Church Online

In many ways, churches face the same issues that organizers of any live event are up against. Limited capacity is one, fixed locations another. With an estimated six billion religious worshippers around the world, even the biggest churches have to close the doors at some point, and even the most fervent church members are not always able to attend services in person.

Last month, we took a closer look at expanding your church through an online campus. Often called an internet campus, iCampus, cyber church, digital church, virtual church, or even church in the cloud, expanding online is a great way to expand your reach--without expanding your physical space. Below are ten helpful online campus tips as you prepare to expand your campus virtually:

The multisite church model is all about reproducing healthy growing churches in surrounding local communities. One of the largest communities at our fingertips is the online community of the internet where millions of people reside virtually. The next logical step for multisite churches with technical savvy is to extend their reach into this community with an online campus. It is one of the innovations spawned by the multisite movement.

In the old days, churches used to buy time on a local TV or radio stations to extend their reach electronically but today, that's happening more often through the Internet with live streaming services. TV, radio, and Internet services cost money and for many churches, the cost prevents them from broadcasting their service. Facebook Live now makes this more accessible to a large potential audience of viewers. In many cases, users can do so for free or for a fraction of the cost of the expensive Internet church streaming services springing up all over the place.

Video isn't going anywhere. In fact, video is perhaps the fastest growing ministry tool available to churches and believers all around the world. We recently shared a helpful article that covered seven ways video can save your pastor time, and these suggestions can easily parlay into opportunities to share the Gospel and ministry of your church with a wider audience.

You’re called into the pastor’s office. You’re assured it’s no big deal and you have no reason to doubt that, that is, until you hear the words, “I want us to start live streaming.” In your pastor’s mind, it’s maybe another five minutes of work and you’ve already got everything you’ll need. But you know otherwise.

The Internet has had quite an impact on the Church. According to a Faith Communities Today survey, the number of congregations across America using email more than doubled between 2000 and 2010. Ninety percent of congregations had embraced this technology, while just 35 percent had done the same a decade earlier. On top of this, the number of congregations employing websites in their daily operations had jumped from 33 percent to 69 percent in the same space of time. As with many other groups and organizations, the Internet allows members of the Church to share their message and maintain contact at any time, any place.

Live streaming is becoming less of a technical novelty and more a requirement for many churches--something that makes a lot of sense. Sure, online live streaming technology allows you to broadcast and distribute your message around the world, but it also allows you to reach local community members that may not be able to make it to church every week (or at all). The question is, can they hear you? You know that audio is the most important part of any live stream, right?