Rebooting.Church

By Franklin Davis

HOW TO REACH MORE UN-CHURCHED AND UNDER-CHURCHED SEEKERS AND GROW YOUR CHURCH IN A 21ST-CENTURY DIGITAL WORLD.

 

When "Rebooting.Church" (rebooting-dot-church) was first written, there was nothing about "COVID-19" in the news. The world, and our country, were blissfully unaware of how fast life as we knew it would soon change and how different our world would become in just a few short months. We just could not have imagined that the world would hang up a "Closed for Business" sign and go home and that everyone would become susceptible to a deadly new virus strain that would completely alter our day-to-day lives, including how we gather to worship God. Who would have believed that almost all churches worldwide would cancel their weekly services and activities and essentially close their doors to a world in crisis, all in the space of just a couple of months? No one – that's who! If there is one thing Clergy, Laity and all concerned Christians should all be able to agree on, it is that our churches must change, and change fast, if they are to survive and maintain their ability to continue to minister to an extremely anxious world that needs God and His Church now more than ever.

 

One positive result of the COVID-19 pandemic was that it accelerated the move toward "Digital-Church" and "Church-Everywhere." While one of the worst plagues the world has ever had to face, the pandemic caused every church to learn how to use and implement on-demand technologies like Zoom web conferencing and You-Tube videos to keep their "virtual doors" open. The pandemic did more to advance churches' digital-transformation in a single year than they would have done on their own in ten years. The result is that our churches are stronger and more capable of serving our 21st-Century Digital World. But Zoom and YouTube are only the beginning of true Digital-Transformation for churches. Mindsets must change, and technology must become an integral component in church planning and activities.

 

Other issues, including the "Graying of Church," lower attendance, and reduced giving, are just a few of the issues that all church's face and overcome in this new digital age. The world has changed at an exponential pace that many organizations, including our churches, find difficult to comprehend, much less keep pace with. The Internet, Social-Media, Mobile Computing, Virtual-Reality, and AI (Artificial Intelligence) are just a few of the technological innovations that are transforming the very fabric of our lives and communities. Organizations that can't keep up with these changes stand little chance of success in their missions in the 21st-Century, regardless of whether that mission is making money or saving souls.

 

Rebooting.Church is a valuable resource for Church-Leaders (Clergy, Staff, Laity, Teachers, and all concerned Christians) that explains the major transformational forces at work that are critical for all churches and Church-Leaders to understand. Written in layman's terms, Rebooting.Church offers a positive, optimistic, and comprehensive overview of the technologies, processes, and steps each church must make if they are to survive and thrive in this new Christian Epoch of "Digital-Church." Rebooting.Church will help you discover the issues, information, strategies, and solutions required to "future-proof" your church and make it more relevant to more people and learn how to attract, engage and retain the "Digital-Natives" of the Millennial and later generations that will help your church not only survive but thrive!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Walter Franklin Davis
• Release date: Feb 10, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393182023

Franklin Davis

Hi! My name is Walter Franklin Davis but my friends know me as “Frank” or “Franklin.” This book and others in the Rebooting.Church series of “Digital-Church Technology Guides”, represents my personal ministry and mission to help contribute to the future success of all churches and of the Christian faith. Over 50 years in small business management, with over 30 of those years working in the software development and IT industry, have given me insights into how much more effective churches could be if they adopted the entrepreneurial perspectives, principles, products, and methodologies commonly developed and used in the technology industry. I realized they would allow churches to become more effective and efficient in accomplishing their mission of helping the world become more Christlike. Those insights ultimately resulted in me writing the book “REBOOTING.CHURCH” and it became my mission to help churches become more relative to more people, and in particular the un-churched and under-churched among us, and by doing so help reverse the decades-long decline in church attendance. This book is primarily written for Church-Leaders, including Clergy, Staff, Laity, Teachers and other concerned Christians who realize that “Church” as they know it, will need to change and transform itself in order to keep pace in this new and fast-changing digital age in order to become more relevant to  new generations of “Digital-Natives” who don’t necessarily “get” church. There’s no doubt in my mind that 21st-century technology and culture will either present an existential crisis for the church or an unprecedented opportunity to share God’s love with an increasingly darker world that so badly needs it. The final outcome is entirely up to each church’s leadership and members. My prayer is that this book will begin a conversation in your church to help you better understand the issues, problems, and potential solutions awaiting adoption and action, that will be required in fulfilling The Great Commission in the 21st-century.  May God give each of us the insight, creativity, wisdom, boldness, and motivation to transform and ensure His church’s success in this new Christian Epoch of “Digital-Church.” Walter Franklin Davis, Author