Why Digital Engagement is Confusing

The term “digital engagement” has broad connotations. When some pastors hear that term, they think of how many people watched their latest sermon on YouTube. For others, digital engagement means how many people are interacting with the church outside of your typical Sunday sermon consumption. 

This is why the term “digital engagement” is so confusing. It means something different to almost every person who hears it. 

It’s easy to assume that it’s the word “engagement” that has the broadest definition. Every church will define engagement based on what that specific leadership team wants to see people within their congregation doing. 

However, in this article, I am going to posit that it is actually the word “digital” that may be making the term so confusing. That is often the key term that is holding us back from knowing how to implement digital tools within our ministries.

Defining “Digital” in Church

The reason the word “digital” means so many things to so many different people is because, well, it is a bunch of different things. 

Digital is a website. It’s an app. It’s a YouTube channel. It’s Artificial intelligence. It’s social media. 

Within this majorly broad term, there are many different tools, all of which do different things and are designed for different purposes. The way we use tools is based on what problem we’re trying to solve and what we’re trying to build. You wouldn’t use a hammer to install a screw, and you wouldn’t use a screwdriver to punch in a nail. 

So, let’s talk less about “digital” and more about how we’re supposed to use these individual tools in creating an overall digital strategy.

Before we talk about the specific tools, though, I think it’s essential that we agree on one important thing. We all want to make it as easy as possible for people to find Jesus and help people grow closer to Him and to each other. 

To do that effectively, we have to focus not only on meeting people where they are but on how they make decisions along that journey. In the business world, this is called the buyer’s journey. It is the stages required to move someone toward purchasing a product, presented through the perspective of the buyer. Don’t miss that last part. It’s important.

According to Hubspot, there are three stages in a buyer’s journey: 

1. Awareness (I recognize that I have a need) 
2. Consideration (I recognize that a solution exists) 
3. Provider Aware (I recognize that you [the church] could be a potential provider to fill that need]

Behind the buyer’s journey, any good company is also going to have a customer retention and development strategy. This is the concept that once you’ve purchased from us, we want you to do it again. So how do we do that?

So, what does all of this have to do with the digital elements of the 21st-century church? I’ll cut to the chase. 

In today’s world, the majority of the buyer’s journey is digital. When was the last time you drove across town to go into a store that you didn’t check out online first? (If you don’t look up stores before a visit, you’re in the minority. 76% of consumers look up a store online before showing up in person, and 57% of shoppers read reviews online while shopping in a brick-and-mortar store.) 

It’s no different in the church. So how do we use the digital tools at our disposal to help people move from awareness to discipleship and relationship? The short answer is that we start by using each tool for its intended purpose. So, let’s take a look at those now.

Awareness and Borrowed Platforms

A borrowed platform is exactly what it sounds like using someone else’s platform to create awareness. This is evangelism at its core, which is going to where people are:

• 3 billion people have a Facebook account
• 2 billion people have an Instagram account
• 1 billion people have a LinkedIn account 
• 1 billion people have a TikTok account 

The reason that these tools are so incredibly great for the Awareness and Consideration phases of the buyer’s journey is because they are platforms that our target audience is already using and familiar with. As a mentor of mine once said, “It’s always easier to borrow a market than to buy one.” 

The goal of a borrowed platform is to create curiosity, but borrowed platforms rarely create customers by themselves. They are an awareness tool, not a sales tool, and they’re certainly not a customer retention tool.

To maximize the use of borrowed platforms, we have to focus the content and the offering on what the “customer” is looking for. Did the person who is unaware of our church wake up this morning and think, “You know, this Sunday, I really want to go to somewhere I’ve never been before with people I’ve never met and hear a sermon on Philippians”? Probably not. 

But maybe they’ve been dealing with anxiety, lost a loved one, or they are new in town and want to connect with an authentic group of people. Were they looking for someone to answer some of their complicated life questions? Probably not. They were more likely looking for a safe place to process their questions. 

This brings up an issue that is keeping so many churches back from fully utilizing these tools: the idea that borrowed platforms such as YouTube are replacing the need for in-person relationships. While that may be true for some churches, the issue is not the tool itself but rather how the tool is being used. 

If all we’re doing is using digital platforms for content consumption, we’ve grossly misunderstood what the biggest opportunity is with these platforms. And that is… to create enough curiosity that they want to know more about us so that they end up on our owned platforms. 

Owned Platforms and Provider Awareness

Once you’ve created awareness through borrowed platforms, you want to move your “customers” to your owned media. This is things like your church’s email list and app (if you have one). Above all, it includes your church website. 

This is the central hub of your ministry’s digital activity — and it's the place where most of your owned digital assets can live. From live stream access to this week’s bulletin, recorded archives, blog posts like this one, landing pages for in-person events, email sign-ups, and giving portals, your website is where you can begin to build a connection with potential church attendees.

You don’t have to restrict the use of your owned platforms for specific things, either. You can borrow them to create space for online events and promotions in the same way that you might use your physical building to host a movie night or pack goods for an outreach.

Your owned platforms and their assets are where you can provide calls to action. It’s where you can begin to foster a willingness to connect with your ministry. You can also provide opportunities for engagement and give your audience multiple chances for repeat interactions. As you do this, you can even encourage them to move from a consumption mindset to a contribution one as they become comfortable with engaging with and becoming a part of your larger church community.

One of the biggest mistakes we are seeing churches make right now is pointing people and keeping people on borrowed platforms.

If you desire to get to know the people who are watching you online, it is critical that you provide them with a way to move from the borrowed platform to the owned platform, and once on the owned platform, with clear opportunities to engage with your church with content, events, and offerings that are relevant to them. Our definition of relevance is “helping people find what they are looking for when they need it most”, not a billboard promoting sermons and giving. 

Apps and Discipleship 

The usage rates for apps within the church is typically abysmal. Why? Because most of our apps are inexpensive, off-the-shelf tools that don’t provide any additional value from going to the website: listen to our latest sermon and give. But when designed correctly, apps can be some of our greatest discipleship tools. 

If you think about it, we cannot ask people to come to church every day. But our apps provide us the opportunity to bring church to people every day: daily devotionals, praying for other people within the church, small group questions, short-form content on relevant subjects, FPU, etc. When designed correctly, our apps allow us to continually be in front of our people, bringing them closer to Jesus and one another. 

Differentiating Your Digital Platforms

Digital engagement in a church setting can be confusing, but often, the issue isn’t the tools but the use of those tools. How we use our tools is defined by what we are intending to build, which comes from a clear strategy. In the same way, we would not use a screwdriver to drive in a nail, we don’t want to use borrowed platforms for discipleship or apps for evangelism. If the results aren’t what you were expecting, these tools may have simply been miscategorized and, thus, used incorrectly.

Aligning your digital platforms with your church’s needs and goals is step one. This begins by differentiating those digital tools into borrowed and owned categories so that you know what you’re trying to accomplish with each one, and how each of these tools can work together to grow your church both wide and deep. 

If you struggle to maintain this kind of mindset toward your church’s digital activity, it may be time to contact our team at Ministry Solutions Group. We have the tools, training, and, above all, the expertise and experience to help you get your church’s digital content on track and deliver the results you want to see.