The Connected

Church
How to Produce Digital Content
for a More Informed and
Engaged Church

BY CHRIS CRAFT
At Nao Media we want to help pastors, elders and ministry leaders make more frequent
and meaningful connections with their fellow church members. The web is an excellent
medium for publishing content that engages and informs the body of Christ. It doesn’t
matter how large or well-established your church is. What matters is the effort you are
making to reach your church members through your various digital channels.

We aren’t going to tell you how to talk to your members. Your church has a voice and
culture of its own. But we are going to show you several new ways to engage with your members
by using the power of the Internet.

Important note: We want to stress that digital content and online engagement are
not meant for you to develop a virtual church that avoids personal connection. After all, 65 per-
cent of people prefer to listen to sermons in-person vs. via streamed video 1 . Your content and
engagement efforts should be used to foster a more educated and involved church body, which
will lead to more fruitful in-person worship and fellowship.

1
According to LifeWay Research
No Matter the Size of Your
Congregation, Content is
Always Needed

No matter how large your church may be, you will always need to reach your members on
the web. There will be sermons to promote and events to announce.
Remember…your church’s responsibility is to spiritually nourish its members. Leveraging
the Internet is an excellent way to accomplish this. Be responsible in serving the people
who God put in your care…no matter the number. You don’t need to be a “megachurch”
to use content and online engagement strategies to have an active presence with your
members on the web. Now with that said…let’s get to work!

Content Creation Isn’t for

Spurring Church Growth

One myth that needs to be cleared up right away is that churches need to produce
content mainly for reaching potential new members. Nothing could be further from
the truth. Producing content for your various social and publishing channels should be
primarily for informing, inviting and encouraging your current church members (and
frequent visitors). We wrote this eBook to help you write and promote content that will
help your church connect with the members who God has placed in your care.

As for reaching potential new members, it’s important to keep the main thing the main thing.
Preach the gospel to change hearts. The gospel is sufficient for this purpose. We’re not saying
that your church shouldn’t do local outreach. We’re simply saying that God will always find ways
to bring more people to your church if you faithfully and consistently preach His Word.
Why Digital Content is
Important for Churches

What are the benefits of creating content on the web for your church? To begin
with, many, if not most, of your current members use the Internet on a daily basis.
Their reasons are various…from keeping in touch with relatives and friends to getting
updates from their favorite cable channels and retail stores.

Since your church’s members are already using the web, shouldn’t they also receive
timely communication from their church on matters of the soul? This eBook will show
you several new ways to keep in touch with your members in order to edify, encourage
and inspire them in their walk with Jesus.

Your Content and Online

Engagement Are for Your
Members First

Your content should focus on serving your active members. Keeping the focus on your
active members will help them have a healthier spiritual life. If you have spiritually healthy
members and elder leadership, you will have a healthy church. Then, you’ll be able to
promote your church as a strong community of believers to the public. You will be a
lighthouse of righteousness. All of this will make a positive impression on non-members
who may visit your church and/or come across your online content.
Your sermons must be at the center

of your church’s content and

engagement strategies.

Producing digital content and

measuring its effectiveness are
important for your church
because they help you:

Keep your members engaged in weekly activities. For instance, if you are
planning a social event, such as a picnic or charitable drive, you can use
content to make members aware of the event.

Communicate to a large group of people more efficiently (especially on

non-service days).

Keep track of the pulse of your church members’ interests. Tracking

responses from your fellow members on Facebook (i.e. via a Facebook
group poll) gives you an excellent idea of who your most active members
are for future ministry opportunities.
Your Sermons Are
the Foundation of
Your Church’s
Content Efforts
Your sermons must be at the center of your church’s
content and engagement strategies. Your content --
articles, broadcasts, newsletters, social media posts
and books -- should be inspired by and used to pro-
mote your teaching.

You don’t need to innovate your sermon content.

