For the last 10 years as a story missionary I’ve essentially been asking two questions:
What are the obstacles and barriers that keep Christians and churches from harvesting and sharing testimonies using video and the internet on a regular basis?
Why are the vast majority of churches, big and small, traditional and modern, old and new, in a state of story poverty (deficiency of necessary or desirable ingredients, qualities, etc., for example, poverty of the soil) when it comes to leveraging testimonies and technology?
Very few church leaders seem to acknowledge there is a problem (or an opportunity), so I wanted to invest a little time looking at the current situation, which resulted in this brief and very unscientific study.
My hope is that this study will spark conversation and collaboration among churches (of all denominations), and ultimately bear much fruit for generations to come. May the Holy Spirit open eyes, ears, minds, and hearts to only that which is God’s will.
Summary
Assuming every follower of Christ has a testimony, and that those testimonies can easily be shared using video and the internet (as nearly every follower of Christ in this study has instant access to both cameras and the internet), how are churches doing at encouraging, cultivating, harvesting, celebrating, and distributing these testimonies in comparison to how they are doing with other types of messages and communication?
With division, hopelessness, and anti-Christian rhetoric and messages bombarding our communities, cities, and nation, as well as Christ’s return imminent, there has never been a more opportune or important time to equip the saints to steward and leverage testimony and technology.
The Research
I picked 7 churches I assumed were likely among the largest, well-respected, most affluent, and best-resourced Baptist churches in Georgia. (I simply started with Baptist churches. I’ve looked at other denominations as well and find similar patterns throughout the Church.)
I went to each church’s Facebook page and clicked on the ‘videos” link which takes the viewer to the entire video gallery for the church. (Again I simply started with Facebook, God knows there are many other social media channels and platforms that should be studied as well).
I scrolled (and scrolled, and scrolled) through the most recent 300 videos looking for “testimony videos”. A “testimony” video is one that is clearly and simply someone’s testimony (as opposed to possibly appearing or being a part of an entire worship service).
Findings
Observations
Clearly, these churches believe video, in combination with Facebook, is important and valuable. There is obviously a good amount of resources being put towards producing all this video content.
It’s almost impossible to think that wise elders, deacons, and lay leaders, and philanthropists are at all aware of these findings, and they can’t help if they don’t know there’s a problem.
There’s likely no one person responsible and being held accountable for testimonies taking a higher priority and presence. This usually falls in the gaps between media, communications, worship, evangelism, and discipleship.
A simple calculation of the total # of church members divided by the # of testimony videos reveals that over 99% of church members have either never shared their story on video with the church, or if they have, it isn’t shared and celebrated on Facebook.
When congregants and seekers look through these video galleries they can’t help but assume that testimonies must not be that important. It also breeds complacency, apathy, and malaise among Christians who might otherwise be willing to share their own story.
Despite best efforts among equipping agencies, conferences, annual meetings, etc, including placing emphasis on “sharing your story”, “sharing the Gospel” and even an entire conference themed “Storytellers”, things aren’t getting better, in fact, they are getting worse (the ratio of testimony videos to overall videos).
Money and production resources (equipment, staff, volunteers) by themselves will not change this trajectory (again, it will likely make it worse)
Recommendations FOR CONSIDERATION
Church leaders need to validate these findings and determine what priority and presence testimonies ought to have. Churches are measuring everything, but they aren’t likely measuring this. What isn’t measured isn’t likely to be improved.
Pastors have to be courageous and humble to ensure that the people in the pews are first and foremost encouraged and empowered to share their testimonies, leveraging the tools of the age, and the new roman road (the internet), no matter how difficult or uncomfortable that may seem.
There’s a cliche that says “show me your calendar and your checkbook and I’ll show you what’s most important to you.” “Show me your Facebook video gallery….”
Many churches produce a few testimony videos and “check the box” moving on to many other good things as if there was an acceptable cap. Imagine if we did that with baptisms.
If you were a restaurant or a service company, how many personal customer testimonials would you want on your website and out there on the internet? As many as you could possibly get. Why do we settle for less in promoting Christ?
The establishment and support of evergreen lay story ministries that are 100% dedicated to cultivating, harvesting, and distributing testimonies of life change.
Raise up college interns, apprentices, and media missionaries who can and will serve within these lay story ministries.
Churches need to work together to create an ecosystem (one church has a room to film, while another may have the equipment, where yet another may have people ready to tell their story, while yet another may have youth ready to do the filming and editing).
The current pandemic is an incredibly opportune time to cultivate and harvest stories, particularly with the adoption of virtual communications, virtual production, and many congregants isolated and looking for connection, purpose, and hope.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this cursory and albeit biased bit of research will have you curious as to how your church is stewarding testimony and technology. At the very least, it may inspire you to take a quick look at your social media channels through the eyes of your church members, and perhaps more importantly, those that are curious about your church and/or Jesus.