Tech & Digital Strategy Recommendations for Small, Medium, & Large Churches
A question I often get is, what tech and digital strategy would you recommend our church use, considering our size?
I work at one of the largest churches in the world, but I also came to faith at a church under five hundred people. I know the average church doesn’t have the resources I have. I’ve decided to put together my recommendations for a small church, a medium church, and a large church. I’ve tried to approach this like I was the church's pastor and how I would leverage resources strategically considering my size. Now, the pro of being in the Christian tech space, which is a tiny network, is I know many of these companies and services. I tried to be honest with my thinking, and I apologize in advance if I bug any friend. I approach these recommendations using the four S’s of Digital, which I discuss in my book.
The short pitch of the S’s of Digital is that many churches just do streaming and maybe giving online and call it online church. If you do all four of the S’s then it starts to feel like actually biblical church. Check out my book to fully understand the concept.
Okay, here we go. My tech and digital strategy recommendations for your church. Jump to small, medium, or large. Sorry, giga or super giga church. No recommendations for you.
Small Church Recommendations (Under 150 people)
Streaming
No live streaming of any kind. Record audio of the message only and create a podcast that church attendees/members can listen to weekly.
Message notes, next step forms, & automated follow-ups would be done using nucleus.church ecosystem. Best design, price point, and just overall, well done.
Strengthening
I would encourage all my volunteer teams to set up a group thread on a platform like WhatsApp to stay connected during the week with their teams and leverage Zoom or Google Meet for training, not on Sundays. Only force another night of the week in person if needed. Make in-person training/events valuable enough to get a babysitter.
Social
I would only have an Instagram account for the church and post three times a week. Post more Reels than posts. Leveraging the weekend sermon as my main source of content. Ideally, I would have a volunteer record moments during my message on Sunday or rerecord myself on my phone after the weekend message.
I would have a YouTube channel for the church and post my Reels as Shorts on the channel.
Systems
I wouldn’t have a CRM (customer relationship management system) at this stage of my church. Most of the data will be tracked using my giving tool, email newsletter platform, and some additional Google Sheets for volunteer teams.
Giving is important. I would use one of the following platforms:
I would try to keep things simple and use nucleus.church system at this stage if I’m already using the ecosystem.
The second option is tithely.com if I didn’t use the Nucleus ecosystem.
Thirdly, I would explore pushpay.com.
I would send a weekly email on Thursday about the weekend worship service and share general things the church family needs to know. It would come from me and not the church. I would most likely use mailchimp.com at this stage and ensure everyone knew how to get added to this email newsletter.
I would have a simple website about who we are, where we meet, and a clear invite to come on Sunday. I would use nucleus.church to host my website.
tithely.com does have some great integrations to have a website, CRM at the start, and a few other bells and whistles, but most likely don’t need it at this size.
No ads or apps for this stage/size of the church.
I would sign up for Google Workspace for Nonprofits to leverage their email, calendar, drive, chat, etc. services.
*I would, even at this size, walk through the Alpha Omega Tool with my volunteer teams to empower everyone to think of creative ways to integrate digital and any technology into their area of ministry.
Medium Church Recommendations (150 to 750 people)
Streaming
We would lean toward an audio podcast strategy but consider a live YouTube stream when we reach more than 500 people. I wouldn’t pay for a live-streaming provider but just use YouTube, however possible. We would only livestream one of our worship services, not multiple services, and only if we could execute it at a high enough caliber. I wouldn’t use churchonlineplatform.com at this stage, either.
We would continue using the small church strategy for message notes, next step forms, & automated follow-ups. As I approached 500 people, I would keep my eye on switching to a CRM and change a few of these items if the CRM provides a few of these features in their pricing/package. When making this change, I must consider giving, people management, check-in, etc. I wouldn’t make changes like this often, so I would put a ton of thought into the switch. You change a CRM and giving system only once every decade.
Strengthening
I would continue to use the small church strategy by leveraging WhatsApp groups for volunteer teams and Zoom training for things that don’t need to be in person. Maybe a few church events will be on Zoom, like during the holiday season or summer. Key events should be held in person, but leverage Zoom-style events once or twice a year for those who can’t attend an important training/class. For example, membership classes may be monthly in person, but I could use Zoom once a year for those who can’t make the time work.
Social
I would post four times weekly and add a few extra story posts a week. Also, I would consider adding a few live events where I interview leaders and try to drive real-time participation using IG Live.
YouTube would be used more. Reels are still uploaded as Shorts, and I live stream on Sundays if I’m over 500 people. Additionally, I would start uploading extra videos a few times a month. These videos could be short devotionals, special training, or stories of life change. No fancy cameras are needed for this size. I would use a newer iPhone to capture the footage and find an amazing volunteer to help edit the footage. Most likely someone in their twenties or teens.
A texting strategy would be introduced using a platform like clearstream.io or whatever platform works with my CRM. I might text weekly about essential updates to the church family and leverage texting for key volunteer ministries, too.
