Hybrid ministry: How to design a multi-site, multi-platform worship service

The most demanding role in any congregation may be that of the worship planner. Each week, the worship planner integrates unchanging aspects of the liturgy with a constantly changing and accelerating world, a task that was demanding enough before our churches went online.

Today, the worship planner is tasked not just with crafting a liturgy, but with balancing the needs of both in-person and online worship attendees. While there are many aspects of digital worship for the planning team to consider, three are particularly important for a multi-platform worship service attended simultaneously by online and in-person worshippers.

A multi-platform, hybrid service requires language that welcomes the online and in-person worshipper. The low-tech requirement of inclusive language is the easiest aspect of hybrid worship. Yet it is also the most critical. Without inclusive language, the online attendee will always feel like a second-tier attendee, one who has a back-row seat to an event taking place elsewhere. Each component of the liturgy provides an opportunity to extend hospitality to the virtual worship attendee. Everything from the greeting to the sermon to the prayers and announcements could include a word of acknowledgment and affirmation for those in physical and virtual space.

An inclusive greeting reminds all who are gathered that we are the church, wherever we find ourselves for the service. Inclusive and hospitable announcements include directions for connecting physically and virtually (Zoom links, URLs, QR codes, etc) to each aspect of the church's life together. Inclusive preaching and prayers specifically lift up the concerns of those who are gathered online, inviting virtual attendees to contribute prayer petitions.

The worship planner need not mention "digital" or "hybrid" in each piece of the liturgy. But the service necessitates a consistent thread of hospitable language. Each week, the worship planner should highlight where these threads will be most visible.

Hybrid worship also requires the creative use of transitional space. An in-person liturgy includes moments of stillness, waiting, and musical reflection. We pass the plates as we listen to special music. We process to the table for the Eucharist. In some denominations and traditions, we sit in revered silence until the liturgy begins. These moments may or may not transfer well to an online worship experience. But if we are seeking to do hybrid worship, where we build bridges between virtual and physical, we must address what these moments look like online.

The worship planner isn't so much tasked with eliminating these moments, so much as they are called to think about what they look like in cyberspace. Perhaps during the Eucharist, online attendees view a slideshow of images from the church's life together. Or during the offering, virtual worshippers could watch a video about the impact of tithes and offerings on the church's work in the community. Each week, the worship planner asks the question of what the transitional aspects of worship ought to look like online. Then, the planner considers how to adapt just one of these transitions to the needs and expectations of online worship.

Communion at the (pre-Covid) Episcopal National Cathedral. The YouTube stream includes beautiful shots of the cathedral's windows as music plays.

Lastly, a multi-platform, multi-site worship requires some meaningful involvement from the virtual body of Christ. If those who worship online are only offered the opportunity to passively watch a live stream, then they cannot contribute to the work of the people. Failing to involve online attendees creates a second-tier virtual worship experience. Those gathered face-to-face join together for liturgy, or the work of the people. Those gathered online sit and watch.

When planning virtual worship leadership, start with small acts of involvement before designing more complex leadership roles. Simple involvement might resemble a prayer request submitted via SMS or social messaging, or an invitation to respond to the sermon via Facebook or YouTube comments. Once the worship planner establishes a pattern of virtual involvement, they might create opportunities for virtual worship leadership roles: lectors, cantors, presiding ministers, even preachers. Not every service needs a lector who records their reading offsite, perhaps at a location that complements the reading. Not every Sunday needs the prayers of the people read via Zoom. Still, the extent to which the worship planner creates opportunities for involvement is the extent to which worship becomes a truly hybrid experience.

The questions confronting today's worship planner are seemingly innumerable. There are questions of resourcing and staffing, software and hardware, production and distribution. In such a chaotic environment, one might lose focus on the art of liturgical development. By prioritizing inclusivity, transitional space, and involvement each week, today's worship planner can maintain a focus on liturgy - while leading through a period of acceleration and re-invention.

