by Alyssa Robinson
As the Digital Strategist of this church, I get a unique look into the analytics of our website, social media channels, Google account, and more. To many people this might seem a bit boring, but one of the most interesting elements to me is getting to see the search terms that individuals type into Google to find our website.
I don’t want to creep you out; I don’t know the names or locations of any of the people who are searching. It’s not a “big brother” type situation. But I get an inside perspective of the curiosities about God. I get to see the big questions people have for the church or for the Bible that maybe they’re afraid to ask.
I’ve noticed that people treat Google like a best friend. They can ask Google anything without judgment or discomfort, and they do! Here are some of the exact searches that landed people on our website just in the past month.
“Who wrote the Bible?”
“Did God create evil?”
“Does God allow sickness?”
“Should I move in with my boyfriend?”
“What does the Bible say about sex?”
“Why did Jesus die?”
“Should I get married?”
“What causes anxiety attacks?”
These are all BIG questions that have led someone to find this church! Notice that many of the questions are faith-based in nature, but some of them are just about life. What does this mean? People are looking for spiritual guidance in daily life. They are choosing to click on a church’s website to find some answers, or at least some comfort, for the daily challenges they're facing. This is exactly why one of our core values is Biblical Relevance. We define Biblical Relevance as truth for today. We work every day to live into the parables and teachings of Jesus Christ and share those teachings with the community in a way that makes sense for today.
We see hundreds of people hitting our website every month with questions just like this. These are the big faith questions that maybe they’re afraid to ask their pastor, fellow Christians, or even speak out loud.
It’s these questions that have inspired our upcoming February worship series, “Asking for a Friend.” We have taken some of the most Googled questions that have led to our website and compiled them into six big faith questions we could address in worship in February.
But we need your help deciding what to cover!
Take a moment to vote on the top 3 questions you’d most like to hear preached on the Sundays in February. Warning, some of these questions might be a bit surprising or jarring. But I hope you will lean into these difficult questions with us and wrestle with them, using scripture as our guide. After all, we’re just asking for a friend.
Vote Now→
