Ministries And Churches Scramble To Adapt to On-Line Life

By Aysha Kahn - Posted at Ministry Watch:

As in-person worship services and religious gatherings have been shut down around much of the country, faith leaders have been left scrambling to shift all their worship services, fundraising, administrative work and community announcements to digital platforms.

More than a few have been calling interfaith activist and digital media consultant Amanda Quraishi. 

“I feel really validated by this, because for years I’ve been preaching about how to use these spaces productively to build communities,” said Quraishi. “So I’ve been happy to see these different ‘real world’ communities looking for ways  to make the same kinds of engagements happen online.”

But because so few organizations had these digital platforms established already, the past few weeks have been “a frantic, wild ad hoc experience” for religious leaders experimenting with tools and techniques, Quraishi said.

That’s certainly helped boost business for companies offering videoconferencing and streaming, such as Zoom, Facebook and Microsoft.

But the pandemic has also left digital strategists like Quraishi dealing with an unending stream of questions and consultations, and technology companies that provide church management software fielding a staggering upswing of usage and interest.

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