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Maintaining a compelling digital church experience is one of the biggest challenges churches have faced in recent years, especially in 2020.
First, there's the website, then the social media accounts, then the graphics, videos, live videos, and the list goes on and on.
When we look at what other churches are doing on their social channels and websites, it can be a bit overwhelming and even a bit discouraging. You may wonder how you could possibly ever live up to the hype and have a killer of an online presence as they do.
But in a world full of constant comparison, we as the church have an opportunity.
Instead of comparing ourselves and getting discouraged, what if we looked at other churches' work and became inspired instead?
The problem that arises with digital content is that we think we must always try to think of a brand new way to do things. While we should be innovative in our creativity, there is nothing wrong with gleaning insight from other churches who totally rock at what they do. You don't have to reinvent the wheel!
There are a ton of churches of all sizes, cultures, denominations, and more who have paved the way and done extraordinary things for the Kingdom through their online presence. They are the churches we can look for inspiration, wisdom, and direction for our own church's digital future.
Check out this list of 10 churches who have pioneered the way for the digital church.
Digital Highlight: Interactive app
Formerly known as The City Church, Seattle-based Churchome has made waves in Washington State and far beyond. Churchome is led by the charismatic and passionate Pastor Judah Smith and his wife, Chelsea. Churchome is all about connecting people to Jesus and to each other.
What makes Churchome so unique and is a church worth following is their model of Church@home. This church has made way for people to be a part of the church community — anytime, anyplace — through their Churchome app. Their app features daily guided prayers, sermon videos, a chat feature, and a ton more.
Churchome has emphasized the importance of community and has significantly bridged the gap between the digital experience and in-person gatherings.
Digital Highlight: YouTube
Pastor Mike Todd leads this lively church, which has absolutely exploded onto the digital church scene. Transformation Church is one of the fastest-growing churches in the country and is one of the few that experienced tremendous growth during the COVID-19 shutdown.
Transformation Church had over 4,000 people attending pre-COVID, and now they operate entirely online, with hundreds of thousands viewing their services each week. They run their live services through their impressive YouTube channel, with over 1.1 million subscribers.
On their page, you can enjoy past messages from the church's sermon series, watch live every Sunday, and connect with the community directly.
To give you an idea of the influence of their YouTube page, their videos bring between 200 and 800K views and thousands of shares. While viewer counts are not always an accurate measure of success, the number of lives transformed is. Transformation had a 180% increase in the number of people coming to faith last year. Now that is a huge impact!
Digital Highlight: Branding guide
Brand identity is a critical area to care about for companies, and the same applies to churches. Having a solid brand makes your church both recognizable and helps to bring congruence to your online presence, social media presence, and more. United Methodist Church knocks it out of the park with their branding guide.
This manual features everything you need to know about the United Methodist Church's logo, color palette, supporting assets, and more. This guide doesn't just exist to highlight the brand's aesthetic — it also exists to "provide guidance and instruction on using the visual elements that define The United Methodist Church brand."
The UMC does a spectacular job of marrying their vision with their brand, and they have done a stellar job at making the UMC recognizable with their iconic logo and colors.
Digital Highlight: Sermon clips
Pastor Steven Furtick is one of those preachers that you can recognize the moment you hear his voice. His compelling illustrations and passion-filled preaching have made Elevation Church one of the largest churches in the U.S.
Elevation absolutely kills it on their social channels with their engaging sermon clips. These clips give you just a taste of Furtick and other guest speakers at the church. Also, these clips are just short enough to be easily shared and be watched by many.
If you're looking to utilize sermon clips at your church, Elevation is one of the first places you should look for inspiration!
Digital Church Highlight: Instagram
Vous Church is a sort of "jack of all trades" when it comes to their Instagram — they do it all! Many churches out there are doing great things on Instagram, but Miami-based Vous has genuinely paved the way with their social media game.
