Twenty-two percent of practicing Christians—and 52 percent of practicing Christian Millennials—say they replace traditional church with digital tools such as podcasts, streamed sermons, and radio regularly, at least half the time.
During the social distancing enforcement in recent weeks, 26% of pastors were not ready to remove their reliance on physical worship spaces, saying that their greatest priority is to put in place technology solutions for streaming services and/or online giving.
When millennials were surveyed by Cornerstone Knowledge Network, it was found that young adults prefer communal, classic, sanctuary churches rather than private, trendy, auditorium churches. However, they are also more comfortable with a casual, relaxed, and modern setting as well. Therein lies the issue that many millennials want to have a church which holds historic and religious symbolism but are more at ease with a modern space and atmosphere.
Multisite models and planting models are two specific strategies in terms of church expansion. With the multisite model, each location is an extension campus of the local church, while church planting models establish separate churches that are intended to operate independently at some point.
With multisite models, it is likely that a church would invest in audio/visual capabilities so that they can focus on broadcasts and videos to deliver sermons and other community information effectively. With planting models, the churches would most likely dispatch missionaries to each location in order to further strengthen the independence of each establishment.
With the Cyber Church model being more closely related to multisite models, it is surely an interesting strategic tool to attract millennials online and provide them with the most amicable atmosphere so that they can come to know the spiritual fountain in a life that follows Jesus Christ.
