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Sundays are very special days for believers. We all go to church and leave the building feeling encouraged and with a renewed outlook on life.
The Covid Era has been a challenge for believers who are still cautious to return to live church services.
Thank goodness that technology allows us to do virtual worship when we can’t attend a live service.
Regardless of in-person or online worship, this positive experience is a result of great teaching as well as the opportunity to fellowship with like-minded people. Those Facebook comments are a great way to connect if you are stuck at home.
We all hope that members and visitors can positively describe our church, and connecting the rest of the week is one way to show commitment to members.
Many churches have midweek services that help get us through hump day, but the struggle for many of us is to maintain that “just churched” feel the rest of the week.
A large number of churches are using the many new social media technologies to try and bridge that six-day gap.
10 Ways To Increase Church Member Engagement
1. Email Blast
If your church is not collecting and sharing information via member email addresses, it might be a good time to start.
Sending email blasts is a great way to communicate with members after church hours.
This includes sharing new information – church closings due to inclement weather or reminders to sign up for small group classes.
Find a reputable email marketing vendor.
The one I use is MailChimp. The best part is the first 2,000 subscribers are free!
And be sure to follow the anti-spam laws to ensure you don’t inadvertently alienate members.
Create internal process guidelines to ensure email communications are limited, streamlined, and focused on creating the best possible communication experience for your members and volunteers.
2. Start A Blog
Blogging is a great way to keep the conversation going after a weekly message. Identify a faithful volunteer who can summarize a sermon topic and publish it as a blog post on your website.
Take this opportunity to expand on the content and provide additional in-depth teaching.
Try to post a blog article at least once a week and encourage members to share it with their social circles.
3. Twitter
Create a strategy and send daily tweets about inspirational topics, articles, or videos to reinforce a message.
Don’t forget to keep your tweets to 280 characters so it fits. Follow other inspirational leaders and share helpful tweets.
4. Scripture of the Day
We can all use more exposure to the word. Identify a daily scripture and tweet it to members.
Use the verses that supported the weekly sermon to provide members with encouragement and reinforcement of the weekly message.
To make it easy, use an app like YouVersion to get daily scriptures sent directly to your phone.
5. Thought for the Day
Sometimes, a simple, encouraging idea or thought can help someone through a difficult day.
Summarize a sermon topic or inspiring quote into a one-line thought-for-the-day. Condense it to 280 characters and tweet it to members.
We have a library of inspirational quotes and Bible Verses you can also share.
6. Facebook
Create a church-sponsored Facebook page and ask members to join.
Start a conversation and let it be a forum for inspiration, encouragement, and life-sharing.
Set some ground rules for conduct and privacy and then start a conversation on a topic or lesson.
Use this forum to help teach and inspire members to grow in their faith.
7. Share Inspiring Videos
We can all use a little inspiration once in a while.
Use Facebook and all social platforms to share inspiring videos.
Subscribe to YouTube channels that create videos that encourage and inspire and ask Facebook friends to do the same.
Identify inspiring videos and share or add them to a page on your website.
8. Share Inspiring Articles
Supplemental teaching is always good.
If you run across articles or blog posts from other inspirational people, share them with members on your mobile app, Facebook, or other social sites.
Start a conversation and discuss lessons learned.
Challenge members to locate additional supplemental content to share as well.
This research process can be an important part of the learning and development process.
9. Picture/Video Sharing
Pinterest is not only for girls anymore. Create an account and start boards that members can share.
Here, you can post pictures of church services and events that link back to your website.
Instagram is another great tool to use to share pictures and videos.
Use a smartphone to capture the action as it’s happening and share it.
This is a great way to help others experience an event they may not have been able to attend.
Take a picture or video and post it to share with members who may not be there.
It might make them sorry that they missed it!
10. YouTube
Create a YouTube channel and upload church videos to share.
Show church highlights and use videos to help others experience your church services, ministry programs, kids camp, youth outreach, or member testimonies.
The possibilities are endless. It doesn’t take expensive equipment anymore.
Most smartphones have great video technology and can be uploaded directly to YouTube from the phone.
Take it mobile and develop a mobile app for your church to share videos with members wherever they are!
Create a video strategy and set some guidelines. Short and to-the-point videos are the most effective. The goal is to inspire quickly so others will share.
People join churches to grow in their faith, support a mission, and belong to a community. However, church members need to be engaged, or you may discover that a valued member is gone.
It is often difficult to fulfill those needs in a few hours on the weekend.
Developing a strategy to reach out and interact with members the other six days is a great way to help them feel valued, loved, and engaged in their church community.
Don’t waste time trying to reinvent the wheel! Save time by accessing our library of Church Forms, Documents, and Job Descriptions!
