Multi-site is currently the number one growth strategy for churches. Like camp meetings, circuit riders, and revivals, the multi-campus model is spreading, and it's changing how people view church.
While you can do a satellite campus with either prerecorded or live video, the one constant has been a location for the church to gather.
Now, we're seeing a new iteration of this movement: the online campus. As more churches enter the realm of live-streaming, some churches aren't content to provide a simulcast. They reason, rightly so, that there are things that are missing in the online version of church.
So how do you turn a live-stream into an actual campus? Start by asking the question, “What's missing?” Three things come to my mind that separate a live stream from a live video feed in a video overflow room or remote physical campus. They are opportunities for: community, service, and giving.
Community
Perhaps the most obvious of these is community. When you're at home alone watching a church service, you're not really in community, are you? Well, it depends. While you're not in physical proximity to others, you might be connecting with them in real and deep ways. There certainly can be interaction between the people watching and people in the chat room while the service is going on. Have a question about what the pastor said? Ask someone in chat. Need prayer? Ask someone in chat. Have a life circumstance that needs Godly wisdom? Ask someone in the chat.
For some, the anonymity of an online interaction can mean that they'll be more open and vulnerable---willing to share---than they'd be with a person face to face.
Here is a real-world example: One Saturday night after the first service of the weekend, I ducked into the room where our church's online chat team operated. I noticed one of our guys still chatting after service. In talking with him, I realized the guy with whom he was chatting was going through some of the challenges that I'd gone through. I asked if I could take over. An hour later, the guy I was chatting with confessed to some of the same sin-patterns I'd fought and we'd become friends. He eventually took a trip to my town to come to our church and brought a friend, who didn't know Christ.
...the anonymity can mean they’ll be more open and vulnerable---willing to share---than face to face.
Some might say that online activities are solitary ones. Going to church online can be as interactive (or even more so) than attending in person, though.
At my church, we were amazed to learn that soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan were staying up late or getting up early to “go to church.” Why? They could attend with family in our town. Seeing the same service as a family provided common ground for discussions later. Spouses and parents could even chat with their loved ones like they would before or after church.
To take it to the next level, why not have a host who does announcements especially for the online viewers? He or she could welcome them, greet their countries, and tell them how to get involved further.
It might take some coordination, but that's exactly what we do at my church. Cutting to appropriate announcements makes those online feel welcomed.
This leaves the challenge of small group discipleship. How do you bring people into community in a way that is as transformative as when people meet in homes around each physical campus?
You could invite online people into physical groups with chat.
Another solution would be to use Google Hangouts to connect weekly. Hangouts' auto-switching that focuses the camera on each person as he or she speaks makes it a breeze.
Service
Church isn't just about community, but also about service. In my experience, a church becomes your church when you serve there.
Online congregants can also fit into some roles that are location independent. An online chat host needn't be in the same city that the stream originates in.
With the online small group model I mentioned earlier, you'll need people to lead discussions. They don't have to live in the vicinity of the church's building to do so. Why not have remote leaders for remote groups?
There are other roles that don't require physical proximity either. I was at a programming meeting in which our newly hired worship director chimed in with ideas via Skype. He hadn't yet moved from Australia.
Giving
In the 1980s, I went to a church that had an unusual problem. Someone was tithing who didn't attend there. This individual came to know Jesus after a life of alcoholism and didn't see the need to attend church except he couldn't figure out how to tithe. So, he went to the phone book, picked my church, and started sending checks through the mail. The pastor went to visit him and convinced him to try our church out. He, his wife, and teenage daughter all started attending.
Nowadays, we don't have to rely on checks sent through the mail. Online giving is both popular and helpful to people who don't show up with a check book in their pockets or purses. There are smart phone apps and online sites that make this possible. There's no reason the online campus can't be self-supporting this way.
So, it's possible to create reasonable analogs for many of the core experiences in a physical church online. It might not be a perfect replacement, but for certain people it works. Some can't attend in person because of their jobs or other challenges. Others don't have Christian churches where they live. For each of these groups, an online campus is not just a viable option, it may be their only option.
