When Online Outreach Isn’t Right for Your Church
We help congregations reach people online, so you might expect us to say every church should be doing this. We won’t, because it isn’t true.
We help congregations reach people online, so you might expect us to say every church should be doing this. We won’t, because it isn’t true.
There are congregations we’ve talked with where the honest answer was “not yet,” or “not this,” and we said so. It costs us work to say that, but a company that tells every church YES isn’t being helpful, it’s being a salesman. So here are the situations where we’d tell you plainly to wait, or to spend your money and effort somewhere else first.
Even a done-for-you service needs a person on your end. Somebody has to answer the messages that come in, get back to us when we have a question, and care whether any of it is working. It doesn’t have to be a lot of time, but it has to be somebody’s actual responsibility.
When a church signs up and no one owns it, it can make the whole thing stall. Messages sit unanswered. Six months later everyone is frustrated and the money feels wasted, because in a practical sense it was. If you can’t name the specific person who will own this before you start, don’t start. Find that person first. That single decision matters more than which provider you pick.
If a guest who visits is likely to be met with indifference, if nobody will learn their name or follow up, if there’s no plan for welcoming a visitor, then driving more visitors is pouring water into a bucket with a hole in it. You’ll spend money to bring people to a place that isn’t ready to receive them, and the deeper problem stays untouched.
We’d rather a church spend three months getting hospitality and follow-up right, at no cost, than spend three months paying us to send guests into that gap. Fix the front door first. Then invite people through it.
This work needs patient support over a long stretch. If the decision hasn’t genuinely been made together, do that work first. A congregation that’s truly agreed to reach its community online will still be at it in two years. One that hasn’t usually won’t make it through one.
If a congregation is struggling to cover its preacher’s support, or the building has a problem that has to be addressed, or any other pressing issue, those things come first. Online outreach is valuable, but it isn’t more valuable than caring for the people already in your care. And plenty of churches in that position can still DIY their digital efforts faithfully, which we’d encourage wholeheartedly.
This work is slow. Trust builds over months. Seed gets scattered long before anything sprouts. A church that needs to see a fast, obvious return will quit before the fruit shows, and will have spent money for nothing but disappointment. If you can only commit to a short trial with high expectations, save your money until you’re ready to think in years instead of weeks.
Why We’d Rather Tell You No
None of this is false modesty. We simply don’t want your church to spend the Lord’s money on something that won’t serve you, and we don’t want a partnership that leaves you frustrated and us defending work that never had a fair chance.
If none of these describe your congregation, then you’re in a good position to do this well, and we’d love to help. If several of them hit close to home, then the most useful thing we can offer isn’t a proposal. It’s the honest suggestion that you tend to those things first, and come find us when you’re ready. We’ll still be here, and we’ll be glad you came.
Either way, we’d rather be trusted than hired. If you want to talk it through and hear a straight answer about whether this is right for you now, we’re happy to have that conversation with nothing riding on it.
At Project Go, we’d rather tell you honestly that the timing isn’t right than sell you something that won’t serve your congregation. Book a call and we’ll give you a straight answer.
Want an Honest Answer About Your Situation?
Book a call and we’ll talk it through with nothing riding on it. If the timing isn’t right for your congregation, we’ll tell you that plainly.
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