on a commute can change a dad's trajectory. A short video can make a wife pick up the phone. Talk about the stuck points publicly with your team and ask if digital can help. I got the Plan a Visit ball rolling, but the team at my church took it to another level.
What are the big ideas?
Buildings made a lot of believers complacent, and digital can too. Recognize the strengths and weaknesses of each and make sure nobody gets stuck along the way. Solve the first gap with digital and everyone else will start solving their own.
Who is this chapter for?
Guest services and assimilation leaders, and anyone whose online numbers look great while the room stays the same size.
What is the Big Idea of chapter 12?
Big Idea: Use digital to address areas where people get stuck in the assimilation process and discipleship strategy. Get more leaders at your church thinking of ways digital can help fill in your gaps.
What else do people ask?
What is "the gap" in the book?
The distance between engaging with a church digitally and taking an in person step, whether that's attending, joining a group, or starting one. It exists at every stage of the assimilation and discipleship pathway.
What is Saddleback's Plan a Visit?
A web page with photos of a location and its people, what to expect, an interactive signup, reminder texts, and a texting connection to a real person at that campus before the visit. It replaced an impersonal email process.
Should churches let people stay online only?
The book says shepherd people by their context, but work toward in person as the healthiest long term expression. God can work if someone stays online, but a shepherd keeps offering the better thing.
How do we find the gaps in our own church?
Draw your pathway, talk openly with your teams about where people get lost, think about the emotion a new person feels at each step, and ask whether digital can make the next leap easier.