How to Grow Your Church and Connect Your People with Your Digital Ministry Strategy

Serving at a small town church in western North Carolina, you would expect to find our church website to be dated, flat, and all around unwelcoming, or so we heard from the new guests that had just visited our church for the first time. Taken aback, we continued to listen to what the guests had to say. “We were searching for churches in the area, and your church website was the only one that looked inviting,” said the husband of the new couple. “We searched for a while, and saw that your church website looked nice, and really let us look into a worship service, even from hundreds of miles away!”

This is the type of society we live in. Technology is being used by the body of Christ whether we want it or not, so why not use it as a chance to further His Kingdom? Let us be careful and clear with this, simply having a digital presence will not open up the floodgates or increase church attendance by 160%. However, being intentional with your church’s digital ministry strategy can greatly impact your church’s growth and connectedness with your people by creating an atmosphere for growth and connections.

CREATING AN ATMOSPHERE FOR GROWTH

Your church’s digital ministry strategy can certainly open up opportunities for new visitors to hear about your church. Whether it’s from having a visually pleasing site, an accurate representation of service with pictures, or even simply being optimized for search engines, being intentional and honest about your church and the message your want to convey can easily draw eyes to your site, and even the church door.

However, this cannot be divorced with the role from both the church staff and the church body to both connect with our Lord, and with one another. Therefore, let us serve along side of the digital ministry strategy to expand His Kingdom.

CHURCH LEADERSHIP COMMUNICATION

In addition to creating an atmosphere for church growth, implementing a digital ministry strategy opens up communication from all aspects of the church. Pastors and Church Communicators are able to relay information to the congregation through event calendars and other third-party tools, such as The City or Realm.

CHURCH MEMBER COMMUNICATION

Church members and visitors alike can connect with each other through tools like small group finders, or even a unified Facebook page. Online sermons and sermon podcasts can even allow churches to connect with homebound, sick, or traveling members. We’ve had visitors who had just moved to the area visit our church and tell us that they’ve appreciated the preaching. When we asked them how, they said that they’ve been listening to the sermons online for the past SIX WEEKS! There were connections that we were unaware of, and through the implemented digital ministry strategy, they were able to make a smooth transition from visitors to regular attendees, even from across the country.

THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT

With a well-thought-out digital ministry strategy, you can easily create an atmosphere for growth, and connectedness within your church. However, it is important to remember that these are tools to be used by the people of God, for the Kingdom of God, by the Spirit of God. It is He who grows the church, and these are tools that He has, and can continue to use.