Have you heard; that ministry will never be the same? How about those churches that once had two or three services, filled several buildings a Sunday, and will no longer get back to this capacity? I want you to know that this is what
we must know and continue to sharpen ourselves as social media ministry is here and one of the greatest tools to advance a ministry of any size. With smartphones, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality, the way audiences process information has probably changed more in the last ten years than in the previous 1,000 years. As a result, our technological progress has given birth to a new generation of
audiences. From a church or ministry perspective, there are five types of audiences on social media. You need to
consider these audiences and their behavior while planning your church communication strategy.
The In-Person Audience For many years, right from Jesus’ time, most ministries happened in person. Jesus ministered in front of a live audience. In the early Church, sermons, prayer sessions, evangelical meetings, counseling sessions, and other ministries happened in front of a live audience. And before leaving, Jesus prepared his disciples to go out
into the world and plant more churches in person so that more people could be ministered to. Thomas had to travel to India from the Middle East – a journey that might have taken months. That is how the Gospel spread across the world – face-to-face, one-on-one – and this type of ministry continues to be relevant and vital for church growth. I recently had the opportunity to attend a Pastor Conference for the first time in two years, where the focus was on utilizing social media as the next wave of ministry. I am a big believer in the power of personal interactions. When human beings meet in person,
there are spiritual dynamics at work than any other type of interaction can never replace. While online media, gadgets, and social networking channels have their roles. I believe that God still wants us to be more human and connect in person as much as possible. That is why in-person ministry remains very effective, even with all the social media and technology available. Nothing can replace in-person interaction. However, in-person ministry can be limited by time and space. And there are elements of ministry like teaching, prayer, and counseling that can be done effectively in a remote setting. Therefore, we need to have the correct mix of technology-driven, remote, and in-person ministry components. The way we do this is by: On-Demand Understanding The art of recording God’s principles for reference started very early – we see God himself writing the ten commandments on a tablet for Moses on Mount Sinai (Exodus 20). However, after the printing technology evolved, the written word started spreading at a much faster rate. With the advancement of flat-bed printing
in the 15th century and electronic media, including the telegraph and telephone in the 18th century, the Church started to see a new breed of audience. I like to call them the on-demand audience. This audience chose to access the word of God and ministry resources whenever they wanted to use ondemand media. The online-demand audience is a big
part of the Church communication system today; this audience still buys magazines, books, tapes, CDs, and DVDs and accesses them whenever they want to. The latest technologies that cater to this audience are the mp3 and mp4 files distributed on flash drives, memory cards, direct downloads of files, and cloud storage. The evolution of radio and TV technology gave birth to the broadcast audience. They listen to radio programs and watch TV programs when broadcast at a particular time. They make a note of the time of broadcast and tune in. Even today, this audience exists in large
numbers, and they are still relevant and important. But we are seeing a change in the behavior of this type of audience as TV and radio technology starts to merge with the internet. Today, smart TVs are internetenabled. TV shows and radio programs are streamed live online or on TV using the internet, and devices like the Apple TV and Roku player are further bridging and shrinking the gap between a computer and television. Without getting too technical, it is safe to say that
TV and radio technologies are going through a major transformation and will continue to evolve. Eventually, we will watch television as a medium powered mainly by the internet. But despite all this, the broadcast audience is still worthy of your attention. This audience chose to access the word of God and ministry resources whenever they wanted to use ondemand
media. The on-demand is a big part of the Church communication system today; this audience still buys magazines, books, tapes, CDs, and DVDs and accesses them whenever they want to. The latest technologies that cater to this audience are the mp3 and mp4 files distributed on flash drives, memory cards, direct downloads of files, and cloud storage. Today, we understand why many Christians will not brick-and-mortar churches, no matter how hard we try to bring them in. No change in service times, programs, teaching styles, or staff will convince them to attend.
By Dr. Johnny M. Harris, Jr.
