July 18, 2024

By Rev. Rick King

At Falcon Heights Church, we can trace many of our recent experiments and innovations back to the pandemic. One of the areas we didn’t think we’d be so involved in a few years ago is something called “digital ministry.” But the need to stay connected during the pandemic thrust us quickly into it—even when we didn’t really know what that was.

Thanks to Jon Zimmer and others, our church livestreams our service every Sunday, including when we’re outdoors on the patio—and he also livestreamed a North Star Chorus concert from our parking lot on a recent Tuesday night.

Churches like ours that never thought much about it now devote staffing and budget to digital ministry. Rev. Jim Keat of Riverside Church in NYC has been sharing a “theology of digital ministry” in a series of half-hour webinars he’s doing on all aspects of digital ministry.

Last week, I shared Jim’s first point in his theology of digital ministry, “Be flexible and mobile,” symbolized by the Little Airstream, as in one of those silver trailers you used to see a lot on the road and in campgrounds. With it, Jim and his family, who live in Michigan, can take their housing with them wherever they go.

The second point in Jim’s theology of digital ministry is “Be where people are,” symbolized by the Little Mermaid.

Ariel, the little mermaid, wants feet instead of fins so that she can go where the people are. She has lots of beautiful possessions in her collection, but she wants more: to be able to walk around and go to where the people are.

Digital ministry enables us to go where people are who are not a part of a church. For good or ill, so many of us live so much of our lives online—watching videos, posting on social media, emailing, perusing websites, shopping for the things we need. If we really want to encounter people where they are, we cannot ignore their online life!

I’ve noticed this in working with spiritual directees in my practice: about half the people I see are in person, the other half I see on Zoom. Why? Because one’s in New York, another’s in Seattle, and another two live in the metro area, but sometimes travel and time make meeting online necessary.

One of the assumptions of digital ministry is that it’s related to, and grounded in, the life of the flesh-and-blood community of the church. And we hope to invite people into the flesh-and-blood community, where we can encounter each other face to face over meals, singing and praying in worship, and service in the church and the wider community. One of the main things about church is that we DO IT TOGETHER, not as solitary individuals. But “together” can mean different things: one is in person, the other is online. Both are important.

How is God showing up in YOUR life? Where could you use reminders to “go where the people are”?