Developing your ministry online

Here you’ll find ideas to develop your online ministry, sourced from corps from Abergavenny to Kirkwall and Liverpool to Hedge End. (In comparison, the Moving your ministry online page shares advice for getting online in the first place.)

The three key pieces of advice for maximising the impact of your online ministry are to:

Share regular content
Inspire deeper engagement
Help worship flow

For each area we’ll give some basic advice, ideas for different levels of technology or skill requirement, and examples of corps who are already doing it.

Sharing details of online services

One way to let people know about your online worship services is to add details to your corps webpage. Find training guides on OurHub or email the digital team for help.

Share regular content

The temptation is to put all your efforts into the Sunday online service, but it’s equally – if not more – important to have regular content throughout the week.

By sharing regular content, you increase the range of people who’ll see it and give your congregation multiple opportunities to engage with God. You might find that conversations during the week are deeper, and that you attract others who wouldn’t engage with your Sunday material.

Balance your content between new content you’ve made and things that others have made – and get your congregation involved in the content creation!

Basic:

Share Messy church activity ideas to engage children (eg Hedge End).
Ask people to record a song, testimony, Bible reading or children’s story with their smartphone, DSLR camera, GoPro or camcorder. Find tips at the bottom of the page.
Download and use the images at the bottom of the page to send a positive message on social media.

Intermediate:

Use Spotify to create and share a playlist of contemporary worship songs.
Ask those who play instruments, act, dance or sign using Makaton to record a song/piece (eg Blackburn).
Record a ‘live’ interview with a member of your congregation using Lifesize or Zoom.

Advanced:

If you have members of the congregation who already have the software and skill to edit audio (eg Logic, GarageBand, Audacity) and/or video (iMovie, Premiere, Final Cut), you could then involve various musicians by creating a group song.
Use iMovie (or another video editing program) to edit together several videos and add titles and lyrics for a worship service.
Team up with other churches to produce a podcast or radio broadcast (eg Kirkwall).

Inspire deeper engagement

Social media statistics can be difficult to interpret correctly, and Christian thinker Mike Frost recently suggested that the global church’s excitement at the ‘success’ of their online ministry may be ill-placed. The church’s mission is to make disciples who participate in the life of Jesus, rather than encourage people to be consumers of religious content.

You can inspire that commitment to discipleship and mission in your congregation by encouraging them not only to view content but to engage with it and each other. In addition you should ensure the focus is as much on the regular, midweek opportunities for congregation and others to connect and engage as it is the one-off Sunday services.

Basic:

Share content regularly throughout the week. Why not share a song, an interview or a children’s Bible story from your Sunday service as individual posts on your social media channels, or via email or WhatsApp. People are more likely to engage with short, punchy content.
Ensure you monitor your social media channels regularly so your corps can respond quickly to any comments or questions.
Look at how you can involve your corps members to lead groups or generate content (eg Liverpool Walton).
Add a countdown video before your service ‘goes live’ that reinforces that they are participants in worship (Download SA-branded 5 minute ones here and here)
Communicate key updates via a WhatsApp distribution list.

Intermediate:

It’s easier to participate fully in smaller groups – so see how you can keep your midweek groups (baby song, discipleship groups, book clubs, prayer courses, etc) connected through video conferencing software like Lifesize, Zoom or Houseparty.
Smaller corps using Zoom to meet can get an insight into corps members’ lives that isn’t possible in a corps building – eg members of Abergavenny corps were treated to a virtual tractor ride by a Salvationist farmer. Consider what different experiences you could share in together during your online gathering.
People are also more likely to open up if they feel safe – so protect your midweek video calls with a password that is shared privately in a closed WhatsApp group.
Band app is a good way for youth leaders to communicate with young people without anyone having to share personal numbers.

Advanced:

Stream services to Facebook Live to allow people to interact in real-time using comments and reactions. Moderate the feed for inappropriate comments.
Ask your congregation to send simple videos which can be edited together into a more personal welcome video for online church (eg Fitton Hill)
Use Zoom’s breakout room function to have less ‘noisy’ after-church coffee conversations!

Help worship flow

One challenge of online worship services is to make the various pieces of content you’ve planned flow into each other as smoothly as possible.

The focus isn't on perfection, but on making sure the technology doesn't become a distraction.

Basic:

Record everything in one take, without editing. This will require any slides and contributors to be present, with appropriate social distancing (eg Colchester).
Pros: Once you’ve recorded it, you’re done. It also might feel more authentic.
Cons: It will require some planning to get everything to flow. This approach may therefore favour shorter services.

Intermediate:

Record each feature of worship separately and upload to your corps’ YouTube channel, before ordering them into a playlist. Premier the playlist at the time of your service and each item will play in order (eg Regent Hall).
Pros: No complicated editing needed. Everything will flow seamlessly, and it’s easy to change the order.
Cons: Your congregation won’t necessarily be watching the same thing at the same time.

Advanced:

If you’re using a video conferencing service like Zoom, arrange for someone to act as a ‘Producer’ who controls which of the slides or video feeds is viewable at each point. You can then live stream this to Facebook Live, YouTube or Vimeo (eg Sutton).
Pros: It frees up whoever is preaching or making live contributions to focus on that rather than the technology. It’s live, so will feel more authentic and people can comment and react in real time.
Cons: It’s live, so it won’t be perfect! It also requires a Zoom license.