When you work on online presence for churches, you often hear people ask if “all this online stuff” is just a distraction, like all those other fads we’ve tried over recent years.  “Working on online presence takes time and staff away from other ministries and functions.”  To be sure, in order to do online presence right, you will have to invest time, staff, and funds for hardware and software as well, but, if done right, your online presence with augment your physical presence in a number of important ways.

What is “Online Presence?”
In a nutshell, online presence is the way that your church connects with staff, members of your congregation, your community, and others through the Internet.  It’s a combination of your web site, email and text messaging, and social media.

Why is Online Presence Important?
When we first moved to Indianapolis in the early 1990’s, the most common way for people who were new in town to locate a church they’d like to visit was to use the phone book.  In those days, one of the most important ways for you to help people find your church was to have an informative ad in the Yellow Pages.  The ad would have a mission statement about your church, your address and phone number, and the times for worship, children and adult classes, and other important weekly events.  Quickly now, when was the last time you even looked at a phone book?

These days, people looking for almost anything to invest their time in will do an Internet search to find an organization’s web page or FaceBook page.  They’ll want to know who you are, what you stand for, where to find you, and, if they have any more questions, how to get in touch.  The web site has completely replaced the Yellow Pages ad for first contacts.

Likewise, when I started in ministry, we had newsletters, mailed to people’s homes to communicate about upcoming events.  We also had “phone trees” to quickly inform people about cancellations, changes in time and date, sudden events, and other special circumstances.

These days, it’s far more common to find both kinds of information on the church web site and in social media posts.

As you can see, the importance of Online Presence is that it connects your church in the ways that people use and are comfortable with.  That’s why it’s important.  It’s not technology because it’s “cool” or new.  It’s using the tools that do the job most effectively.

Once the technology is in place, there are lots of other things that it can do for your church and your ministries.  We’ll talk about that in future posts.

Remember that Technology is (Only) a Tool
Because technology can do so much to enhance ministry, it’s unfortunately easy to forget that it’s not an end in itself.  Technology is only a tool.  It is, in fact, a lever.  It allows you to leverage your ministries and staff in important ways, but it’s only helpful so long as it serves to further your ministry goals.  With every technology decision, the first question you should ask is, “Does this enhance our ministry and advance our ministry goals?”  If not, you’d be wasting time and resources.

Consider the following two examples:

• Central Church staff is considering using an online calendar system for the staff and ministries.  The staff and committee members were at first a bit reluctant to spend the time needed to enter all the information, however as the worship team began planning their retreat and found their first choice of dates was on the same day as the choir picnic, they saw the advantages.  When the music minister wanted to discuss some changes in the contemporary worship service, she was grateful to be able to see when the Senior and Associate Pastors would both be in their offices.  The church office profession also noted that it was much easier to update the general calendar for the web site.
  Does it enhance ministry and advance ministry goals?  It can.  In a small congregation where this is not really an issue, the amount of work might out-weigh the positive results, but in a congregation where collisions occur frequently and frustratingly, this could be a great help in planning.
• First Church is considering using social media as a part of the worship experience.  As the services are taking place, people in the pews can send questions, comments, and ideas that are passed directly onto the worship leaders.  The pastor found he could respond to questions from the pews as he was preaching. The prayer leader also liked being able to receive joys and concerns on the spot.  They found, however, that it was also a bit distracting to both the leaders and the congregation.
  Does this enhance ministry and advance ministry goals?  It may not. If leaders don’t multi-task well, it can be more distracting than helpful.  There are some congregations that do this and it seems to work for them, but you need to evaluate how your leaders could and could not work well responding and managing constant feedback before you try it.
• Hilltop Church is considering using email and social media to stay in touch with their members, especially those who travel frequently and those who are in retirement communities.  At first the move is met with mixed feelings, but when flooding closes the major roads leading to the church, the people who travel from the retirement communities are grateful to have known before they tried to make the trip in.  Those who were far away were grateful to be able to keep up with the repairs and renovations of the church building after the waters receded.  Several families made use of the online giving capabilities to help support the repairs.
  Does this enhance ministry and advance ministry goals?  It probably will.  Timely communication is vital to keeping people informed before it becomes an issue, especially in situations for which you can’t plan ahead.  Communication also helps people whose life takes them elsewhere to still feel connected as part of the congregation.

So, Does Online Presence Distract From Real Church?
Having a web site, no matter how good it is, won’t make your worship more meaningful, but it can help to get people there to experience it.  Posting on FaceBook won’t guarantee that your congregation feels close and intimate, but it can help to keep people up-to-date on what’s happening in each other’s lives, which can lend itself to more closeness.  E-mail and text updates won’t replace good planning and organization, but they can help keep people aware of changes in plans and help the organizers get timely feedback.

And so, Online Presence, if done right, not only won’t distract from “real church,” it will augment and enhance the ministries you have and become a vital part of how “real church” works for you.  As with all tools, methods, and means, prayerful consideration of how or whether they enhance your ministry goals is key in adding and integrating any and all.

Godspeed on your journey on the Internet highway.

 

Bio: Russ Smith has worked computer programming, hardware and software sales, web design, and as a consultant to small businesses and non-profits (including churches).  He is also an ordained minister with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and is currently serving as Senior Associate Minister with DisciplesNet, an online church.