by The Church.Digital: I think most of us can relate to the expression “traditional service” from our church experiences. Some of us might even remember the time when singing hymns followed by a 3-point message was no longer keeping people in church. At that time, the idea to add contemporary worship music along with a variety of instruments including drums, electric guitar, bass, and pretty close to a full rhythm section arose. In addition to the instruments, big projection screens were introduced for video illustrations, displaying song lyrics with animated backgrounds and more. Pastors moved away from the suit and tie and some churches slowly replaced the traditional choir with a larger group of vocalists wearing t-shirts and singing with the worship team. Ha, almost forgot, the worship team. Instead of one person leading songs, a group a people singing in harmony led the music portion of the service. With these changes, the weekend experience in churches got better. It was more engaging and as a result the church grew. Hear me when I say this, the traditional service was not a bad thing, but culture determined that we had to change. We did not change the message we shared, but rather just how we shared it.

Fast forward and here we are…again. For years now, churches have been connecting with people both locally and globally via the web. Streaming the weekend services became very popular, and it has been around for a while, I mean years! But with COVID-19, something is rapidly showing and making it more evident that simply streaming your services without engagement could now be the new “Traditional Service.” Culture is once again starting to show that what they want is not to only sit and watch, but they expect a more immersive experience.

By nature, as humans we long for immersive experiences. We want to be part of the things we have an interest in. We want to be the main actors and not only spectators in our experiences. Platforms like Netflix, Apple TV+, Hulu, and more offer us just that as we control the experience. But it doesn’t stop there, the next generation is becoming even more immersive with the digital experiences and gaming has shaped how they interact with each other online. More than ever, people are playing together in a global community and I have to confess that I know this from my experience in playing FIFA ’20 where I am immersed in a global community who has common interests in soccer and gaming.

The church should not fall behind. People want to connect online, engage and have an experience. We have the best content to offer and the best interest at heart to connect with people, but simply streaming the services won’t do it. Engagement is required, and COVID-19 put this on a fast-track. We must be intentional about how we create online content, making sure it will drive the audience into a more immersive experience with God and each other.

Meeting in person is never going to go away, and it will continue to be a very important expression of worship in churches all over the world. Make note though, it is NO LONGER the only way REAL church is happening and remember that online church has the capacity to drive community more than ever during these times. People are no longer attached to a building in order to meet and to have fellowship, so let’s take advantage of the convenience that online church is bringing to keep people connected with each other and God daily.

If you are only streaming your services, maybe it is time to re-think and evaluate new ways to engage with your audience to create a more immersive experience. A place where they not only sit and watch but are actively part of REAL community that will engage kids, youth and adults while making disciples who will make disciples.

Source: Streaming is the New Traditional Service

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By: The Church.Digital

One of the greatest pushbacks against church online is that an online church cannot provide authentic discipleship because it is not authentic community. Though I will save the authentic community argument for another post, I want to make the case here that you can provide authentic discipleship in an online environment. In fact, the same components that create healthy discipleship in person are the same components to create healthy disciples online. If you are struggling with the concept of discipleship in an online community or how to make disciples in your meeting time online, here are six components to help you establish a discipleship culture.

Shepherding

Shepherding is too often reserved for pastors and not lay people. Yet, the concept of shepherding is simply to care for other believers, often those you have been entrusted to lead. Though you may not be able to hug someone online, you can still shepherd them effectively. Caring for other believers does not require to be with them in person. If someone is having financial troubles, send them some cash via Paypal or Venmo. If someone is having a difficult week, encourage them through prayer and scripture in text or messaging. If someone is facing big life decisions, provide wise counsel and fast and pray with them. 

Accountability

After focusing on shepherding, transition to accountability. Accountability consists of holding each other to obedience in our walk with Christ. Of course, this can mean asking someone who struggles with sexual sin how they have been doing, or utilizing online tools like Accountable2You to help. This also includes setting goals together (see number four) and holding each other to those goals that are being set. Use this time to ask about each other’s prayer life, their time in the word, and sin issues that can be holding someone back from an abundant life in Christ.

