3. There will be Gains: Four articles. (The first three are from the Australian Eternity News)
“Now, with most churches back on the bike and travelling along at a reasonable pace, there seems to be more space for reflection. What has changed? Is it good or bad? And is there anything good that’s come from the Australian Church being forced to fix what wasn’t broke?”
“People who, by their own admission, would “never set foot inside a church” were invited to peek inside – and they did.”
Murray Noble says the experience of house churches in countries where Christians are persecuted shows that faith always grows in times of hardship and isolation. Open Doors believes Christian groups in Australia and New Zealand have so much to learn from persecuted churches around the world that it has created a hub of relevant resources,
House Church
.
Thirty one per cent of Australians who state they have ‘no religion’ told researchers they would search online to find out more about faith or religion.
The figure is slightly higher for young ‘no religion’: 36 per cent of 18-34 year olds would also search online to explore the subject of faith further.
“We’ve had 348 Churches register Alpha Online courses since we launched in March 2020 – and 15 per cent of these are churches that have never run Alpha before,” Emily Papas from Alpha Australia tells Eternity.
“City on a Hill based in Melbourne (who had not run Alpha before) launched Alpha Online on April 20 in multiple locations across Australia.
“They have had an average attendance of 220 each week.”
(American article from Carey Nieuwhof.
Main points:
There is a big spike in digital curiosity
People see digital as real
Digital Church has a much lower barrier to participation
Online Church scales* in a way physical church simply can’t
Financial Investment for digital ministry is lower than for physical ministry
scales* An example:
YouVersion
, which launched as an idea a decade ago, has over 400 million installs and is run by a team at a local church. It’s about the ratio of results per effort