How the Digital World is Changing the Church

What are the current goals of Holy Sepulchre?

When I was asked to come to Holy Sepulchre, it was an initial period of three months. At the time, the church was open one day a week, had a single-digit congregation and had no money for improvements after nearly 20 years of inadequate building investment. I don't think I had ever been in a secular or sacred organisation that seemed to have so many challenges, but I also had the most incredible feeling that this was a church that knew what it needed to be, and we just needed to join in with God's plan for it. What was also an encouragement was that, despite the challenges, there was so much scope for growing relationships in every area that I looked at, and when I spoke to various groups, I also found significant enthusiasm to get more involved. That was fascinating to me. As a result, I was asked to stay, and I have now been here for almost six years.

These multiple, distinctive but not discrete groups are what we call our four missional personas:  

1. We are a parish church that should be open seven days a week and be an active part of the local community with regular and occasional services, engaging with and supporting the physical, social and spiritual needs of all in our community, including visitors and tourists, through the careful utilisation of the indoor and outdoor spaces in our benefice. 
2. We are a City church that should welcome people and join in with issues that people in the City are facing, by being a place of sanctuary and advocacy for City workers, with regular mid-week services, groups and activities, where their spiritual and wellbeing needs are met, where organisations come to celebrate and commemorate together, and join with others and contribute to the common good beyond the boundaries of our benefice.  
3. We are the home of the Royal Fusiliers Chapel and should play a key part in the Fusilier community, with occasional services and events, offering Fusiliers and their families a place to commemorate and gather, and be a place of learning for all to remember and act on the debt we owe the Fusiliers and all military personnel. 
4. We are the National Musicians' Church and home of the Musicians' Memorial Chapel, and in that role, we should be an exemplar of church music, a place to celebrate and support all musicians in all seasons of life, be a place that's a bold voice for equality, diversity, and inclusivity in music from composition to performance, congregations and audiences. We should be a place that can celebrate the best of the best as well as other stages of musical careers, using music to equip, heal and bring people together. 

Those four personas have driven a lot of what we do and what we are trying to do at Holy Sepulchre, and we aim to deliver them through a range of activities. These activities are grouped using the acronym WHEATS, setting out what we do:

• W - Worship, spirituality and prayer  
• H - Hospitality, wellbeing and compassion  
• E - Education, evangelism and discipleshipm  
• A - Art, music, heritage and creativity 
• T - Tourism, visitors and pilgrims  
• S - Stewardship of the building, monuments and green space 

With that context, we've gone from being open one day a week to six days a week. If we include tourists and musicians, then we had approximately 30,000 people walk through our doors last year in different ways, and we hope we will continue to increase the welcome that we offer to all. We want everyone to experience the Christ-like welcome we aim to offer and see this church as a place of Creative Health, Wellbeing and Belonging where all are welcome and more. 

Which were the key areas you wanted to address with the Visitation Module?

There's a couple of things. Fundamentally, it had to be compliant in its own right; so just being an efficient digital way to share documents wasn't enough. The Archdeacons are well aware of the efforts in preparing for a Visitation, including all the printing of documents and the scale of effort it takes from them, too, so first we had to start with making sure it would meet their legal and evidential requirements for the Visitation. Once this was clear and a way to achieve this, second, we wanted to help all users feel confident and safe in its use and know that it's fit for purpose, for both users within the church (ours) and those from the team in the Archdeacons' office. Third, we want it to be a useful living tool that helps churches be compliant and be able to easily demonstrate that compliance. Finally, and perhaps personally very important given I am trying to balance my time as a self-supporting Rector with a secular job, I wanted to make best use of the Archdeacon's time. If they are offering a few days to each church for the Visitation, if I can reduce that time, I hoped that time combined with their experience could be directed towards helping us in the mission of the church  

What challenges was your church facing before implementing the Visitation module? 

There are several things. We had a large City church with a big mission but a small staff and a track record of some things that could have been done better.  

