17/03/2021
That’s the message from HOPE Together and futurologist Patrick Dixon, who is urging churches to take steps to ensure that we have contact details for the anonymous guests who have watched our online services during the past year.
Rachel Jordan-Wolf, HOPE’s executive director, says: ‘Churches have been amazing at getting online; 23% of adults in England are still connected to us online – we need urgently to get contact details for those people who have joined us anonymously and could disappear once lockdown lifts in April.’
Research undertaken by Savanta on behalf of HOPE Together, the Church of England and the Methodist Church, shows that over half of these new anonymous visitors, who have joined church online, are under 35.
‘The pandemic prompted the younger generations to think about spiritual things and created an opportunity to connect with the great news of Jesus,’ says Rachel.
Patrick Dixon suggests churches need to think about the following:
• Do online church with young non-Christians in mind
• Offer online connection in the first few seconds of any online church experience
• Offer and talk about ways to connect frequently during the service such as
o Online chat box
o Online prayer
o Online sign-up for a group eg The Wellbeing Journey or Alpha
o Online sign-up for a copy Jesus’s life story (Mark’s Gospel, they won’t know what a gospel is)
o Online sign-up for an Easter goody bag including chocolate!
‘The sign-up for a group, a book on the life of Jesus, or a goody bag would give us their details to stay in touch!’ says Rachel.
Watch Patrick Dixon talking with Rachel Jordan-Wolf and Yemi Adedeji about the research on the Talking HOPE chat show (from 14.17).