Jesus had a media team.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John recorded His works in the media of the day – the written word.
He had a team of volunteers who were in the trenches with him, documenting what was happening.
If Jesus did not have a team around him whose main job was to capture and re-tell the stories of what was happening, a huge chunk of the New Testament would be missing.
While many of us are sometimes resistant to new technology, or using the tools available to us to reach others, the truth is that Jesus had people around him capturing messages, writing them down, and sharing them with others.
I talk about that phrase a lot: “The church winning online”, and what I mean by that is the church that wins online is simply the church that’s reaching people online.
Too many of us play the game of keeping up with the latest megachurch down the street.
We steal stage ideas, sermon ideas, structure elements, ministry handbooks – and all that is fine. Nothing wrong with emulating people that are doing things we like (well, to a degree – I’ll talk more about that later).
The danger in that though is losing your church’s authentic voice in an effort to be like “Random Action Verb” Church.
Austin Kleon, in his book Steal Like An Artist (one of my personal favorite manifestos on creativity) wrote “You don’t need to be a genius, you just need to be yourself.”
That rings so true and needs to be said in our relentless pursuit of “keeping up with the Jones’ “ that we give in to.
I don’t believe that our numbers need to compare to everybody else’s numbers. I don’t think you have a certain “online church” benchmark you need to be hitting as you refine your focus as a pastor, and as a leader.
Our main goal should simply be reaching the specific region or group of people God has called us to the best that we can.
As pastors, we’re called to reach people, but we didn’t always understand the depth of what we were getting into when we accepted that call. One unforeseen side effect of the COVID-19 pandemic was that it forced us to all become instant digital media experts. A lot of us went from zero to 100 when it comes to the online space in our churches… all of a sudden we had to ramp up to a hundred miles an hour out of nowhere with zero to little training.
I haven’t talked to many Bible Schools or seminaries that offer digital media programs to their pastors.
I have never met a pastoral search committee that pre-screens for extensive digital marketing background as a prerequisite for lead pastoring.
You’re a pastor called to serve and love people, but you’re now also in the difficult position of carrying the weight of digital media and online engagement for your church.
There are a couple of quick things that you can do to level up your church’s online game that don’t require a lot of budget or any board meeting decisions.
First, before we get into some practical wisdom and tips – let’s start by defining a win.
3 minute action item:
Define your win. The difference between little league and MLB players? One is playing to have fun and the other is playing to dominate. What is your “domination?” What is the territory God has given your ministry to reach, and how can an online ministry help do that? Are views important? Using social media to get more people in the door?