Preaching the Bible as-is is sufficient and effective!
But you should certainly innovate how you repurpose
and distribute your sermon content. Next, we’ll cover
how you can use the power of web to reach your
members with your sermon and sermon derivative
content in new and interesting ways.
SHARE THE GOOD NEWS OF THE GOSPEL
BY REPURPOSING SERMON CONTENT
We’re confident that Jesus is thrilled when
we use the web to share the gospel. After
all, the gospel is the power that all Chris-
tians rely on, now and forever. The Inter-
net presents exciting opportunities for
evangelism and witnessing the truth of
the gospel.
Every sermon should contain the gospel mes-
sage. Therefore, our first tip is to film and/or
record your sermons. Next, publish and pro-
mote the recordings to reach as many people
with the gospel as possible.
Do you ever want to listen to sermons while
driving in your car or doing house
chores? Publishing your sermons as podcasts
is the key to unlocking new listening
options for you and your fellow members.
Convenience is the major benefit of pod-
casts. Nao Media can help you plan, produce
and publish your podcast.
Every time you publish new sermon content, it
will appear on the audio streaming
platforms that your members already use --
iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, TuneIn, etc.
And you’ll reach new people worldwide in the
process! Let’s face it…listening to
sermons on CD is dead like the dinosaurs.
Start a podcast so your members can listen
anywhere at any time. Also, podcasts give you
more content (past sermons) to share
via social media. Podcasting requires some
technical knowledge and skill.
Our favorite website and app for ser-
mon content is SermonAudio.com. When
you broadcast with SermonAudio, you
can reach a community of believers that
downloads over 2 million sermons per
month! But the most important thing is that
your church members can have access to
an online library of your church’s sermons
within just a few taps on their smart
phone. SermonAudio.com hosts video
content as well.
Livestream.com is what you need if you want
to stream a live video feed of your sermon.
And don’t forget about Facebook and You-
Tube for live streaming options. Facebook
and YouTube are good options for archiving
past videos as well. For the best of all three
worlds, Livestream has a simulcast feature
that allows you to stream your church service
on Facebook and YouTube. We highly suggest
that you host native or embedded video and
audio content on your church’s website be-
cause it’s the one place on the web that you
completely control -- unlike Facebook. If you
find all of this overwhelming, our team at Nao
Media can help you make sense of it all.
Also, you can transcribe your sermons and
turn them into content for a pastor’s blog or
a church blog. Transcriptions are good for
SEO (search engine optimization), which im-
prove your church’s visibility in search engine
results (i.e. Google and Bing). Plus, some of
your members might connect more deeply
with your sermon content in a written format.
Finally, we highly suggest that you periodically repurpose a collection of your sermons into an
eBook or a traditionally published book. A book is the best tool for preserving your sermon con-
tent for posterity. You can also use sermon-inspired eBooks for free distribution to your mem-
bers, prospective members and the general public for outreach. Or you can sell the books and
eBooks to raise money for your church or a specific ministry. Responsibly use the email address-
es that you collect from any transaction for communicating news, events and other helpful con-
tent. Be sure that you have everyone’s permission to email them and give everyone an option to
unsubscribe from your email list(s).

Social Media Micro

Content, Blog Content,
and Events
There are other ways that you can use the web to produce and promote powerful content for
your church. You can use social media sites, such as Twitter and Instagram, to publish prayers,
Bible verses and quotes from your pastor.

Power tip: Pull sermon quotes that encapsulate the sermon’s message. Post them as
nicely designed images on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Our culture loves to
consume bite-sized content. This is a great way to spread hope in small chunks.

In addition to publishing transcribed sermons, you can regularly write and publish blog articles
that edify your fellow church members. Call on Nao Media if you’re having trouble with keeping
your church’s blog updated with quality content. We will help you:
 Setting up a WordPress
website/blog

find your voice for your

content

Develop an editorial
calendar for your blog
content

Write, co-write and/or edit

your blog content

Publish and promote your

blog content

The web is the perfect place to spread news concerning upcoming church-related events.
You can use the web to broadcast footage from these events. Collect as much video and
photo content as possible in order to promote your events and ensure its presence in
your current members’ Facebook and Instagram feeds. Consider boosting your published
posts on Facebook if you want to guarantee reaching more of your church members and
their friends. Boosting is paying for improved content reach to a specific demographic on
Facebook.
Leverage the Web to
Submit Prayer Requests
and Praise Reports

Use the Internet to submit, receive and publish prayer requests and praise reports. Use
tools like email, private Facebook groups, Facebook Messenger and member-only mes-
sage forums for your prayer request ministry. You can also deploy a prayer request fea-
ture on your website and custom church app.

