What I learned from watching (parts of) 36 church services last Sunday

Last week the world experienced a Black Swan event–that rare event that no one could have ever forecast of predicted. On Sunday I watched (parts of) 36 online services of some of the leading churches in America that have been part of my work with Leadership Network. Here are my main discoveries along with a QUESTION TO THINK ABOUT:

·  12/36 churches provided the opportunity for live feedback via a chat / comment screen. HOW MIGHT YOU MAKE YOUR FEED A BIT MORE INTERACTIVE?

• 6/36 churches provided a space for prayer requests. COULD YOU ADD A “ROOM” WHERE PEOPLE COULD PRAY W/ SOMEONE ON LINE?
•  1/36 churches provided a link to invite someone to join them in watching the online experience. COULD YOU CREATE A TOOL TO INVITE OTHERS TO JOIN THE SERVICE?
• 2/36 churches provided a space to ask for help or fill a need IS THERE A SPACE FOR PEOPLE TO EXPRESS THE HELP THEY NEED?
• 1/36 churches used Facebook Live to broadcast their service. EVERY CHURCH NEEDS TO SOLVE FOR CONNECTIVITY. COULD FACEBOOK BE THAT DOMINANT PLATFORM…ESPECIALLY FOR SMALLER CHURCHES
• 4/36 churches required online attendees to answer a couple questions (usually zip code from where they were watching and how many folks were with them) THIS IS A GREAT WAY TO TRACK ONLINE ATTENDANCE AND A GREAT PLACE TO INSERT AN ASSESSMENT

My observation was that most churches responded as radio programs did in the 50’s when TV was introduced…Television companies just broadcast the radio programs on TV! Most churches broadcast their services in front of an empty auditorium.

What if we went from the premise that the Coronavirus presented a new opportunity for the church to advance the gospel, grow their people…turning consumers into contributors over the next 18 months? People WANT to help at this time. What tools can you create to make loving a neighbor simple, repeatable and common?

If you knew that you could not physically gather for the next 18 months, how would you structure yourself to best fulfill your mission of reaching people and growing Christ-followers? If the average viewer only watched your service for 18 minutes last week, could you, as an experiment, create a 20 min service to see if folks stayed for the whole thing? What hypotheses do you have around ATTRACT, GET, KEEP, GROW and MULTIPLY? What experiments could you run?