Create your church’s first online class.
Learn how to launch your first online class within 24 hours. Your church is full of introverts and people with busy schedules, so why not meet them where they are by hosting an online class? This free training is backed by 50,000+ check-ins of data, so you know you are getting the best information.
Free · No account needed · Short videos · Take it on your phone
The next step should not depend on who can make it.
Every Sunday someone decides they want more: to join, to serve, to be baptized, to belong. Today the answer is a date. Your welcome class runs at one time, in one room, when someone is free to teach it, and most of the people who raised a hand will not be able to make it.
An online class is that same next step, available the moment they want it: a link on their phone, in your church’s colors, at their own pace. Your team finds out the moment someone finishes, so a real person reaches out the same week. If you already teach a class in a room, it keeps running. This reaches everyone who could not be in it.
real guest check-ins on OnArk
people moved onto serving teams
completion in the best classes
churches, any denomination
“We were growing but seeing people falling through the cracks and not attending in person training. We moved it online and we have seen our serve team double in a few months.”
The easiest way to understand an online class is to take one.
A demo shows you an admin screen. This puts you in the guest’s seat first, so you feel what your people will feel, then turns the screen around and shows you how it was built.
- 1
Check in like a guest
The training is itself an online class, built on OnArk. You type your first name and email, the way your guests will, and you are in. That is a check-in. No account, no app.
- 2
Watch and answer
Short videos from Rachel, who built OnArk inside a real church and has walked hundreds of churches through their first online class. Stop when you need to and pick up where you left off.
- 3
Leave with a plan
Each chapter ends with something you can do, not just something you know. By the last one you have your first class planned and a place to build it.
Five chapters, from why to your first check-in.
A check-in is the moment a real person opens your class and enters their email. The class ends with you knowing how to get your first one.
- 01
Why Online Church Classes Are Needed
What an online class is, why the next step should not depend on who can make one time in one room, and what changes for your church when it does not.
You leave with the case you can take to your lead pastor.
- 02
How to Create a Great Online Church Class
The five parts of a class people finish: check in, teach, assess, invite, celebrate. Welcome Aboard, our done-for-you welcome class, is the worked example, and the shape carries to membership, baptism, and serving.
You leave with a fill-in outline for your first class.
- 03
How OnArk Optimizes Online Church Classes
Rachel builds a class in front of you, start to publish: videos, forms, built-in assessments, your branding, automations. No tech background needed. Plus when it is worth planning it on a call with her instead.
You leave with your first class started, in your own account if you have one.
- 04
How to Integrate Online Classes into Your Church
Putting the link where people already are: the stage on Sunday, the follow-up you already send, the welcome desk. And connecting Planning Center so that first check-in lands where your team already works.
You leave with a launch checklist for your first Sunday.
- 05
Where to Start
A free trial with the training included, so you can build alongside the chapters with nothing charged today. What to build first and how to know it is working.
You leave with a first class live, or a clear plan for one.
Built for America’s #1 fastest-growing church.
OnArk was built for Journey Church, named America’s #1 fastest-growing church on Outreach Magazine’s 2025 list. Rachel built it inside their next-steps process, and it still runs their classes today. The class teaches from eight years of turning first-time guests into teammates, across hundreds of churches, most of which had never run an online class before.
“We had more people finishing our next steps class because they could do it whenever it suited their schedule.”
“In just a couple months we added more new volunteers and members than we had all last year without OnArk.”
“Before OnArk our volunteer onboarding process was a hassle for both our church volunteers and our staff. After finding OnArk the process was streamlined for our staff and made more sense to our new volunteers. The best part is the integration with our church database.”
“Our connections team gets a notification the moment someone finishes their DISC and Gifts test. They follow up and help that person find the next step that fits.”
Start with the class. It is free, and it is short.
Check in the way your guests will, watch the five chapters at your own pace, and leave with your first online class planned. Chapter five covers where to build it when you are ready.
Free · No account needed · Short videos · Take it on your phone
Questions pastors ask.
We have never done anything online. Is this for us?
Yes, it was made for you. Most churches on OnArk had never run an online class before their first one. The class starts from what an online class is and why it is needed, and ends with your first one planned. Nothing assumes you have done this before.
Do we need someone technical on staff?
No. If you can send an email and paste a link, you can build a class. There is no code, no website to change, and no app for your people to install. The class is a link; guests open it on their phone.
Do I need an account to take the training?
No. The training is a public online class. You check in with your first name and email, exactly the way a guest checks in to a church class, and that is all it takes to save your progress.
How long does it take?
It is a handful of short videos in five chapters, and you do not have to finish in one sitting. Come back within 30 days, check in with the same email on any device, and it picks up where you stopped, because that is how every OnArk class works for guests too.
Do I have to start a trial to take it?
No. The training is free and stands on its own. Chapter five covers how a free trial works if you decide to build. The free trial link on this page is for churches that already know they want to.
Does it work with Planning Center?
Yes. Connecting takes one sign-in from inside OnArk. From there, form answers map to the Planning Center fields you choose, assessment results save to custom fields, and finishing a class or picking a team can add a person to a workflow. Chapter four shows the connection being made.
What is Welcome Aboard, and do I have to use it?
Welcome Aboard is the done-for-you welcome class we built from the classes that complete best. In chapter two it is the worked example: what it includes and why, so you can borrow the shape for any class you run, from membership to baptism to leader training.
What happens when I finish?
You will know what to build and how. Chapter five is where to start, including how the free trial works and what to build first. If you would like it planned with you, chapter three shows how a call with Rachel works.
Take the class. Then decide.
Your first online class starts here.
Free, no account, on your phone. Check in the way your guests will, and leave with your first online class planned.