We suggest that you send all emailed prayer requests through your church’s office so
that you can ensure the privacy and validity of all the requests. Someone in your office
should be responsible for collecting, vetting and emailing all prayer requests and praise
reports to the congregation. Also, we suggest emailing prayer requests and praise re-
ports to a specific segment of the congregation (i.e. men, women, youth group, college
ministry, missions team, etc.) when appropriate.

Prayer is powerful. It’s a privilege that God gives to His children that should be used fre-
quently during the day. An online prayer ministry will give your fellow members a safe
space on the web for communicating prayer requests, praise reports and testimonials.
Consequently, your church’s members will be more aware of each other’s needs and
praises.
Distributing and
Promoting Content
to Church Members

It’s important to know how to properly distribute and promote your content to
the members of your church. There are a number of important avenues that you
can explore for this purpose.

We highly suggest using Facebook to start private groups for your church to
work in concert with your public church Facebook page. You can have private
Facebook groups for men, women, missions and more. This is an excellent way to
quickly spread news concerning upcoming events, ideas and requests. You can
also use your groups to promote links to helpful articles and videos.

Twitter is another good medium for spreading information. You can publish public
announcements and reminders on this fast-paced social media site. Use Twitter
lists and hashtags so that you can communicate and consume information more
effectively, increase findability and spread your content quickly.

Lastly, Instagram is a great place to quickly publish visual content. This content
can be anything from photos of your church and its members to videos taken live
at one of your events. Show the diversity of your church through images. Insta-
gram is the perfect venue to showcase visual proof that your church is healthy
and active.
Other Forms
of Online
Communication
to Consider
There are other forms of online communication that
your church should consider using. But don’t over-
whelm yourself. You don’t need to use or master
every tool in order to be effective in engaging your
members. But if there’s one medium that you must
use…it’s email. You can quickly compile and commu-
nicate with an email list by using ConvertKit 2. Send
your church members updates, reminders, prayer
requests and special announcements directly to
their email.

Sign up for ConvertKit

Let’s discuss church apps. Church members who

use smartphones will appreciate being able to use a
custom church app for listening to or viewing ser-
mon content and more. There are many other cool
things that you can do with an app. You can have

2Affiliate link
a chat feature in your app (as well as on your website) so that people can message an appointed
church staff member concerning any questions, concerns or comments.

Finally, you can make use of alternative blog platforms, such as Medium, to repurpose and
syndicate your sermon transcripts and articles. A great thing about using Medium for blogging
is that it can put your content in front of an established community of people who are interest-
ed in the specific topics that you cover. We’ve repurposed articles for Pastor John Crotts from
Faith Bible Church in Sharpsburg, Georgia with good success. We can help you and your church
do the same!

How Do You Measure Success

for Your Content Efforts?

The ultimate measure of success for any of your church’s content and social media en-
gagement campaigns is in the lives that you positively impact. The most important thing to
understand is that you aren’t out to win a popularity contest with your content. As men-
tioned earlier, increasing the size of your church’s membership should never be the direct
goal for your content. The goal should be to have a positive, Christ-centered presence in
the lives of your members and visitors…not to be the church with the most likes on Face-
book.

Once again, the truest measure of the impact of your content and online engagement
is your members being more educated, inspired and involved. The fruit of your content
efforts could be many. You could have better attendance at church services and in small
groups. Or you could develop more willing and prepared ministry leaders and Sunday
school teachers.

Last but certainly not least, the number of prayer requests and praise reports received
can be used to determine the success of your content and engagement efforts. Increased
prayer request activity shows that you have a congregation that is becoming more com-
fortable with transparently engaging with fellow church members online…and that they
see the spiritual benefits of it all.
Who is Nao Media and How Can
We Help Your Church?

Nao Media provides top-quality content and digital engagement consulting for churches.
We can help you reach your current members online in a productive and meaningful man-
ner through the power of content and social media. If you have any questions about our
services and what we can do for you, please contact us today.

Visit us online at naomedia.co or call us at 855.WE.BRAND (855.932.7263)