It’s a Way of Life is the first stage of a three-part journey of relationship-building between spiritual seekers and enquirers into faith, and local Methodist churches.
The three stages of relationship-building
- We want to meet and introduce ourselves as Methodists via It’s a Way of Life.
- We will then encourage people to explore their faith journey through honest conversation and shared spiritual practices with the On The Way course.
- Then they will be invited into an ongoing relationship of discipleship with A Methodist Way of Life.
Reaching new audiences
It’s a Way of Life will be hosted on a microsite aimed at an audience of seekers. It will share inspiring stories of people living out a Methodist Way of Life as part of their everyday lives.
It will have its own social media channels with paid advertising on Facebook and Instagram to ensure we can directly communicate with people who are curious about spirituality and wanting to find out more. It will also include content that forms a curated introduction to a Methodist way of living.
We will be highlighting stories that reach out to people where they are, including that of a climbing church in Sheffield, spiritual sea swimming in North Shields and a pizza van near Bradford.
Simple, direct, engaging
Our experience with other digital campaigns shows that providing a simplified digital way in for new audiences is the most successful way to engage them. It allows us to speak directly to them at an early point of their spiritual journey, without overwhelming them.
We believe digital evangelism can be a powerful tool in introducing ourselves to new people. Alongside the local and community-based evangelism work local churches are already doing, we know from our Christmas digital work that we can access a UK wide audience online too.
Last year we reached over one million people with our message that we are all a gift. We want to take these learnings, and explore how we can reach this new audience all year round.
Taking the next step
We hope that by engaging people from our It's a Way of Life social media accounts, we can lead them via the stories and spiritual questioning on our microsite, into the churches in your circuits.
There they can start a conversation about their faith journey which could see them joining an On The Way course.
Working together
It’s a Way of Life is new terrain for us and we’re always learning as we go. As you start to see this content online or if people speak to you about it, we’d love to hear from you with any feedback.
Please email us at digital@methodistchurch.org.uk.