St Edmunds Whalley Range and St James Moss Side have been awarded a Church for a Different World digital award for their work in developing a Tech Team to run their social media channels and deliver livestreams of services. They have worked hard to train and equip younger members of the congregation to lead on this work and have also offered training to other churches.
Sanket Jadhav, the Tech Team leader at St James, explained how they have involved young people from all four of their congregations in their digital work and given them responsibility to manage their various online channels.
“The pandemic led us to make Sunday services and fellowship accessible to our church families at home. We uploaded pre-recorded videos made by the Rector, Curates, and church members on our YouTube channel. Our first video was ‘Thank You NHS’ on 8 July 2020 and our first livestream of Church Service was on 12 July 2020.”
After the lockdowns, as the church was allowed to meet together, the churches started running livestreams of their services. Both Sanket from St James and Charles from St Edmunds were self-taught and learnt how this was could be done in the best possible way. They used their own equipment including the camera, stands, and other devices. The livestream is now shared between the two churches and every Sunday a LIVE service is available for people to join in.
Sanket wanted to ensure that the livestream was sustainable so he created a Tech Team which takes turns in managing the livestream. This has involved training the young people at St James to use the technology and trouble shoot.
Sanket sad, “We have tried to engage the younger members of the congregation and reach out to more people by creating a Digital Media Team which now handles the Social Media platforms - St Eds Facebook St James' Facebook Twitter YouTube website. All four congregations (St Edmunds English, St James English, St Edmunds Urdu (Grace Community), St James Marathi) share their updates and a team of young members create the posts that go on the social media platforms about twice a week on average. This initiative was started in March 2022 and has seen a good response.
“We are also taking efforts on the church’s website, making it more interactive and informative, updating it regularly.
“Our future plans for a Digital Church include making our online community more interactive and engaging not only through social media but also during our livestreams. We also run online Bible studies for people to join from anywhere. We are therefore building a strong digital audience and making church a more accessible place for all to come and experience the love of Jesus.”