With the Internet closing in on television as Americans’ main source of national and international news, churches increasingly are viewing social-networking applications like Facebook as ministry tools.
“Social-networking tools have become an integral part of most people’s daily lives and relationships,” said Curtis Simmons of Fellowship Technologies, a Texas-based church management software company. “If churches desire to connect with their congregation and community in meaningful ways, then they need to establish a strategy for actively engaging in the social media conversation.”
The rising popularity of social networking is changing the way people communicate. One in five Americans used social-networking sites like Facebook or Myspace to connect with a campaign or some other aspect of the 2010 midterm elections. eHarmony, an online dating service that matches singles based on compatibility factors like religion, claims 542 people a day get married because of the service, accounting for nearly 5 percent of all marriages in the United States. The uprising in Egypt reportedly began with a call for civil revolt on Facebook and Twitter.
A search for “Baptist” on Facebook found more than 700 pages. That’s in addition to dozens of Christian social-networking sites that have cropped up with names like Church Speak, Holypal, Your Christian Space and Be Linked As Believers, also known as BLAB.
“While some people are considering editing their lives to have more time for real face-to-face communications, many people are desperately searching for ways to connect with others and develop meaningful relationships amidst the harried state of their current situations,” writer Lauren Hunter said in a 2007 article for Church Solutions Magazine.
While a web ministry cannot take the place of face-to-face connections, Hunter wrote, “It can enhance and foster growth in relationships that already exist, as well as develop new relationships and provide unique ways to reach out to … nonbelievers.”
A study by LifeWay Research revealed nearly one-half of Protestant ministers now say they use social networking in some aspect of their church’s ministry. Three-fourths use Facebook to interact with their congregation, while 62 percent uses social networking to interact with individuals outside the congregation. (For more information about the study, visit www.thealabamabaptist.org and search for “‘LifeWay Research’ AND ‘social networking.’”)
Steve McCoy, a Chicago-area pastor who blogs as Reformissionary, said in an online discussion on Christians and the Internet that he uses Twitter mostly to connect with other church leaders outside of his area.
“I need like-minded friends in ministry,” McCoy said. “I can’t fully explain the benefit and blessing of … connecting to hundreds of church leaders through my blog and Twitter. It is truly a kind of community. It doesn’t replace true community. It complements it and expands it.”
According to the Pew Research Center, Millennials — adults ages 18 to 33 — still are significantly more likely to use social-networking sites but the gap for older adults is closing. The fastest growth in Internet usage has come from users age 74 and older. Social-networking site usage for this age group has quadrupled since 2008, jumping from 4 percent to 16 percent. Searching for health information, once the primary domain of older adults, is now the third-most-popular online activity for all adult Internet users.
LifeWay Research Director Scott McConnell added that social networking has limits. “Biblical community requires feet and faces, not only retweets and fan pages,” he said. “But clearly social networking is a helpful tool to build and maintain community.” (ABP)
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