"We Don't Need Online Services...."

“Studies have shown that most millennials want to view 6 live streams of your church services before deciding to visit your church. “Whoa!! Did I read that right?! Let us take a moment to consider the implications.

Churches that do not livestream their services will be overlooked by millennials and the younger generations. These churches will not even register on their radar screens. Older congregations may wonder what happened to the young people. Maybe they need to ask the pastor and the vestry members who nixed the idea of taking the church’s services online. Bad move! Real bad move!!

Maybe they did take the church’s services online, but the services were too long. The pastor had been reading books and articles about the younger generations wanting longer and more “traditional” services and fell for the wishful thinking of their authors. Reality check!!

The pastor’s sermons were real snoozers—really dull and really boring!! While the congregation may have learned to sleep with their eyes open and an attentive look on their face, the few online visitors who made it through the first part of the service shook their heads in disbelief and moved on to something more interesting and edifying. The word got around, “Don’t bother checking out St. Swithin’s online services. They suck!!”

The only return visitors to the online services were insomniacs who found the services a powerful soporific. “I hadn’t slept for days until I heard about St. Swithin’s online services and checked them out. I fell asleep just like that!!” Your church doesn’t need that kind of reputation!!

It is the real world out there, folks, not cloud cuckoo land. The real world!! Our Lord whose resurrection we celebrated this past Sunday gave his Church the mission of making disciples in the real world, not in the world of our imagination. If we are going to be faithful in our generation to that mission, we need to be studying the neighborhoods and communities where God has placed us and the best ways to point their people to Jesus.