Feedback: I highly recommend that you go back through and ensure that there are no

claims made. I noticed a lot of statements that claim the study has already been done and

successfully showed that you already know how the research has gone prior to even doing

the research.

Introduction

The church ministry has evolved, including shifting from temple worship to tent revivals.

The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic further added to the evolution by bringing in technology

that many churches had not yet integrated into their church services, thus adding a new

dimension to how worshippers come together to experience worship services. Before the

COVID-19 outbreak, live streaming of church services was only an option for the followers, but

at the onset of the pandemic, live streaming became mandatory to contain the spread of the virus.

Platforms such as YouTube Live, Periscope, Google, Facebook live and other third parties have

stepped in to help facilitate the religious sermons (Pakpahan et al., 2022). However, technology

has brought positive and negative outcomes following the sudden increase in online services,

which have been added to the already existing long list of activities that churches offer their

members.

The positive side of the technology in churches is that many small churches are gaining

recognition on these social platforms and receiving hundreds and thousands of watch hours,

which means that their services can reach a wider congregation. However, the dark side of this

new evolution is that the volume of financial support has plummeted drastically, a common

sentiment among many churches regardless of their size. A national survey performed on

evangelical churches disclosed that 65% of church organizations had witnessed a decrease in the

willingness of the worshippers to give. This comes even as many churches report that online

Commented [JY1]: I would change this to determined

viewership has intensified, almost double of their physical attendance. Some people report

watching online church services out of curiosity, and others are out to search for answers

(Chandler et al., 2021). Regardless of the viewers' goal when attending online church services,

the increase in the number of viewers is only an indication that the church will now be

accountable for a larger audience and not supplement their financial support.

Live streaming of church services has dramatically affected the persuasive techniques of

church leaders who have been accustomed to seeking to diversify their offerings and tithes as

they must now strive for online communities to support the church. This includes engaging the

communities in non-profit activities and perceiving their church staff's needs through the

ministry as they can no longer achieve this goal. This change marks a critical reality where

regardless of the church's goal of diversifying its revenue sources, it must understand that not

every follower is willing to give resources to a church. Still, they are eager to donate to a cause

with which the church is associated (Parish, 2020). Another observation of the church during the

pandemic is that the online community proliferates. This means that their expectations towards

churches must meet, thus attracting new issues that churches must address, or they shift to the

ones that are meeting their expectations. Also, adopting technology into the church services is

mandatory, increasing uncertainty, thus attracting fear even if technology is helping churches to

express their messages in new ways and attracting new audiences.

Research discloses that although some religious communities have successfully managed

the techniques of holding a church service online for some time now, many of the organizations

only made their appearances on online platforms because of the pandemic and wanted to join the

trend at that time. For this group of churches, there were diverse problems that they had to

overcome, including the challenges of finding the right equipment and skills to host the services

on the online platforms successfully. However, some churches are happy to have tried

technology in their services. Many identify that it has provided them with learning opportunities

to make connections that will help build relationships with their followers beyond what they

could do in the physical setting (Darmawan, 2021). Also, technology enabled them to replicate

the engagement that the church experienced when they held physical meetings.

The religious communities that have incorporated flexibility and are willing to make

innovations during the post-pandemic will be in a better position to foster resilience that will

benefit them for the long term. By being flexible, scholars identify that religious community

members will be able to make preparations for future changes; thus, they encourage an increase

in spiritual creativity to help them survive when a similar epidemic prevails. Similarly, the

willingness to test different technologies and strategies using other techniques will help the

church adapt.

Statement of the Problem

The problem addressed in this study relates to the challenges experienced by the churches

while integrating technology in their service delivery to sustain the standard practices that will

help them cope with new changes that will arise during the post-pandemic. Due to government

restrictions implemented during the pandemic, organizations that used to gather the public were

forced to look for alternative ways to hold their conferences without their members meeting face

to face to contain the COVID-19 virus. However, many organizations, especially the church

ministry, were unanticipated of these changes, which saw many struggles to meet the standards

required to hold an online convention (Pakpahan et al., 2022). There were various reasons why

many churches faced the transition problems leaving many of the churches depending on the

hope that everything would cool down and people go about with their normal religious practices.

