By TheChurch.Digital: Are our physical services effective? Typically, we measure butts in seats to get that number. Did more people come this week than last week? You’re heading in the right direction.

In most situations, butts in seats is a horrible analytic. That being said, it’s necessary… but there are others! What are we looking at? What stats should we be looking at and how do we measure them? This is where we bring in the experts. RESI has been helping stream church services for years, and they’ve gotten quite good at helping churches measure and process analytics!

So jump in the conversation with Collin Jones and Jennifer Miles from Resi, and let’s figure out how we should be measuring the analytics of our church services online.

If you’re enjoying this episode, subscribe for free using your favorite podcast app below:

Apple Podcasts | RSS Feed | Anchor | Overcast | Spotify | Pocket Casts | Google Play

ON THE SHOW

Source: PODCAST 137: Resi & Analytics of Online Church Services

The post PODCAST 137: Resi & Analytics of Online Church Services appeared first on Passion for Planting.

By unSeminary: Welcome to this week’s unSeminary podcast. We’re talking with JD Mason, the online campus leader from Liberty Live Church in Virginia.

JD is chatting with us today about how church online has evolved for Liberty Live Church since the pandemic and why they made the decision to transition to live, rather than prerecorded, broadcasts.

Trial and error. // Though Liberty Live Church had an online campus before the pandemic hit, there was still a huge learning curve during the changes over the past year. Before COVID, they used to pre-record all of the host segments, intros, and outros, but they switched to a live broadcast during the pandemic. When COVID hit, there were no volunteers and minimal staff, so learning how to automate as much as possible while doing a live broadcast was key. While recording live, it takes a lot of trial and error when dealing with technical glitches or unexpected situations, such as a fire alarm. Help the staff stay calm and explain to the audience what is going on so they are in the loop and can pray along with you.Why live? // Having plans for a live broadcast can help bridge the gap to getting to know people who are in their homes. Live broadcasts, with all of the unknowns in the moment, can also still help people feel like they are in the room and a part of what’s going on at the physical campus. As host, sharing something that’s happening in your week makes you relatable. Ask questions in the chat to create conversation and connection. Comment live on what people are sharing, and pray for people as their prayer requests pop up in chat. This interaction makes your online community feel seen and heard.Harness the energy of the room. // Initially the worship used during the online services was prerecorded because it was higher quality, but Liberty Live discovered that people preferred hearing the worship streamed from the main auditorium, even if it was more raw. Create anticipation for your online community and throw to the live broadcast of worship as the energy and music are building.Plan for growth. // If you are building a community of online churchgoers, think about how you can keep growing this campus. What are your goals for the future? At Liberty Live there are online Wednesday night services on certain topics for the purpose of discipleship, and Sunday nights will begin to broadcast exclusive worship nights with an acoustic vibe. Future plans also include an online women’s bible study, and a Right Now Media catalog of all pastors and staff featured in messages, so the online community can get to know the staff. As Liberty Live Church builds an inventory of services and studies, they will also catalog them on a YouTube channel for on-demand streaming. Online church can help you reach out to people everywhere. Create a plan to use your online services to extend your reach, whether it’s locally, regionally or globally.

You can learn more about the online campus at Liberty Live Church at https://libertylive.church/online/.

Thank You for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally!

Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live!

Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: Leadership Pathway

If you are trying to find, develop and keep young leaders on your team look no further than Leadership Pathway. They have worked with hundreds of churches, and have interviewed thousands of candidates over the past several years. They are offering a new ebook about five of the core competencies that are at the heart of the leadership development process with every church that they partner with…just go to leadershippathway.org/unseminary to pick up this free resource.

Source: Moving from Pre-Recorded Church Online to Live with JD Mason

The post Moving from Pre-Recorded Church Online to Live with JD Mason appeared first on Passion for Planting.

Source: PODCAST 132: Altar Live: Stopping Church in Isolation by Meeting Your Online Attenders

The post PODCAST 132: Altar Live: Stopping Church in Isolation by Meeting Your Online Attenders appeared first on Passion for Planting.

By NewChurches.com: In Episode 598 of the NewChurches Q&A Podcast, Daniel and Todd discuss the choice between video preaching and live preaching.