Stewardship and the Millennials: What church leaders should know about the most generous generation

When it comes to finances, some in the church don't expect much from young adults. The widespread assumption is that Millennials in particular give far less than older generations, that a confluence of student loan debt and self-absorption reduce their generosity.

Yet published data on generosity amongst the Millennials would suggest that this assumption is false. Some studies, including a 2019 report from Fidelity, conclude that Millennials donate twice as much to charitable causes as Baby Boomers. More recent data indicate that Millennials have donated and volunteered more than any other generation throughout the pandemic. This explains, in part, why companies with large Millennial workforces are increasingly committed to corporate social responsibility efforts.

Still, this generosity comes with some skepticism. The expansion of websites like Charity Navigator reveals how young adults want transparency and accountability with their donations. They want their gifts to make a real difference. While some have argued that societal impacts have an administrative cost, the reality is that Millennials don't want their money going towards staff salaries, building costs, and marketing budgets.

Millennials are a remarkably generous generation. But as a generation, their motivations to give are different from previous cohorts. Raised in the Age of Authenticity, Millennials are motivated not by loyalty to an institution. Rather, Millennials are inspired to give to movements aligned to their values and purpose. Millennials are driven to donate to causes where they believe their gifts of time and talent will make a measurable difference. So while young adults may not take after their parents in making weekly donations to a church, they are open to supporting churches that can tell the story of a measurable impact.

Stewardship with the Millennials is fundamentally a collaborative endeavor. When a young adult donates to an organization, it's not because they want to perpetuate the existence of an institution. It's because they want to be involved in an organization's mission. When telling their stewardship story, church leaders should avoid framing the conversation as a transaction: "give this, in order that the church might do that." Rather, the story must be told as a partnership: "join us in giving, so that together we might..."

A request for donations, offerings, and tithes is not a solicitation. It is an invitation to the shared work of the church.

Similarly, stewardship with young adults requires impact, accountability, and transparency. The story a church tells must make clear, qualitatively and quantitatively, the impact that offerings have had on causes and community. While every church has its own purpose and its own set of prioritized causes, there are certain issues and causes that are of the utmost importance to younger adults.

These issues include climate change and economic equality. The causes include diversity and inclusion. That's not to say that a church's stewardship plan shouldn't seek to share perspectives on the core work of the church: worship, education, and faith practices. Rather, when creating a stewardship strategy, the approach should be this: Make it clear how much of every dollar given addresses these issues and contributes to these causes. Then, make it clear how much goes towards administration, facilities, and staff salaries. As the church becomes more transparent with these figures, young adults will come to see the return that comes through potential tithes and offerings.

Some will dismiss these ideas. They will say that the work of the church is to make disciples, not to work for social justice. Others will suggest that tithes and offerings must be separated from transactions and charitable donations, that giving to a church is a distinctive act. Many from my denomination may argue that such an approach indicates "works righteousness," a theological concept often tossed around to resist change and innovation in the church.

These concerns must be addressed simply and succinctly. Stewardship is about responding to God's call through the Gospel to love and serve the neighbor. The stories we tell about the church's impact on climate, equality, and inclusivity are stories that emanate from God's call. To make an accountable, transparent impact on these issues and causes is to pursue a vocation of tremendous faithfulness.

It is now September, a season when churches tell their stewardship stories in an attempt to solicit pledges for the coming year. Stewardship with the Millennials is ultimately not about once-a-year pledge drives.

Rather, it is about a year-long journey of responding to God's invitation. Churches that find new ways of doing stewardship will discover how to tell digital stories of faith-based impact on issues and causes. Through video, blogs, podcasts, and social media, these stories must be told, and they must be told with consistency. At the foundation of this work is a pivot away from fundraising and towards discipleship and accompaniment.

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@ryanpanzer is a millennial author.

