Use Poll Templates in Online Church Meetings

What takes your online service from an experience into a real community are the ways you use your platform to engage with your attendees.

But how do you do this in your online church meetings? There's more than one way to create interactive services for attendees.

One way to add engaging attendee interactions is through using online polls in your service.

Real time polling for meetings is a great way to keep your worship services and small groups interactive and lively. With Altar Live’s newest Poll Templates tool, online engagement with your congregation can be fun and seamless.

If you're searching for how to create services that are interactive and personal, there are a few features in Altar Live that will really come in handy. One of our favorites is the Poll Templates feature.

But why should you use Poll Templates? And how should you make the most of this feature? Just as in-person church services can be lively and interactive, we believe that it should be easy for online churches to do the same.

If you're currently looking for creative ways to engage your audience, look no further. Altar Live’s Templates features have set out to make this process seamless. But first, make you’ve set up Poll Templates in Altar Live.

What are Poll Templates?

Polls are a great way to interact and engage your audience, gauge where they’re at, and receive quick feedback. These multiple choice polls can be added to your online service to enhance audience engagement and bring people together.

With this Poll Templates tool, we’ve found a few key ways you’ll want to utilize live polls with your congregation. Adding these elements can make your services, events, and small groups fun and seamless.

Why Use Templates For Polls in Church Meetings?

Using temples allows you to save your favorite or most frequently used polls, making them readily available for each meeting. No more re-typing or copying and pasting the same questions over again. Take out the few extra steps to you need to engage with your community and take some of the pressure off of being a host or moderator.

How to Use Poll Templates in Online Church Meetings

Wondering how to use poll templates? Find a quick how-to on using poll templates in Altar Live here. In short, if you:

• have certain poll questions that your church uses every week,
• need a set of good poll questions ready to go for service next week,
• have great poll ideas you’re hoping to use at the next church event,

then Poll Templates allow you to save those questions and their multiple choice answers as ready to use polls during your next altar live event or meeting!

Keep reading for good poll questions for church, poll questions to engage your congregation at your next online meeting. Use this as a launching point as you continue to consider how your church might utilize polling for online meetings.

‍Sample Poll Questions | Ways to Use Poll Questions

Here are five question types for your online church service or meeting:

1. Connection Card Questions for Polls

From first timers to regular members, when it comes to connecting with your congregation, church leaders need ways to gauge where the congregation is and how to best meet them.

Next Steps cards are a great way to do this.  They also serve as a motivational tool for commitment - if you say you are going to do something, you’re more likely to do it than if you just thought about it.

But these next steps questions are likely ones that your team is asking every week. Especially if you have two services, your team is probably tired of copying and pasting the same polls over and over again.

However, now with Poll Templates, instead of asking attendees to follow a link to fill out a separate survey, with poll templates, simply have it ready to go! No more copying-and-pasting or typing it out all over again! Here are some examples of what that might look like:

Personal Commitment Card

Text:

How will you commit to deepening your faith this coming month?
I will…

Options:

[Select all that apply]

• Accept Christ as my Savior 
• Recommit my life
• Pursue baptism
• Pray without ceasing
• Join a small group

Next Steps Card

Text:

What do you plan to do after today’s sermon?

I will…

Options:

• Accept Christ as my Savior 
• Share what I’ve learned
• Read related Bible passages
• Ask questions & learn more
• Make an action plan

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2. Icebreaker Question for Polls

Whether it's in virtual small groups, service, or during events, icebreakers are essential in helping to change the atmosphere of your meeting and make everyone feel at ease and a part of the group. Every church or community group has its go-to questions, but here are a few of our favorite fun poll questions:

Ice Cream

Text:

If you could only have one flavor of ice cream for the rest of your life, would it be…

Options:

• Chocolate
• Vanilla
• Strawberry
• Cookie Dough
• Mint Chocolate Chip

Sports

Text:

Which baseball team were you rooting for?

Options:

• Astros
• Phillies

Cats or Dogs

Text:

Pick a side, cats or dogs?

Options:

• Cats
• Dogs
• I prefer fish

Icebreaker

Text:

If you were tasked with breaking through the ice on a large lake, what would you choose?

Options:

• Icepick
• Heat
• Pressure

Desert Island

Text:

If you were on a deserted island what would you bring?

