Many of the digital strategies that I am aware of are centered around the content. There are many articles and videos that are very much used, but they don’t get very much interaction. Even when there is interaction, it happens usually with the creators of the content but not between the people of the community.
One of my key conclusions of the past year is that content is not key. Community is key. This doesn’t mean that content does not have a place. The contrary is true. But good content is like a campfire that invites people to gather and converse. And that is a shift in how we think of content in our community formation endeavor. Because a piece of content that invites people to the campfire might not be about information. It is about igniting conversation in the community.
So the first thing we need to address as dGCM is the kind of content we are creating. Are we creating content to preach to our audiences or are we creating content that instills people to talk to one another?
What are some of the elements that create community?
We wanted to share one example that was done well by our recent partnership in Burundi Africa. We shared briefly about that in our last #digiFriday. Emile Manirambona, with whom we have worked closely for the digital Amazing Question this past February, shares these stats:
In a matter of a week they:
-started 3151 new conversations
-305 out of them were full Gospel presentations
-133 people received Jesus as their Lord and Savior
This campaign would be quite encouraging with just these first statistics, but they would be incomplete without the focus we have had to integrate into the strategy an invitation for seekers, new believers, and those who are interested to join an online group.
In Burundi, they were able in a week to start
-8 new groups on Whatsapp and
-2 groups on Messenger
We asked Emile what elements of the group activity new people liked most, and he said: Prayer. We have noticed that prayer creates community. I can not count how many groups have been started related to prayer for Ukraine.
When asked about the running of these groups, Emile would mention several key principles, but I wanted to highlight a few of them:
1) Depend on the Holy Spirit
2) Caring for each other. They spend time hearing one another (as in a campfire) and it means a lot to them when they hear Christians praying for their needs.
3) Sharing the Gospel and follow-up comes naturally through the channels of care.
When it comes to dGCM focus, content doesn’t mean much outside of the community. Content is not the key. Community is the key. So here is the challenge for us: It is not creating amazing videos or articles. It is about getting people to talk to each other. Share the Gospel in pieces, let the community interact with it, and allow the Holy Spirit to do His work.
This was a paradigm shift for me a few years ago and changed the way we did online ministry. Is this a shift for you too? We would like to know your thoughts so please share them with us by replying to this email or by joining this newly created Facebook page for digital champions like you 🙂
