7 things I just learned for creating an online program that connects guests to your church. (Facebook Live summary session 7)
The view from my couch as I co-hosted different sessions of our first Next Steps Online
I was cohosting our first ever Next Steps Online. As we let in the guests from our zoom waiting room, all the squares with real people inhabiting them populated the screen of my laptop.
That’s when Lynette’s face appeared.
As we asked how each person found us online, Lynette’s answer will stick with me for a long time. As a young mom, she got choked up as she shared that her husband had recently passed away and she sensed God speaking to her this message: “You are not alone”. This message led her to google a place she could find community and God together and found us. Because she lived in Los Angeles, I quickly realized that apart from the quarantine and the advent of our online campus, this connection would have never taken place.
More on what happen to Lynette at Next Steps Online in a bit. The fact that she was African American (our zoom room looked like a party at the United Nations) underscored the power of creating online environments that can bring us together for the good.
As it turns out, our adventure of creating a version of Next Steps online yielded these results for its first round:
An average of 103 attendees each week
23 decisions to follow Jesus
53 people filling out a form to join an online small group
32 people applying to volunteer
48 people connecting to a local or global compassion opportunity
77 people graduating (completing all 4 sessions)
Here’s what we did and 7 things we learned.
Build your program around 3 distinct roles.
We built our program around these positions that can be filled by staff or volunteers:
Host (think MC). Hosts are warm, inviting and fun. They move the agenda forward, lead online games and activities, kick it to discussion, give assignments, articulate the “ask of the week”, and function in a hospitality role. They are the “face” of the experience.
Discussion Leaders. Formerly known as Table Hosts, these winsome people lead discussion when you go into zoom breakout rooms for discussion. They are rated high in our online grad surveys. They lead them through discussion questions, hear how the assignments and go-deepers are impacting guests, and have them fill out the online form connected to the “ask of the week”. Guests connect with them and each other to the point that we keep them in the same group each week they attend.
Tech Assistant. This person is running all technical aspects of the experience in the background so the host does not have to bother with anything other than engaging the guests. They are taking role, throwing all the videos up at the Host’s queue, and offering tech support to any guests with issues using the live chat feature. They are the operational “secret sauce” in my view.
Offer a consistent experience each session.
Each session followed a similar format and lasted one hour:
Welcome/opening large group discussion question-5m
Zoom instructions (Introduce Tech Assistant, use gallery mode, chat feature, etc.)-3m
Game or Activity (At Home Scavenger Hunt, Name that Tune, etc., with Amazon Gift Card prize to the winner)-7m
Training Videos (2 videos with discussion in-between) 25m
The “Ask of the Week”-(usually an online form to join a group, volunteer, or connect to a compassion cause-3m
Discussion Groups 12m
Assignment and closing prayer-5m
Roll it out with staff first.
If you have a staff situation like ours, you probably have many who serve in children’s ministry or the worship services and have never attended your One Program for new people because it is offered only during those services. Whether that is the case for you or not, invite your staff to experience each session online the Wednesday before your offer them publicly on the weekends. We found them to be an invaluable focus group that helped us make dial turns and improvements before our guests experienced that session.
Make it easy to sign up or jump in.
We drive guests to an online form to share their name and email. The auto reply sends them the times we offer Next Steps. Clicking on those times gives them the zoom link. During the services, they are simply invited to “jump in” after the service by going straight to the time/zoom link page. In those cases, we can collect their contact info once they attend.
Engagement is important when deciding on content
Since Next Steps is a connection environment, engagement is necessary. Avoiding the temptation to fill your program with teaching content is key. Large and small group discussion and some fun activities relevant to the topic of the session most be prioritized, especially when adapting an hour and 15 minutes session into a one hour online experience. Asking, “Will this engage guests in connecting with us and each other?” when building content will provide you with a good decision making filter.
Film in-depth training or teaching components to be shown as videos.
This does four things. One, it allows your host to be a welcomer whose focus is hospitality and connection instead of having a teaching agenda. Two, it makes your program easier to franchise if you are a multisite church. Third, it preserves and enhances the quality of any teaching and training you offer, and fourth, it allows you to make it a completely volunteer driven experience should you want to.
Huddle with all volunteers 15 minutes prior to the session.
There was something about moving Next Steps online that made us even more aware that all we could do as a team was create a space for God to draw people to himself and each other. Stating that and giving the session to God together to do what only he can do was a very important moment before guests arrived. In addition to prayer, last minute instructions and briefings to discussion leaders and the tech assistant was also invaluable.
Watching God work during Next Steps Online was a holy thing. By the time our first run was done, Lynette as a recently widowed single mom had signed up to serve as a young adult online small group leader and she also became a member of our church. She not only graduated from Next Steps, but she won every competition! Getting to know and enjoy her, as well as meet her young children over zoom, was a special experience. i was thrilled that God led her to us. She is family now.
To hear the FB Live session these notes were pulled from including my answering of people’s questions,, go here.
More detailed information about each Next Steps Online session and other ways of assimilating people online will be added soon to the Climbing the Assimilayas Video Course. I am looking forward to making that available sometime next week!
See you on the climb online,