Commented [JY2]: The problem statement here should be addressed as a question. When you make a statement about what the problem is it tells the reader there is no reason to read on because you are telling them what the problem is. you want to phrase this like it may or may not be an issue and the research will determine if the issue is really a problem or not.

The first challenge limiting churches from experiencing a smooth transition to holding online

conventions is that the transition required them to procure new skills such as video recorders,

equipment such as cameras, and a social platform where they could air the service for their

followers.

Although virtual services cannot fully supplement the importance of tangible interactions

within the physical church environment, there is still high potential for the churches to deliver its

benefits to families and households. To navigate the costs associated with the technicalities

required to deliver the church service online, the church must look for the needed resources, such

as technical skills, to produce and hold virtual meetings among members (Fussell, 2020). This

will include looking for professionals who are already members of the church. This would enable

them to cut down on the costs of outsourcing these skills in the long term. The churches should

encourage the church members to use inexpensive technology, such as messages to inform the

members who cannot access technology about the events in the church. Also, members need to

be encouraged to embrace the new changes for the better, as it will enable the church to maintain

stability if other disruptions happen, requiring people to hold services virtually. Implementing

these solutions will enable the members to grow strong together, ensuring that they care and look

after each other to solve problems in their lives as they would in a physical gathering.

Although the pandemic appears to send the stability of the church to the ground by

imposing a wide variety of challenges, using internal resources within the church, such as

professionals, to facilitate the virtual services is ideal for cutting down costs and gaining long-

term sustainability.

Purpose of the Study

Commented [JY3]: This is not a paragraph. Be sure to move it to the paragraph above.

The study will use a qualitative research design to analyze the issue. The research data

will be gathered through email, surveys, and interviews with participants from 50 different

churches. The selection of respondents will be done rapidly, and the process will be completely

voluntary. The research will target church leaders as they have been on the receiving end of

COVID-19 restrictions, which mandated the closure of churches to allow the public members to

practice social distancing to contain the spread. This move attracted a wide range of challenges

for church leaders, especially in delivering their services to followers. As a last resort, the church

leaders were forced to use technology to achieve this goal which makes them a suitable target

population as technology affected their operations to a great extent. The study will use

independent and dependent variables where the church ministries will be the dependent variable

while technology influence will be used as the independent variable.

The study outcomes will majorly influence the educational theory in that it will provide

substantial evidence of technology's impacts on the church ministries during the pandemic.

These impacts will play a major role in determining how the church ministries will input

measures to cope with the new norm during the post-pandemic era. Also, the outcomes will

provide insights into strategies that the church ministries can reinforce to experience sustainable

growth in the future by establishing a buffer that they can rely on in case such events reoccur.

Lastly, the study outcomes will provide directions for future research to ensure that the issue is

tackled extensively.

Theoretical/Conceptual Framework

On the contrary, Jones (2020) argues that churches should refrain from relying on

technology as a primary tool for acquiring new church members. Instead, they should take

advantage of the connective abilities for the church assist in deepening its roots in faith and grow

successfully. the author explores a wide variety of problems available on the social media

platforms to which he identifies that a platform such as Facebook is an ideal platform that has

unique features that allow users to control multi-dimensional interaction, other researchers like

(Campbell, 2020) step in to diversify knowledge on this area by offering valuable tips for

staffing, resourcing any scientific book from the library and leadership attribute to help everyone

to keep moving.

