Our second core document, published on May 28th, is about embracing an exciting future.
There are a lot of new online churchgoers - the document tries to work out how many.
Then it suggests how to welcome people into church and faith today, and how to plan for a mixed in-person-online church future.
Lockdown and online give us a unique opportunity to re-think and re-grow our churches.
Will we take the enormous opportunity we have been given?
Read the document: Everyone Welcome to the Future
Yours,
Bob Jackson and George Fisher
Most astonishing of all, plenty of churches report very large numbers of people joining their streamed services... even when we return to the beautiful space of our church buildings, with all their vital and much-missed resonances of continuity... it is not one thing or the other. It is not in a building or online. We want to do both.
We're pleased to provide an update to the EWO document.
In this new document, we look at:
Enjoy the update: Everybody Welcome Online Update (May 2020)
Yours
George Fisher
Your booklet was so helpful in evaluating what we've already done and opening up ideas and conversations with my team on what we could be doing and getting us started on praying and planning for the future.
Among all the other lockdown shocks, there was some consternation in the churches when we got closed down!
But we didn’t close down. We went online.
Churches are on a steep learning curve, and some are on a steep growing curve. To assist learning and growing, we’ve asked many churches for stories and wisdom in the early weeks of lockdown church.
Read our core document ‘Everybody Welcome Online (April 2020)’, which extends our training course for in-person church, ‘Everybody Welcome’. On the Sections of the Report page, we provide the five parts of the report in separate downloads.
Tell your friends about it.
It tries to make sense of what is happening (pp4-9), looks at who is being attracted to online church and why (pp1-12), how best to communicate with and welcome everyone online (pp14-20), and what we should be doing to prepare for 'Unlock Sunday' (pp22-23).
We will keep updating and adding resources and stories over time from your feedback ot us (p.25).
We’ve teamed up with Peter Phillips, Director of the Durham University Centre for Digital Theology. We think their time has come! Check out the related sites. And we are grateful to CPAS for professionalising the presentation in such a short space of time,
Ven Bob Jackson (Visiting Fellow St Johns College Durham)Revd George Fisher (Retired Director of Mission Lichfield Diocese)
This is an astonishingly thorough and perceptive overview of Online Church, given the speed at which it has been produced: accessible, practical and full of practical tips. It will give the novice the confidence to get started - but most "experts" will find new insights here too.
Agents for Church Surveys, visit our Surveys and Statistics page
Resources:
Everyone Welcome to the Future
Everybody Welcome Online (April 2020)
Everybody Welcome Online Update (May 2020)
Survey Qs Existing Churchgoers
Survey re New Online Churchgoers
Enquiries about the Centre for Digital Theology should be sent via the email below.
Department of Theology and Religion Abbey House Palace Green DurhamDH1 3RS
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