The future church is hybrid
The internet has changed the way we live—how we shop, the way we buy groceries, the way we stay connected to each other, so why wouldn’t it change the way we do church? For years, the goal of the church has been to get someone to visit one of our in-person services. But these days, someone will have visited your website, checked you out on social media, and maybe watched a video or two from you before they ever step foot into your church.
The future church is hybrid. The future church needs an in-person experience and a digital presence. Notice what I didn’t say, I didn’t say a digital service. I think it’s more than that, much more. Don’t believe me? When is the last time you watched a YouTube video over an hour? For most of us, the answer is never. Then why do we as churches think people want to watch an hour and fifteen to an hour and forty-five minutes of a service? I’m a pastor and I don’t want to do that. That’s not how people use the internet. The internet is made to make our lives easier and quicker, giving us back our time. So, putting a camera in the back of the room to live stream our hour-plus long services is going against the grain of what the internet is all about.
As churches we need to rethink what we put online. If the internet is designed to make our lives easier and give us back our time, then we need to be thinking how as churches we can do the same. A great example of this comes from Judah Smith at Home Church. Judah has started something called ‘Short Church’. It’s where he takes his sermon and reduces it down to seven or eight minutes and uploads it onto his Youtube channel in addition to his full sermon. On average, the short sermon gets three times as many views as his full sermon.
As churches, we need to create a digital presence that will make people feel like this is a place where they can belong, where they can make friends. At our church, most first-time guests have come because of two reasons: a friend invited them, or social media. The future church will use a digital expression of themselves as the first step to get someone into the church community, and then maybe next, the church building. If we leave the digital part out, we make it harder for people to come to our in-person services. The future church is both digital and physical.
For the past year and a half, Covid has made us relationship starved. People want to come together, find community, and experience an encounter with God. To experience something more than what they can get online. If we want to take advantage of what changes Covid has caused, we need our in-person services to focus on two things: creating opportunities for people to experience God and find community. That means that we probably need to rethink what we do in our services.
The way I’ve been doing church for the past 20 to 30 years, which includes a welcome, worship, sermon, and maybe a closing song. There is no time built into our services for the chance to make a friend and build community. That only happens if people come before or stay after the service. Since finding community is one of the two main reasons people come to church, shouldn’t we find a way to create opportunities for that to happen.
The in-person service and the digital expression of our churches complement each other, they don’t compete. They are completely different in my opinion, each having their own advantages and disadvantages. Together they give us the best chance of fulfilling what God has called us to do as the church.