I’ve approached this video course in four parts as if we are building a house together. I want your online ministry to be something beyond streaming content online, but a healthy expression of your church.
1. BLUEPRINTS – 3:55 MIN
- Why so much pushback with #churchonline?
- 1st impressions ministry (new front door) and “church” for those far from your community
- Think through your target viewer (Tool: Hubspot)
- Align with your church’s vision/mission
- How to position your online ministry/pastor
EXTRA RESOURCE: Three Approaches for a Healthy Online Church
2. FOUNDATIONS – 18:45 MIN
- What is “Ecclesia”? Looking Acts 2:42-47 (early church):
- Worship = “They devoted themselves to… breaking of bread and prayers praying God.”
- Temple Courts / Worship Service
- Fellowship = “… devoted to the fellowship… all the believers were together.. they ate together.”
- Small Groups
- Discipleship = “They devoted themselves to the apostles’s teaching.”
- Classes (LMS)
- Ministry = “They gave to anyone as he had need.”
- Ministries (aka serving opportunities)
- Evangelism = “… added to their number daily hose who were being saved.”
- Share your faith by inviting to online service or home gathering
- Worship = “They devoted themselves to… breaking of bread and prayers praying God.”
- Digital Ecclesia & House Ecclesia (Resource: 2 Temple Courts)
- Understanding the incentives/structure of your local church vs. online ministry (Resource: The Value Chain Constraint)
- Your funnel or flywheel
- Vision story of your target viewer
- Measuring the right things (Hint: Align with your church’s metrics)
- Start thinking of your online ministry as decentralizing your church
3. THE GUTS – 35:15 MIN
- Breaking down what your online weekly service is:
- Live, Rebroadcast, & On-demand
- Facebook Live, churchonlineplatform.com, YouTube, Podcast, Twitch, etc.
- Shifting to thinking of those watching real-time and the viral reach of the service for the first seven days
- Clear call to actions on all content with your online ministry
- Creating classes using teachable.com or thinkific.com
- Setting up small groups right with curriculum, courses, and care
- Online Groups (Resource: 9 Questions Before Starting Online Small Groups + Video Course: How Online Small Groups Work)
- Learn more about a healthy small group strategy at smallgroupnetwork.com
- Ministry (serving online or in homes)
- Living out purposes locally through small groups, meetups, watch parties, and home gatherings
- Automation is a tool to reinforce what you want your target viewer to do, but need to clearly know your funnel/flywheel
- Automation is a tool to reinforce what you want your target viewer to do, but need to clearly know your funnel/flywheel
4. FINISHING TOUCHES – 58:58 MIN
- Launch in phases like a church plant
- Focus on building trust and buy-in with your leadership by telling the right stories
- Consider running a report of those that have given/tithe outside of an hour driving distance of your church or campuses and send a survey to those viewers to find out more about them
- Be yourself and not any other church!
