Digital Engagement

As churches have returned to meeting in-person, many are asking if and/or for how long they should continue offering a livestream option for their worship service. 

The primary argument for not continuing online worship is to encourage and foster relationships. Being known and experiencing the fullness of relationships is important for our spiritual growth and for our Christian witness. Being in relationship is how we practice the “one anothers” of the bible as we exhibit love for one another that is an echo of God’s love for the world. 

Yes and amen to these good reasons to meet regularly together! But there are also strategic reasons to offer livestream, which don’t necessarily negate the opportunity to build relationships. Some strategic purposes for online worship include:

• Providing access to worship for those unable to attend due to illness or special needs. 

• Giving your unchurched and dechurched neighbors an opportunity to check out Christianity and church in a comfortable and non-intimidating way.

Could you develop a strategy where online worship might be step 1, and diving deeper into your church community is step 2?

Nathan Artt at Ministry Solutions shared a compelling post last year called The Home Depot: 700% in Person Growth Using the Digital Platform. In it, he explores lessons the church can learn from Home Depot’s efforts to meet consumers where they are, i.e. inexperienced non-DIYers who are easily intimidated by the store. 

Home Depot’s strategy? Equip shoppers by providing training videos for common projects and lists of needed supplies with aisle numbers for where to find those supplies in the local store. In doing so, Home Depot helped shoppers to feel more confident in their ability to take on a project and more comfortable and knowledgeable about the store which resulted in visits, purchases and shoppers becoming part of a larger community of DIYers. 

We encourage you to read Nathan’s post to think about how your church might harness its online presence to engage, invite and prepare non-Christians into your community & worship.