Just a Screen Away

In 2020, churches everywhere searched for ways to serve their members, despite doors being closed for months. Most churches livestreamed their services, and people all around the nation—and the world—watched. 

When people decided which online service to view, the physical location of the church wasn’t really a factor. During the pandemic, many people formed connections with churches in other states—some even decided that they wanted to become members of a faraway church, even though they might never attend services in person.

This trend has led churches to struggle with questions about ecclesiology, leading to a practical question: How do we serve online-only members and integrate them into our congregations?

St. John Lutheran Church in Winter Park, Florida, is one such church.

“Someone who lived in another state had watched our services online throughout the pandemic, and they requested to become a member,” Senior Pastor Tom Lyberg says. “Our church offers an associate membership, which allows someone to carry a primary membership at another church. It’s designed for people who snowbird in Florida, but it works for anyone who doesn’t live locally.” 

While St. John is currently reopened to in-person services, it will continue to livestream and look for ways to make remote members feel welcome. 

“We avoid using the word ‘virtual’ because it feels less authentic,” Lyberg says. “Instead we call our livestream services a ‘digital gathering.’”

One way the church has included online-only members in services is to ask them to send in prerecorded Scripture readings that are then patched into the livestream services on Sunday mornings. St. John also livestreams its Sunday school classes and Bible studies throughout the week.

The chat function on livestream services plays an important role. 

“Our members connect with one another and converse through the chat,” Lyberg says. “We greet one another, catch up and even type compliments to the choir.”

St. John offers a new member class for digital gathering members. 

“I give a Zoom tour of the building, so it helps people feel like they’ve been here in person,” he says.

During the pandemic, Lyberg visited local members in the hospital using FaceTime, and he can do the same thing with members who live in other places. 

“I can be an over-the-phone pastor for them, or I can connect them with a local pastor who can help them in person,” he says. 

St. John has had a quilting ministry for decades. Every year, it donates more than 200 quilts to people in need. 

“This ministry would be an easy one for online-only members to serve in,” Lyberg says. “We just want to build connections with people, no matter where they live.”

Churches across the country are coming up with creative solutions for their online congregations. According to its website, Word of Life Church in St. Joseph, Missouri, offers an online membership program to those people who want to “move from spectators to participants in what we do.” Besides viewing livestreamed services, online members have small group opportunities, online prayer support, a monthly Zoom call with the pastor, a members-only Facebook page and digital resources they can access.

Word of Life’s site states, “We hope that as our online membership grows that we will be able to identify some leaders who can open up their homes to start home-based gatherings of people who can participate together with us online. We are excited about the possibility of what God might do with our online congregation.”

Another church looking for ways to serve its online-only members is Lifepoint Church in Lewis Center, Ohio. Before COVID-19, the church was livestreaming its services primarily for church members who were out of town that week, but the viewership was quite small. When its Easter 2020 service had more than 10,000 viewers, Lead Pastor Dean Fulks knew they needed to make online services more robust, interactive and accessible. The church began livestreaming services on Facebook, Apple TV, Roku and the church website.

Lifepoint Church also created a separate page on its website for online-only members. 

“The website made our children’s curriculum available for download, so that families could do the activities with their kids in their own homes,” Fulks says. “There’s a place to submit prayer requests, sign up to be baptized and give online. There’s also a digital guest card that people can fill out to get more information about our church.”

Lifepoint offers the opportunity to connect virtually with a life group. 

“Many of our groups take a hybrid approach with some people participating in person and some joining online,” Fulks says. “Each life group partners with a local ministry to serve in our community, and we welcome people to participate in that opportunity or something similar in their area.”

Both Lyberg and Fulks reiterated the importance of attending church in person and acknowledged that online-only relationships can be difficult to maintain. But after two years of people feeling isolated and disconnected, churches have learned that technology is an effective outreach tool to encourage people to come back to church, in whatever form that takes.

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