During this coronavirus pandemic, I'm sure that most churches are suffering from more than attendance. Many of the services they normally offer and their missionary projects have suffered greatly. Also, I think you can imagine that their finances also have suffered. Sure, the faithful religious people have continued to give, but that isn't so for those who normally only give when the offering plate is passed among them.
In the midst of this, Carey Nieuwhof has discovered some exciting news. He is currently a podcaster, blogger, speaker, author of several bestselling books, and founder and CEO of Carey Nieuwhof Communications. He is a former lawyer and founding pastor of Connexus Church. As such, he is one of the new voices in church growth and ministry today. According to his survey (admittedly, not as comprehensive as some better-known surveys), a month before the pandemic hit the United States, only 8-15% of all churches were growing. Amazingly, right now around 49% of churches are growing. He says this is true regardless of the size of the church. So, why is this happening now? He lists five reasons.
First, since mid-March 2020 the world has changed dramatically. People's personal worlds have been deeply altered or collapsed. Between health concerns, friends falling ill, massive job losses, quarantine, lockdown, social isolation and a loss of income, freedom and autonomy, people are reeling. But rather than turning people away from God, the situation has instead turned people toward God. He suggests that church leaders should know that many of the people joining them online are not just regular church members; they are curious people, unchurched people, even atheists and agnostics. Instead of seeing an online church as an obstacle, some church leaders today are seeing it as an opportunity.
Second, people today tend to see digital as real. The difference between digital and analog is getting blurrier with each passing day. Think about it. You may be reading this on your phone or laptop, but in the next 30 minutes or so you could make an in-person connection. This could be someone in your family or a friend. In the past, if you missed the church's worship service, it was too bad; it's in the past. Now, the online church may meet anytime, anywhere, and sometimes even in person.
Third, the digital church has a much lower barrier to participation. One click on the remote takes you to church; that's better than driving down the road several miles. To go to church physically you have to get dressed up, get the family organized, and start driving. With the digital church, you may even go to church in your pajamas.
Fourth, an online church scales in a way the physical church can't. Consider that most churches online today are using the digital media kind of like a bandage until things get better. Not so with the digital church. Look at Instagram. When it was purchased by Facebook in 2012, it had around 40 million users; and they did it with only 13 employees. The online church transcends geographic, physical, and time barriers in a way that the physical church cannot.
Fifth, the financial investment for digital ministry is much lower than the financial investment for physical ministry. It costs a lot of money to establish and maintain a physical church, but it is possible to get online for only a few thousand dollars. The reality of the internet is that you can reach thousands or millions of people using the phone for almost nothing. We know that politicians learned this a long time ago.
All of this is not to suggest getting rid of the physical church. People are relational -- they like getting together to sing, pray, work together, and to hear a good sermon from the Bible. The church down the road that holds your membership is not going away, but it might, just might, want to consider expanding its ministry by developing a digital church online in order to reach more people for God and to find support for significant ministries.
Change is difficult, but it is possible. When we oldsters don't understand a new app on our phones or how to manage television programming, we simply ask one of our kids to do it for us. There are people out in our world today who have the vision and the ability to make the changes necessary to reach more people for Christ today. Instead of ignoring them, why not invite them into the mission of the church?
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Robert Box is the former chaplain for the Bella Vista Police Department and is currently the Fire Department chaplain. Opinions expressed are those of the author.