Like many church communities, the Rev Becky Dyball and her team in the Benefice of All Saints Sawtry, St. Nicholas Glatton, St. Giles Holme with Conington found during lockdown that they needed to take action to help them continue to reach their worshipping community.
One of the most effective ways to do this is through (digital) social media, but like many churches a few things needed to be put in place by the team to support and develop this work.
Getting connected
One of the first problems that came to light was connectivity. A lot of our rural churches don’t have WIFI and on top of that have pretty bad mobile phone signal. What the team did was to look at mobile hubs that could provide wifi for portable devices.
Becky explained: “We started researching which mobile network had the best signal in the area and then hunting for the best deal we could find. We went with Three and pay £19 a month for unlimited data and now run all our zoom services and activities with it”.
You can find out more about getting your church connect on the Diocesan website here.
Helping to pay for the new kit
It’s all very well suggesting expensive camera’s and projectors and sound systems, but many churches simply don’t have the financial resources to support this, certainly not immediately, and so what can you do to help save?
Becky explains one of the things they did: “We have made great use of the Diocese of Ely JustGiving page. (click here). We set up a fundraising page using the site and share the link in our service and our website. At the start we decided to raise funds for the purpose of resourcing our online ministry. We had no resources other than a website.
We have raised over £1,000 through JustGiving and combined with some reallocated budget have purchased all the items needed to have a 'mobile' streaming kit. Meaning each church in our rural benefice can live stream a service if needed.”
In addition to the JustGiving option, there are a number of fantastic resources available including contact giving options and the Parish Giving Scheme to help your church bring in a reliable income, you can find a wealth of information to support you on the Diocesan website here.
What technology have the team invested in?
Becky explains; “We now record our services for 'listen again', have dial-a-sermon for those wanting to access services on their phone and with a small team we looked at the kit we would need to sustain this ministry and enable a dial in person (off line) and at home (online) church service simultaneously. [Our proposal] including costings that was unanimously approved by our PCCs, can be viewed by clicking here”.