The future of the Australian Church, and the power of online connection.

In November 2020, McCrindle Research released a national report titled “The Future of Church in Australia”.

It’s an in-depth report that “… seeks to understand the soul of Australia in 2020, pinpoint where spiritual growth is occurring and reveal key trends that will shape the church of the future.”

After going through its analysis and findings, McCrindle offers 11 recommendations for the Australian Church which, for the most part I agree with, but overall are SO close to being helpful … they just need some extra information and insight to make them actionable.

Don’t get me wrong, I think every Australian Church leader needs read the report … but after serving as an online pastor since 2008 at two of Outreach Magazine’s largest churches in the US — including seven years as the social media pastor at Andy Stanley’s North Point Ministries in Atlanta, I want to take the McCrindle recommendations one step further.

The first McCrindle recommendation suggests that the Australian Church “… is much more likely to grow if church leaders and churchgoers are engaging with their local communities”.

Yes! And this engagement starts in the digital space.

Let me explain.

I first started as an online and social media pastor when I moved from Melbourne to New Jersey in 2008 … and if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that churches need to stop using social media to promote events, and start using it to promote conversations.

Churches need to stop using social media to promote events, and start using it to promote conversations.

For example, did you know you can use hashtags to search for needs in your local community?

If you get on your social media platform of choice, and search for hashtags like #depressed or #anxiety in your area, you can find local people who have used this hashtag to post about their current situation. Then, churches can reach out to support the people who use these hashtags. You can also search for hashtags like #MovingDay or #NewHouse to find families who are new to your community.

This is how churches can be genuinely relevant. You see, being “relevant” is not about moving lights or skinny jeans. You’re relevant when you meet someone’s needs.

So, the Australian Church should use social media to listen more than to promote. We should be using Instagram and Twitter to find out what people in our communities need, and then meet those needs. After all, loving your neighbor was more than just a fun suggestion.

Relevance is not about moving lights or skinny jeans. You’re relevant when you meet someone’s needs.

The next McCrindle recommendation is for the Church in Australia “… to be expressed through authentic relationships throughout the week, in the ‘in between’ spaces.”

Now, GenX Pastors understood these as “third spaces” to be cafes, restaurants, and plazas. But times have changed.

In the modern world, these ‘in between’ spaces where relationships are built are on platforms like Facebook Groups, YouTube, and on live streams to Instagram Stories or TikTok.

A good example of this came from a pastor I consulted with in the US this year, who averages about 200 views per week of his message on YouTube. When he went live to YouTube asking people to comment if they needed someone to pray for them, he got over 18,000 views! This simple act of authenticity changed the way he approaches pastoral care. He used the modern-day ‘in between’ space to reach more people then he ever had!

You see, for the first time in human history, Church Leaders have the tools to “… go into all the world” in an instant! So, let’s use technology to reach more people and change more lives.

The McCrindle team then suggests the Australian Church needs to engage the next generation to “… encourage the sharing of new information and ideas, ensuring the church remains culturally relevant.”

Loving your neighbor was more than just a fun suggestion.

I agree, but Australian Church leaders should know there are also “current generation” people in their churches who need to be engaged, because they understand how to be culturally relevant. As I said earlier, they have learned that cultural relevance is NOT just about the latest music, or having drone shots in your countdown video — it’s about leveraging technology to meet people’s needs.

Engage with these people as well!

The research team at McCrindle then recommended that Church pastors and staff “… equip leaders that will go on to serve in all parts of their life, both at work and at home, at church and in the public square.”

I would add one caveat to this suggestion: If Church leaders only focus on finding and equipping the “leaders” in their church, the will miss the opportunity to equip the parents in their church.

After spending 7 years on staff at Andy Stanley’s North Point Ministries in Atlanta, and now working with reThink Leadership and Orange Leaders, I have learned that the “secret-sauce” of church growth is when a church partners with parents to impact the children.

Every year the church has about 40 hours with a child, but parents have 3,000 hours with them! If churches want to impact the lifelong faith of a child, we need to partner with their parents if we have any chance of being effective.

Parents have approximately 936 weeks from the day a child is born until he or she graduates from high school — Church leaders should focus on equipping parents to share their faith with their kids, and discipling them.

The “secret-sauce” of church growth is when a church partners with parents to impact their children.

And keep in mind that 2020 has been a difficult year for families.

Parents have added “school teacher” and “pastor” to their already over-crowded list of things to do. And this is why churches need to do more to partner with and support parents if we’re going to make as difference.

The McCrindle teams also says Church Leaders should develop “… a culture of leadership within the church (to) help to build up Christians.”

Again, this sounds good in a report, but not everyone in your church is a leader, yet most of them are either parents now, or plan on being parents.

So, how about creating a culture of equipping parents?

And also, the “public square” McCrindle talks about is on platforms like Instagram and YouTube. This is where Church Leaders need to doing their training and equipping. But all too often, these “public squares” are only used by the Church for self-promotion.

The “Future of Church in Australia” report then suggests the Australian Church needs to “reframe” how we think about online church in the future.

This one is pretty obvious considering COVID forced most churches online. But McCrindle doesn’t offer any advice into HOW churches should “reframe” the online discussion.

In January 2018 (that’s not a typo), I wrote a blog post about how the Church should be reframing online church so it had an “omni-channel” approach — that made being part of a church community both an online and offline experience.

In March 2019, the post was picked up by Fox News in the US. You can read it here: https://buff.ly/2FkN8zp

I was advocating two years ago that the Church worldwide needed to reframe how it thought about online church. Now, more than ever, if we’re going to get the most out of the lessons learned during COVID, an omni-channel approach to church must be considered. Otherwise, churches will step back in time when they step back in their buildings.

One of the final recommendations from McCrindle was for “… indigenous leaders need to be given more opportunities to speak in churches.”

As an Aboriginal Australian, I couldn’t agree more!

I’m glad a ministry organization like Orange Leaders gave me — an indigenous Australian — an opportunity to serve as the Director of Orange for Australia and New Zealand. I’m one of few indigenous Australians leading a national faith organization, and this needs to change.

Most churches will step back in time when they step back in their buildings.

And finally, the “Future of Church in Australia” report recommends that online content created by Australian Church leaders should be “collated and shared” with all local churches.

Again, I agree! Personally, I’ve shared messages via YouTube with Aussie churches, as well as Bible devotions on the YouVersion Bible app.

But we also need to share church online systems and strategies. That’s why I share FREE resources at my website, and why I started the YouTube Your Church Facebook Group — so churches can share ideas, strategies, and insights, as well as learn from each other.

If the Australian Church is going to make an impact in Australia, then we need to do more than just rethink the way we’ve traditionally done church — we need to be proactive in using 21st century tools to deliver a 1st century message, and we need to respond to the changing needs in our culture.

The “Future of Church in Australia” depends on it.