The Front Door project is an ongoing experiment…exploring a variety of technology applications to help connect families to churches and help churches develop innovative ways of overcoming the barriers that impede families of kids with mental illness, trauma and developmental disabilities…barriers that prevent them from attending worship services and participating in all the activities offered by local churches to promote spiritual growth.
One experiment that worked extraordinarily well was an online small group for families impacted by disability with the support of Dr. Lorna Bradley. We’re hoping to offer training for church leaders seeking to launch online, interactive small groups as part of their disability ministry outreach.
One experiment that didn’t go as well as we would’ve liked was offering sermons from different churches on an online platform. We heard that too many people were challenged by difficulties connecting to the platform. The vast majority of the folks who read this blog already have a church and didn’t sense a need to watch…or to invite others. We learned Facebook advertising doesn’t work all that well for targeting the one hour windows of time when we were hosting the services. We were consistently being outbid for disability-related keywords with our Google Grant (the amount of money we can bid for viewers to click on the site with a grant is capped). So…we’re trying something else.
Two of our online worship services offered through Community Bible Church (CBC) in San Antonio…our Sunday night service led by Barb Dittrich and our Monday night service led by Ann Holmes developed steady followings and meaningful online community. Thanks to the graciousness of our friends at CBC, we’ll be continuing services on their onlinechurch.com platform led by worship hosts with great training and experience in ministry to families impacted by disability at their regularly scheduled times.
Worship hosted by Barb Dittrich…every Sunday at 8:00 PM Eastern (7:00 PM Central)
Worship hosted by Ann Holmes…every Monday at 9:00 PM Eastern (8:00 PM Central)
In addition, we’d like to welcome families impacted by disability to LIVE worship experiences every Sunday hosted by the Online Church team with our team available to support them with any disability-related ministry needs that arise. Live services will be available every Sunday at…
11:00 AM Eastern (10:00 AM Central)
12:30 PM Eastern (11:30 AM Central)
2:00 PM Eastern (1:00 PM Central)
Bay Presbyterian Church in Bay Village, Ohio live streams a weekly worship service at 11:00 AM Eastern on Sundays. During most Sundays, a worship host/facilitator associated with the church’s disability ministry is present. Join at baypres.tv.