Peter Bowden

Online church isn't working? Attendance down? People Zoomed out? Here are some thoughts on how to respond. This video is in response to an email I received this week from a minister I know. A minister who is doing GREAT work online. What would I do? These are some guiding principles and targets to aim for.

To have healthy conversations about ministry models and innovation, leadership teams need to be honest about the discrepancies between what they "signed up for" and what's required in this moment.  Start there to avoid conflict forcing you to go there. 

Question: Hi Peter! In the pre-social-media church world, the "membership funnel" was simple, or at least seemed simple. People entering our congregation's orbit started as visitors to Sunday worship and/or attendees of programs. The end goal, from the church's perspective, was to get those people to ... join the congregation. Is there a similar end-point in the new social media world? Is it the same endpoint?

Friends, before we can talk about specific endpoints, there are conversations that require our attention. 

We have to talk about ministry models.  And discussing new models and what's required to be of service and thrive today brings us face to face with discrepancies between what many of you "signed up...