Thank you to our church tech heroes! We have 3 tips for avoiding burnout from the extra digital workload.
Have you given a big thank you to the people at your church who have worked tirelessly to continue church amidst the pandemic? Or are YOU the one who has been working hard? If you are, we hope you are pausing to reflect on the whirlwind of the last few months.
We have had the joy of seeing so many churches adapt their approach to meeting, fitting around a new normal, and still continuing to grow and reach people in the middle of it all. This has been amazing to see, but we know it doesn’t come without long days (and evenings) of work, learning new skills such as video editing, and setting up cameras. We think you all deserve a huge thank you!
The thing is, it looks like some of these changes are here to stay. At least for a while!
Many churches we speak to are considering how they may incorporate some of these new communication methods into their strategies moving forward. We have three tips for ensuring you and your team are not burnt out by the extra workload:
1. Use External Resources where you can
We believe that managing your church’s digital presence doesn’t need to be difficult to be effective. We see so many wonderful resources for churches, to help simplify the work involved in creating social media posts, posting engaging content online, and even video too. Organisations like CV, Sunday Social and Go Chatter videos.
2. Manage your website on an easy to use platform.
If your church website is difficult to use and time consuming to update, requiring someone who understands code, you might be wasting your time. There are platforms out there that can save you time and keep the burden for website updating low. Church Edit provides affordable, easy to use websites to churches with the vision of simplifying websites in mind. Learn more about Church Edit here.
3. Centralise your communications
When communicating with your congregation and community, things can become complicated quickly. When you centralise your communications to one place, like your Church Management System, you can make sure one message is being recieved by everyone at once. iKnow allows you to text, email or send push notifications very simply so that you can update your congregation at once about any changes.
4. Keep things simple and personal
It’s so wonderful to see churches putting in the hard yards to produce professional online content to engage their audience with. However, if this is a stretch for your church, listen to what your community are saying! Many people wish to be engaged online, and to feel connected to a community, but this doesn’t have to mean a full reproduction of your regular service. It is important to master a simple offering, because as churches plan their return to in person services, there may be a need to have in person content as well as content that goes online for those who are staying home. How can your team make that process as easy as possible? maybe a dedicated area on your website for online teaching or discipleship resources or a live stream that is easily accessible on your home page and social media.
