By doing much of its work off-site and online, the Multichannel Church challenges a longheld assumption, namely, the necessity of being together on Sunday.

Most off-site ministry will be incarnational: meeting in members’ homes, studying in coffee shops, holding prayer sessions before work, working together on mission teams.

Initially, many of these off-site members will be Sunday regulars seeking more. As time goes on, many will encounter your church entirely through off-site ministries. They might attend a Bible study group every week but never show up on Sunday. Yet they will consider themselves as belonging to your faith community.

Online engagement will take many forms:
» Sunday regulars wanting to hear a sermon one more time or wanting to stay connected while traveling
» Occasional Sunday worshipers wanting news or inspiration or volunteer options without needing to come on Sunday
» Neighbors who hear the “buzz” about your church and want to explore, but not make a Sunday commitment
» People who live far away but realize you are offering something special, which they can access on your Web site
» Visitors who come to town for holidays or family events and want to consider you their “church home” while in town.

In both off-site and online ministries, you will be serving people whom you rarely, and sometimes never, see in person. This can be a difficult adjustment for leaders and members for whom “pressing the flesh” on Sunday has been critical.

How do you take seriously people whom you know only by name or by e-mail address? How can you imagine their needs? How can you engage them in church life without badgering them to come on Sunday?

“Market fragmentation” is a fact of life for most enterprises. But it will be a new phenomenon for many churches. It will require new tools, new ways of measuring contacts and discerning needs, new approaches to speaking and listening.

Other enterprises have made this shift. We can, too!

TOM EHRICH is a writer, church consultant, and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the author of “Just Wondering, Jesus,” and the founder of the Church Wellness Project (churchwellness. com). His Web site is (morningwalkmedia.com.)

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