This is such a powerful subject I’m surprised there isn’t more out there about it. With societal movement from Yellow Pages to the Google/Yahoo/Bing, it just makes sense that the church should make similar moves. Not because the world does it, but because the power of being able to connect with people is something that we, especially we followers of Christ, should hunger for.

We have been presented with a very powerful set of tools to do just that. Your church should be using tools like Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, Youtube, Digg, and, of course, the blog. It’s really just a matter of implementing these tools in a way that is geared toward success.

But first:

Here are just a few reasons you should be using social media:

• It allows you to connect almost instantaneously with people in your community.
• It gives you a powerful venue to reach the lost.
• It gives you unmeasured ability to coordinate the members of the church – much more significantly than a church calendar.
• It is very easy to implement if done correctly.
• It opens the door to connect you with Christians all over the world.
• It gives voice to everyone in the church who normally wouldn’t participate (for whatever reason).
• It allows you, as the church leadership/elders/pastor to encourage the body of Christ on days other than Sunday or Wednesday.
• It allows you the church leadership/elders/pastor to get a snapshot of your members’ lives in a way that hitherto would have been impossible.
• It puts you into a venue where you can cross generational boundaries, and reach most any age group. For the record the fastest growing age group participating on Facebook is the 60+ crowd.
• And so many more!

The reasons are just too numerous to be avoided. I believe that nearly any church body willing to do the work necessary to make this happen can benefit from an Internet Campaign centered on social platforms.

But it’s not just as easy as opening a Facebook account, or starting a Twitter page, and hoping that people will come in and chat. These platforms have very specific roles, and they cannot simply be exploited. You really have to want to make a connection, and you have to make an effort which is genuine and comes from a place of outreach. If you join in this because of a “fad” you’ll find out quickly how easy it is to get left behind.

Social platforms are part of the landscape now, and it’s important that we, especially we followers of Christ, use those mediums with the best of intentions.

Don’t use Social Platforms if:

• You aren’t really interested in doing it. This is easy, but it is going to take effort on the part of your church. And if you’re just going through the motions you’ll lose interest pretty quickly.
• You aren’t willing dedicate (either yourself or someone in the body) to the constant effort. (It’s not a full time job, but it is an undertaking which will require 1-2 hours per day.
• You expect overnight results.
• You’re afraid of change.
• Want to do this on your own (this applies to pastors). This is bigger than you. You’re going to have to bring in other people, and you’re going to have to delegate certain functions to the body. This will be successful, not because of any one person. This has to be a collaborative effort between you and your church members.

I think Social Media is an Answer to Prayers. Or it could be.

Social platforms are precisely the platform that we’ve been waiting for. It allows the church body to make connections with people, and share their testimonies in a way that they never would have before. It allows them to approach, and connect with the lost in a way that would have been totally out of character, and thus unlikely, just a few short years ago.

How many people your own church body have already touched someone through one of these venues already? How many more could be reached if it was a unified effort?

The bottom line is this: the Internet is wide open, and your church could be a real catalyst for change in your neighborhood and surrounding communities. It may just be that you need an idea of how each tool can be used, and a method for tying it all together.

How to use Social Media in a way that grows your church

By the beginning of the year (about 30-45 days) I will have that system in place for you. It will essentially be a low cost marketing plan fully fleshed out and written in lay-terms, with detailed, yet simple instructions on how to build a powerful online network, which not only reaches out to fellow believers, but also touches the unsaved in your community in a meaningful way.

The Social Church will cover in great detail:

• Facebook.
• Twitter.
• Digg.
• Blogs.
• Youtube.
• How to tie them together so that they catalyze one another and build each other up into an extra-ordinarily powerful network.
• How to use them in a way that taps into the churches need to reach out.
• How to bring the body along for the ride, and get them involoved in a meaningful – and powerful – way.

Those who sign up below will be the first ones made aware of the platform when it goes live. This is important because when this first launches there will only be a few slots open, mainly because this is a HEAVILY supported system, and I don’t have the manpower to handle more than a handful of individuals. Hopefully we can make something really cool happen so that the doors open with a larger infrastructure in place. But until that time, I’m preparing to be overwhelmed.

So far the response has bee scary.

Thanks guys and God bless!