CHURCH #3: THE “SEASONED”
The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter in Saint Petersburg, Florida has been around since 1889. That’s 130 years if you’re counting. Cathedral Church is a perfect example of how a ministry that has been around for a significant amount of time can open their collective mind and get creative about how they can try new things in order to maximize the impact of their ministry within their community in the present day.
Longtime Cathedral member John DiPietro oversees their video ministry and was happy to share their uplifting live video streaming story with us.
“A few months ago, we were in the midst of gutting and re-configuring our space, as well as installing a state-of-the-art sound system. As these things often go, I was inspired to brainstorm even more ways to improve our church. Though we were equipping ourselves to put on wonderful events at the Cathedral, it pained me that they would never be recorded.”
Compelled to find a way to share Cathedral’s meaningful moments with the community, John shares,
“My biggest challenge was convincing the church that this [streaming] was a priority. First I had to sell the Dean (our head priest) and Chapter (comprised of eight congregation members) on the benefits of live video streaming, but that was an easy sell.”
John DiPietro
From that point, Cathedral started broadcasting their services online and have now been doing so for years. A data map of their average weekly viewership provides us with a compelling aspect of how seasoned churches can foster growth that’s worth reflecting upon.
DIVING INTO CATHEDRAL’S STREAMING DATA
As one would likely imagine, Cathedral Church’s highest average weekly viewership occurs on Sunday mornings during their 8:00 a.m. and 10:15 a.m. services. What’s quite exciting, though, is that Cathedral averages significant archived viewership each week on a daily basis. At a most fundamental level, what this means is that though John and his team only stream one morning a week, his ministry is touching people’s lives [seven] days a week online, quite literally.
So whether your church has been around for 130 years or 130 days, Cathedral’s weekly streaming data teaches us that churches truly have an opportunity to reach people with their services [seven] days a week. In other words, every day of the week, every morning, every afternoon, and every evening, people’s hearts are moved to search for the things of God online. So many homes across the world tune into Netflix and Hulu streams on a daily basis. Why not provide them an opportunity to engage with your Sunday morning ministry according to whatever time suits them best?
Doing so has obviously been worthwhile for Cathedral and has helped their church stay strong in attendance while so many other hundred-year-old churches have fallen into rapid decline in recent years.
A FINAL WORD FROM CATHEDRAL CHURCH
“Once we started, everyone agreed that streaming was incredibly valuable – and all were blown away by how simple BoxCast is to use. And the congregation is grateful beyond words.”
John DiPietro
Oftentimes, when a church successfully rolls out a live video streaming ministry like Cathedral, their congregation gets incredibly excited about it. Before you know it, faithful members begin sharing the live stream with their friends who are looking for a church or who may not even be believers.
In this way, some churches grow through livestreaming because as a whole they are so united behind a vision that evangelism and livestreaming go hand in hand within their community. Many newer churches would do well to learn from the passion and vibrancy of this 130-year-old ministry that’s using their livestream to grow against all odds.
FINAL REFLECTIONS ON LIVE STREAMING & CHURCH GROWTH
So is there any definitive way to uncover whether or not livestreaming has anything to do with church growth or a decline in attendance? Listening to the stories of these churches and taking a look at their viewership analytics certainly propose that a clear conclusion can be made, perhaps like this:
“Churches who deeply care about reaching their communities for Christ through live video streaming are likely to experience meaningful viewer engagement with their broadcasts in a way that will likely promote measurable church growth.”
If your church is considering live video streaming for the first time, then make sure to check out Easy Church Tech’s new livestreaming solution that has been customized for churches like yourself. Thanks so much for reading and happy streaming!
This article originally appeared here, and is used by permission.
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