Livestreaming church services have now become integral to the church experience. So, what lies ahead? Pastors, here’s a challenge for you: Within your congregation are individuals who grasp the power of digital platforms. Equip them, empower them, and place your trust in their abilities.
A notable trend in churches is emerging. While some are refocusing on in-person ministry within the confines of their physical spaces on Sunday mornings, others are venturing into uncharted territory.
The Saddleback Experiment: A Virtual Reality Campus
Jay Kranda, Online Pastor at Saddleback Church, tells the story recently on The Digitally Resilient Church. Saddleback has recently launched a Virtual Reality campus. Saddleback made a bold move by introducing a virtual reality platform named VRChat.
This decision sparked controversy since VRChat is often dubbed as the “red light district” of virtual reality platforms due to the lack of parental controls. Unlike other realms, VRChat operates with minimal rules and regulations. In fact, shortly after Saddleback’s launch, they encountered instances of disruptive behavior with half-naked avatars disrupting a church service.
Despite the turmoil within VRChat, Saddleback’s initiative provides an opportunity for individuals to encounter Jesus and engage in meaningful spiritual discussions within a safe environment.
Discovering how Saddleback found its way to VRChat is truly fascinating. Although Jay excels in online ministry, he admits to being a newcomer to virtual reality. Fortunately, a Saddleback attendee had prior experience with VR as a worldbuilder in VRChat. This individual was enthusiastic about introducing Saddleback to the VRChat community.
Instead of stifling the volunteer’s passion, Jay took an intriguing approach: he embarked on an experiment. Despite the risk to the “Saddleback brand,” he collaborated with the volunteer to create the Saddleback: VRChat campus. Will this campus be a permanent fixture? Unlikely. Will it shine the light of Jesus to those seeking it? Without a doubt.
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Experimenting even if your church isn’t a megachurch
“Saddleback has huge budgets. They can experiment! You don’t know what it’s like at smaller churches.”
Even smaller churches have the potential to innovate. In a similar virtual reality story, one of the largest virtual churches is modeled after a physical church in Northern California. Amid the challenges of the COVID era, Jason Poling, the Lead Pastor of Cornerstone Yuba City, a medium-sized church, introduced Cornerstone VR. Since its inception, Cornerstone VR’s ministry impact now competes with that of the physical Yuba City campus!
Cornerstone’s story is similar to Saddlebacks. Jason Poling was not an expert in VR, but several people in his leadership were excited about the virtual reality technology and cast vision to Jason. Two separate conversations with high-level volunteers piqued Jason’s interest.
Instead of dismissing the idea, Jason delved into it with questions: “What would Cornerstone Church be like in virtual reality? Can VR help us reach a new audience?” Rather than taking charge, Jason listened, immersing himself in VR worlds, engaging with people, envisioning a virtual Cornerstone Church. Today, Cornerstone VR stands as a thriving virtual community, a testament to Jason’s foresight and open-mindedness.
Discovering, discipling, and trusting the digital natives in your church
Pastor, this isn’t just about virtual reality. It’s about acknowledging and empowering individuals called to excel in the digital realm. Your church is home to digital natives with a profound grasp of the platforms shaping today’s world. There is enormous potential for ministry outreach on these platforms, and the exciting part is that you already have the talent within your congregation to lead the way. These digital natives are among your flock, eager and possibly feeling unchallenged (or, worse, bored).
These individuals are likely disengaged because their world, their purpose – probably your church – may not align with their perspective. While broadcasting church services through platforms like Resi is crucial, digital natives view it as a starting point, not the ultimate destination. Instead of trying to fit the square peg of digital natives into the round hole of traditional church ministry, what if you empowered them as they are?
They could probably run this ministry for your church and open new ministry doors. All they need is your permission and your care.
