Church attendance has been on the decline and the stats are alarming. According to the Barna Group's research, 156 million U.S. residents are currently not engaged with a Christian church. To put it into perspective, if that number were to relate to population of a country, then it would be the 8th most populous country in the world.
It’s predicted that in 2015, more than 10,000 churches will close due to declining attendance. This trend holds true especially among Millenials: 80 percent of 14-33 year-olds find church unimportant in their lives. Further, nearly one third of the respondents find church boring (31%) and 8% say that church is ‘out of date’.
But there's good news as well. Two out of three unchurched Americans claim to be religious. It’s no surprise then that, with the Gen-Xers and Boomers spending most of their time consuming content online and on-the-go, the Internet offers a huge potential for those who are looking to augment their religious experiences.
Most pastors agree that the new technologies can offer a complimentary channel to the physical church attendance and other community activities.
Why should churches use pay-per-view to corral the Millenials?
1. It reaches people where they are. In a busy world, pay-per-view technology supports those whose commitments don’t allow for a regular offline involvement. Further, it respects the way Millennials consume content nowadays: more than 75 percent of Internet-connected adults now use both mobile and desktop, up from 68 percent a year ago. The religious content is no different - it also must be available on any device and on-the-go.
2. It helps you continue to attract your mobile congregation: If you support your paid or free PPV service with VOD and subscription mentoring, you can easily expand beyond the regular weekly service. And there are no limitations as you expand. You only need to stay creative while recognizing and caring for the needs of your Millennial community.
Shekinah Church offers regular PPV events with the option of a replay. They also created an online TV channel with appealing programming to support their community.
3. It guarantees more intimate experiences while making room for more meaningful relationships. As Christian Smith, a sociology professor at the University of Notre Dame’s Center for the Study of Religion and Society, said
Religion is gradually becoming more personal, private, subjective in practice,” and “less public, institutional and shared.
Pay-per-view helps you cover this need to the full extent. And it certainly doesn't mean that you have to give up the social media approach and the notion of 'belonging'. Instead, you can simply support the PPV through backdoor social media links on your website (while also providing minimal additional training to bring them up to speed) so they can join at their convenience. If you offer pay-per-view with Cleeng, your members will be presented with a non-obligatory live Twitter chat option so they can jump into the community chatter whenever they’re inspired.
4. It helps you stay profitable. You can easily collect donations to support your community and any social causes you're involved in. If you go for Cleeng Live, we'll guarantee the lowest fees on the market and also the shortest time to set up your PPV so you can start streaming right away (in under 2 minutes!).
5. It helps you expand beyond the physical borders: If your local community decreases in size, you can try leveraging the mentoring opportunities to other parts of the country or even the world!
Throughout the past 2 years, we’ve helped major church congregations worldwide stay connected online to their communities.
Let our experience help you thrive!
