Just as there are many ministry models and programmatic methods in the Church today, the way that church can be conducted online has many possibilities. That said, most people when they ask the question, “How do we start an internet campus?” are asking it from the angle of a new program (or program extension) they are considering launching. Honestly that is a great starting point, but the reality of the internet is that it is both a broadcasting channel and a gathering point. And as churches start Internet Campuses people will come for the broadcast and stay for the community. If a church just pushes their video and is never present and accessible virtually to the people who gather, they act rude and self-centered without even knowing it.
I wanted to start there because it will help you understand the options below in this Internet Campus Starter Kit. First, because the internet is both attractional and missional if done right, just like any healthy church. Second, because the internet is very personal and very social. If a church just pushes their video and is never present or accessible virtually to people who gather, they are being rude and self-centered without even knowing it.
With that in mind, below is an Internet Campus Starter Kit, which will help start the thinking on putting a weekend service online. Next is an Online Community Starter Kit, which will help you think about taking your ministry into online communities strategically.
Internet Campus Starter Kit
1. Build a “Live” Page / Mashup to Broadcast your Program and to help people gather and connect.
- Live Video
- Mogulus is the best tool for 3 reasons. 1. It is the best live video production web app. It lets you have bottom thirds, a running linkable ticker, record, and cueing multiple videos from multiple locations. 2. It allows for simulated live broadcasts. You can record your service, but then “cue” it live at a different time for your online service. 3. It has a strong chat client that allows for chat moderation without forcing participants to have an account to engage.
- Other options: Ustream.tv and Justin.tv . Their services are almost identical.
- Mashup
- All the services/tools you will need for your gathering point are embeddable in a basic html page. (Mashup Example: http://churchtechcamp.com/LIVE/LIVE.html ) This allows you to change tools, add features, adjust design while never having to change the web address that our participants are used to using to navigate to the online campus.
2. Extend your ministry process both during the online service and then to followup through out the week.
- Live Prayer: the most significant ministry that could occur during your online services is to have people available to pray with those that come. Online ministry is a low bar for people to share many things they’ve never shared before and it presents the incredible opportunity of helping them start to find healing and restoration.
- Forms: Having the right forms available as popup links on your internet camps are tremendously helpful in helping a ministry to be able to followup with people who: a) have chosen to accept Jesus b) want more information c) need help d) want to share their story of life change, etc. Wufoo.com or using the Forms feature of Google Documents (http://docs.google.com) are the best tools for this.
- Notes: Having an outline or notes from the online service is helpful for a number of reasons. First, it helps to devleop a reinforced learning pattern many churches utilize where people are reading and writing while they are hearing and seeing. Second, it gives them a helpful point of reference to pay help stay engaged. Third, if written and display like a blog post, you can embed interactive content to be used during the service. Examples would be scripture links to online Bible tools like YouVersion.com, or movie clips on Youtube.com.
3. Get Your Leadership on board as dynamic shifts in how people belong and are a part of you community are required.
What happens when someone 3 states away comes to your online service 3 weeks in a row, and then asks Jesus into their life? Do they continue as a part of your community? Can they be a member of your church even though they may never physically be there? How will you disciple them beyond the online service?
There aren’t questions we are asking to test the validity of online ministry – but they are questions your leadership will need to work through. Each church is going to have its own level of comfort in them, which is COMPLETELY FINE. BUT, the answers are extremely important as it will shape most of what you do online.
What other questions come to mind for you? (place them in the comments below!)
4. Record Everything, get your hardware and processes together.
- LIVE: if you plan on doing your service live in real time you will need to connect a camera into the computer that will push the feed to a streaming web service. This is THE most difficult way to do an online service and there will be consistent hurdles, but it is doable.
- Pros: Truly Live (#1 question people ask at an online experience is, “Is this live?”), More tools available to use (mogulus, ustream, justin.tv, etc.).
- Cons: Lower quality video, Internet Connectivity can kill you, less likely to have volunteers to help with online chat, prayer and technical details.
- Simulate Live: this is where you record your service and other video elements and then “cue” the video to go live at a specific time for the online event.
- Pros: Better quality video, better online experience, allows for more services with out leaders/teachers time, allows for content to be better shaped for internet/video audience, allows for concentration of ministry team to be on ministering and engaging with participants.
- Cons: Only two tools can do this Mogulus.com (free) Lightcastmedia.com (Used by LifeChurch.tv and others), teacher is not live on video (this is a pro also if you noticed) though ministry team is live in chat, has to be done after service is recorded to be in sync with that weekend (highly recommended to not do a 1 week delay).
5. Start before you have it together.
These are all just suggestions and hopeful helpful hints to get your brain thinking on all that goes into a successful online ministry service/experience. The idea is to “help people encounter God in a spiritually meaningful way”, which is completely possible online. But if you wait until you’ve figured it all out, or if you wait until you feel “safe” about it – you will never launch. An internet campus needs to be launched in an environment that is asking “opportunity questions” instead of “control questions.”
Opportunity Questions: “How can we use this to connect people who are checking out our church online?” “What churches could we partner with to pull this off?” “How can we empower our younger generations to use their passion for being online to lead this?”
Control Questions: “What happens if/when someone cusses in the chat?” “What if people stop coming to church and just stay home to watch online?” “How do online people give money?” “How quickly can we pull it down if one of those bloggers link to us?”
Yes, it is important to know how you are going to facilitate a healthy online experience for people, but the internet has a new economy of risk and reward that can be hard to swallow at first. Start small and work your way up. You should be able to start something like this for between $200 – $10,000.
Online Community Starter Kit
1. Script, shoot, edit and post a 3 minute video for the Facebook community once a week
- Content
- Graphic Lead in and Close for Service branding
- Announcements
- Teaching summary (”campus pastor” does a brief overview of main scripture and teaching)
- Teaching challenge (”campus pastor” explains the challenge)
- Prompt to share challenge results or teaching questions in discussion topics “below”
- Bonus / Extras
- Ministry Highlight (small groups, retreat, etc.)
- Event Highlight (social, movie night, etc.)
2. Monitor Facebook Community Daily
- Leave Wall comments on all new “fans” to the page or group.
- Have “facebook team” contact all page or group members and ask how they can pray for them to establish connection and, well, minister to your online community.
- Monitor discussion topics and be as catalytic as possible for generating conversation, encourage civility, but be okay with appropriate conflict.
- Create a topic for every weekends teaching title the same as the sermon with “Sermon:” then the title each week
- Create a weekly bulletin post with the top 2-5 ministry announcements and content.
3. Post 2 Updates to Fans a Week
- Announce the Posting of the Video
- Send a post with service and church announcements
4. 24 Wk Strategy for Initial Phase
- 1st 8 weeks: Building trust that you are going to show up each week and refinement of the content creation and posting processes. Don’t expect any significant growth or engagement during this social trust building stage. Make everything conversational, even have leaders just talking with each other to demonstrate what you expect.
- 2nd 8 weeks: Community should start to grow along with engagement. Start recruiting people to be a part of the FB community team.
- 3rd 8 weeks: Start evaluating process, engagement and ideas. Work on implementation plans for new content, and activity on Facebook page – and look for 1-2 other social networks you can start a 24 week Initial Phase on.
Okay, those are my ideas – what are yours! Leave them in the comments below!