In This Episode, You’ll Discover:

The teaching strategy Daniel is installing at his church
Ways to communicate more regularly if you are not the lead teaching pastor

 Shareable Quotes (#NewChurches):

“If you are on the main feed that everybody is seeing, you need to bring it.” – @toddadkins
“We just want to see people be equipped for the work of ministry and to have cultures where development is the M.O.” – @danielsangi
“When it comes to the teaching side, if you try to look for an A+ communicator plus a great campus pastor, it might be a unicorn.” – @danielsangi
“If you want to grow as a communicator, you need to find the reps.” – @danielsangi
“You are not going to be a great communicator if you only preach once or twice a year.” – @danielsangi
“There are a ton of opportunities you can find to communicate – how are you prepping for the time you teach your volunteers and leaders?” – @danielsangi
“Part of developing as a communicator is doing it lots and getting feedback as you are doing it.” – @danielsangi

Recommended Resources:

Listen to Episode 588: The Relationship Between a Lead Pastor and a Campus Pastor
Listen to Episode 590: The Relationship Between a Campus Pastor and the Central Location Staff
Listen to Episode 592: What Ministry Planning Looks Like
Listen to Episode 594: Leading People You Don’t Like
Listen to Episode 596: Changing Direct Reports

Help us Multiply the Mission:

Please subscribe
Leave a rating and review on iTunes
Ask a question by clicking Send Voicemail on the right hand side of NewChurches.com
If you’re on a phone or a tablet, then go to www.speakpipe.com/newchurches to download the app and record your message
When you’re recording, introduce yourself and your context in about 15 seconds and then record your question for 30 seconds

This Episode’s Sponsor:

No matter how many people you have on staff at your church, there’s only so much you can accomplish in a day, right? Your church exists to serve your community, so the mission of your church and its staff is to reach as many people as you can.

So BELAY, the innovative staffing solution with over 10 years of experience serving churches with virtual assistants, bookkeepers and social media strategists, is offering a free download of their resource, ‘Church Leaders: Essential Strategies to Unleash Productivity.’

Let BELAY help your church live its mission in your community by helping you juggle less and accomplish more. Visit belaysolutions.com/lifeway for your free download.

The post Episode 598: Video Preaching or Live Preaching? appeared first on NewChurches.com – Church Planting, Multisite, and Multiplication.

Source: Episode 598: Video Preaching or Live Preaching?

The post Episode 598: Video Preaching or Live Preaching? appeared first on Passion for Planting.

By NewChurches.com: In Episode 597 of the NewChurches Q&A Podcast, Daniel and Ed explore new, creative, and imaginative ways to handle issues surrounding church planting.

“What are some new, creative, and imaginative ways denominations and networks are planting churches?”

In This Episode, You’ll Discover:

Different ways church planters are creating churches in 2021
If a stronger focus on disciple making and micro church approaches will be the new norm

 Shareable Quotes (#NewChurches):

“Many networks tend to have a looser ecclesiology, they are get it done people.” – @edstetzer
“We are making a list of the ways churches are combining facilities.” – @edstetzer
“Our number one big opportunity was online.” – @edstetzer
“The idea of packing a bunch of people in an exciting room for a worship service didn’t resonate with a lot of people in 2020 and early 2021, so I think that helped push people toward more missional approaches.” – @edstetzer
“Launch large, up until COVID, had been increasing. And then when COVID hit, all these churches had to pivot.” – @danielsangi
“Many churches during the pandemic launched online.” – @danielsangi
“People revert to the norm. The most likely predictor of future behavior is past behavior.” – @edstetzer
“Other cultural issues would have in my view longer term, bigger impacts on missiological strategy assuming the pandemic is a two year experience.” – @edstetzer

Help us Multiply the Mission:

Please subscribe
Leave a rating and review on iTunes
Ask a question by clicking Send Voicemail on the right hand side of NewChurches.com
If you’re on a phone or a tablet, then go to www.speakpipe.com/newchurches to download the app and record your message
When you’re recording, introduce yourself and your context in about 15 seconds and then record your question for 30 seconds

This Episode’s Sponsor:

No matter how many people you have on staff at your church, there’s only so much you can accomplish in a day, right? Your church exists to serve your community, so the mission of your church and its staff is to reach as many people as you can.

So BELAY, the innovative staffing solution with over 10 years of experience serving churches with virtual assistants, bookkeepers and social media strategists, is offering a free download of their resource, ‘Church Leaders: Essential Strategies to Unleash Productivity.’

Let BELAY help your church live its mission in your community by helping you juggle less and accomplish more. Visit belaysolutions.com/lifeway for your free download.

The post Episode 597: New, Creative, and Imaginative Ways to Plant Churches, part 1 appeared first on NewChurches.com – Church Planting, Multisite, and Multiplication.

Source: Episode 597: New, Creative, and Imaginative Ways to Plant Churches, part 1

The post Episode 597: New, Creative, and Imaginative Ways to Plant Churches, part 1 appeared first on Passion for Planting.

