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Digital Missions is the leveraging of technology to spread the gospel. Over the next five years, thousands of churches will consider developing innovative technology initiatives. A hot trend in church consulting is the emergence of specialists that are helping align media and technology with everything the church does.

For insights on this trend, I turned to three experts on the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and consultants in the church. They are…

David Drinnon, pastor and Director of Information Technology and Websites at Second Baptist Church (Houston, TX); Daryl Hunter, Senior IT Architect for the LifeChurch.tv central office (Edmond, OK); and Anthony Coppedge, Director of Communications and church consultant for Fellowship Technologies (Irving, TX).

From my observations, churches are essentially divided into two basic groups when it comes to using ICT.

Group One - Churches that have a technology strategy. They’ve developed the people, processes and resources needed to create, manage and implement their technology initiatives.

Group Two - Churches that primarily use technology to get things done. Anthony Coppedge framed it this way, “Without a technology strategy, a church can have an IT guy, an audio/visual leader, a web designer and a graphics person on staff and still not be fully effective. Those jobs are then activities, people doing tasks; there would be no vision for a holistic strategy or for staff members to work collaboratively.”

There are six distinctive elements common to churches that have developed a strategy for integrating technology with missions. Digital Missions is used here to cover all technologies a church might deploy for ministry purposes.

1. Digital Missions is viewed as a distinct ministry. Every church wants to reach out and touch as many people with the gospel as possible. Numerous ministries are maintained to achieve that aim. Digital Mission churches see technology as a means to launching new and cost effective methods of ministry enabling them to reach more people.

2. Digital Missions is developed for a specific purpose. For these churches, Coppedge said, “technology is not an afterthought, it’s a forethought.” Digital Missions fits into and supports the church’s vision. Here’s how three churches have expressed the mission of their technology platforms.

Flamingo Road Church Internet Campus - Partnering with people to reach their God potential

LifeChurch.tv Digital Missions - New avenues to spread God’s truth and love across the planet

NewSpring Church also has a Digital Missions outlook. It’s articulated through their “vision to continue growing, impacting lives and using technology and the arts to strategically communicate the good news of Jesus Christ.”

3. Digital Missions is considered ministry work. People involved with technology in the church “see it as a calling; it’s not just a job,” according to Daryl Hunter. Staff, lay leaders and volunteers are coming forward to serve. That includes innovators, content developers, IT professionals, audio/video producers, engineers, graphic designers, data managers and analysts.  

4. Digital Missions includes exploration of all technologies. These churches stream/webcast worship services live and archive sermons or worship experiences online for on-demand access. They have a Facebook page for information, upload sermon videos to YouTube or GodTube, post articles in a blog and upload pictures from mission trips to picture sharing sites like Flickr. And at last count, more than 40 churches have started an Internet campus. 

5. Digital Missions is an opportunity for collaboration. The Nehemiah principle is embraced. Churches are recognizing the strength that comes from working together with other churches, service providers and vendors. David Drinnon talked about partnering with an outsource provider that delivered “best possible pricing that the church could not achieve on its own, saving the church tens of thousands of dollars.” Hunter sees it as an opportunity for all sides to put more of a “focus on community and collaboration - not the sale.”

6. Digital Missions recognizes the value of consultants.  Technology is seen as an enabler to all ministry activities. As Coppedge pointed out, “technology touches everything.” Digital Mission churches “engage with ‘church friendly’ technology experts – that understand stewardship and take the time to learn about the church’s cultural DNA,” Hunter said.

Coppedge identified Cynthia Ware, Terry Storch, Tony Steward and Kent Shaffer as “some of the new experts coming on the scene and speaking very clearly into the holistic nature of media and technology today.”

The Future of technology and church consulting

More and more churches will incorporate media and technology into everything the church does. It will be a requirement of how church is done. Coppedge believes that will be “a shift from where the church has been in America.”

In the future, Drinnon said that churches are going to “need lots of consultation regarding worship technologies, organizational best practices for multi-site (staffing, departmental structuring, etc.), measuring return on investment/ministry, opportunity costs, etc.” Coppedge added that there will be a “huge need for someone to come in and help churches think differently” from what they’ve been able to do on their own. Hunter sees the trend for using outside help continuing as well.

Treating consultants like a member of the team and having a relationship more, according to Drinnon, “like a marriage, than a business contract” is one of the more intriguing aspects of this hot trend in church consulting.

The Society for Church Consulting will be releasing a report in early 2010 analyzing the challenges, opportunities and trends facing all areas of church consulting.

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Gordon Marcy is a media and communications executive with two decades experience building media platforms for greater Kingdom impact.  He is focused on the intersection of communication technologies and church growth. He can be reached at gordon@gordonmarcy.com.