I think we need to create places where we can fail safely and learn, and I hope that's what we're creating now. To do that, you need a culture where people can be open, which requires robust preventive controls to help prevent failure and make clear the things you need to get right. When you have a safe failure, you have people who are prepared to try new opportunities, and when you have new opportunities, you can accelerate growth.

To achieve all of that, having things organised and well-communicated is extremely helpful. 

What specific services does the Visitation Module provide for your church?

It meant that very quickly on arrival, I knew the scale of work that was needed around compliance with church regulation and that the current state of analysis was one of the things I did on arrival. I used it to put a stake in the ground, giving us an assessment of where we were and the action we needed to put in place around the team as it grew. 

Were there other solutions you considered before choosing the Digital Church?

I wasn't aware of anything else that was delivering to the level that we needed. Obviously, there are solutions like Google Sheets and SharePoint, but we wanted a living, breathing, embedded compliance tool that meant more than the digital sharing of documents; we wanted the best church management software for the church. 

We were trying to enable ease of digital sharing and approval, but also something that's living and breathing. That's what we have started, but of course, there are more steps to go. The challenge with role compliance is that within the church, we're dealing with a whole range of areas of law - cannon law, employment law, health and safety law, etc., and trying to put all of that together in a way that makes it a little bit simpler to manage.  

This is where technology can help, and I wasn't aware of anything existing that could deliver what I felt was needed.  

What tangible benefits have you realised from using the Visitation Module for your church's activities?

I think the most notable benefits have been increased confidence, less time wasted, better conversations between key stakeholders, and the growth of individuals' capabilities in roles. I think tools like the digital church software contribute to enabling people to succeed rather than enabling them to fail.  

How did the Visitation Module map out the way forward for your church? 

We wanted to rebuild our relationship with our diocese and those within it. The Visitation Module has enabled us to start addressing that challenge, as it's enabled people to feel confident that we're doing the right thing in the areas that they/we feel are important. The confidence that we have some understanding of what's important, not just to us but to other key stakeholders, and delivering on that, as well as joining in with others, is fundamental.  

What specific aspects of the Visitation Module made it a suitable solution to resolve the challenges your church was facing?

I think it's because the tools were designed and built as living, breathing entities that are enablers of online churches in processes rather than a one-off repository. They’re meant to be part of the life and workings of a church.  

Could you share a specific example of the value the Visitation Module has brought to your church?

It enabled the team to put together a vision with absolute clarity on our status very quickly, which was helpful to all within the church and outside it to know the scale of the journey ahead. 

Beyond the current benefits, what other advantages do you anticipate in the future from using the Visitation Module?

We try as much as possible to maintain digital records for all our processes where possible, to minimise paperwork, and even have a missional priority to regularly review our processes to ensure they are efficient and effective. As such, I am keen to add in as many church processes that can or should be automated, to free up our time for our mission. It allows us time to be involved in relationships and to spend with people, not filling in forms. I think that has huge advantages for many in our churches. Knowing we have the best CMS for the church, and having a clear standard to build on will make building a team easier. I also think that the ability to spend more time on mission and ministry and making some of the compliance aspects easier has real potential for enabling a greater diversity of backgrounds to come into the church. 

If someone was considering implementing the Visitation Module for their church, what advice or insights would you offer?

Go for it! Talk to someone who's done it, but I don't believe there's anything to be lost, and there's plenty to gain. Also, having just gone through a “digital” Visitation for a second time, it had a real feeling of continuous compliance, of collaboration and whilst there is a need to focus on a key point in time assessment by the Archdeacons, it was a truly positive process for all. I am not sure everyone would say that about their Visitation!  

Could Church Compliance Software Help Your Parish?

Many parishes juggle DBS checks, safeguarding records and Visitation preparation with a small team, just like Holy Sepulchre. Our church compliance software brings every role and renewal date into one place, so there's less paperwork and more time for ministry.