10 Tips for an Effective Online Campus—Part 2

In Part 1, we took a closer look at expanding your church through an online campus. Expanding online is a great way to expand your reach–without expanding your physical space.

Below are 10 helpful online campus tips as you prepare to expand your campus virtually:

TIP #1

An online campus is another “neighborhood” full of people far from God and not limited by geography or the size of a building.

TIP #2

Online campuses won’t be seen as a “real” campus unless you see online relationships as legitimate.

TIP #3

Successful online campuses have a heart, so appoint a dedicated online campus pastor to provide care for those online.

Tip #4

Determine the goal and priorities of your online campus. Is it outreach? Member care? Church marketing?

TIP #5

Go to school on other churches doing online campuses well. Most will be glad to share what they have learned.

TIP #6

Smart churches make it easy to give digitally online.

TIP #7

Create a digital community with your online campus by integrating social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.

TIP #8

Decide ahead of time how your online campus will handle communion and baptism (it will come up).

TIP #9

Online campuses cost less than a building but more than you think, so budget for a small staff, quality equipment, streaming fees, etc.

TIP #10

An online campus is a worldwide campus, so be sensitive to world events, holidays and America-centric attitudes. Be as inclusive as possible.

Jim Tomberlin is founder and senior strategist of MultiSite Solutions.

Jim Tomberlin
Jim Tomberlin

Jim Tomberlin (@MultisiteGuy) is a multisite strategist, church merger specialist and the author of several books, including Better Together: Making Churches Mergers Work-Expanded and Updated (with Warren Bird) and 125 Tips for Multisite Churches.

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