By unSeminary: Thanks for joining in for this week’s unSeminary podcast. We’re talking with Jenn Clauser, the Director of Communications at Coker United Methodist Church in San Antonio, Texas. She’s with us today to dig deeper into online church and how to integrate it as a core part of our mission to reaching people who are far from God.

Optimize your website. // Before COVID, Coker felt led to make their online presence more robust. They partnered with Missional Marketing who rebuilt the church’s website for search engine optimization. By paying attention to what people are looking for in keyword searches online from month to month, a website can be made to do outreach for you. Coker layers these words into their website in an authentic way by using them in sermon series. Divorce, for example, is a high search term in the month of January, so Coker tends to lead into the year with a series about families. They might use phrases on their website such as: How do you avoid divorce? How do you care for someone who has been divorced? How do we strengthen marriage? By developing a strong online presence, you will be easily found by your community in their time of need.Create connections. // As online viewership increased during COVID, Coker began to ask how they could see the analytics as faces. These are real people looking for guidance and connections. Feed them where they are and offer them help and services online even if you can’t see them. Coker did this by connecting their online audience to meaningful community. A few steps they took included setting up a way where online guests could register their attendance and let you know their names and email addresses. They created a place for online prayer requests and a team responds to these requests in real time. Coker also offered people a free book in exchange for their email address, as well as one-off courses, like a simple marriage class. Have a connections expert who is in charge of reaching out to them see where their needs are.Launch classes online. // Within their online campus, Coker listed all of their courses online. Allowing all of your classes to be attended in that format opens the door to a new audience who may never have attended your church before. Coker has their classes set up similar to Google Classroom. People can get the class content, a Facebook group where they can connect during the week, the Zoom link, and other resources for attendees. Online classes provide a way to reach people that won’t walk through the doors of your church right away, but they feel comfortable being present in an online Zoom classroom. It gives them the chance to know others’ faces, and provides a bridge where they could feel comfortable attending church in person down the road. Don’t miss this mission field opportunity.Brainstorm new ideas. // Recognizing the opportunities that are provided by mixing online and in-person, Coker is brainstorming a lot of possible ideas right now. In the fall they are launching an intentional discipleship program where people take an online assessment, get their results, and then meet with a spiritual director who will guide their next steps. Depending on what the spiritual director recommends, people may then get involved in online classes to help them study the Bible better or dig deeper into prayer. Another new thing Coker is trying is assembling five community groups. Four of these will be in-person and one will be online. Each group will meet quarterly as a community gathering for things such as a BBQ, a study group, a monthly dinner, etc. Coker will see what organically grows from there.Listen well. // During this transitional phase it’s important for churches to be listening to what their community needs as well as how they want to connect with your church. Don’t be afraid to try new ideas and offer a mix of online and in-person services or events. Most of all, make space to listen to God. During the pandemic, God has shown Jenn that she needs to be intentional about her connection with Him. Pay particular attention to your sabbath, your time with God alone, and time with other people and how God might be speaking through them. Commit everything to prayer, and know who your Spirit-led experts are. Talk decisions out with other leaders at the church, but also don’t be afraid to use Google to research and learn!

You can learn more about Coker United Methodist Church at www.coker.org and visit their online campus at Coker.org/cokeronline.

Thank You for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally!

Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live!

Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: Carey Nieuwhof

Leadership has felt pretty uncertain and divisive this past year. How do you make decisions when the future isn’t predictable and your team has different opinions?Download the FREE Pivot Ready Cheat Sheet to get help making progress and gaining clarity through rapid change and disruption. It will give you a framework that effective and resilient leaders use to make decisions and take action.

Source: Applying Pandemic Learnings from Church Online to Post-Pandemic Church with Jenn Clauser

The post Applying Pandemic Learnings from Church Online to Post-Pandemic Church with Jenn Clauser appeared first on Passion for Planting.

By TheChurch.Digital:

Barna recently released data that suggests the opportunity to pray with someone at your church is a highly attractive offer not only to Christians, but also to people of other faiths and even of no faith. Asked if they would consider joining your church for online prayer, 68% of all Christians responded positively (including those who only attend church infrequently). 32% of people of another faith also responded positively, and a shocking 24% of people with no faith at all.

57% of all U.S. adults are at least somewhat open to online prayer during a church gathering

?This means that your church’s Sunday livestream may not be the essential draw for your unchurched friends and neighbors. Perhaps a signpost on your social media that announces that your prayer room is open for personal, private, face-to-face prayer is what will bring them.?

Does Facebook Prayer Count?

