Does it really matter How our Church’s Facebook page is setup?

Question: Is it wrong to get Mafia Wars gifts from other church members? Is it creepy? Or is it just me?

Setting up a Facebook page for your church can be a hit and miss ordeal, depending heavily on how you set it up, how you manage it, and ultimately, what your purpose is for the Facebook page. For isntance, don’t just take a picture of the front of the church. It’s cold and impersonal. And social media is all about, well, being social.

A great example of this is my own church, which has a large, extended Facebook family of close to 300+ people, all connected to one another and communicating on a daily basis. Yet less than half them are members of the Churches actual Facebook page! I believe it is because we have a great big picture of the church right there on the front page. My advice (if anyone is listenting) take a giant picture of the entire CHURCH BODY from a higher vantage point, maybe outside the church, smiling and waving into the camera.

Those looking for Christ aren’t necessarily looking for a great building. If that’s your criteria for picking a successful “body”, then maybe you need to spend some time in Acts. People looking for Christ are looking to see his face in the faces of the members they’ll be praising and working with.

The bottom line?

Your Church’s Face is You

If you’re reading this, understand that this isn’t some marketing plan that you first have to run by the church. It’s a good idea to let them know what you’re doing, but truthfully, this can totally be an arm of your ministry. Social media is all about organic growth, i.e. word of mouth, and this is a great way to connect with people.

Facebook Groups

A great way to connect with like minded individuals is through group pages. Group pages can be setup by anyone in the church, and serve not only as a ministry “funnel”, but also a way to tie the members together behind certain causes and movements. The groups can be about anything really. I would keep them Christ centered, myself, since you will be tying them back to the main church Facebook page, or the church web site.

This just gives your church that much more of a face int he community, i.e. yours. The more people know about you and your church, the more likely they are to come to you when they need salvation, need help, or better yet want to serve our Savior. And Facebook Groups are an ideal way for them to make first contact.

How to set up a Facebook Group for your church

Make the topic broader than just about “the church”.
The last thing we want to do is have this simply be about a building. This has to be your thing.  My recommendation before doing this is to pray, and see if this is something God is leading you to do, and then ask for direction from God, and if needs be, church leadership. Don’t do it as a marketing method to draw people in. I hope that’s how this comes across. The idea here is to connect with people who have similar passions, and thus possibly grow the church through that connection.

But the most important aspect is to do this as a function of some service to our Creator.

The group should be highly topical, and actionable. For instance, just making a group about abortion isn’t going to get very far. Your audience already agrees with you. However, a group which is dedicated to raising money to help unwed mothers pay for carrying the baby to term – now that’s a movement that people can get behind

You could start a prayer chain, and invite the church members to join. Start a group discussion on increasing outreach, and then follow through.

Finally, and most importantly – localize your group.

When creating your group put everything in local context. So if you’re doing a group on Christian Outreach make the title of your group “Christian Outreach in Lexington, KY” or “Serving the Poor for Christ in Raleigh, NC”. This is the most important component for connecting with people in your community. This way, when localities are searched in Facebook, guess what comes to the top?

Facebook does a good job of hiding the Groups setup. Here’s how to locate it:

At the top right, just left of the search bar click Settings > Applications > Groups (which is about midway down the page) > and then click the “Create New Group” tab at the mid-top-right of the page.

Beyond that I would just let the creative juices flow. If you have an idea go with it. If you don’t, do not force the issue. Let the spirit lead you, and you and your church will be rewarded. Anyway, that’s my two coppers.

God bless you guys!

P.S.

If you would be more interested in learning how to grow your church through social media click here.