Digital Ministry, Faith Formation, and COVID19 - Seminary Edition!

What do covid19 and the accompanying acceleration of digital trends mean for seminarians, clergy, and our congregations at large?     

On Thursday, November 12, 2020, I offered this live session for the digital ministry unit of an asynchronous seminary class.   

PART 1:  I share the story of how the process people use to research, explore, and connect with faith communities has transformed over the course of my time working with congregations. This has resulted in a growing discrepancy between the behavior, preferences, and expectations of digitally oriented people and what congregations and their leaders are offering.

PART 2:  I share some highlights of strategies I recommend and why. This includes how ministry leaders can use digital communication — especially video -- to engage with members, friends, and the larger world. We need to engage with people online, showing up in these digital spaces, if we want them to even consider participating in congregational life.

PART 3:  Some thoughts on where we are, where we are going, and the landscape ahead. I share some predictions including the critical role of small groups (online and offline) and a wave of entrepreneurial independent online ministries. We can check in to see how my predictions hold up in 5 years!

Contents by timecode.  Click to jump to that time on YouTube
Welcome (0:00)
Who are you? Share in a comment! (7:00)
Peter's Background (7:30)
Part 1 Growth of Digital Culture Pre-Covid (11:00)
Story of waiting a year to visit in person (18:00)
Story of "Swimming in Social Media" (23:40)
Part 2 Digital ministry strategies (25:40)
Part 3 Today's landscape and looking forward (40:35)
A wave of independent ministry brands (51:20)
Why I'm so hopeful (54:30)

Follow-Up Sessions
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Explore training programs related to this session:
• Church Social Media and Membership Growth
• Video Ministry Academy

Listen to this session via my podcast:

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