McCants (2021) further adds to the vision by Jones (2020) by identifying that the church

needs to restructure itself to become an adaptive ministry by increasing its flexibility which will

enable it to transform as the world continues to transform in the face of technological

advancements. The church ministry should draw lessons from the pandemic which saw the

establishment of the digital pulpit and change in follower perception about physical gatherings

for a substantial amount of time. For this reason, he emphasizes that churches should focus on

making their church systems multifaceted because it will enable them to change seamlessly into

digital services which comprise of emailing, texting, video conferencing, and live streaming. The

church can realize their success in this goal by ensuring that the church has a ready set of skills

to help it meet the necessary digital skills to remain competitive without burning out their

resources. Afolaranmi (2020) stresses on the need for the church ministries to refocus on

integrating transformational fellowships. The author recognizes that during the pandemic, the

physical church services turned into Sunday livestreaming services, weekly minor group

meetings, daily devotional livestream services and production of electronic letter which was

produced on a weekly basis. throughout these sessions, there was increase in collaboration

among church leaders as they had to work together to develop programs that will help them in

personalizing the church services to replicate the physical church setting and service through

Commented [JY4]: Is it really a vision? It is more of a idea or thought process.

online platforms (Edington, 2021). The outcomes of the collaboration were increased spiritual

growth among the church members while the leaders were able to hone their creative techniques

which made their services captivating and retain its church member population.

Panzer (2020) on the other hand writes from the perspective of a leadership development

professional and a seminary graduate who carried his studies in the presence of technology. The

author upholds that modern churches must learn the different strategies to help them to interact

deeply with the shared values within the current rapidly changing world. the reason for pursuing

this direction is because the digital era is playing a primary role in transforming the way people

learn, think, connect and beliefs and it is thus important for church leaders to adapt their

organization for the sake of the church’s sustainability. Jones (2020) realizes the urgency of the

issue and thus proceeds to the values of a digital culture that will facilitate active engagement by

allowing people to connect as whole and continue to collaborate for the purpose of learning and

becoming more spiritually strong and empower partnerships with church leaders. This is

important because the church leaders will be able to learn their weaknesses and improve on them

to become more efficient. In the digital era, the most powerful and effective strategy to empower

churches even during the post pandemic era as there are diverse cultures and each one of them is

willing to contribute researching the different ways (Davis, 2021). This underlines the need for

the church to align its ministries with the cultures that are assuring to integrate transformational

leadership.

Research Questions

This paper will answer five key research questions related to the role of technology in

church ministry during and after the pandemic.

Commented [JY5]: Needs to be capitalized

Commented [JY6]: This sentence needs to be restructured as it is more of runon sentence and need to be broken up.

Commented [JY7]: This needs a comma

Commented [JY8]: Add a comma here

Commented [JY9]: Keep in mind that the research questions are to answer whether or not there is a problem or Technology gap that you are looking to solve or find solutions for. These questions lead on to the fact that you already know the answer you are looking for and are just wanting confirmation

Commented [JY10]: You want to change this to research.

RQ1: How did technology seal the gap in terms of physical relationships between church

members during the pandemic?

RQ2: What are the impacts and effectiveness of technology in church ministry?

RQ3: Who comprises the participants for changing technology in church ministries?

RQ4: Where was the investigation conducted to ensure that the technology meets the

need of church ministry?

RQ5: What will be the future of churches with the help of technology during the post-

pandemic era?

Nature of the Study (Method and Design)

The qualitative research design will be used to collect data from participants from 50

different churches. The data will be gathered through email, surveys, and interviews.

Additionally, the study will use focus groups to gather more in-depth information from a smaller

number of participants.

The qualitative research design is appropriate to respond to the stated problem of

understanding the role of technology in church ministry after the pandemic. The purpose of the

study is to gain a deeper understanding of how technology affects churches and their ministry.

The research questions are relevant to this purpose and will be answered through the data

collected. Moreover, the qualitative research design is able to capture the unique experiences and

perspectives of participants.

