Introducing Altar Live to Your Community
Whether you've found our platform for the first time, or have been looking into it for a while, we know that introducing any new technology platform to your community is a change, and change needs to be managed. Here are steps that we have seen churches take to successfully introduce Altar Live to ministry leaders, decision-makers, and their general church population.
So you've created an account in Altar Live, tested out your first event, and now you want to get buy-in from leadership or fellow community members. Here are some tips on how you can best pitch Altar Live to your team.
Tip #1: Prepare a summary and invite your leadership to a demo
Now that you have tried Altar Live for yourself, it is time to introduce it to your leadership! To make it easy, here are some items to include as you craft your message.
Invite the leaders and decision-makers to another test event, similar to how you created the first event. Busy leaders will appreciate the effort that you and your team have put into the event.
Tip #2: Conduct a test event
Create an event and be sure to make yourself a host in the event so you can chat with them when they join and give them instructions. Send people the event link and instructions to join you for a test event.
Altar Live requires no more technical expertise than having watched a Facebook Live video or participated in a Zoom call. The learning curve is short and intuitive. Even so, communication is rarely 100% efficient, and some people in your church will not make the shift as quickly. It's important that no one is left behind.
Depending on your church’s size, you will want at least one week to prepare the congregation for the upcoming change.
Tip #1: Constant communication about the transition is key to making sure people can find you.
Tip #2: Consider a ramp-up period to transfer people from your other platforms into Altar Live. These measures may be necessary for a week or two to make sure the full congregation can receive the news and instructions on what to do.
Tip #3: Utilize the host team. Remember to have someone available in the chat on those platforms to inform the much smaller audience that your church has migrated to Altar Live, and share the link. If you have been using Zoom, continue to launch that Zoom meeting with someone if they are really struggling to use the platform.
Tip #4: Consider appointing “Tech Deacons” ahead of time to help individuals who may need assistance, particularly those for whom computing and connectivity are not easy everyday activities. They may have mastered Facebook or Zoom, but another change could feel disruptive and intimidating.
Tip #5: Contact the Altar Live team to help run a training session! We're happy to do a training event with your entire team, or members of your congregation, to get everyone up to speed and answer questions.
After you and the leadership team have tried out the platform, the next step is to try it out with a broader community. The best way to introduce a new experience and get your team acquainted with the platform is to host a Sunday or mid-week event.
Mid-week event: Instead of launching the platform for your first week, run a mid-week event. Invite your members to join to encourage engagement.
First Sunday event: Introduce the platform on a Sunday and invite a subset of reliable members of the congregation to use Altar Live in parallel with your current livestream or Zoom implementation.
Running a trial event will give decision-makers and your team a degree of comfort in how Altar Live works. It will also give a subset of your church members a chance to experience it, and build momentum and positive word-of-mouth to help ensure successful adoption.
You are all set to go now. All that is left is to gather and engage!
One last step -- we would love to hear from you about your experience and how your church is adapting to it. Share your stories at contact@altarlive.com.
There will always be questions! Here are some of the questions we often hear from leaders and churchgoers as they encounter Altar Live for the first time. Don’t feel you need to become an expert. You can share and refer to this FAQ as needed.
Want to learn more? Check out: 2021 Church Word of the Year: Multi-Modal. It discusses the many "modes" churches have and are making work for them.
Learn how to set up your community, create events and meetings, and other admin features.
Learn how to set up your community, create events and meetings, and other admin features.
Learn how to set up your community, create events and meetings, and other admin features.
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