It’s Time The Church Brought Stewardship To the Internet

The Church is declining. 

Many congregations are struggling with dwindling attendance and decreased giving, reaching historic lows. In 2007, 78% of Americans identified with any form of Christianity; last year that number was down to 62% (Pew Research). That’s a 16% drop in 17 years, substantially faster than in any time in American history before now.

The decline of the church is not a dramatic exodus of angry congregants, but a quiet, almost imperceptible apathy from church members that continues year after year until one Sunday, during the sermon, you hear a sound that shakes you to the core. 

An echo.

Why is this happening? Is it political movements? Ideological shifts among younger generations, or fragmented worship styles? Is it the persistent racial division on Sundays, often more pronounced than at any other time of the week?

Example of an unclaimed Google Business Profile.

These factors likely play a role, but one major problem is the lack of online presence from many small and medium-sized churches. An example of this can be seen in the lack of claimed Google Business Profiles from churches. This is a simple and crucial practice in local search engine optimization, yet major volumes (90% or more) of church profiles remain unclaimed.

Many churches rely on a single office administrator to manage everything from bulletins to websites, finances, and even music. This is an overwhelming burden, especially for a part-time employee. Adding digital media to the list is not really possible, but for every other company, this is a requirement.

But even the smallest church already has built in a secret weapon to shift this dynamic:

The congregation.

Social media algorithms work by sharing content that they determine is the most likely to keep users on their platform. The more engagement a post or video gets from those who see it, the more the algorithm will show it to others. This is why content creators on podcasts and YouTube consistently ask viewers to like, subscribe, or share their content. Momentum and visibility depend on user interaction.

The Church’s unique advantage is that few other businesses have an attentive audience of dozens or more people gathering in person for nearly an hour each week.

Leveraging this audience to preach not only the message of God but also the Great Commission will be the turning point for the church. Church staff are always looking for the right way to ask congregants to attend and give, but often fail to ask them to share God's message or even interact with the church online in any capacity.

This must change.

Regularly encouraging our congregants to like and share our online content, like all those well-known YouTube influencers, will dramatically increase the church's online visibility.

It's time for every church, no matter how small, to start including the Internet in the Great Commission. One of the simplest and most effective ways to do this is through social media. And not just once but consistently displaying their interactions with the church regularly.

These interactions will cause the algorithms that are evaluating relevant content to favor content produced by the church. Now that content will be shared with others who may not be members or even know about the church. 

And that's when the turnaround happens. That echo becomes replaced with a new mother or father having to step out to bring their crying baby to the nursery, or the smiles on grateful faces that are listening to the exact message God brought them today to hear.

Romans 10:14-15 asks: “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’”

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