The proposed method and design will allow for a deep understanding of how technology

affects churches and their ministry. The data will be gathered from a variety of sources,

including email, surveys, and interviews. This allows for a broad range of perspectives to be

captured. Additionally, the focus groups will allow for an in-depth analysis of the data. This will

provide a more comprehensive understanding of how technology affects churches. Moreover, the

qualitative research design allows for a unique understanding of how technology affects churches

and their ministry. The dependent variable for the study will be church attendance. This will be

measured using surveys and interviews. The survey will ask questions about how technology

affects attendance, while the interview will ask participants to share their own experiences with

technology and church ministry. The independent variables for the study will be technology

usage and church doctrine. This will be measured using surveys and interviews. The surveys will

ask questions about how technology usage affects attendance, while the interviews will ask

participants to share their own experiences with technology and church ministry. Moreover, the

study will also measure the effect of church doctrine on technology usage and attendance. The

pandemic will be a factor in the study. It will be measured using surveys and interviews. The

surveys will ask questions about how the pandemic affects attendance, while the interviews will

ask participants to share their own experiences with technology and church ministry.

The qualitative research design will be supported by surveys, interviews, and focus

groups. As a result, the data will be gathered from a variety of sources. This will allow for a

broad range of perspectives to be captured. Furthermore, the data will be analyzed to answer the

research questions.

The proposed study will use a qualitative research design. This will involve collecting

data from participants from 50 different churches. The data will be collected via surveys,

interviews, and use of mails. Additionally, the study will use focus groups to gather more in-

depth information from a smaller number of participants. The sample size will be 100. Moreover,

the study will be appropriate and justified based on the nature of the study design. Finally, the

data will be analyzed using exploratory and descriptive methods. Results from the analysis will

Commented [JY11]: What does church Technology and doctrine combined show or allow you to determine?

Commented [JY12]: This is a bit repetitive as it was stated above.

Commented [JY13]: This was essentially stated above.

be used to further understand how technology affects churches and their ministry. To achieve

validity, the study will be conducted in a cross-cultural context. This will allow for a broader

understanding of the effects of technology on churches (Hennink et al., 2020).

Significance of the Study

With COVID-19 onset, many church organizations both local and international were

forced to embrace new techniques of digital writing, discipleship and reflection on the role that

technology will continue to play in influencing these organizations. Although technology is not a

new strategy in the church sector, the pandemic pushed leaders to think creatively on how they

can integrate technology to retain connection with their followers in attempt to replicate the

church services as they were like before the pandemic. Various researchers have also emerged

and put efforts into brainstorming on the role that technology is playing in influencing the

activities of the church with some studies reflecting on how the situation was before COVID,

others reflect specifically on the lessons learned and others reflect on how churches used

technology to tailor services to their followers.

The study is important because it reflects the resource disparity in the church ministry

which prevailed during the pandemic which played a central role in limiting many churches to

respond to the emerging changes in the sector through technological advancement. For instance,

the study will explain how some churches were able to transition seamlessly to online as they

had the necessary resources while others got stuck an aspect that threatened their sustainability.

The study will also assess the lessons learned by church institutions regarding institutional and

leadership structure as these areas revealed numerous weaknesses that must be responded to.

This is helpful because the overall perception in this case is that COVID-19 could play a major

role in catalyzing the uncertainties regarding responses to the new pandemic results and thus the

Commented [JY14]: I feel like this is a repeat of things stated previously.

Commented [JY15]: It is a perceived depravity as this has not been determined yet by your study. The statement is implying you know this to be true and if that is so you should provide a source.

pandemic should be used as an express invitation for the church ministry to reimagine the world

since the old normal will not return.

The findings of this study will assist in enabling churches to continue technology

integration as it will place them in a sustainable position to leverage its commission by

welcoming the digital church presence. This study identifies that the only way the churches to

sustain themselves is by leveraging technology through software development and intensify

research efforts as a way of helping them to identify functional strategies they can use to market

themselves and gain follower interest. Also, the research on technology should expand on the

strategies that churches can take advantage of to be able leverage the technology to boost their

security, achieve outreach goals and data administration. The findings of the study support this

initiative by revealing that the church will be able to establish robust virtual architectures to

provide one-on one, many to many, one to many and many to one interactive goals.

Summary Add one or two paragraphs here for what we had done in this paper.

Commented [JY16]: At this point untill you do the study you can not claim this.

Commented [JY17]: Again making a claim here before the study begins.

Commented [JY18]: None of these can be claimed. The study has not been conducted.