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Facebook for Faith: When we use social media for tithes, offerings, and stewardship

Facebook recently launched Faith for Facebook, a resource portal for religious leaders. The portal provides documentation, case studies, and how-to resources on Groups and Facebook Live, likely the most utilized resources among faith communities. Beneath the content on communities and video is a section on charitable giving: Fundraising on Facebook.

According to Facebook's documentation, Facebook covers "all fees for donations made on Facebook to charitable organizations." Churches that qualify as 501(c)(3) organizations could thus use Facebook Payments for fee-free fundraising. The sign-up process is brief: provide a recent bank statement, relevant contact information, and submit some paperwork.

Once enrolled in Facebook Payments, churches can add a Giving button their Facebook Page (which, of course, is different from its Facebook Group). When an individual donates on the Page, funds arrive in the church's bank account within a matter of weeks. According to the company, "If your organization is enrolled with Facebook Payments, then it will be paid out every two weeks. The funds will be paid to your organization as an ACH, or as a direct deposit to your organization's bank account."

Other than the free cost, the benefit to using Facebook for tithes and offerings is accessibility. The wide adoption of Facebook in a congregation makes it easier to collect tithes and offerings than on platforms like a church management system or standalone giving app. With seven out of ten Americans using Facebook, and five out of ten Americans visiting Facebook every day, it's likely that most members of a congregation already have a Facebook profile. Even older members of the congregation are likely to use the social media site. Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation are the fastest-growing adopters of the social media platform.

But as with all technology in a ministry context, there are questions that church leaders ought to address before directing congregants to donate through Facebook:

• Ethics - should you use social media for tithes and offerings?

• Exclusivity - should Facebook be the only platform for tithes and offerings?

• Liturgical integration - how might we remember that tithes and offerings are more than a transaction on a social media site?

As with all ministry technologies, church leaders ought to reflect on the ethical implications of using Facebook for donations. While processing fees are covered, a donation through Facebook gives the social media giant access to even more user data, in the form of credit card numbers and billing addresses. While this data is undoubtedly secure and protected from hackers, one wonders how Facebook could integrate this data into their ever-growing portfolio of user information. Still, without concrete examples of improper usage of user financial information, any expectation of corporate malfeasance is an assumption. The fact is, online tithes and offerings require church members to share their financial information with some organization, whether it be a bank, an app developer, or a social media company. It may be a net positive to route these donations through Facebook, which has far more cybersecurity resources than smaller app developers. We may not know what Facebook does with all of this data, but we can be confident that it is safe from hackers and breaches.

From a practical standpoint, we should also consider whether Facebook should be the only platform or one of many donation platforms. The more donation platforms a church utilizes, the more complexity it introduces for its treasurer and administrative staff. There is some value in using Facebook exclusively, particularly since it doesn't charge a donation fee. Yet, three out of ten Americans don't use Facebook, and it seems almost callous to suggest that someone needs to create a social media profile to tithe to the church. The best answer to the question of exclusivity, then, might be to use two platforms for donations: one that integrates with the church's website (such as Tithe.ly or Breeze CMS), and one that connects to a Facebook Page.

Ultimately, church leaders would do well to remember that tithes and offerings are always an act of Christian worship: giving back to God what God has first given to us. This is difficult to remember in the world of fast-paced online transactions. With the rise Venmo and PayPal, the exchange of funds through cyberspace has become truly effortless, even impersonal. While it's beneficial for churches to receive offerings through a click-to-donate button, it's essential to maintain a connection between stewardship and worship. Donating online to church is an act of worship. For this reason, churches should not abandon the offering during online or live-streamed services. Church leaders might even consider having a virtual blessing for click-to-donate buttons, on Facebook or on a website, marking that these technologies are in fact an expression of the community's worshipping life together.

Facebook for Faith's giving tool is a valuable resource for church leaders. The lack of transaction fees provide a compelling advantage when compared with other church offering technologies. While it might not be the only way to collect tithes and offerings, it might be the most useful way - particularly when it is connected with worship.

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@ryanpanzer is the author of "Grace and Gigabytes."

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