Let's Get Phygital


Phygital. Yes. You read that correctly. It is not a typo. It is a word that I am strongly resonating with as the COVID-19 pandemic enters its 9th month of impacting our lives and our church.

I talk to a number of people about church ministry. It's kinda my thing. I spend a TON of time reading, praying, talking, listening, and discerning all things as it pertains to the church. I LOVE the Church! And it is because I love the church so much that I work so hard in seeking God on how best to serve the purpose for which God created the church. Because, really, that is all that matters. It doesn't matter what I think the purpose of the church is. It doesn't matter what people think the purpose of the church is. All that matters is that the church lives out the purpose for which God created the church.

Jesus shared his reason for coming to earth in Luke 19:10:

For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.

The work of the church continues the work of Jesus. To seek and save the lost. Discipleship that sees people growing more and more in their faith has to be connected to this purpose. It is why we want our church to be healthy. It is why we want Christians to grow in their faith. It is why we want healthy marriages, teenagers, and kids. We grow spiritually in order to be used by God in his purpose of seeking and saving the lost.

So what does this have to do with PHYGITAL??

This COVID season of ministry has taught me a lot. I have always had an interest in online ministry. My faith journey started because of an online ministry way back in 1997. Since then I have always looked to how we can leverage technology to be a part of Jesus' purpose of seeking and saving the lost.

In many of my conversations about online ministry, particularly with other pastors, I ask a simple question: "What is the purpose of your online presence?" For the vast majority since March 2020, the answer is simple, "We need something to temporarily replace live gatherings." Before that, the goal of an online presence was simply to get people to come to the church building for services and ministries.

If the past 9 months have taught me anything it is online ministry is a poor substitution for in-person gatherings. Online ministry can never replace in-person gatherings.

HOWEVER...

Online ministry is an INCREDIBLE tool in the mission of Jesus to make disciples of all the nations and reaching the lost.

For this reason, we need to see this COVID pandemic as an incredible opportunity to learn to do some of our discipleship and outreach ministries, not to attempt to simulate our in-person gatherings but to learn how to seamlessly navigate from in-person to online and maximize both in the mission of Jesus.

Even though our church continues to use the Church Online platform for our Sunday gatherings, it is very intentionally different from our in-person gathering. When we do return to in-person worship services, we will not be returning to our former way of simply live-streaming the service. The two are different and should be used differently.

Let me just brag on my church for a minute. I don't do this to show off. I do this to show you, with a bit of work and changing our mindsets of online ministry, how God can use it in ways that we could never ask or imagine.

During the past 9 months, our church has experienced:

  • Over 70 people have accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour
  • 3 people have been baptized, 1 them via Zoom
  • Our Youth ministry is the largest it has been in 10 years
  • We have more adults attending mid-week LifeGroups than in the past 10 years
  • We have been able to bless people around the country and the world
  • Online attendance has continued to stay strong, even growing past the initial surge in March
  • More people are becoming members of the church
  • People are feeling loved and cared for by the church
  • More people are sharing their faith with their neighbors than before
  • In one month we were at to raise nearly $70K in fundraising efforts
All this is being done without regular in-person Sunday worship services. It is possible because we are getting PHYGITAL.

In-person physical connections. Intentional plans in the digital to disciple and reach.

In every area of our lives, we are able to jump seamlessly between the physical and digital. We sit around the dinner table laughing and talking with loved ones. We grab a cell phone or iPad and double-check a news article you were discussing. A text message pops up from your teenager saying they are going to be late for dinner. This integration of PHYGITAL has become more and more natural.

And the past 9 months have taught me we need this PHYGITAL mode of ministry in our churches more and more. We all experimented with it in 2020. I believe it will be a crucial part of fulfilling the church's mission in 2021 and beyond!

I plan on writing more and more about what I have been learning about the PHYGITAL church. I'd encourage you to join in on the conversation with me.

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