Keisha Reynolds Brings Digital to Discipleship
By: Nyle Paul
Tags: Bulletbybaldwin, Race, BlackLivesMatter, Church, Black Church

As the pandemic continues to reshape the sense of normalcy we once had, the restrictions put into place have forced people to transition to fully digital platforms.

Places of worship were among the main places heavily impacted by this digital shift. The personal connection to God, and liveliness of worship and fellowship, many associate with in-person church services. Ministries and churchgoers now look to technological tools in order to deliver and receive church sermons and services.

That transition isn’t always a smooth one, but it has inspired DigitalChurchUniversity.com, an educational platform to help guide ministries through the use of social media and various online tools to continue providing interactive church services.

PR pro Keisha Reynolds, who is also a public relations professor at Hampton, is the creator. The intent, she says, is to provide online training to help ministries gain a stronger understanding of how to utilize social media and other digital outlets to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Keisha Reynolds

“I originally wrote down the idea in 2017,” Reynolds says. “I sat on it because I didn’t think that it would be received well.”

Reynolds, who attends church herself, was apprehensive about the newness of her concept. “Sometimes when we’re doing things in the church, and it is something outside of the norm — we can get a lot of push back on it,” she said.

Still, Reynolds kept pushing towards the mark. Her determination and inspiration from God, wouldn’t allow her to stop.

“At the end of 2019, I kept feeling this pull from within saying ‘I need to launch this platform, I need to get it out there.’ So, I did two beta classes with the audience being people from the Sunday School Publishing Board Conference.”

Reynolds put a plan into place. In the church world, that’s called vision and provision.

“ I put them into an email marketing series which covered how to build online forms. I gathered the information from the two beta classes and launched another beta in January of 2020. For this beta, I invited a group of five churches to test out the program. From there, I launched the next class centered around zoom education for churches in the beginning of March.”

And then Covid-19 came, and everything stopped. Zoom became the primary way of communicating in large numbers — the ultimate in social distancing.

“I definitely believe that this was God leading me to launch this program with this particular timing.”

With COVID-19 forcing everything to be moved to digital platforms, there’s been a disproportionately low rate in both the Black community and among the elderly for church. In response to this issue, Reynolds’ program will also speak to older Black people who are not electronically efficient.

“When we are in this digital space, we cannot leave behind our older generation. We have to think about what are the mediums and methods that they receive their communications or the mediums that they are most comfortable using.”

Reynolds says she thought a lot about her grandmother in developing the training programs. Her grandmother is in her late 80s and an avid churchgoer.

“There are things such as phone live streaming, where you can call the church and the church will let them listen to the service as it’s happening. Internet TV is also an option. I can go to my grandma’s house and turn it on, or I can teach her how to do it and that’s simpler.”

Those three ways, Reynolds says, will help reach the older Black community.

Since March of this year, Barna, a leading faith and culture research group, has been researching digital church trends that have surfaced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This research was conducted for their “State of the Church 2020 Project.”

Their findings report 96 percent of pastors have been streaming their worship services online during the pandemic, but only 48 percent of adults who identify as practicing Christians have streamed an online service in the last month.

With there being a disconnect between the online streaming services and viewership, Ms. Reynolds discussed her plans with encouraging more engagement with members.

“There is a culture shift in each of our ministries and there has to be a level of acceptance from every person who is a part of the ministry. With this digital divide, how do we use these platforms and make them feel comfortable in this space that is new to them?” Reynolds said.

Her church hosts tech talks where they answer tech questions anyone from the congregation may have. They also sit and troubleshoot with the members.

This helped Reynolds to see a need within the church for her training, and also provided a basis for pricing.

“There are two payment models. The first is a monthly model, and then the second, is an annual model. Membership is $50 a month in the monthly model, while the annual membership is $510 a year.”

The program includes: live office hours, quarterly graphic design templates, and immediate access to all content and there’s a members only Facebook group of church leaders with direct access to church growth marketing and design experts.

“I’ve been in business for five years, and I’ve been doing this education piece for the last three to four years in my business, so I take the approach to education very seriously,” she says.

Reynolds has an entrepreneur research center

With Digital Church University, Reynolds says, “I have churches who come to me and may or may not have the budget for the services. I could say ‘Hey, if you don’t have this, here’s an alternative to getting the same things that you need but in education format with me working with you in a coaching manner more so than done-for-you services.’”

Digital Church University’s competitors charge close to $3,000 for similar services. “For the market I’m primarily focused on, which is African-American churches — I take into consideration the size and accessibility of those churches; and I map out and discuss budget plans that will be affordable and impactful for them,” Reynolds said.

The goal, Reynolds says, is for Digital Church University to provide the solution to every question around social media and digital technology.

“Mark 16:15 says ‘We’re called to proclaim the good news to everyone’ and sharing this platform helps build knowledge of operating these tools effectively so that ministries can reach the church people and the un-churched. We are using this concept of digital discipleship to impact those lives.”

Be sure to check of Digital Church University’s website here.

You can connect with Digital Church University on both Facebook and Instagram here.