With more technologies becoming an inherent part of our generation, growing your church has never been easier. With the right methods and online tools, you can make it simple for your church community to stay connected or just as easily expand your membership from local to global.
Using technology, church leaders can reach a broader audience and share the gospel of God with people from around the world.
We’ve come up with 6 ways to grow your church membership with online technology and strengthen your organization’s faith.
1. Create a Church Website
Having an online presence is becoming common practice among organizations. People all around the world uses the internet to research information and stay connected with their associations.
Curate a website that speaks directly to your audience and allows members of your organization to engage with your church online. Post calendar information, PDFs of your weekly newsletter and service details all on your website for your organization to have access to so they can stay up to date with all your church’s news.
2. Church Live Streaming
With an online communications platform, you can post your organization’s schedule on your website and have attendees join your service online. Online access makes it easier for you to reach your community and improve member attendance.
A conferencing platform like FreeConferenceCall.com allows you to broadcast your service to thousands of participants at no cost. Participants can join online or by using a phone line.
FreeConferenceCall.com also allows you to record your church services and download those recordings onto your own database. You can post them later on your YouTube channel and website.
Tools you’ll need to get started church live streaming with FreeConferenceCall.com:
- A computer, laptop or smart phone is used to process your content and connect you to your audience.
- A reliable internet connection to ensure your stream isn’t faulty or of poor quality.
- A high-quality microphone connected to your device to provide audio broadcasting for your listeners.
- A camera or webcam allows you to record video and broadcast your church service and conversations online. You’ll also be able to record your sessions to post on your YouTube channel.
3. Host a Podcast
Weekly prayer calls among churches have been a normal thing for some time. As churches adopt new technologies, they progress to using better methods of communication between their leaders and the members of their organization. Podcasts are a natural progression to church calls.
According to Brady Shearer of the Pro Church Tools podcast, 17 percent of practicing Christians are listening to podcasts daily. That number continues to grow year after year, making podcasting an excellent platform for getting more in depth with topics you couldn’t cover during your service.
A podcast is an audio-only experience that allows hosts to publish conversations on any topics they choose. With a podcast, your organization can host discussions about topics that are most important to your listeners and continue your conversation on faith.
With a podcasting platform like Bullhorn, you can have members of your church listen to your sermons using an internet connection or by using a phone line and Bullhorn’s Call-to-Listen feature.
4. Start a YouTube Channel
YouTube is a database that allows users to post and store their videos online. A YouTube Channel lets you share recorded church services and archive your weekly gatherings for others to search and watch. Creating a YouTube channel for your church gives your members another resource to engage with your faith online.
Having a YouTube channel also improves your church’s content searchability online, which helps you reach a broader audience.
5. Engage with Social Media
Churches that find the most success with younger audiences find a lot of engagement from their audience by reaching them on a personal level. When you address your following by their name or twitter handle, you directly reach out to your audience.
Use social media as a tool for communicating with your congregation. You can use Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to post reminders for upcoming church events and find out what your audience is talking about. Appealing to your audience’s interest makes your organization much more relatable.
6. Set Up Online Church Donations
According to a study published by the Barna Group, 39 percent of all practicing Christian Millennials are making donations online rather than using traditional paper envelopes.
To make sure you allow the members of your organization to contribute their generosities to your church, set up online donations using Tithe.ly or another service. Robust donation services like Tithe.ly offer multiple ways to donate, like text, online, or through the app.
Why Use Online Technology to Grow Your Church?
While you may be hesitant to start building your presence online, studies have shown that millennials are more likely to engage with your faith if your organization has access to online resources. Here are a couple reasons why you’ll want to start build your online presence right now:
Accessibility
As technology develops, the world gets smaller. The internet has made it easy to communicate with someone on the other side of the world.
Even developing an online presence for your local church can serve new families, members who may be sick and a range of members that may not have access to your church in person.
New Ways to Interact with Members of Your Organization
Before the internet, people would need to attend events in person. Now, people can attend events anywhere in the world from the comfort of their home. Using an internet connection, users join a service via a video feed, comment on a video and tweet to a church leader easily.
As our generations moves towards communicating online, it’s important that your organization appeals to the younger generation. Relating to a younger audience can be as easy as using the same technology they use to communicate to their friends and family.
With these simple tools, you’re able to access anyone in the world and grow your audience to more than you could have ever imagined.