I'm sitting in a room at a large conference table with a few of my closest friends. The conversation is punctuated by frequent lapses of silence where we all type feverishly on our laptops.
If someone walked in, they'd probably think we were slaves to technology, and advise us to get outside for some fresh air. But strange as the scene may look, we are far from isolated. We're all in the same physical—and virtual—room.
This is online church, and we do it week after week. Every Sunday, our church connects with people from all over—right where they are. People we have never met, people who need someone to talk to, people who need Jesus.
Our goal is similar to any other church ministry: help people connect to the church and to God. Our method, however, is less conventional. We're trying to move people from online to offline. In other words, we provide an experience of church through the Internet that we pray will result in them walking through the doors of our church. We turn virtual connections into face-to-face friendships.
Our Approach
There are some incredible models of church online. Perhaps the most impressive is LifeChurch.tv in Oklahoma. If you want to see what's possible in a global ministry context, visit there.
But we felt God was calling us to focus our efforts locally. We wanted to reach Birmingham and the surrounding cities. Our online campus was born to extend our reach by providing a virtual experience of the weekend service through a live video experience and interactive elements, such as group chat and one-on-one prayer. We also have online small groups.
People want to know more about a church than they can discover browsing text on a web page.
I'm consistently amazed by the types of people who log in. I was thrilled to see the Pelham Fire Station #1 join our live chat. Firefighters don't always have the ability to take Sundays off, but this provides church for them right there in the fire station. Others who attend online are military personnel serving abroad, healthcare professionals, moms with sick kids, people with chronic illnesses, just to name a few.
Initially, I thought our online ministry would only be valuable only for people who were physically unable to attend church. And, of course, we knew able-bodied people would enjoy attending church online if they were traveling for work or on vacation. But we've also been able to connect with many people who are disillusioned with the church. They're confused, but seeking. Physically attending church is still too difficult; but at this point, they're open to experiencing church online.
Karmen's Story
One night, we were hosting our monthly team training session when Karmen walked in. She introduced herself and I recognized her name.
"Karmen?" I said. "As in 'Karmen' from the online chat each week?"
"Yes, that's me!" she replied.
She told us her story. Karmen grew up in church but became disillusioned with it. She drifted away and fell out of fellowship with other Christians. Though she never stopped believing in God, she had abandoned her relationship with Christ and was hostile toward the church.
Then one day, she saw a link about our church online that someone had posted on Facebook. Karmen wouldn't have dreamed of setting foot inside a church. But here was an opportunity for her to experience church again on her terms. She could explore it from the comfort of her own home. It did not require much, just the click of a link.
When Karmen clicked on that link, she experienced a church service and logged into our chat feature and started conversing with the team. She came back the next week—and the week after that.
Eighteen months passed between her first week online and the day she walked through the door and into our team training. When I asked Karmen why she had come, she explained:
"When I found the online campus, I really didn't want anything to do with church. I was hungry for something, but I felt like I couldn't trust the church. I was too deep in my own sin to realize the church had the answer I needed. Somehow I clicked on this link from a friend on Facebook. What I found was something that would change my life forever."
Karmen explained how isolated she felt at the time. She had no one to care for her. What seemed trivial to our team of online greeters—a simple "Good morning"—was something Karmen desperately needed. The community she found through church online became extremely valuable to her, healing even. It was the most stable thing in her life; she could depend on us being there for her every week.
After walking into the church that night, Karmen quickly got plugged into our community. She joined the team that serves our church online. When I asked her why she had come to training, why she chose to serve on the team, she said, "For months I've depended on someone else to greet me, pray with me, and love me. God has brought me to a new place and now it's my turn to give back. I feel like I can help the people who come to church online. I know exactly what it's like to be that person on the other side who needs a hello and a prayer."
A Growing Ministry
Stories like Karmen's are becoming more frequent. In the last three years, I've learned so much from the people who connect to our church online. I believe we are seeing a shift in the way people need to be introduced to church.
Ten years ago, it became common to think of your website as your church's "front door." It's the first place people went to evaluate whether they would commit to visiting in person. Today, that's changing. A website alone often isn't enough. People want to know more about a church than they can discover browsing text on a web page. Prospective guests want to gauge the spirit of the church, and not have to rely on marketing copy or a promotional video to do so. Soon the front door of your church will be whatever ministry experience you can provide online.
We've made our service experience our new front door. In the first year of providing a simple live stream of our Sunday services, our online attendance grew from 300 to 1,100 unique households. Once we introduced the interactive elements and installed a pastor to serve the ministry, attendance continued to climb.
But that's not what we get most excited about; it's seeing people commit their lives to Christ. In the nearly three years we have operated online, we have had more than 350 people enter into a relationship with Jesus. And many of them have joined small groups and now participate in service teams. When I think about these people, now in a relationship with Christ and serving in the local church, it's hard not to be excited about our online ministry.
David Russell is the online campus pastor at Church of the Highlands in Birmingham, Alabama.
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