For many small churches the question of access to the Internet is often overlooked.
However, overlooking access to the Internet also limits the effective outreach a church can have. In our current, post-COVID, post-Christian, post-modern society the front door of your ministry has shifted. It is no longer the physical doors to your facility. The front door for your ministry is now considered to be online, almost exclusively. For generations following the Boomer Generation, if you don’t exist online, you don’t exist. Post-Boomer generations are mostly inclined to seek your ministry online before physically walking through the doors of your building. Additionally, for optimal security you will need to utilize some form of secure check-in and check-out procedures for your younger crowd; most of these services require access to the Internet.
All of this leads to one simple conclusion, your ministry needs Internet access!
How your ministry gets access to the Internet varies widely, depending on the location of your physical facility. This can be especially challenging in remote/rural settings. With the advent of cellular Internet services, however, even in most rural settings the Internet is easily accessible.
Which brings up the need for some form of internal networking solution in order to get Internet access into the portions of the physical facility that need it. While WiFi is nearly universal, it can also have severe limitations. Building construction can have dramatic impacts on the ability to get decent WiFi coverage in all areas of a building. This can be offset by the use of some newer technologies in WiFi, including mesh systems. The best solution is to pull Ethernet cabling into each room that requires Internet services. This provides not only excellent connectivity, but is also the most secure solution.
No matter which method your ministry chooses, WiFi or Ethernet cabling, it will require some method of taking the signal from your Internet provider and routing the network signals. Routers are the component needed to do this, and for most smaller ministries off-the-shelf solutions are plentiful and reasonable from a cost perspective.
Internet access allows a ministry to stream services for shut-ins, allows for access to secure check-in and check-out services for children’s programs, and provides a means for connecting the church’s other technology infrastructure in a robust internal network (allowing printing from any room in the facility, for example).
When you’re ready to invest on network infrastructure for your ministry, give me a call and let’s discuss what your needs are and how they can be met!