The pandemic has permanently shifted the way we think about in-person and online church attendance.
I believe the 40/60 COVID church is here to stay.
What is the 40/60 COVID church?
It is the church that has been birthed out of the COVID season we just walked through. It means 40% of your people will attend consistently in person and 60% of your people will attend the platforms of your online location.
We (Vanguard Church in Colorado Springs) started our online location four years ago before COVID was an issue. At the time, when we launched it, it was for the purpose of those who could not attend service with us locally but who wanted to stay connected with us after moving away. We are a huge military town, and our city sees a roughly one-third turnover every three years.
For the past three or four years our pastoral leadership team and elder board have been discussing how we should view the online community. Here were the three options we were considering: 1) an alternative to attending in person 2) an option when you can’t attend 3) a location like our other in-person locations.
After a couple of years of debating it, about six months before COVID hit, we decided at our annual pastoral/elder retreat that we were going to move toward making our online community a location, not an option, and not an alternative when you can’t attend, but a legitimate location like our in-person locations.
What does this mean? It means we would work toward: 1) staffing with administrators and pastors, 2) encourage people to attend the online consistently, 3) encourage our people to become virtual evangelists, 4) grow people’s awareness of the need to give to the ministry through it, 5) create a discipleship process, 6) look for ways to care for those who attend, 7) invite them to start life groups or join some type of ongoing connection group either virtually or in their particular area, 8) provide our online attendees a way to connect with us and get the help they need. Read More
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