“In my opinion, too few pastors really are seeking to understand those that we want to reach.”
“What are people searching for on Google every single day? And that data is publicly available…and you’re going to see some pretty startling trends in most U.S. cities about what’s really on the minds and the hearts of people.”
“As one pastor said, ‘We can exegete our communities and know exactly what’s on the minds of those we’re trying to reach.’”
“People are quite hungry for prayer. And they have just a general desire to connect, you know, doesn’t mean connect with a church, but they hunger for connection. I think that’s great news for pastors and leaders.”
“Imagine as a pastor, if you knew literally [in the] last 30 days, what’s on the hearts and minds of people in my community. Would that change the way you preach? Would it change the way you think about programs?”
“We hope that, you know, in the next generation, every church is using Google and whatever else comes next as a way to keep a finger on the pulse of what’s going on in our community.”
“Has your team really thought through a strategy for digital ministry, not just digital broadcasting?”
“For some churches and pastors, we see really effective strategy where we get introduced to someone digitally and we might communicate by text chat for a while and then we meet for coffee, but then it goes back to texting.”
“Would we be okay doing ministry, even ministering to a person digitally if that person never darkened the door of our church? Because I think a lot of pastors believe digital ministry is an on-ramp.”
“How might we bring in other ministries or other community partners we have who are narrowly experts at one area of life that I’m not as a pastor or leader, but not give up the opportunity to share the gospel, to build trust, to build relationship?”
“For the vast majority of people, when we say, ‘Where would you turn for help?’ the number one answer: Google.”
“The churches that seem to have the highest degree of stickiness and retention [throughout the pandemic] tended to be, on balance, the ones who had really emphasized community relationship in a legitimate way.”
“As a pastor, as a leader, that’s the good news you need to know—is people are hungry for connection.”
“Technology, programs, content should always be in support of the relationship, should never seek to replace it or be a shortcut around it.”
“There’s simple technology answers today that can dramatically improve and increase the way you engage with people.”
“We’ve seen pretty strong evidence to suggest that when we find people searching online for things like loss, depression, anxiety…as many as 30 to 40% of the people who are reaching out to Google for help are already in a church.”
Mentioned in the Show
Gloo
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Church Growth Movement
“Most Americans rely on their own research to make big decisions, and that often means online searches” by Erica Turner and Lee Rainie for Pew Research Center
The State of Pastors Study from Barna
