Resources

As businesses, schools, and churches close their doors to slow the spread of COVID-19, will charitable giving take a hit? It's possible, but churches can take steps to ensure their organizations, members, and communities will continue to be served well. Coronavirus is reshaping how we do church.‍

Due to the coronavirus crisis, churches all across the country are learning how to host worship and fellowship online instead of in the sanctuary. In making this switch, many church leaders are facing the unprecedented challenge of relaying the importance of continual generosity to their congregants without being able to encourage them in person. 

With the government temporarily requiring churches around the nation to shut their doors in response to COVID-19, online worship services are becoming the new norm. We don’t know how this will affect the way we do church in the long term. For the next few weeks or months, your church needs to figure out how to make an online worship service feel more like the real thing and welcome people who’ve never experienced a live stream service before.

You all know the education wing of the church, right? It’s the area of the church they forgot to decorate. Somehow we take the greatest story ever told and teach it in the beige-est room ever painted. I propose we bring our church classroom education, teaching, and training into the 21st century. On behalf of churchgoers everywhere, I am standing up for something new; this new online teaching and training platform for churches is called an online Learning Management System (LMS).

With a multitude of church management software options available, we know it's challenging to evaluate each one. Here's an overview of ShelbyNext Membership to help in your ChMS search.

Live streaming isn't right for every church. In an ideal world, equipment would be cheap and every church would have the infrastructure to host their own service via live stream. Now, many churches are struggling to make something work in a short amount of time because of COVID-19. This isn't a perfect world and while God isn't surprised, many churches have been. So, with that thought in mind, what are some things you can do today to maintain community and meet other than live streaming?

As church technology companies continue to consolidate, some providers are rising to the top as leaders in this industry. On March 24, 2020, Subsplash, the Seattle-based software as a service (SaaS) announced the acquisition of Cincinnati-based StreamSpot. StreamSpot is the award-winning content delivery platform providing live streaming services for faith-based organizations and businesses. In October of 2019, Subsplash announced the acquisition of Custom Church Apps, another church app provider that serves churches and ministries.

Basketball analogies are common among people growing up in Indiana, myself included. We compare most everything to a full-court press, slam dunk, or a variety of basketball terms. The Coronavirus is no exception and is certainly a game-changer for the American Church. Suddenly we find ourselves without the comfortable lead we have always enjoyed. The preparations we make over the next few weeks will have a great impact on the outcome for our church and its congregation.