Question: What Do You Get When You Digitize and Hybridize an Outdated Ministry Model Hybrid?
Answer: An outdated model with Instagram.
I realize the question sounds like the beginning of a bad church joke, but there’s nothing funny about dying churches. I suspect you’re not laughing if you are struggling to lead your church in our new normal.
This is why you need to jump into my next Comprehensive Church Model Cohort. I created this six-session small group experience for church leaders just like you. Space is limited to 10 churches. I’ve included more details at the end of this post. You can see the complete course concept here.
Back to our hybrid church conversation…
Let me ask you another question. Did you attempt to digitize or “hybridize” your church in response to the pandemic? What did you do? How did you evaluate success? What are your results?
I’m watching church after church after church move to be more “hybrid” while seeing their influence, attendance, and engagement continue to decline. These churches are evaluating digital options and doing their best, but their hybrid strategy is not working.
Why?
Why are NEW hybrid church efforts not reversing the trends of church decline?
Perhaps our hybrid implementations are still too new to be thoroughly evaluated.
That’s possible. But I sense that’s not the bigger issue.
I don’t believe more time will somehow reverse our trends. And I don’t think simply making our current church model digital makes it modern.
No doubt, we must integrate in-person and online channels. The future church is hybrid. But it’s more than a digital version of what once worked well. It needs to be something new.
Actually, that’s what “hybrid” means. Scientifically, hybrid is what happens when two dissimilar origin stories marry together to form something altogether new. This definition is what must be applied to churches today. We need a new approach, not a digitized version of an old method.
I can confidently say this because I know our church issues didn’t begin with the pandemic. Nearly every church began experiencing versions of plateau and decline well before March 2020. Almost every church watched metrics level and decline years before the pandemic disruption. Now, too many of us are blaming the pandemic for our struggles. We’ve forgotten the prior problems – and they were plentiful. Our 2019 ministry models weren’t necessarily working. Why do we believe for a second that digitizing them will fix the problem?
Church issues aren’t viral, but societal.
Bottom Line: Churches absolutely need to combine in-person and online experiences to create a new expression of church. But, adding some digital options to an antiquated and outdated ministry strategy is a recipe for failure. I bet many of you are finding that out right now.
So what should we do?
First: We need to own the issue. We must stop blaming the pandemic, people, and our communities. The problem is our approach, and it’s been a problem for a long time.
Second: We must realize the significant implications of Christianity no longer being cultural. People no longer see church and pastors as helpful. People still need hope, but the word’s solutions appear more trustworthy than God’s. Or at least as reliable. How we got here is less important than what we do about it.
Third: We must take action. Specifically, we need to adopt a new ministry model designed to help those far from God and apart from our church like us and trust us. The death of cultural Christianity combined with a growing indifference to faith and increased mobility of people collectively doomed our old approach. Previously, people mostly liked and trusted churches. Twenty years ago, our models didn’t need to support these relationship elements. But that has changed. And our new models must reflect this reality.
We don’t have to invent a model from scratch.
I’ve got great news. We don’t have to invent a model from scratch. Businesses have operated from this reality for centuries. Companies that desire your patronage build a model to engage you on a customer journey. They want you to like and trust them so you’ll be more apt to buy from them. It’s a fundamentally basic customer journey.
This is what we as the church need to do, too. We can no longer operate as if we are liked and trusted by our communities. We must engage new models and strategies that specifically help us be more liked and trusted.
I wrote about this business framework HERE.
But what about spiritual formation and discipleship?
I’ve got even better news! This same approach is how people personally come to faith and grow in their Christlikeness. Unbelievers begin their faith journey by first knowing and liking a Christian. As this relationship progresses, trust is built and even tested. As trust grows, curiosity and openness to faith grow. In time, God intervenes as only he can, leading the lost to become found.
The Christian faith is a journey from not knowing Jesus to liking what he can do for you to trusting that he died for you to following him in faith. Our church model can and should replicate this journey.
That is what I am helping churches do all over the world now.
If you’d like to know more about the Comprehensive Church Model Cohort, email me: [email protected] I’d love for you to participate in my next cohort group.
More Details About the Comprehensive Church Model Cohort
Here’s what you can expect from our six-session cohort:
- A small group learning experience personally facilitated by me
- A one-on-one meeting with me to discuss your specific questions and challenges.
- Planning tools and resources to make your new model teachable and executable in your church.
- A new, hybrid, and modern ministry model that you can easily implement in your church.
This Cohort will give you:
- Meaningful ideas for connecting to your community and congregation during their 70 hours of weekly discretionary time.
- New thinking about your in-person gatherings.
- Clarity on new metrics and how discipleship pathways look in today’s world.
- An understanding of the best practices for implementing our new model.
Space is limited to 10 participants.
You may bring one additional staff member to participate in each session at no additional charge. Perhaps a programming staff or digital team member.
