Social Media and The Church

With a couple of billion people worldwide having a profile on the social media giant Facebook, many in the church are either worried or blissfully unaware of the opportunities this social community offers.

But many church buildings and ministries have set up Facebook pages as they appear to connect with and beef up their groups and reach those outside the church walls. They regularly achieve this with excessive hopes and unrealistic expectations.

Getting started with social media is the smooth part! Maintaining and developing it is another factor altogether. Often, church buildings and ministries launch into social media with a Facebook page and become annoyed when the effects they wish to see don’t materialize quickly.

“Social media is an exquisite tool/forum, but like some other tool, you have to find out how it may be just right for you and understand its strengths in addition to its limitations,” notes James Fam, an Associate Pastor at Coastal Church in downtown Vancouver in British Columbia Canada.

Coastal, an enthusiastic and extreme person on Facebook, has a good length following on their web page. The quantity of ‘fans’ (those who’ve liked their Facebook page) who test the web page daily is even more astonishing. In social media, it is uncommon for fans to check into a web page day by day. But for churches, this makes sense, considering that many humans are on Facebook to connect with family and buddies. Most churchgoers do not forget their local church within the ‘own family and friend’ category.

This makes Facebook a tool for the local church to help construct a network by sharing exciting data, coaching, and galvanizing on a day-to-day basis. It could also be used to attain those outdoor walls of the church.

“In a general feel, the key distinction between social media and conventional media is the better degree of interactivity and immediacy in conversation,” notes Fam. “Whereas print and other broadcast media are one-way communication, social media flourishes on consumer interplay and person-generated content.”

Coastal, together with Vancouver region Broadway Church and Relate Church, to name a few, seem to have mastered the artwork of having the general public in their enthusiasts check into their page regularly. One of the demanding situations church buildings and ministries face at the side of agencies is getting their content into the news feed of those who have preferred their page on a consistent foundation. Thus, if a substantial wide variety of fanatics aren’t traveling your web page daily, you need to look at different methods to ensure you’re showing up in their news feed periodically, at minimum. The assignment is to create content that fans ‘like’, ‘comment’, or ‘proportion’ with others.

One aspect to consider when dealing with a web page is “pointless or overzealous censorship,” explains Fam. It can kill communication on social media quickly, and churches want to be “at ease setting up with some terrible comments on Facebook.”

Award-winning journalist and past editor of Charisma magazine J. Lee Grady shares: “I love all varieties of social media, particularly Facebook. For me, ministry is about relationships and connection… and social media helps me do this. This media allows me to connect with the people I have met in the locations I visit. My ministry connections live strong because I may be in regular contact with people.”

Marg Gibb, founder and Director of Canada’s Women Together, states: “Building consciousness of the ministry through normal postings has created, for Women Together, a new larger network of women who’re involved and want involvement—ladies who were not in my former circles of sources. Providing religious notions and mentoring, once more through daily postings, has given me the feeling that ministry does happen through social media.”

Tim Ernst, who ministers with the Navigators amongst enterprises and specializes in Vancouver, BC, notes: “Like all varieties of verbal exchange, social media can add both inspiration or cynicism to the earth’s atmosphere. My cyber-neighbors are a mosaic of religion trips, religions, a while, and degrees.”

But church buildings, ministries, and person missionaries can overdo a significant component if they don’t apprehend their audience! Facebook and social media are well-known and require prayerful and considerate planning and use. Simply posting content that provides clutter to our already busy online world won’t cut it! People are interested in genuine content material that offers desire and proposal. S, how does the church stay relevant and in touch with average Christians and those who have yet to recognize Christ in our rapidly changing international context? Social media may be part of the solution.