Creating Online Sanctuary: Sherry Hietpas’ Approach to Virtual Church

In this session of Pastoring in the Digital Parish, we’re going to talk about the challenges and successes of cultivating a digital congregation, the impact of traditional liturgical expressions online, the use of AI-generated tools for social media engagement, and the evolution of pastoral care in a digital context.

Our adjunct professor for this session is Sherry Hietpas, the associate pastor of digital ministry at Andrew Chapel United Methodist Church in Vienna, Virginia. She is also the founder of Encounter–an all-digital expression of church. And she does all this while living with her family in Thailand.

In this episode:
(00:00) Digital ministry leader discusses challenges and successes.
(03:46) Small church adapts to pandemic with outreach.
(07:42) Recording travels across Asia, exploring, worship, growth.
(11:34) Offering liturgical connection for global communities via YouTube.
(16:39) Exploring sacred digital worship and prayer practices.
(17:57) Embracing tradition while engaging with digital audience.
(20:42) Automates episode promotion, saves hours of work.
(24:08) Digital communication vital for remote church engagement.
(27:28) Enhancing digital engagement through comments and discussions.
(30:42) Encouraging feedback for future ministry content.

For notes and more episodes: resourceumc.org/digital-parish

Pastoring in the Digital Parish is a production of United Methodist Communications.