A lot of churches spent years warning people away from the internet. Then 2020 shut church doors, and many of those same churches had to rush online to stay alive. For Christian women who had already seen the potential of online business, that moment was not surprising. It was vindicating.
If you’ve ever felt your business skill, tech sense, or online calling was dismissed as “too worldly,” this story will hit home. The deeper issue is fear, and that fear has cost churches connection, income, and the wisdom of women who were ready to help long before anyone asked.
When churches treated the internet like a threat
Before social media, many churches already had a problem with technology. The internet showed up, and some church leaders labeled it dangerous, worldly, and packed with distraction. For a lot of congregations, the safest response seemed to be avoidance.
Then social media arrived, and the same pattern repeated itself. Platforms were called the devil’s playground. They were framed as a threat to “real ministry,” not a tool for it. So churches stayed offline, avoided visibility, and kept their distance while the rest of the world kept moving.
That decision did more damage than many people wanted to admit. A church without a website was harder to find. A church without digital communication was harder to stay connected to. A church without online giving depended on people walking through the door.
This pattern is easier to see side by side:
Tool | How it was often framed | What it could have offered |
A church website | Worldly, unnecessary, risky | A clear place for visitors, service times, and church updates |
Social media | A distraction from ministry | Ongoing connection, outreach, and community during the week |
Online giving | Too modern or too impersonal | A way to keep tithes and offerings flowing when people were absent |
Video platforms | Less spiritual than in-person worship | A path for sick, homebound, distant, or cautious members to participate |
The problem was never the existence of the tools. The problem was the decision to hand those tools over to everyone else and pretend the church had no reason to learn them.
Now the data is catching up to what many women already knew. According to Barna’s research on church technology and mission, most church leaders now say technology creates ministry opportunities and improves connection inside the church community. That shift matters, but it also raises a hard question. How much could have been built sooner if fear had not set the pace?
2020 exposed the price of staying unprepared
I know this from the inside, not from the back row. I was a licensed minister and a steward in the AME Church, in the 11th Episcopal District. For years, I asked my church to create a website. Then I learned how to build websites myself so I could offer to do it for them. Every time, the answer was no.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, church life changed overnight. Sunday service stopped. Wednesday Bible study stopped. Easter programs stopped. Fellowship stopped. The offering plate stopped moving down the aisle because there was no aisle to walk.
Churches that had spent years rejecting digital tools suddenly had no backup plan. Many of them had talent in the pews. Many had people who understood finance, communication, and technology. They still found themselves scrambling because they had refused to learn the tools when they had time.
For a lot of churches, the first answer was a free conference call line. Anyone who lived through that season knows how rough it was.
- People talked over one another, and no one could hear the service clearly.
- Phones sat on speaker in kitchens, with family noise in the background.
- Dogs barked, dishes clanged, and the flow of worship fell apart.
- Members could hear voices, but they could not see one another or give easily online.
This was not a talent problem. It was a preparation problem.
That lesson spread far beyond one denomination. Baptist News Global’s report on post-pandemic church technology notes that online and hybrid worship became far more common after the pandemic than before it. Churches learned the hard way that digital ministry was not optional once the building closed.
Building the thing changed everything
I did not step in to win an argument. I stepped in because I loved my church, and I could see exactly how to help. So I stopped waiting for permission and built the website.
Then I created a Facebook page. I set up online giving so people could still pay tithes and offerings when the doors were shut. A family member helped get the church on Zoom so members could see each other instead of shouting through a conference line.
The results were plain. Money kept coming in. The congregation stayed connected. People who had not been able to attend for months because of health problems, distance, or fear could show up again. My mother was one of them.
Those same tools that had been treated like a spiritual threat helped keep the lights on and kept people together. That should have ended the argument for good.
The tools were not the problem. Fear kept the church from using what was already available.
A website will not replace prayer. Zoom will not replace discipleship. An online giving page will not replace generosity. Still, each one gives people a way to stay connected when life, illness, work schedules, or distance keep them home.
That is why this story matters beyond one local church. It shows what happens when gifted people keep asking for permission after the need is already obvious. Sometimes the faithful move is to build the thing and let the fruit speak for itself.
Churches keep selling chicken dinners while skilled women sit silent
This issue is bigger than one website. A lot of churches are struggling financially, and people inside those churches already know it. The chicken dinner fundraiser is real. The bake sale is real. The building fund that has existed for 15 years with no building in sight is real.
At the same time, many of those same churches are full of women with 20-plus years in corporate America. They have degrees, certifications, and hands-on experience. They know how to read numbers, solve problems, lead teams, and organize work that produces income.
The gifts sitting in church pews often include:
- Finance and budgeting experience
- Marketing and communication skill
- Operations, systems, and technology knowledge
- Leadership, planning, and strategy work
A woman with that background can look at a church’s finances on Monday morning and outline a better plan by Wednesday afternoon. Yet too often, nobody asks her. Her expertise stays in the pew while the church rolls out another fundraiser and hopes for the best.
Sometimes that silence has one cause. Sometimes it has two. Maybe leadership is uncomfortable taking direction from women. Maybe the plan includes technology they do not understand. Either way, the result stays the same. The church ignores the people who could help it most.
I eventually left my church, even though I still love God and still believe in the body of Christ. I could not keep sitting in a room that refused to move forward after those tools had already helped keep the church alive.
If that tension feels familiar, the mission behind Business Church Life speaks to women who are tired of watching decades of wisdom go unused. No one spends 20 years in corporate life without learning how to build something valuable.
Your calling can fund your family and your ministry
People are making serious money on social media right now. Some of them are unbelievers, and some are not. The bigger issue is that too many Christian women are missing from that room because they were taught the room itself was dangerous.
That loss is not small. Women in church have what many online businesses are hungry for: lived experience, wisdom, testimony, faith, and a real story. Those are not side notes. Those are the raw materials for coaching, teaching, writing, podcasting, newsletters, digital products, and paid communities.
If you are a Christian woman over 40, your work history may already point to your next business. Twenty years in HR can become coaching. A background in finance can become training or consulting. Years in education, administration, project management, or care work can become a paid offer that helps real people solve real problems.
You do not need a production team to begin. You do not need a huge following. You also do not need a room full of people to approve what God already put in your hands. You need your story, your experience, your calling, and the courage to use low-cost tools like YouTube, podcasting, email, newsletters, and digital products.
That is why this message lands so hard for women who have felt overlooked. The same church culture that dismissed websites and social media has also trained many women to wait. Wait until someone asks. Wait until leadership sees it. Wait until the room catches up. Meanwhile, time keeps moving.
In my work, some women take their corporate background and shape it into a coaching offer that starts bringing in $3,000 to $5,000 a month. That is not about chasing internet fame. It is about building income that can support a household and strengthen ministry at the same time.
There is also a free quiz called “What type of faith-based coach are you secretly meant to be?” for women who know they are called but cannot yet name the lane.
If you are ready for a clearer path to paid clients, the Christian Woman’s Blueprint to Your First Coaching Clients lays out the next step in a more concrete way.
For ongoing conversations around faith, business, and building with confidence, the Launch Your Coaching Ministry Podcast continues this message beyond the video.
Fear has already cost enough
The church called the internet the devil. Then the pandemic forced many churches to depend on the same tools to worship, receive offerings, and stay connected. That should tell us something.
For Christian women over 40, the lesson is close to home. Your years in corporate life, your testimony, and your wisdom are not extra. They are part of the assignment, and permission is not the missing piece.
When God has already said yes, fear should not get the final word. Build the thing you were given to build.