Vous, like Elevation, often shares sermon clips of Pastors Rich and Dawn Cheré Wilkerson and guest speakers. They also share a ton of interactive videos, spectacular graphics, sermon note highlights, and worship.
Vous has also done an excellent job (especially during quarantine) at utilizing IG Lives and IGTV. Overall, Vous is definitely a church to look if you're wanting some Instagram inspiration.
Digital Highlight: Website
Have you ever logged on a church website (or any website for that matter) and gotten completely lost in all pop-ups, oddly placed text, and outdated graphics? When building an online presence, one of the most crucial but often overlooked areas is your church's website.
Second Baptist Church sports one of the most simplistic, sleek, and easy-to-navigate websites out there. First off, their site's makeup is straightforward: a looping video header, a minimal main menu, and several highlighted pages contained in a clickable grid. Ed Young, the pastor of SBC, is featured in a brief "meet our pastor" section on the homepage.
This website is incredibly easy to navigate, and their information is laid out in a way that pulls your eyes to the main points: joining the church, watching online, and campus information.
If you want more information about the church's beliefs, ministries, next steps, and other resources, their footer navigation features a detailed index of everything you need to know about Second Baptist Church.
Digital Highlight: Facebook
John Gray is the pastor of the up and coming Relentless Church of Greenville, South Carolina. This vibrant church is known for the incredible preaching of Pastor Gray, but they also excel in a primary area — the online community.
Like almost every church on this list, Relentless Church streams its services live online and invites its members to join in on the community. In addition to this, Relentless also does a great job of utilizing Facebook to build their community.
Relentless' Facebook page includes events, sermon videos, and invitations to service. They also do a great job of taking advantage of Facebook Groups. Their page features groups for everyone — from young adults to leaders, to the online community. Groups make it extremely easy for different groups in a church to connect based on the ministry they are a part of or serve it. Relentless inclusion and usage of these groups actually help their community grow both in- person and online.
Digital Highlight: Social Graphics
This Nashville based church does an incredible job at conveying information to their church via their Instagram page. Their Instagram is the perfect mixture of aesthetic, quotations, scriptures, videos, and invitations. Overall, their graphics give followers all of the information they need to know about connecting at CPC and what the church has to offer.
A beautiful thing they do in their graphics is they include community members and genuine worship moments. Their combining of authentic community with stellar design makes them a church follow if you want to be inspired digitally.
Digital Highlight: Church online platform
Life.Church has seriously paved the way for one of the most valuable aspects of the digital church: online service streaming. Ten years ago, Pastor Craig Groeschel and his church unveiled their online campus, which opened the door to visitors worldwide. Life.Church was ahead of the game of what is now an essential element to our church experience.
This faith community is known for the ever-popular YouVersion Bible app, which has had over 400 million downloads as of the end of 2019. Life.Church has a commitment to make the Bible and church accessible to as many people as possible, and they have done just that.
A great takeaway from this church for your own digital journey is the uniqueness of their church streaming platform. It is not merely a live stream — it has a live chat, prayer partners, and even an option to give and raise your hand to receive Jesus! This community has taken the aspects of the church we love and incorporated them online where anyone can take part.
Digital Highlight: Social captions
Chicago-based People Church reaches a unique crowd of young people and has shown the reality that copy isn't dead.
People Church has an incredible Instagram aesthetic right off the bat, but an often overlooked area they truly excel in is their social copy. Each post has a well thought out caption that comes along with it that is inspiring, encouraging, and invites their followers to do something.
While many churches focus on video, graphics, and other digital elements, they can easily overlook the value of high-quality copy found in captions, websites, blogs, and more. People Church does a fantastic job of speaking into the hearts of their congregation and valuing unity in their captions.
Honorable Mentions
Many other churches have paved the way for the Church through their digital efforts. As we all grow and learn new ways of connecting online, it is wise to look to those who have gone before us and glean wisdom and insight from them. We must continue to innovate, try brand new things, and learn what our individual communities need to connect digitally.
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