Now, what does that mean? When an unchurched person — or a faithful churchgoer, for that matter — is open to prayer while attending a service on Facebook, how does that happen? Are Facebook prayers real enough, deep enough?

Yes, I know the Holy Spirit intercedes for us, translates our inchoate words and thoughts and feelings, so that our groanings are communicated as prayers.

Facebook prayers? They must count as well. God gets the Internet.

I have to confess, though — sometimes typing prayers in a chat pane with a prayer partner sort of feels “less” somehow. Oh, sometimes it’s wonderful. But I get distracted by a few things that lessen the experience.

Typos.  I know! I shouldn’t care! But, when the other person types “churnch” instead of “church,” my eye and my brain just take me off track. And, even worse, when I misspell something, I get overly concerned that the other person’s eye and brain are likewise off track. I find I never behave this way during spoken prayer. Please tell me I am not alone in this weakness.
Tone of voice. “I just need to know that God loves me.” Which word in that typed sentence is the emphasis? Is this an affirmation? Is this a statement of doubt? Is this person loved by others, and just wonders if God loves her? Or, she knows that God loves others, but does he love me? Or, is it the know part — that she thinks God loves her, but she needs to know it. Oh, if only she had said this simple sentence out loud, her tone of voice would tell me.
Body language. When I am praying with someone in person, I can tell a lot from their posture and facial aspect. Are they deeply troubled? Worried? Inert? Stoic? Nervous? Lonely? Distracted? Physically run down? But, online, I either make an assumption as if I know, or I do my best to pretend it doesn’t matter. Sometimes, I ask, but almost invariably my chat partner on the other end says — “Dude, I just need to know God loves me. I don’t need a counseling session.  Let’s pray, not talk.”
“Caroline is typing.” In an everyday texting conversation, it is so useful to see a notification that my text partner is typing something. It helps make the conversation flow. With text-based praying, it’s a mixed blessing. I see “Caroline is typing” so I pause from typing my prayer. Then, she stops, but I don’t see any text from her.  Should I resume my typed prayer? After I have entered and sent my portion of prayer, how do I know if she’s received and read it? Did she see what I wrote? Did it help? Are we done?
Anonymity. On Facebook, it’s common to see a post from a church host: “If you’d like prayer, let me know.”  Ummm…. Does that mean I have to respond to you here in the chat, in front of everyone?  I really don’t want to raise my hand in front of everyone to say “Yes, I need prayer” or “I’d like to pray”. I can only imagine later on hearing from others — “oh, I saw you asked for prayer. What was that about?” I’d just like it to be a bit more private than that.
Delays. Sometimes, there’s a link in the Facebook chat — “Want prayer? Click here.” Invariably, it brings me to a form on the church’s website, which I fill in, and then wait for an email response back. That’s a little too 20th century for me. It’s still prayer. It’s just a little slow.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s prayer! And, text-based prayer is a huge blessing, especially compared to the alternative, which is no prayer at all. It’s just that all my visual and aural faculties are absent from the environment. So, in a meaningful way, yes, it is a “less than” experience. Greater than zero, less than normal.

Facebook Church Livestream + Altar Face-to-Face Prayer

Let’s take another look at that link on Facebook that points to a prayer page. What if clicking that link didn’t bring the prayer-seeker to a form, but instead brought them to a virtual prayer chapel? This is how some churches have begun to use Altar Live.

They set up an Altar Live event as a Lobby, complete with tables and chairs.

Each table has a person already sitting there, and has “Prayer with Veronica” as a label. When a visitor arrives there directly from Facebook, they simply look around and see who they would like to pray with, choosing someone who feels like a good match based on gender, age or other demographic characteristics.

Prayer tables in Altar Live for private, face-to-face prayer time

My son (in Maine) and me (in Boston) in Altar Live at a prayer table

Church Metrics: People in Prayer, not People in Pews

The churches who have pursued this model talk about deepening a culture of prayer within their community.

As pastoral staff develop new metrics beyond attendance, the prayer life of the congregation is a natural target for measurement. In a recent podcast on Rich Birch’s unSeminary, Pastor Darell Roland of Rock Bridge Church is quite direct on this matter:

Rock Bridge no longer focuses on Sunday, but rather on the Monday through Thursday that lead into the Sunday. Instead of the executive team dashboard focusing on numbers like attendance, they focus on hours spent in prayer, number of people in prayer groups, and new people recruited and engaged in ministry and outreach. Look at engagement and participation in those areas. Attendance will be a by-product of those things.

Is your church looking to deepen a culture of prayer?  What mechanisms are you finding for corporate prayer and intercessory prayer?

Source: Does Facebook Prayer Count?

