Programme update: listening, learning and building

The Digital Transformation Programme has had a busy first few weeks. Here is an update on where things stand.

Listening to districts

We have now held discovery conversations with four districts - Darlington, Bedfordshire Essex and Hertfordshire, Wales and Northampton - and spoken with a group of ten superintendents about their day-to-day digital experience. Several more conversations are confirmed for the coming weeks.

The same themes keep coming up:

Compliance takes too long. Managing trustees and ministers spend hours on safeguarding checks, property consents and annual returns that could be simpler and better joined up.
Data is fragmented. Churches, circuits and districts often maintain their own records because connexional systems don't talk to each other. That means duplicate work and information that falls out of date.
Digital confidence varies widely. Some churches have strong digital capability; others depend on a single volunteer. When that person moves on, the church can lose its online presence overnight.
People want to be heard. There is real appetite for contributing to this work, and a healthy scepticism about whether anything will actually change. We take that seriously.

If you would like to feed into the listening exercise, please get in touch via email.

The Steering Group is up and running

The programme's Steering Group met for the first time on 19 March.

The group reviewed programme progress, budget and risks, and discussed how the programme communicates with the wider Church. A key point from the discussion: we need to be careful about language. The programme is not about the Connexional Team doing things to churches - it is about developing shared tools and resources that everyone across the Connexion can benefit from.

Understanding the digital landscape

Alongside the listening exercise, we have been mapping the Church's digital landscape - looking at the websites, social media and online tools used by churches, circuits and districts across the Connexion.

Some headline findings:

Around 79% of Methodist churches have some form of web presence, but many of those are out-of-date circuit pages rather than sites the church actively maintains.
There are over 40 different digital platforms in use across the Connexion, from bespoke church management systems to free website builders.
Districts vary significantly in their digital maturity. Some have dedicated digital roles and strong online presence; others rely almost entirely on volunteers with limited support.

This research is helping us understand where the real gaps are and where shared, connexional solutions could make the biggest difference.

Active workstreams

Two workstreams are already underway:

Church Data Project - improving the accuracy of the data we hold about churches so that people searching online can find their local Methodist church. This involves working directly with churches to validate their information and improving the underlying systems.
Online Worship Support - developing practical guidance and tools for churches that stream or record their worship, including copyright guidance, platform comparisons and accessibility advice. Over 120 people from 19 districts have responded to our survey so far.

What is coming next

Over the next few weeks we will be:

Continuing district conversations and beginning to synthesise what we have heard
Developing proposals for further workstreams, informed by the listening exercise
Planning how we feed back to districts on what we have heard and what we are taking forward

If you have questions, ideas or would like to get involved, please get in touch via email.