Worship

This one may be the trickiest. Of course, you can play a song on youtube and sing together. If you are musically inclined, feel free to play and sing together. However, this could also be something as simple as asking a question like: “What is your favorite attribute of God and why?” or “Tell me something that God did in your life this past week that you are grateful for?” Any act that draws our gaze and attention toward God is worship, so be creative. Note that this comes after accountability. If someone has had a hard week with accountability, it is important to immediately draw their eyes to Jesus for hope and to prevent shame and guilt that surfaces from sin.

Study the Word

Too often, we only study the word in our discipleship meetings, foregoing all the other things I mention in this post. However, time in the word should still be at the center of discipleship. The key to disicpling in the word is to come to the Bible with an obedience-based approach rather than a knowledge-based approach. In other words, we read the Bible to know God and to obey him through what we read, not to learn new things alone without concern for obedience. For Bible study, I highly recommend the Discovery Bible Study. It is the most adaptable approach to studying the Bible I know of, is obedience-driven, and is centered around a community approach rather than an individualistic approach.

Set Goals

After reading the Bible, the most important step is to take what has been understood and apply it to our lives in specific ways. Often, we use application in abstract ways by saying, “I just want to love God more.” That’s a great desire, but that is not a goal. A goal would be to spend thirty minutes in prayer every day for the next week, or to read 1 John once a day for the next week. In my groups, I use the acronym C.O.S.T to guide us in goal setting.

C – How will I Connect to God this week?

O – How will I Obey God this week?

S – Who will I Share the Gospel with this week?

T – What other Christian can I Train this week?

It is important that the leader provide a way for these goals to be made public to the group as these goals serve as a prayer guide for each other throughout the week and a chance to see how things are going as we seek to meet our spiritual goals. It is also important that the leader set goals as well and invite the group to hold him/her accountable.

Commission the Group

After setting goals and recording them, the leader ought to cast vision and commission them out into their communities. At the end of every group, we consider the Great Commission and remind each other that there is a real mission with high stakes that Jesus gave us to complete, and that is what we are being sent out to.

Disclaimer:

You may notice that prayer is not one of the six components. That is on purpose. Rather than making prayer a section during the time a group has together, I recommend making prayer center to every section. How can you shepherd each other without prayer? How can you determine what goals God would have you set without prayer? How can we understand the Word without prayer? Prayer ought to be in the ebb and flow of the group meeting rather than just one section.

These six components of a small group will create disciples online or in-person. For more resources like these, please visit http://t4tonline.org/ and https://noplaceleft.net/four-fields/.

Source: 6 Components of Authentic Discipleship that Work Online

The post 6 Components of Authentic Discipleship that Work Online appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by TheChurch.Digital: I’ve talked with hundreds of Pastors in this COVID season. Easily. Not an exaggeration. If I count emails, texts, social media, direct messages, pings… geez, may be over a thousand. Never, never, NEVER have I heard a Pastor tell me this: “Our Church is healthier because of COVID.”

Enter Ali Roohi, Pastor of CenterSet Church in California. In this COVID season, he’s seen online attendance drop. Most churches have, after all. At the same time, though, he’s seen Online Groups triple in size and giving increase substantially.

How’d he do this? A major philosophical shift of his church… and you’re going to want to hear him say it… here on The Church Digital Podcast.

Stadia is getting ready to launch another round of their Phygital Learning Communities. Almost 70 churches right now are learning how to THRIVE, GROW, and MULTIPLY. We want to help your church learn how physical and digital can work together to achieve your mission and vision, meanwhile letting your Church, Online, be authentically you. Phygital Learning Communities are starting soon. Check out http://stadiachurchplanting.org/phygital for more information.

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

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ON THE SHOW

Source: PODCAST 086: Ali Roohi – My Church is Healthier Because of COVID

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by Greg Curtis: The quarantine has made it easier than ever to access good teaching about Jesus and the life his death and resurrection makes possible. It has not made it easier however to connect with others to experience that life everyday.

Or has it?

Sherpas-leaders at your church are the ones who help guests reach the summit of a full connection with God and others. How much more are they needed when the guests are climbing the “cyberssimilayas?”

Here are some things we learned about connecting people during the quarantine that we never anticipated. I chatted about these for a half hour on facebook live last week (watch that here) and he is a brief summary of that chat.

