To say this is a challenging year to be a spiritual leader would be an understatement. After quarantining for months, protests breakout that have polarized the culture we serve so severely that it has politicized whether your church even reopens or remain closed. How can we stay focused on the right thing when forces are pulling us to one extreme or the other, especially when so much is at stake for guests?

Amazing. People are now finding a church in the same way they find a show they want to binge on Netflix. This has given me 3 realizations about connecting with them as “on demand viewers”.

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. I was about to get schooled on what becomes possible when you create an online space to connect guests at your church.

Are you wondering how to convert those who watch you online into volunteers? What if you have more moderators than attenders in your live chat? What if the quarantine is an opportunity for your church, not just a disruption? This and more in this summary of my FB Live from the 1st week of May.

These days we are helping guests climb the “Cyberssimilayas” because the summit of full connection for them has become a virtual destination during this extended quarantine. The learnings from Easter weekend fell into 3 categories: Your overall online experience, live chat hacks, and using text to share their decision to follow Jesus. Explore it all here.

Here is a useful recap that covers how to take attendance online, how to create an online engagement pathway (instead of a one-time pit stop), and identifying the best ask of your guests and when to ask it.

I loved spending 25 minutes on Facebook Live with many of you, sharing what we are learning right now about engaging guests online at my church. I promised a written summary of that discussion with linked resources so here it is!