The post Does Facebook Prayer Count? appeared first on Passion for Planting.

Source: PODCAST 129: Church Plantology – A Convo with Peyton Jones

The post PODCAST 129: Church Plantology – A Convo with Peyton Jones appeared first on Passion for Planting.

By unSeminary: Thanks for tuning in to this week’s unSeminary podcast. We’re talking with Dr. Jonathan Armstrong today, an educator who has also helped run the virtual reality (VR) lab at Moody Bible Institute.

Our perspective on what technology is and how it’s affecting our world keeps changing. In fact as younger generations have grown up with certain technologies, they don’t realize how much these things influence the world we live in today. However, technology is incredibly important to people’s lives and that means that pastoral care has to embrace it and learn to respond to it. Listen in as Jonathan shares the possibilities and pitfalls of using virtual reality in our churches in the future.

What is VR? // Virtual Reality at its core is a type of internet technology – a way of interacting with data streams online. VR products, such as headsets and motion tracking, allow you to manipulate, interact with and experience data in real space. In a broad sense a virtual church is any way you convene as a community using online technology, such as watching a livestream of church or meeting as a small group over Zoom. But more narrowly, a virtual church could be one that meets entirely on a virtual reality platform like AltspaceVR or Facebook Horizon.More virtual gatherings. // Very few churches exclusively use an online VR platform for their services, but many more churches have some sort of virtual meeting space where church online is streamed. In the future, Jonathan believes that significant numbers of people will use VR as a way to congregate. While Zoom was the medium of choice for meeting in 2020, the next two to five years will likely show a transition to more VR as goggles and other products becomes more affordable and accessible. However VR will open the door to not just a local gathering online, but rather a global one with people from many different countries. It will be a totally new kind of church experience.Think outside the box. // Whereas Zoom does boardroom table discussions well, VR is a much more abstract form of media. While you could do a boardroom discussion in VR, you would be massively underutilizing it’s creative potential. So when it comes to VR church, don’t simply think about replicating the inside of your building, with people virtually sitting in pews, staring at the front of the room. Rather, think of VR as something that can communicate Christian truth in any way you want. Facebook perceives that this is the most powerful communication medium that humankind has ever invented. This technology can change human history as much as the printing press did in our past.Pitfalls and possibilities. // In considering VR, the first mistake we should avoid is the assumption that it will be a tool to translate everything we currently do in a church service effectively into another format. While VR could replicate our current productions, it doesn’t play to the medium’s strengths. We need to be creative theologians in this matter and we can’t be afraid to fail as we innovate and try new things. Some possibilities could include immersing ourselves in stories from the Bible, or pastors putting themselves in a “Paul” avatar while preaching from the book of Ephesians. There could be a “community theater” approach to the Bible as well where participants show up in VR “dressed up” as different characters and enact as a community a story from scripture. And the possibilities for Christmas or Easter are endless. Communicating the truth visually. // 65% percent of people are visual learners and VR challenges us to think more visually as we communicate truth. We are now living in a post-literate society. That doesn’t mean that people can’t read, but rather they can and choose not to. Our current forms of church are built for the highly literate person of the 1700s who reads and studies scripture, but we need to carry traditions of focusing on the Word into a world that has been influenced by radio, TV, and the internet. Using VR to communicate truth visually can become part of that new form of church.Virtual Reality Church. // Along with Darrell Bock, Jonathan wrote a book, Virtual Reality Church: Pitfalls and Possibilities (Or How to Think Biblically about Church in Your Pajamas, VR Baptisms, Jesus Avatars, and Whatever Else is Coming Next) to help church leaders and educators get their minds around what VR can and can’t do. It could be a great book for a leadership circle to explore and process together as you think about the future.

You can learn more about Jonathan and his work at Aqueduct Project.

Thank You for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally!

Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live!

Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: Chemistry Staffing

It’s important for church leaders to pursue the right fit for the right position, which helps determine a long-term, healthy fit. It all starts with properly assessing the applicant’s resumé. Download Chemistry Staffing’s Resumé Screening Playbook and walk through a screening process that will help you discover which candidates to focus on.

Source: Pitfalls and Possibilities of VR Church with Jonathan Armstrong

The post Pitfalls and Possibilities of VR Church with Jonathan Armstrong appeared first on Passion for Planting.

Source: PODCAST 127: Dave Ferguson & The Ecclesiology of a Phygital, Digital-Only and/or Multimodal Church

The post PODCAST 127: Dave Ferguson & The Ecclesiology of a Phygital, Digital-Only and/or Multimodal Church appeared first on Passion for Planting.