Four lessons learned after the 3rd weekend of doing church exclusively online:

Decide on an online gift for guests that has value for them

Our guests leads online are staying between 25 and 40 per weekend. Though much lower than when we physically gathered, we are getting traction by offering a free 5 minute daily video from Gene Appel (our Senior Pastor) to start their day. It’s informal and from his home while he is under quarantine as well. It is important to make sure the video is offered to guests after they experience Gene and know him enough to want to hear from him more.

Determine your new way of recording attendance.

The number of devices logged-in during services has replaced the number of people on campus for our weekly attendance number.

The trouble is there are multiple people watching your service from one device, sometimes just one. Andy Stanley and others have data to support that your real worship attendance in this new world is the number of devices logged-in times 1.7.

Another discovery was that our average time a device was logged-on our website was 22 minutes but only 2 minutes through facebook (no clue why. If you have a clue, let us know in the comments at the bottom). So we subtract facebook attendance from the total altogether.

So our equation for weekend attendance now looks like this:

All Devices times 1.7 minus Facebook =total weekend attendance

Drop your most important ask in the sermon.

If the average attender is staying 22 minutes, odds are they are logging-in late and leaving early. That means that if you make your announcements before or at the the beginning or your service or at the end, they will not be heard.

So pick your most important “Ask” and have your Lead Pastor share it at the beginning or appropriate part of his message.

Develop an engagement pathway not an engagement pitstop for guests online.

When we went online, we fell back into the “engagement pitstop” plan most churches invite their guests into when they gather physically. Pitstops are places you stop to take care of an issue but that’s it. They are one-offs that lead no where else and it is easy to offer announcements that lead to dead ends, offering no clear next steps at the end.

An “engagement pathway” is where you take all your asks of guests that lead to pitstops and begin asking them one at a time in the order that respects the current trust level your guest has with your church.

Not sure what to ask of a guest when? During the Facebook Live, I used this illustration/exercise:

In a dating relationship, what order would you put these asks in?

Saying I love you

Meeting the parents

Spending a day together

Asking them out out a date

Asking for their phone number

Think about it. Mentally put a number next to each bullet point that would put these asks in a reasonable order given where the relationship is at.

You probably noticed that I simply placed these asks in reverse order of what a normal dating relationship would experience.

So if I flip them back in the correct order, you can more easily see the equivalent ask you would initiate in your online relationship with a guest:

Asking for their phone number=Asking for their email at your digital One Place to receive a welcome gift)

Asking them out for a date =Inviting them to your One Program for connecting guests

Spending a day together=Being with them online for all the sessions of your One Program

Meeting the parents=Discussing service with a ministry team leader or attending an online small group for the first time

Saying I love you=Committing themselves to Two Placements on a ministry team and on a small group for the long haul

This creates your engagement pathway, each stop ends with an ask to the next one. Can you also see why asking something too early in the relationship with a guest might result in disengagement?

Engagement, not your Content, will get a guest to return to your church online.

So I also suggested another online engagement idea that is getting traction at Canyon Ridge Church in Las Vegas. It involves inviting guests at the end of a service into 15 minute group chats at the end of the service. I would suggest they wrap around the 3 questions they are asking themselves during the quarantine:

How can I manage my money different during the quarantine?

How can I parent differently during the quarantine?

How can I help someone else in need during this quarantine?

Each chat group could be organized by an expert in your church or on your staff in each area. They could follow a similar format:

Financial Management during Quarantine:

Introduce yourself and set up of Financial Peace University Online

Show the promo video for FPU

Q & A

Share link for sign up. (plan to launch small groups out of the experience)

Parenting during the Quarantine:

Introduce yourself and set up of Online Groups for students

Show the promo video for your online groups for teens (see ours here)

Q & A

Share link for sign up.

How to Help Others during Quarantine

Introduce yourself and set up of Idea of local compassion

Show the promo video for your local compassion efforts (see ours here)

Q & A

Point out how to sign up.

I am very excited to share some things we learned about incorporating text into guest engagement online, the dos and donts of that, and how we ended up with more decisions to follow Jesus than I can ever remember when we met physically. Join me live at Facebook.com/gregcurtis63 8am PST Tuesday April 14.

To hear more about how to increase guest engagement online during this season, let me know here:

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Source: Creating an online engagement pathway, taking attendance online, and more (Facebook Live session 3 summary)

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