Options:

• Bible
• Water
• Phone

Holiday

Text:

Your favorite holiday is…

Options:

• Christmas
• Easter
• Thanksgiving
• Fall Worship Night

📖 Read More: How can your hospitality team members engage in high quality interactions and create a welcoming space? Read our article on hospitality teams for your online church platform.

3. Promote Event Attendance with Polls

Whether it’s the upcoming retreat or last weekend’s webinar, you want to be able to get a pulse of the church and more clear understanding of how everyone is feeling. Are church members excited? Do they even know it’s happening? Can they make it?

Or if the event already happened, what did they think? Both for your past events as well as upcoming ones, polls are an effortless way to drop in a few pre-prepared questions to help your events team and hosts gauge the overall sentiment. Here’s what that looks like:

Upcoming Church Event

Text:

Which date/ time will you be available to attend?

Options:

• 12/17 @ 7pm
• 12/24 @ 9am
• 12/24 @ 7pm

Spring Retreat

Text:

Have you RSVPed?

Options:

• Yes!
• Not yet…
• I will after today’s service!

All-Church Picnic

Text:

What are you looking forward to?

Options:

• Fellowship
• Lawn Games
• BBQ
• Pastor’s Famous Chilli

Winter Events

Text:

Which are you most looking forward to?

Options:

• Winter Retreat
• Annual Coat Drive
• Virtual 5k
• Christmas Party
• New Year’s Alpha Launch

💡 Tip: Wondering about event management? We have resources if your church is considering a larger scale event like an online church event or using event registration tools.

4. Make Sermons Interactive through Polls

Just like in-person events, interactive services are key to really engaging your community. Asking for a show of hands, asking questions during the sermon, discussing and reflecting together all help to let the message really sink in.  If you hope to use more open ended poll questions, ask attendees to leave their answers in the chat!

Perhaps you have a few ideas on how to make your messages more interactive. But here’s a few to get your ideas going:

Prayer and Response

Text:

What has God put on your heart? How can we be praying for you?

Options:

• I want to learn to trust and obey in hardship.
• I want to surrender all areas of life to God.
• I want to remember God is present with me.

Interaction with the Preacher

Text:

Guess when Pastor Dave met his wife…

Options:

• Last year
• In college
• In elementary school
• In strollers

Sermon Reflection

Text:

Which from the sermon have you resonated with?

Options:

• Path
• Rocky soil
• Thorny soil
• Good soil

Sermon Response

Text:

From today's message, which point was most challenging for you?

Options:

• Sermon Point A
• Sermon Point B
• Sermon Point C

Dive Deeper

Text:

What would you like to learn more about?

Options:

• Topic/ Passage 1
• Topic/ Passage 2
• Topic/ Passage 3

5. Event Feedback through Polls

Receiving feedback is crucial in knowing what worked, what didn’t, and how best to move forward. And hearing from your attendees is an important part of that. Here’s a few quick example feedback questions that you might want to ask your congregation:

Event Planning Feedback

Text:

What would you like to see more of?

Options:

• Church fellowship events
• Children’s programs
• Youth programs
• Community outreach

Retreat Feedback

Text:

Best part of retreat was…

Options:

• Small groups time!
• Virtual Skits
• Messages
• Live stream worship!

Small Group Feedback

Text:

What is your favorite part of your small group?

Options:

• Bible Study
• Discussion
• Fellowship Time
• Praise & Worship

Online Events

Text:

What is your favorite part of online events?

Options:

• The message
• The worship
• Meeting new people
• The community atmosphere
• Seeing long-distance friends

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Feel free to draw from these examples as you brainstorm ideas and build up your inventory of polls! Polls Templates make it easy for your host team to pull up these interactive, fun, reflective, challenging, and essential questions out of their pocket whenever they need to. No hassle, just set them up, then hit send when the time comes!

Polls can make it fun and easy for your attendees to interact with your church events, with your message, and even to simply just express themselves. Polling for meetings can also be an important tool for allowing the congregation take part in church decision making.

Not only is it great for your attendees to engage with, but it’s also a huge help on your end. You'll receive feedback, gauge attendance, break the ice, and know who to reach out to. With poll templates, a truly engaging service has never been easier.‍

Another essential tool for hosts in making events, services, and small groups interactive is the Announcements Templates! If you’re looking for ways to make the most of the Announcement Templates in Altar Live, we’ve got you covered too.

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