I went to a conference called Lead Now in Dallas. The conference is for leaders within the Christian community to come together and ask hard questions about where the church is at and talk about how to reach the community at large. I had just come from making a presentation on social media in business for Administaff (they provide HR services for businesses) and I walked into the break out session with Francis Chan about “Redefining the Church.” At the end of his session there was a Q and A time and I asked the question, “Do you feel like social media is having an impact on the church and what role do you think it will play in the future?” Francis Chan then said, “I don’t know too much about that and I feel like face to face is really where the best relationships happen.” For those of you who don’t know Francis Chan, he is one of today’s most influential Christian thinkers. I was very surprised by his answer for a couple of reasons: 1. I don’t know of a christian college student right now that doesn’t love Francis. So you would think that he would know more about Social media and be talking with his admirers in that world. 2. He is a young thinker, so even if he doesn’t use it for ministry, he should see the value in it. Granted, he could have misunderstood my question and that is why he answered the way he did.
I am not surprised though at that kind of answer from a church leader. Historically, the church has always been behind culture. Churches should be talking about the impact of social media and how to wield it’s power for good, but they are too caught up in traditional methods of outreach to see value in it. If I was a church leader I would want to be reaching as many people as I could and social media has made it possible to do that. Every church I have been to talks about building community and since online community is becoming a greater part of our daily lives, the church should be there as well. Think about how many times you get on Facebook, Twitter, etc. daily. There was a recent study done that found that 43% of people that participate in online communities value their online communities as much as their real world communities.
3 ways the church can use social media:
1. (The obvious) Bring people in your congregation together during the week online. I worked in a church for 5 1/2 years and this seemed to be the biggest hurdle. How do you get people involved with your church during the week. What about leaving out a part of your sermon and telling people to look it up on the churches blog during the week. How cool would it be to tell the congregation to get online at a certain time during the week for the opportunity to ask questions anonymously. Sometimes people don’t talk about their problems because they don’t want people to know who they are. But once those questions are answered, the opportunity arises to meet up in person.
2. Have church without the building. There are studies that show church giving has been in decline for a number of years (7-12% decrease a year). So what happens when your church building and staff can’t be funded? You obviously still want to tell people about Jesus. So if you have a good following online, you will still have a church just without a building. You could Tweet your congregation and say, “Hey, we are having church at the local park this morning, bring 2 cans of food to support a local family in need.”
3. Expand your ministry beyond just your local community. With larger churches starting podcasts and video podcast of sermons, people are listening/watching your sermons all over the world. With social media you can make that world seem a little smaller by engaging the people that follow your church online but never get to visit with your physical attendees.
What are some of your thoughts on social media and the church? How do you think it can have an impact?
Good stuff, Michael. Steve Hayes used to have a really cool lesson on church and media. For years before literacy was common, the church was built around stories. Even the buildings themselves told a story – they were built in the shape of a cross and their windows showed Bible scenes. Then we invented the printing press (the church was NOT behind the curve on that one) and adopted a classroom model. Now our churches look like lecture halls or concert venues. I wonder if that’s because we value learning and doctrine more than love and service? The touchstone for Christians for decades – even centuries – seems to have been doctrine. Do you believe the right things? Ok, you can be in our group. If service were our touchstone, I wonder if our churches would look like food pantries or night shelters or crisis pregnancy centers rather than lecture halls. Extending that to the online world, I guess the question is “What’s important to Christians online? How can we use it to glorify God and enjoy him forever?” Good stuff, man.
Thanks for your input man. I agree, I think the church spends a lot of their time telling others what their going to help with instead of asking what the community needs. Social media is a great way to understand that on another level.
I think Francis Chan’s answer to your question was pretty right on.
I believe the church can utilize social networking to encourage and inform their congregations, but shouldn’t be used for “ministry”, whether within the body or as outward evangelism.
Brian McClaren calls social networking “intimate anonymity” in his book The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture. In his words:
“…[A] virtual or electronic community functions a bit like cotton candy: it goes down easy and satiates our immediate hunger, but it doesn’t provide much in the way of sustainable nutrition. It spoils our appetite for the kind of authentic community to which Scripture calls us.”
I think the church stinks at online community because we’re called to be authentic. McClaren also says the only way authenticity can happen is by “high degrees of true intimacy, permanence, and proximity.” Authentic community can only happen by regular, personal contact with other followers. This is why Christ called his disciples and they dropped everything to be with him. They ate, drank, traveled, lived together for the purpose of authentic community. I believe the church should do the same today.
By churches forming communities online for the purpose of ministry and evangelism, I think they’re doing the world and themselves a disservice.
I can’t say it any better than McClaren, so I end with this quote from the same book:
“…[P]ersonal connections have an immeasurable impact on how we establish, build, and maintain relationships. While most of us know this already, it’s amazing how few of us practice it. The experience of virtual community can feel just as real as physical community, but the social, spiritual, and emotional realities do not provide the same kind of connections. This means we must be discerning about the way we use information technologies to make decisions or build and maintain relationships in the church. We must ask how our media change personal interactions. We need to consider the message conveyed when we choose e-mail contact over a personal visit, a phone call, or a handwritten note. These may seem like mundane questions, but they help generate an awareness of the forces that inhibit and build community.”
Thanks for your point of view and I see what you are saying. I guess the way I see it is that online communities do allow conversations like this to happen easier, so why can’t the church learn to use online communities in such a way to create real world communities?
You cannot create real world community online. You can only create a channel of communication. In my opinion, if your goal is community, you will do more harm than good. But if your goal is share information, now that’s a different story. That is something we can and should leverage to our benefit as much as possible.
Thanks, so what about things like TweetUps that translate online community into real world. Don’t you think that can be used by the church?
TweetUps are a good example of how social networking can be leveraged in good way by the church.
good thoughts mike! these times they are a changing!!!!
Yeah, I think this internet thing is going to catch on.