The New Traditional Church

Posted by Cotton Rohrscheib on Tuesday, May 26, 2009 · Comments

I just got around to reading a blog post that my good friend Garth Bowman sent me the other day about the New Traditional Church by Tony Morgan. I am not familiar with Tony but I have to say that I think he has hit the nail right on the head. The web is all about interaction, sure back in the day it was primarily used for research but today a vast majority of web users get online to communicate with their friends. The explosive growth of social networks like Twitter and Facebook just solidify that theory.

In his post, Tony makes a good point, if a ministry’s website doesn’t “engage” it’s visitors in some way, it more or less is a digital replication of the Sunday bulletin. When I consult with a ministry client one of the first things that I recommend is for them to establish a presence on Facebook and Twitter. When we develop ministry websites we always go into the project looking for ways to make our clients websites more “engaging”. We also incorporate things now like streaming video and chat rooms during our services, the response to the streaming video has been overwhelming, in fact we have had visitors from all over the globe inside our chatroom during service.

Another thing that has worked out very well for our clients is Facebook Connect, this technology allows users to post comments on your website using their Facebook account as a means of authentication. Facebook Connect also allows Facebook users to share your content with their friends inside of Facebook with just a few clicks. We have found that if users have to register for an account on your website just to post a comment, they are likely to just move on. But, if they are able to use their Facebook account they are a lot more likely to interact and post comments. Another way we have been broadening our reach is through the use of Twitter, our website is tied into Twitter so that anytime new content or podcasts are added to the website they are also sent out to our followers on Twitter.

I feel really good about our approach to Ministry Web Solutions, this past year one of our ministry clients, The Church Alive won “best of show” at the AdFed Banquet for the interactive category. If you are interested in speaking with us about your ministry’s web presence, please don’t hesitate to contact my partners and I, we would love to speak to you about your project.

Here’s the post that I was referring to from Tony Morgan:

I’m amazed at the number of churches that still view the web as primarily an advertising mechanism to let people know who they are and what they’re doing. Go ahead. Visit several church websites. Really doesn’t even matter what size the church is. With few exceptions, you’ll find their web strategy is essentially a bullhorn approach. The church is standing on a streetcorner of the web yelling at the people passing by:

“Come to our services on Sunday!”

“Let me tell you about our men’s ministry!”

“Join us for the golf tournament or fishing derby!”

“Serve on one of our ministry teams!”

“Give money to our church!”

“Here’s what we believe!”

It’s a one-sided relationship. The church views the web as a place to promote their agenda. No interaction with the audience. No stories of life change. No solutions to help people experience community or discipleship online. At best, you may be able to watch a video of a service, but you certainly won’t have the opportunity to engage a conversation with others about what you’re watching.

Essentially we’ve taken the Sunday service bulletin and we’ve put it on our website. That’s the web strategy for the Church today. “Here’s who we are and what we’re doing. Join us!”

The rest of the world views the Web very differently. For example, outside of the Church, people go online to:

Meet other people and build relationships

Share what’s happening in their life and tell their story

Get a taste of the experience, primarily through video, with the opportunity to interact

Have the ability to share slivers of content with others (3-minute clips, not 45-minute messages)

View content on demand on their time

Create content to add their contribution to the bigger story

Rather than looking at the Web through the eyes of a Facebook and YouTube and Twitter user, though, we’re still looking at the Web through the eyes of a Sunday bulletin reader. That approach works for the people who are already attending our churches. It completely ignors the people who we are trying to reach.

And that’s the problem. We view the Web as an add-on. After we’ve figured out how we’re going to do ministry, then we want to know how to use the Web to promote our ministry.

Instead, the churches that have influence within our online culture look at ministry differently. They assume the people they’re trying to reach are online. They assume the people who are connected to their ministry are online. Rather than looking at the Web as an add-on, they consider their web strategy as a fully-integrated part of how they help people take steps toward Christ. They are a church online as much as they are a church in a building located on the corner of First and Main.

The website isn’t something the “web monkey” maintains. It’s a place where the youth pastor, worship leader, children’s director, small group leader, senior pastor and every other person of influence help people to connect and grow. It’s an environment where the entire church engages the community and encourages each other to take their next steps. It’s as much their story as it is our story.

Of course, this approach to the Web would require far more time, resources and leadership. It would be much less expensive than building a new building, but it would require a shift in thinking and a shift in focus. Because it’s new, it would be hard. Because the staff and volunteer leadership team would have to embrace this new approach, it would be challenging.

We’d rather stick with what we know. It’s a lot easier to maintain our online bulletins. And that’s another reason why we are the new traditional church.