Online Community @ Epworth

SOURCE COLLABORATIVE TEAM LEADERS

Murray Archibald and Jack Palmer
Staff Member: Bo Gordy-Stith

Purpose

To continue to build a thriving, loving on-line community by embracing new technologies and innovative communication techniques that result in meaningful worship and a strong sense of belonging as a member of the Epworth congregation. To create meaningful connections between the in-person and online communities. To improve our ability to minister to the online community (visitation, prayer requests, communion, and special needs).

Join the Team!

• Willingness to Learn New Technology
• Open-minded Approach to Worship
• Interest in New Worship Technologies
• Social Media Experience
• Video Creation and Editing
• Online Mentors and/or Group Leaders
• Zoom Skills
• Worship Tech Assistants

Pastor Bo and Vicki are attending a Leadership Conference at the Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City with our Lay Leader, Todd Popham. We heard a presentation by Jason Moore yesterday. He wrote a book titled Both/And: Maximizing Hybrid Worship Experiences for In-Person and Online Engagement and covered the following seven ideas for a better hybrid (both in-person and online) worship:

1. Create an intimate experience (closer camera shots of speakers looking into the camera and speaking directly to livestream participants)
2. Watch our language (participants vs. viewers, welcome folks here, online, and online later in the week, mention ways to participate online)
3. Create a dialogue (join us in the chat – invite smart TV participants to open phone and chat, have social media ambassadors who bridge the gap between in-person and online congregations, bring the online congregation into the space)
4. Assign an online advocate (who speaks for the online congregation and gives feedback about the online experience)
5. Develop new rites and rituals that involve/include online participants
6. Keep iterating and innovating
7. Continue to cast the vision – here and there, now and later