Churches seeking to have an online presence can do so in many ways. The most obvious is to put up a website or blog. There are a couple of things to consider, however.
First, having an online presence for your church means a lot more than a registering a domain name and hosting a site. Church members must bring Christ with them into social networks, message boards, blogs, comments, instant messenger programs, news sites, video sites and the like.
Second, the target audience of a church web-presence should be unbelievers, not prospective church members. Reaching prospective church members can grow your organization and your budget, but reaching the lost grows the Kingdom.
Unbelievers don't care about your church building location, service schedule, calendar of events, staff members, doctrinal statements or various ministries. They are neither making plans to attend your church nor to listen to your online sermons.
Online outreach strategy should create and take advantage of opportunities for conversation between believers and unbelievers. Churches and believers need to be bringing the the message of the gospel into the daily internet chit-chat.
I will blog on internet outreach and online outreach in the future. A good starting place to learn is Paul Watson’s blog Reaching the Online Generation. Here is a good article: Eight Questions for Starting an Online Ministry.
I agree with you... The problem, though, is that churches tend to prefer to fish from other fish tanks rather than fish from the ocean.
ReplyDeleteThat is a real problem and a reality for many organizations calling themselves churches.
ReplyDeleteOutreach is often just a name for finding prospects to attend and tithe. They look for people who conveniently fit the status quo of the church. Their end goal is organization sustainability.
That is not what Jesus called us to.
No, it's not. But it is standard operating procedure for the vast majority of churches.
ReplyDeleteNo, it's not. But it is standard operating procedure for the vast majority of churches.
ReplyDelete