“How do I have a collection for online and physical services simultaneously?”

Physical services resuming created a brand new challenge all of its own. How to recreate the same service and experience for those in the building and those watching online? We always see a dip in how much is given during the summer holidays, but we were surprised with the trend after the summer. We did extensive research by watching dozens of online services. We realised that it didn’t have anything to do with the holidays being over, but with churches attempting to combine both physical services and online streaming.

A lot of churches have struggled to create a parity of experience for those watching online and those in the physical building, dropping elements of the service that were deemed incompatible between online and physical. The giving moment was one of these. Some churches briefly mentioned a giving moment, some dropped it altogether and some even had the moment but forgot to tell people that it is giving time! The outcome of this approach was an unsatisfactory experience for both online and physical attendees and ultimately a reduction in both the willingness and opportunity to give to support the church. We’ve analysed a very clear link between a decrease in collections and the lack of clarity around the announcement of the giving moment.

We understand that it can be confusing with constantly changing requirements and the need to be creative in finding new ways for being church during a pandemic. Thinking of new ways to have meaningful church services and not lose the commitment of the congregation is challenging. The collection and how it is incorporated is one of these challenges. It might seem far too complex a problem, especially when it needs to appeal to people physically in the building, but also people watching at home. 

We have the expertise and knowledge, not limited to one congregation, to help every church using Givt overcome this challenge. We believe in collaboration, and with it, we can achieve the best outcome for everyone. We acknowledge the greater support required by church leaders to get giving working in a way that is appreciated by the congregation and effective for maintaining the important work of the church. During the pandemic, we’ve developed specific promotional videos to show during the service and ways to give that fit both physical attendance and online attendance at the same time. We’ve developed an exciting new resource that will inspire and energise your creativity over eight sessions. The Four Week Guidance programme is packed with practical ideas and our expert analysis, we will solve these issues together. When you restart the physical services, everyone deserves the opportunity to give, you will still have people at home watching, DON’T FORGET ABOUT THEM!