Using the internet to facilitate growth at church

In the article The Technophobe's Survivial Guide  it gives several tips and suggestions for churches that fall into different categories based on the amount of weekly attenders.  For the last two years I have served at a small church of about fifty individuals.  This was a small country church located in Gibbon, Minnesota.  When my wife and I started working at the church we had very limited exposure to the online community.  We understood the importance of being transparent with the people around us so we started a Facebook page for the church.  This then grew into a website where we could have an even bigger impact.  The goal was to be able to let people within our community who might be a little curious about our church the ability to see what the church was like in the safety of their homes.

In this article by Lauren Hunter I learned that there are, "more than 80 percent of American adults online" (Hunter, 2009, pg. 1).  We saw an incredible positive response to our Facebook page, especially from the youth kids.  I served as the Youth Pastor and was able to keep in contact with many of the kids in a way that even a phone didn't allow.  Some of the kids had access to computers but didn't have a phone.   I think the reason was that their parents were at work and took the only phone in the house which was a cell phone.  But because the kids had access to computers I was able to find out if they would be coming to youth or other events that we were planning.  This made pickup and ride arrangement much more streamlined.

Some of our Youth Kids

Another benefit from a Facebook account was that I was able to keep track of the kids individual lives much better than I would have been able to otherwise.  I knew what they were involved in because kids these days live on Facebook.  They post pictures and updates that allowed me as the Youth Pastor to see into their lives.  Sometimes at youth group I would notice certain kids seemed to have rough lives.  I picked up on this from my interactions with the kids at youth.  Because I was their friends on line I was able to get a peek into the homes in a way I would not have been able to from just conversation.  This helped me to better understand what exactly these kids were dealing with back at home.  In turn it allowed me to speak to them and work with them in ways that I might not have been able to before.

Potluck at the church

If you are a member of a church that does not utilize Facebook, I would highly recommend that you begin so immediately.  We have seen that Facebook and our website with the church has allowed for the community to be able to get a sneak peak at what we do every week.  So instead of being a closed group that meets every week we became more transparent and approachable.