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9 Tips for Recruiting and Empowering Digital Natives in Your Church
- Doing something different reaches someone different. Recognize the value of engaging with digital natives and encouraging a new perspective in ministry. Digital natives often possess a unique worldview distinct from traditional pastors. This distinct perspective, though different, proves incredibly beneficial in reaching individuals beyond the scope of conventional church ministries.
- Look for people who don’t fit your mold. “Our church doesn’t attract digital natives.” You’d be surprised how many of them are on the fringes. Someone’s son away in college or a co-worker you eat lunch with occasionally. Realizing that people attract who they are, empowering ministry through people who look (and act) different from you will open up new ministry opportunities.
- Pastor, you don’t need to think out of the box. Pastors today are looking to control the situation. “Let me understand more fully what’s happening before I let you do something for the church.” Pastor, this approach will turn you into a deadweight holding back what God can do with the church. It is not as important for you to understand the new tech as it is to trust the people who understand it. Your job is to speak into the digital native’s spiritual life, not their technical life. Disciple them.
- It’s not “Where do they fit” but “What are they called to do?” Recognize that church ministry can look different. Some people will volunteer to serve a role in Live Production, Guest Services, or Kids’ Ministry. These people will fill the organizational chart and fit cleanly on your team. There are others, though, who have a different skill set. They offer a lot of potential and are looking for validation, literally permission, to do ministry differently. Listen to their calling and support them where they are.
- Serving doesn’t have to be Sunday morning. Sunday at 9 a.m. is vital for a church’s well-being, but not everything. Engaging people online and offline extends ministry beyond Sunday. Encourage ministry outside Sunday, even if it disrupts the usual routine. Volunteers might shift roles to reach new individuals – support their outreach efforts even if it means releasing them from their Sunday morning commitments.
- Trust, then verify. When we say letting go, that doesn’t mean ignore! Meet with the people regularly. Check stats. Ask questions. Trust them, but learn along the way. Position yourself as a learner, not as a know-it-all. It’s okay if they don’t have all the answers to the questions. Trust them, but don’t forget about them. Give them space to explore ideas…
- Spiritually, verify then trust. What you can never let go of is discipling people. In no situation should you trust someone to experiment with digital initiatives you don’t trust to speak for your church spiritually. If there’s one requirement for you, it’s that you trust them spiritually. So, take the time to disciple them! Verify that before you let them do anything.
- Shooting BBs before Bullets before Bombs. This may not be the best analogy, but the visual works. Start small. An untested experiment costing six figures is probably not a good idea. Don’t say no to the idea, but find ways to sandbox the idea. Learn to walk before they run. Version one is better than version none. There are all sorts of cheesy one-liners we can say here, but if they’re excited about ministry, they’ll be willing to test ideas.
- Learn to iterate. Failure of an experiment doesn’t mean the idea is a failure. Nor is the digital native a failure. Learn to be okay with failures. Help them find lessons amid the failure. Encourage them to keep going. Innovation is very difficult, and part of shepherding them is caring for them after a failure. Failure is just a chance to iterate and try again. What if your church had a culture that encourages innovative thinking and celebrates failures for the lessons learned? A successful failure is one we learn from.
A successful digital ministry doesn’t always follow a roadmap
That being said, not everything is a failure. In The Digitally Resilient Church Online Series, Evan Connelly from Lighthouse Church told me how their church recently rolled out a Discord server to the entire church! The Discord server started as an experiment for the online volunteer team reading the Bible together! The experiment among volunteers went well, so they opened the experiment up to the online church attendees, which once again went so well that they opened it up to the entire church.
Through experimentation, Evan has established a digital community enabling connections with both remote and in-person participants, fostering engagement and cultivating digital relationships. This innovative platform, born from the initiative of a few volunteers seeking to share biblical insights together, leverages Discord as an online engagement tool during their collaborative reading sessions.
A thriving digital ministry not only streams services but also leverages this platform to kickstart other digital initiatives. Embrace the tech-savvy individuals within your congregation and encourage them to explore new ideas. Embracing innovation will broaden your church’s outreach to new audiences.
