When nobody clicks: How to consistently create digital ministry content

The web can be a harsh place for content creators, even more so for churches trying to get in the habit of creating digital content. But the harshest reaction isn't an expressly negative one. Rather, the harshest reaction is often no reaction at all.

According to Podcast.co, 50% of podcasts have been downloaded less than 100 times. Meanwhile, Hubspot tells us that 40% of internet users have never read a blog post. And that Tweet you just posted? It's competing with 5,787 Tweets that were also posted at that exact same second.

As it turns out, the typical experience for today's digital content creator is not one of "going viral" or gaining influence. The typical experience is creating a post, video, blog, or podcast that is never viewed or heard by anyone. Digital content creators are constantly playing to an empty room.

This can be discouraging to congregations who want to get the word, and The Word, out. So you come up with a plan, create a team, maybe invest in some new cameras, microphones, and lighting equipment. You brainstorm, create, and publish, and nothing happens. In this moment, we tend to check-out from the act of content creation. What use is it to work so hard to generate so little in views, clicks, likes, and retweets?

But in a church landscape where digital church-hopping is common, where a congregation's online presence is its new front door, calling it quits on content is similar to locking your front door. The podcast you publish on a Tuesday could find its way to someone who worships with you on Sunday. Or in a more likely scenario, the blog you publish in February 2023 may be the conversation starter that opens the door to a visitor in January 2025.

We create content not because it generates clicks and influence, but because it creates a consistent presence. We write, record, and publish not to achieve fame, but because its a consistent form of witness for the 21st century church.

So here are three encouragements to remember the next time your episode isn't downloaded and your post isn't commented on:

Relevant, original content determines your ministry's visibility. Search engines reward relevant, original content that matches a user's search. When you post or podcast, you are engaging the questions that those looking for a church home are also asking. If and when you don't see any clicks after you post to the web, keep in mind that online searchers will be able to return to this content at any time, so long as it pertains to their interests.

Digital content can be re-packaged. When you create something new, you're not creating a one-off project that will never be used again. You're building source material that can be repurposed for future digital content, even for sermons, prayers, and liturgies. This is the foundation of curation, the process of finding exactly the right resource for precise moments in your ministry. You are adding a new set of legos to the toybox with each piece of content you create. Just because it's not viewed today does not mean it won't find an audience tomorrow.

Original content functions as an invitation to a conversation. Physical signage and billboards tend not to get a lot of buzz, but we in the church keep putting up new signs, because eventually they will help someone connect with the church. While it was once sufficient to view a static webpage or social media profile as an invitation to the life of a congregation, today that invitation is extended through stories and narratives shared in digital content. Our digital content is our digital signage. Everything that we create or curate provides an invitation to continue a dialogue.

At times, it seems like digital content is just one more item on a ministry's already overwhelmed to-do list. So let us resolve to think of content creation as a new form of presence. If we remain persistent, if we become more practiced in curating source material like prayers and sermon texts, we might just find that content becomes more and more of a habit. And as content becomes a habit, we increase our witness in this digital age.

Five resources for congregations looking to establish content creation habits:

• Jim Keat: 5 New Year's Resolutions for Digital Ministry

• Tithely: Create a church social media strategy

• UMC: Become a Curator of Cool (Pinterest specific, but the logic works across multiple platforms)

• SundayToSaturday: Why curation is needed in the church

• HootSuite Guide to Content Curation

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Join @ryanpanzer and Luther Seminary Faith Lead for a live workshop on digital visibility. More information here.

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Digital Ministry vs. Hybrid Ministry: What's the Difference?

Let's talk terminology.

In church leadership circles, we hear the words "digital" and "hybrid" with increasing frequency.

Often, they are used interchangeably. Occasionally, they are used in conjunction: "our digital-hybrid ministry offers..." As with any ministry model, there will be some ambiguity and overlap in their definitions.

But digital is not synonymous with hybrid. These are qualitatively different models, with vastly different implications for a congregation's resources, staffing, and ministry philosophy.

Prior to the pandemic, as many as 50% of congregations were analog churches. Without a website or presence on social media, they lacked the capacity, let alone the motivation, to collaborate with online communities for the sake of mission.

But many churches with some digital presence were actually analog. Their websites and digital content existed for one purpose: to bring people somewhere else. In this way, the websites of the analog church functioned as high-end billboards, directing users to buildings for synchronous gatherings, such as worship and Christian education. A church does not become a digital ministry simply by having a website or social media. It becomes a digital ministry by gathering around the Word of God in digital spaces.

