Using Teleseminars to help your congregation listen to you while multi-tasking

In the 21st century people are busier than ever. They work at least 5 days a week and in addition to the bare 8 hours a day, there is the commute time that adds up. Parents have to take care of children and their needs. It’s a wonder anyone can get it all done.

So, when Sunday comes, who wants to go to church? Not only is it in the middle of the morning but it’s not just an hour – there’s the getting ready, getting the kids ready, driving to the church, being polite afterwards, then driving home. That’s probably an average of 3 hours for a 1 hour service.

Most churches have classes during the week – usually on Wednesday night. But again, that requires additional time for preparation, driving to and from. It probably involves getting a baby sitter too. You rush to get home, get ready, and take off to go to the class. But if you get home a bit late, wouldn’t it be nicer to just sit down for a bit?

So, you’ve got discouraged ministers who wonder why attendance is going down, whether it’s Sunday services or mid-week classes. And you’ve got the parishioners who feel they “have” to go to church but really don’t want to and certainly don’t want to go during the week. And if they do go, then it’s possible that resentment and bitterness may arise too.

Is there a solution? Can’t modern technology help out here? Yes, there’s a solution but you don’t need modern technology. All you really need is a telephone. Yes, the wonderful piece of equipment that’s over 100 years old. You can use computers and other equipment to augment this but all you need is the telephone.

There are phone lines called ‘bridge lines’. In essence these lines allow a very large conference call. Depending on the size of the bridge line, you can get very large number of people on one call. There is one phone number but two passcodes – one for the moderator and guests and the other for the participants. The person conducting the teleseminar can secure these bridge lines either on an individual call basis (reserved specifically for one time) or “24/7” making it available all the time.

Once the bridge line is secured, you’re ready to go. There are other ways to augment this but if you have the line, you can conduct the teleseminar. You want to get people to register and this is where the additional technology comes in. You spread the word via email messages and your website. It pays to have an autoresponder and these can be had for 20-30 dollars a month. The advantage of an autoresponder is that the robot will send the emails out either responding to the person subscribing/registering (thus the name autoresponder) or it can broadcast to the entire list of people who have shown interest in your materials. This is done automatically so that you’re not having to check and respond to your emails all the time. The autoresponder gets the messages and information out to everyone who has subscribed.

Another option to get information for your classes by having what’s called an “Ask Campaign”. For instance, it would be a web page called “Ask Reverend Jones”. There is a service that will give you the web code and also collect the data for you too. If you don’t have a lot of people yet, you can do the same “Ask Campaign” by email. The reason you want to ask your folks what they want to hear is that you know they will listen because they are interested. Ask them a question such as “What’s the most confusing part of the Bible for you?” Get them to give you the information they want to hear from you.

You want to record your teleseminar too. That can be done by the bridge line company (if it’s not a free phone line service) or people who specialize in recording teleseminars or you can record it yourself. There are many resources for all these functions. You want to record this so that you can post it on your website for replay or even to provide as an MP3 file for people to download. You can also get your recordings transcribed. But again, this is not necessary.

But all you need is a phone. You schedule a class (or even make your Sunday service available). Then those who register sign up, get the phone code, call in at exactly the start time and listen for the hour (or however long you talk) and then hang up. They are at home, listening even from work, or even in the car. You talk, they listen, and you’re done. You can be in your pajamas, they can be in their pajamas and everyone is happy. You mute all lines but the one you’re talking on so they could even answer the door or yell at the kids without disturbing anyone else.

This is a perfect system for those who move away but are very dedicated to you and your style of teaching. This happens frequently because in this day and age, people are moving around more than they used to. By conducting teleseminars, you can keep these folks as part of your loyal congregation.

If you have a webmaster, your job will be even easier but you do not need one.

About the Author:
Dr. Wurzbacher is a retired Navy Emergency Medicine Physician who recognized about early in her career that she wasn’t good at communication and more importantly that she was probably missing much of what her patients were trying to tell her. Although she was excellent at diagnosing conditions, patients generally needed more than that. So, she worked diligently at learning to really HEAR what her patients were telling her. Her book, “Your Doctor Said What” is intended to help patients understand why many doctors seem like aliens and how to empower themselves to deal with these aliens. Check her out at http://www.yourdoctorsaidwhat.com and http://www.yourdoctorsaidwhatblog.com .