I would also explore textinchurch.com, which I’ve heard great things about.
Systems
I would pick a CRM (customer relationship management system) at this stage. Now, my CRM should play well with all our systems. I can’t make this decision lightly. It needs to manage people, volunteer rosters, groups, and, ideally, giving. It should and can do a great deal and even replace some of the systems/tools you use as a smaller church. Also, you can grow with the right CRM. Systems I would consider using:
I would take a hard look at planningcenter.com and try to leverage what they do to see if it works for my church.
The second option I would consider is tithely.com because of all the feature-rich stuff they provide.
Thirdly, I would look at PushPay’s system, but it would be my last option.
Giving would be decided based on what CRM I pick.
Keep MailChimp or switch to whatever tool/system my CRM uses.
The website would stay as the small church strategy, but as we get closer to 500 people, more experiences would added throughout the website. I may change out the website platform if I could add a logged-in experience if I switch to a new CRM. That is a big if.
I would run an Instagram ad targeting people within a twenty-mile radius. I might hire a company like churchcandy.com or churchfuel.com to manage my ad strategy the closer I get to 500 people. One of these companies could help us get a Google Grant, too. I might have a person at our church who could run these ad campaigns for us as a volunteer at this stage. I would hold a volunteer digital meeting and see if we had this gifting in our church before I hire someone outside of my church.
I wouldn’t have a mobile app.
I would continue to use Google Workspace for Nonprofits
*The Alpha Omega Tool would continue to be important in getting all volunteers to leverage digital and technology in their areas of ministry. Now, as my church grows, I would need to do the exercise with staff.
Large Church Recommendations (750 to 2,500 people)
Streaming
I would livestream one of our worship services to YouTube. I would consider using a platform like resi.io or BoxCast. I would start to talk to those online during our weekly worship services as the pastor/host, and as we approached 1,500 people, I would consider adding hosts who only speak to those joining us online. This requires a new ministry to help produce this experience and ensure it’s done well. We might explore churchonlineplatform.com once we are above 1,000 people, but try to keep everything on YouTube. The problem with YouTube is controlling the ads. You can’t always turn off monetization because of song rights. So, you could stream with resi.io and set up a page on churchonlineplatform.com to eliminate any ads popping up on our streams.
I would continue to use nucleus.church for a Digital Program experience and consider creating our own webpage on our website once we are close to 1,000 people. For example, it can have 4-5 buttons that link to message notes, a next step form, or anything related to the weekend worship service. You can create a page like this today on any website builder. See Saddleback.com/Program as an example, which is updated weekly.
Strengthening
I would continue the medium-sized church strategy but launch large online small groups quarterly for those locally to quickly try out groups and encourage various discipleship programs/events to leverage Zoom throughout the year. Check out this training to learn how to launch online small groups at your church.
Social
Instagram, YouTube, and Texting would continue the medium-sized church strategy but create stand-alone volunteer teams to manage these tasks and cast a vision for these teams to increase engagement however possible considering the church’s vision/mission. I would be empowering leaders to take these areas to the next level.
Systems
If you picked the right system for medium-sized, then you can quickly scale with it at this size. Make a system change if the buy-in isn’t there with your staff/volunteers. A flawed CRM system is complex to switch, but structure/tools can often prevent growth. Make the change, if needed, to a better CRM.
For example, as you approach 2,500 people, you might need to explore a CRM like rockrms.com, but this isn’t needed till you get this size.
Giving is whatever still works best with my CRM.
The email platform needs to be expanded to key volunteer teams/departments so they can email people. Ideally, a good CRM has a built-in email client to manage those who need to be on lists and those who shouldn’t. It would be best to implement email protocols so our members don’t get too many emails. A similar thing is needed for our texting strategy as well.
The website continues to grow in scope at this size, but I may need to appoint a leader who can trim any excess fat. I’ve heard this accredited to Bill Gates and a few others, but someone said, whoever it was, “scale creates growth and growth requires effectiveness.” I would need to be efficient at this stage of growth. Some things may need to be removed from the website. For example, keep your homepage super simple and focused on a new attendee and move most of the member stuff to other pages or to my weekly email newsletter. Yes, I would still write a weekly email newsletter that comes from me, the pastor.
One reason churches add a mobile app as they approach 1,500 people is that the app can be super-targeted on member engagement and allow the website to be super-targeted towards new people. The idea being the website is being indexed by Google and most likely the first thing someone will find while exploring your church. An app requires someone to download it and really only members will want a church app on their phone.
I would expand the ad strategy not just to include Instagram but also to include YouTube ads.
I would highly lean away from getting a mobile app, but as I crossed the 1,500 people, I would consider using an app if my CRM provided one and it wasn’t too expensive. One cool feature an app could provide, if beyond 1,500 people, is mobile check-in for kids/students and events. I could still execute this without an app, but an app is a better experience.
Google Workspace for Nonprofits is still a great service for this size of church.
*The Alpha Omega Tool would be taught to all staff, and now, the staff would use the tool with their volunteer teams.