Empowering Progressive Churches in the Digital Age

Cumberland had an active Facebook page. Their church admin was doing her best to keep content flowing, but the reality is that managing social media on top of everything else a small church staff handles becomes a lot. Most of their posts were promotional: upcoming events, service times, announcements. Good information, necessary information, but not the kind of content that builds engagement.

Most people are cautiously optimistic about artificial intelligence because they can see the benefits, the efficiencies that it can bring, but they also see these negatives of, how do you stay authentic using artificial intelligence if all that artificial intelligence is, is the median of everything?

There are many congregations in this country that look down the road to the future and wonder if they will be able to survive. While some leaders stay in denial or refuse to change, waiting for the last member to turn out the lights, many churches are finding creative solutions to sustain and build their ministry and mission.

Thaddeus had a chance to sit down with Rev. Cydney Van Dyke and Khaleigh Laicher, two of the people behind the growing regional youth ministry group in Lower Fairfield County, CT.

Zoom is an online video conferencing application. It allows groups of people to gather for meetings using a computer, a tablet, or a smartphone. It even allows people to call in with any kind of phone and participate in gatherings.

There are different options for streaming content, depending on what you are trying to do and what your audience will be comfortable with.

If you’ve ever asked, “How can we make our church more welcoming?”—you’re not alone. Churches everywhere are wrestling with how to offer a deeper sense of belonging, especially to new faces, those returning after time away, or people who’ve never set foot inside a sanctuary before.

Keeping the lights on at your church can feel like a full-time job. What if you could free up your time and mental bandwidth with tools that actually make ministry easier? The three tools below—MailerLite, Notion, and Canva—have become core to how we run our own ministry work. We're not affiliates, just fans who believe they can help your church breathe easier.

As we come to the end of the Spring, many churches start to plan what the next church year will look like.  Below are some guidelines to help in making this next year fruitful and difference-making.