Digital ministry, then, is about access to the grace of God, as experienced through digital forms of community. Livestream worship services are the definitive marker of the digital church. Book discussions via Zoom, board meetings via teleconferencing, and conversations on social media further illustrate life in a digital ministry. This was the model that 96% of pastors implemented during the pandemic, particularly during the lockdowns of spring and summer 2020, a time when there were few viable alternative models. Digital ministry, then, exists whenever web-based tools are used to gather the faithful around the Gospel message.

As lockdowns have eased, some have assumed that ongoing live streaming represents hybrid ministry. If a congregation gathers in the pews and on Zoom, for example, then it must be hybrid.

It's not quite that simple.

Hybrid ministry exists wherever bridges are built between online and in-person participants. To be a hybrid ministry is to create opportunities for collaboration, online and offline. A ministry can only be hybrid when online participants are actively involved in the work of the people.

Sitting passively in one's living room while watching a YouTube stream is not hybrid worship. Listening in on a Zoom conversation is not hybrid church leadership. Recording a Confirmation podcast is not hybrid Christian education.

To practice hybrid ministry is to create opportunities for those online to collaborate with, and even to lead, those gathered face-to-face.

Not every ministry needs to be hybrid. There will always be a place in the church for digital or even analog ministries. Hybrid ministry is a model that requires considerable inventiveness and careful resource allocation. For example, a hybrid ministry will likely use Zoom for worship. It's the only platform that allows for contribution and collaboration. A hybrid ministry also requires someone (ideally not the pastor) to cultivate digital conversation, intake prayer requests, and moderate the chat.

But the congregations that succeed in implementing hybrid ministry will remember something that digital and analog churches may tend to forget: that the grace of God abounds, that the Spirit is truly present wherever we are located, each and every moment of the day.

Book Review: From Social Media to Social Ministry, by Nona Jones

If you manage a church social media account, chances are, you run the account like a digital bulletin board.

And if that's the approach you take, posting information, linking to events, and using the platform to inform, you're missing the point of social media. So argues Nona Jones in her book, "From Social Media to Social Ministry" (Zondervan, 2020. $18.99).

Jones, who serves as the Head of Global Faith-Based Partnerships at Facebook, argues convincingly that faith leaders are not using social media to it's fullest potential. We're using social media for advertising, but not for equipping, for marketing, but not for ministry.

By relying on one-way communication, tracking the wrong metrics, and delegating account management to unqualified staff, churches are losing out on the opportunity to create disciples in digital spaces.

"While a social media plan primarily focuses on sharing content to get likes, comments, and shares, a social ministry strategy focuses on building relationships and facilitating connections between and among people so that discipleship can happen."

-Nona Jones, "From Social Media to Social Ministry"

For Jones, social media generally and Facebook, in particular, offer a potential remedy to a decline in church attendance and membership. A commitment to ministry on social media would certainly be better for the church than other widespread "relevance-boosting" practices, including removing crosses and Bibles from church buildings and improving production quality!

To that end, Jones encourages to think about social media not as a bulletin board, but as a campus. She argues that a faith community's Facebook page ought to function as a ministry start-up, with a campus pastor, a team of equipped and compensated staff, new content published daily, and a commitment to multi-directional conversation. Jones is correct in her assertion that social ministry depends less on polish and more on leadership, less on quality and more on intentionality.

Available now wherever books are sold

The book is an important contribution in helping churches to think of the web not as a place to post an invitation to attend worship, but as a mission field, where church leaders establish relationships and form disciples for lives of faithful service.

Jones' well-reasoned argument is limited in part by her assertion that Facebook is "the only true social media platform." Arguing that Facebook is the only platform to support multi-directional conversation as opposed to mere content consumption, Jones' model dismisses the importance and relevance of Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and others. While it's true that Facebook is far and away the most utilized social media platform, it's influence is waning amongst younger generations, necessitating consideration if not engagement with emerging digital channels. At a practical level, I would have appreciated hearing Jones' suggestions for low-tech, low-staff churches who may not have the resources to navigate an increasingly fractured (if not fractious!) social media landscape.

The book also decides to veer away from the thornier issues surrounding Facebook and other social media platforms. As a handbook to social media usage in the church, the book would have benefitted from a discussion on the numerous ethical and privacy concerns surrounding social media giants, including the commodification of user data and the easy dissemination of conspiracy theories.

Still, "From Social Media to Social Ministry" offers an important lesson for church leaders of all denominational backgrounds and theological commitments. If the church is to be relevant (or, resonant) in this digital age, it must learn how to build relationships and engage in thoughtful conversations within these spaces. This will require a long process of learning and iteration. Jones' book is a helpful first step towards the church's digital future.

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@ryanpanzer is the author of "Grace and Gigabytes," a book about being the church in a tech-shaped culture.