By Marty Duren
If your church doesn’t have a presence on Facebook, you are overlooking an effective communication tool for engaging members and potential visitors.
More than 1 billion people are now part of this social media phenomenon. With so many people already connecting on Facebook, it’s an easy way for your church to stay in touch with your congregation and reach out to your community.
It’s easy to create a page on Facebook.
- Ask a responsible person to go to his or her own home page (not the profile page) on Facebook. In the left column under the picture and name will be a “Pages” section. Click on the word “Pages” or on a page already listed. On the upper right of the page that comes up, click “Create a Page.”
- You get a page called “Create a Page.” Choose the “Company, Organization or Institution” option.
- Click this to get a drop down menu that offers a “church or religious institution” option. Click again and now you are ready to create a page for your church. It takes just a few minutes.
(Depending on your computer, browser and software, the creation process may be slightly different, but if you use these instructions as a guide, you’ll be fine.)
Unlike a website your page will allow likes, shares, comments, and conversations. You can use the page to link to an upcoming event, your pastor’s blog or an important news article. All of this stands to build the relationship between your church and the people you want to reach.
A page on Facebook can be used for church members and interested guests. I recommend a single page for your church rather than separate pages for each and every ministry. You can create a more practical “group” for ministries, classes, and small groups.
In this day, more people know less about the gospel, so we need to use all available tools to reach them. A page on Facebook for your church will allow the sharing of information and the building of relationships both inside and outside the church body. It is a win-win.
For more information on using social media for your church, download the free e-book Be Social: The social media handbook from www.lifeway.com/digitalchurch.
In your article you suggest using just one page for your church and then groups for ministries. Whats the thought there? Why not have multiple pages for multiple ministries?
Hi Kelly,
A single page for your church allows for a focused presence that hits all the high points about your church. A page should be designed and contain content that will give the most important initial information non-members need to know: location, service times and church-wide events. Non-members don’t need to know what the Adult Men are doing Sunday after church or who has responsibilities in preschool care.
Facebook groups can be created for any configuration in your church with the added bonus of privacy controls. So a Sunday School/Small Group can share prayer requests, a calendar, lesson plans, and the like and no one who has no been included in the group can see it. This is an especially effective tool for reminders in children and student ministries.