Continuing The iChurch Method TV series, I was asked a question about helping a church develop online content strategies. Here is the transcript of the video above:
First I would ask them what you consider an ideal membership for you right now. If you’re trying to get a million members for your church then we can look at that. If you just want 1000 people and that’s as many as you feel you can handle then we can look at that as well.
Once we establish that then we start looking at the content that the ministry is putting out; how often are you preaching, what other content do you have such as announcements, what other leadership in your ministry is pushing out content. We start gathering all that content together. Once we look at all the content that the ministry is putting out, then we start figuring out how we can distribute it—whether it be social media—we look at the website and what information is on there, and we just start looking at how many different ways we can distribute that information. Continuing with that, we look at multimedia because we want to look at the online video aspect. Do you want to have live online streaming services or would you rather just record your services and archive it and let people watch it later? We ask those questions.
Then we look at online donations; is that something that you want to do. With the content that we were looking at before, do you have enough to start creating digital products? You may not have the resources to create DVDs and CDs but you can create digital products if we’re recording the sermons.
Then we look at, again, social media; is your church ready for that and do you have the resources. I’m not trying to put everything on the pastor. The pastor is gifted at ministering to the people and preaching to the people, so I’m not trying to make the pastor “Mr. Everything” for the church. So, do you have the resources and possibly volunteers to utilize social media? Maybe some young people that are very enthusiastic about it and that are also very enthusiastic about your ministry.
Finally with mobile, I want to help them understand that aspect. When I tell them about just anything with digital ministry they immediately think computer ministry, but I’m trying to help them understand it’s internet ministry, online ministry, so you have to include mobile devices, tablets, and anything that’s going to be internet enabled well into the future. We’re getting into the era of the Jetsons now, so people have to understand, and churches have to understand, that everything is going to be internet enabled.
For more information on this and other topics, get your copy of “The iChurch Method Volume 1: How to Advance Your Ministry Online.” or The iChurch Method Volume 2: Changing the World When You Login or even sign up for the iChurch Method Online School.