church “digital awareness” pilot research · digital media/social media platforms? preliminary...

Digital Strategies for Our Churches

Church “Digital Awareness” Pilot Research


Before discussing Digital strategies For Nairobi Churches

The Key Research Question is How aware and active are

Nairobi Churches on Digital-Social Media platforms?

3 Research Queriesa. How many churches have websites and how frequently are they updated? Do they have blogs?b. How many churches are easily found on Facebook and how often is it used? c. How many churches are easily found on Twitter and how active are they on it?


Online Research Method

A Simple online search was conducted in August 2014 for churches in Nairobi. It focused on websites, Facebook and Twitter presence. Tags, keywords and other simple search criteria were used; such methods as those- - a congregation member would use to quickly find their church- an interested non-church goer would use to casually browse or search for a church in case they were interested in a religious experience


Demographic Context

Nairobi Population: Estimated at 3-3.5million [wikipedia, mundi, CIA, National Bureau of statistics etc] About half in lowest income bracketTotal Number of Churches: 1 church for every 2000 [Ortiz and Conn 2001, Niemeyer 1989.] Estimated at 1500Total Church Attendance: 16% attendance [Daystar research 1990s.] Estimated at 480,000

These estimates are clearly conservative, as there may likely be more churches, and lower church attendance proportionately and a higher actual city population.


Church Digital Awareness Pilot ResearchKey Question : How aware and active are Nairobi Churches on Digital Media/Social Media platforms?

How many churches have websites and how frequently are they updated? Do they have blogs?


With a simple search we found only 29 churches in Nairobi with easily accessible websites. 11 had been updated within the month. Most were not current since they were updated over a month ago.


Only 6 of these29 churches had a blog to go along with their website – meaning interaction with the website content was expected to be low in most of the churches.



How many churches are easily found on Twitter and

how active are they on it?


With a simple online search we found only 12 churches in Nairobi with easily searchable Twitter handles. Total “follow”s were were 32,775. Mavuno had 15,000, JCC and Nairobi Chapel around 6300 and 5700 respectively. Lower six churches had a combined total of under 1000


9 of these 12 churches handles had been updated in the last week. Others were not current and had been updated before that.



How many churches are easily found on Facebook and how often is it used?


With a simple online search we

found only 22 churches in Nairobi

with easily searchable

Facebook pages of some sort. Total

likes were 73,200 - JCC took over

30,000, Mavuno 18,000. Lower 17

churches had a combined total of

under 15,000


Most churches of these 22 had an unspecified frequency of Facebook status updating. 7 had status update frequency within the week and 4 with frequency within the month.


Church Digital Awareness Pilot Survey - Findings

Summary of Findingsa. Few churches have websites and even fewer have blogs which the members and public can interact with the content.b. A small number have a Facebook presence and the frequency of updating was largely unspecified. c. Even fewer churches are on Twitter. Most of those on twitter have low “follow rates.”


How aware and active are Nairobi Churches on Digital Media/Social Media platforms?

Preliminary findings - There is some awareness and activity.However given the demographic context, church digital awareness is much lower, and impact much smaller than the opportunity available.

Considering over 90% Mobile/Internet penetration in a city of over 3 million, and the huge need for outreach [under 20% active church participation] – much, much more needs to be done.


Hence there is a dire need for forums in Nairobi such as Indigitous to discuss digital strategies for ministry and outreach. Here participants can discuss strategies, share best practices about how to seize opportunities for the Harvest as presented by Digital media.


This report is a product of discussions by a focus group of the Nairobi based alumni of Indigitous Addis 2014 Online Research conducted by Brian Birir, Daniel Lanco and Kyama Mugambi

Analysis and summary compiled by Kyama MugambiInfographics and presentation prepared by Tanda Management Solutions

(c) 2014

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