By Michael C. Mack
More and more churches are transitioning to online ministry. The most widely known example may be LifeChurch.tv in Oklahoma, which uses the Internet globally, and with impressive results.
David Russell, online campus pastor of Church of the Highlands in Birmingham, Alabama, says the church”s online ministry maintains a local focus. Their goal is eventually to see web-only visitors walking through the doors of their church building, to, as he puts it, “turn virtual connections into face-to-face relationships” (Leadership Journal, Summer 2013).
The church provides a live stream of its weekend service as well as interactive elements, such as a group chat, one-on-one prayer, and online small groups.
Over the past decade, church websites have been seen as the front door of the church. People would visit church websites to “shop” for a church they might want to visit in person. But that”s changing, says Russell. “A website alone isn”t enough,” he says. “People want to know more about a church than they can discover browsing text on a webpage. Prospective guests want to gauge the spirit of the church.” Russell believes the front door of many churches soon will be the ministry experiences the church offers online.
The Church of the Highlands has seen tremendous fruit from its online ministry. In the first year of streaming its Sunday services, online attendance grew almost fourfold. Attendance continued to climb as the church added interactive features. More importantly, during about three years of providing online services, more than 350 people have entered into a relationship with Christ. Many of them have joined small groups and are part of serving teams with the church.
Online church ministry may be a 21st century example of a first-century principle: using all possible means so that we may save some (1 Corinthians 9:22).
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