How to grow your church 20% through Facebook & Online Social Networking

[James Nored]

Yesterday, my wife and I and our two girls, Gina (10) and Emily (6), went to eat at Shogun's, a Japanese steak house in McKinney. Our kids love it there, as the chefs make the food right at your table and do all kinds of interesting little tricks, like burning an onion and making it a chu chu train. 

As the chef was making our food, we talked with him about his business. He was also one of the owners, and he said that business was up 20% from last year. The reason? He said it was due to Facebook. He would find people that had large Facebook circles (at least 500) and offer them a discount on their food to post that they were eating at Shogun's. I told him that I had over a 1000 friends. Poof--one of our entrees was free and I posted that I was at Shogun's and that our kids love it there. This is all true, of course!

I've been researching online social networking for some time, and I recently took a course on this. I've been asking, how can we best use this incredible power of online social networking to reach out to people? I started this research two years and a half years ago--and now Facebook and Twitter have grown substantially since that time. When you are having conversations about Facebook with chefs in restaurants who tell you that it has grown there business 20%, you know that it is big.

The problem with how most people and churches use Facebook is that it is used as a broadcast medium. And this has only limited value. Facebook is meant to be used for networking and sharing amongst "friends"--which, as most Facebook users know, includes both close friends as well as "weak ties"--our extended circles of people that we know. 

So here are some ideas I have about growing the church 20% through Facebook (and other online social networking).

1. Encourage members to Facebook friend their unchurched family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. They probably have some that fall into this category already, but a "seeking" strategy means that we must be intentional about this.
2. Have members post when they are going to worship, as well as other church-related activities (small group, etc.). Then when they get to worship, use the "places" function to check in saying that they are at the church location. Then afterwards, have members share their experiences at worship, small groups, service activities, etc. Make sure to have members use the "tag" function. This is done by typing @ and then begin typing the name of the person or organization (church). As they type, options for people and pages that they have friended or "liked" will begin to come up. (So, in order for this strategy to work, members must first "like" their church's page.
3. Visitor follow-up-For ministers and church leaders, search for the names of visitors who come to your church on Facebook and "friend" them. A significant number of visitors that I do this respond to this request. It is a great way to keep up with visitors, find out what is going on in their lives, and show them that you love and care for them. This has never before been able to be done in the history of mankind!! What a great opportunity.
4. Whenever you begin a seeker small group (a group designed to bring together Christians and non-Christians to discuss spiritual issues), begin a Facebook group for that small group. This will cause the group to bond tremendously.  The same type of follow-up as with visitors can be done with these groups. I have witnessed the power of this connection first hand with our Story of Redemption groups.

I hope that all churches will begin to use these great online social networking tools to reach out to the world and share the gospel! If we do this, then surely the church could grow 20%. Could this be part of God's plan to reach the whole world for Christ? What an exciting thought!

What do you think of the above ideas? How else could be use Facebook and other online social networking tools to reach out to people?

 

[Jayaraj.E]

thank you brother for wonderful thoughts . yes social networking site are ver useful to share love of God and to make new friends to unite to reach world . I am tring to reach man new friends t teach about wa of God though few members are using interner at my place .

 through this kind of networks, I got many great  friends like you and getting many useful articles and encouragement .

 

[James Nored]

Happy to help, Ann. Glad that you found this article helpful. Please let us know if any ideas come out of your Reach Out group on how to use this powerful tool.

[Ann Dunagan]

Thanks for sharing this, James. I've been encouraging people in our weekly REACH OUT group especially to utilize facebook to keep inviting people to church, and to let people know what we're doing. I really appreciate this article with specific indeas.

[James Nored]

Joe, thank you for sharing these thoughts. Yes indeed, Christians ought to conduct themselves online in a godly, kind, and Christian manner. And rather than de-friending nonChristians who don't talk like Christians (why would they?), we do need to teach Christians to learn how to deal with this. We don't need Facebook to be another Christian bubble!

[Joe Palmer]

Good ideas James.  I have been thinking of doing a Wednesday night lesson on how to use Facebook.  We have a problem in our church and I suspect most that sometimes use it in a bad way.  LIKE....

 

1. Making a negative comment about something someone did that sounds judgmental.

2. Making a comment (without mentioning the name)about other people on facebook without realizing they can read the comment and will know it about them.

3. Unfriending people because of their comments instead of hiding their post or comments.

 

I have personally set up Bible studies, done mini counseling or encouragement sessions with people, and invited people to church through facebook.  It is a great tool if used properly and like everything else it is tool for Satan if used wrong.  My rule of thumb is this.  If you have trouble holding your tongue and making comments in real life. You are likely to have the same problem on facebook.