Emails with FAQ’s and embedded videos from the pastor can be sent to every church member. Aerial photos and videos taken by a drone are used to show the facility to the lead congregation so they could visualize the church building and see it in context of its neighborhood. Church merger consultation can occur through Zoom calls and shared screens. There were even virtual town hall meetings during COVID to answer people’s questions, and the opportunity to vote electronically for the merger.
Faster:
Prior to the digital age, church mergers were slower, more tedious and less common. Why? They took too much time to determine compatibility, and time is the greatest killer of a church merger. Taking too much time to make a merger decision gives more opportunity for it to unravel or be sabotaged. Given too much time, momentum can decline and people can talk themselves out of a good decision. They can come up with dozens of reasons not to merge and undo the compelling reasons to merge. But the ability to get to know who a church is online accelerates the merger courtship.
In preparation of our recently released expanded and updated edition of Better Together: Making Church Mergers Work, Warren Bird and I surveyed nearly 1,000 churches. The survey revealed that the average length of a church merger, from the initial conversation to the final approval, is eight months. Eight months is more than enough time to determine if a merger is possible, feasible and desirable.
Further Distances:
Some multisite churches are seeing mergers as a way to extend their reach beyond local and regional impact. Christ Fellowship in Miami, where I serve as the chief of staff, is a multisite church with 17 campuses regionally and globally. Two of our seven regional congregations and four of our global congregations in our network came about through a merger. The ability of global congregations to experience Christ Fellowship online across the Caribbean and South America and in Spanish was a factor in those mergers becoming a part of the Christ Fellowship family of churches. In addition, Christ Fellowship services online allowed our global campuses to sustain through the COVID shutdown.
The digital age has made church mergers easier, faster and more accessible for churches that are further geographical distances from each other.
Is there a church merger in your future? It may be just one click away.
