Helping the community shift to digital.

 

It was March 2020, we were in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic in NYC and Governor Cuomo called a Stay at Home Order. Up until this point, we had no idea how big this situation was. Churches tend to move slowly when adopting new technology, but that would all quickly change.

The challenge was to transition 3000+ members that attended a physical space on a weekly basis to a completely new digital reality. We had to help the current audience assimilate to all the rapid changes, keep up to date with new regulations, and prepare to welcome a wave of new online members who were tuning in from all around the world. The organization's survival depended on us using digital technologies to stay connected.

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My role was Design Manager. Our team was small, but with the new focus to digital, the entire staff structure shifted. We all had to collaborate to create digital metaphors for everything we did physically. Communication and strategy was the primary focus. It was my job to ensure that everything going out was on brand with our visuals, language, and tonality. I was overseeing Social Media, Website, Video Production, Streaming, Merch Development & Sales. Keeping in mind that this church is in the heart of Queens, the most diverse county in the continental U.S. This community is multi-cultural, multi-lingual, and multi-generational. In our design thinking, it was imperative to keep conscious of the diverse audience. We designed in English and Spanish, as well as provided ASL video content for our audience. This community is meant to be a safe space, and it’s our responsibility to ensure no one feels left out.

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At the beginning of the year, we underwent a rebranding to update the three decade old church. Keeping true to NYC aesthetic we created a visual brand that was minimal, bold, and modern. This set us up with a visual toolset that would help us transition communications effectively onto small digital screens.

We chose the extended family of Helvetica as the brand’s typeface because of it’s flexibility. With over 50 weights, it covered the broad spectrum of our communications from serious to playful. As for brand colors, we chose a black and white canvas. This is a palette that’s synonymous with the city. Timeless & Classic. In addition, the church puts on many productions and events, therefore, whenever we introduced color the audience new it was special.

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Because there was no concept of a digital church, it was always an after thought and the technology was over 20 years old. We had to upgrade the entire production to have cinematic cameras, new lighting, upgraded mixers, and boards; all in efforts to get the best streaming quality we could.

We also got creative when the resources were just too scarce. Due to social distancing we weren’t able to have our choir come together to record and we didn't have the equipment for everyone to make high quality recordings. So we got everyone to sing their parts individually in their own spaces, and then we put it all together. What came of it was beautiful and felt organic. It felt real, and allowed our audience to connect with familiar faces.

In the first weeks of getting on Facebook Live and other social platforms we saw the audience grow like never before. For easter we had an audience of over 15,000 people worldwide. Our church could probably sit 3000 people on a Sunday. For special holidays they added more services and maybe squeezed in another 1000 people. The physical limitations would never allow us to reach as many people as we did digitally.

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It’s not enough to bring people to watch a service, we then had to cultivate real relationships, and build real community. We used our team of pastors and deacons as community members and live moderators. It was incredible bringing everyone up to speed with social technology and then together seeing efforts multiplied in ways unimaginable.

IG Live allowed us to host weekly noon prayers, Facebook Watch Parties allowed us to watch services with friends and family, and WhatsApp kept us close to our church family.

Ultimately, the outcome was rather positive. The church not only survived, but it thrived. It grew in numbers, and brought hope to thousands of people worldwide. My biggest takeaway for this past season is learning to adapt to anything.

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