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Online worship – growing and sustaining online church

Most astonishing of all, plenty of churches report very large numbers of people joining their streamed services… Even when we do return to the sacred beautiful space of our church buildings … it is not one thing or the other. It is not a building or online. We want to do both."

Stephen Cottrell Archbishop of York Designate in the Daily Telegraph on Tuesday 12 May 2020

Over half the benefices across our Diocese responded to a recent survey, with the vast majority offering online worship and other provision. Many churches have been amazed at the opportunities to reach new people online, and the majority intend to continue online worship after lockdown ends.

We’re keen to support this remarkable mission opportunity while recognising the capacity challenges it brings, especially when public worship resumes. Outlined below are two resource documents for any church to use, webinars to sign up to and links to help across specific areas which we will continue to update.

Everybody Welcome to the Future is about embracing an exciting future. Bob Jackson believes the church has a once in a lifetime growth opportunity through those who are connecting online. He suggests how to welcome people into church and faith today, and how to plan for a mixed in-person-online church future which can be found here.

Talking about the E word in a time of lockdown: Leading Your Church into Growth have created 7 very practical suggestions about online evangelism which can be found here. LYCiG have also produced a new "7 step" programme for growing your church.

You can listen to an interview with Bob Jackson and Harry Steele about the resources in episodes 4 and 5 of our new podcast The Other Side of the Boat

Alpha has reached a lot of new people online during the last six months. Why not see if it works in your parish?

What are the options for livestreaming? What is it going to cost and how good does it need to be? Here are some helpful tips to improve or begin your livestreaming from a church building, plus, some FAQs that some churches have had about livestreaming

Online church can be a wonderful opportunity for reaching people and sustaining our communities. However, it can also become tiresome for all involved. Nevertheless, it still has lots of uses. How can we reignite the spark as things change?

Speaking and preaching online can feel like a weird experience, it might even feel like you’re missing a key element of what it means to connect with your audience. However, part of this is about adapting style.Here are some tips on how to engage your listeners and viewers.

Social media is here to stay. Whether it is for connecting with an existing community or engaging new people, this is part of our lockdown learning as a church that we need to keep exploring. Here is a good place to start.

One the key questions we get asked often regarding online church is: how do we do in-person and keep up the reach we’ve had online? Is livestreaming the only option?

If you’ve been engaging with people you hadn’t before lockdown, you may be wondering how to grow this given all the other challenges you’re facing. Or you may even be considering how you might gather this new community. If you’re wanting support, even just a sounding board to figure out where to go next, contact multiply@yorkdiocese.org. They have resources and funding for those wanting to lead new communities that are reaching younger adults.

Links to practical help in specific areas